81 / BD 3 Tokyo Sonata

Discuss releases by Eureka and Masters of Cinema and the films on them.
Message
Author
User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

#26 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:28 am

Miwa Nishikawa also used the motif of a salaryman pretending to still work (replacing earnings by borrowing from loan sharks) in her (sadly under-appreciated) Wild Berries / Hebi ichigo (2003). (her focus was on the adult children of the family, however).

User avatar
sidehacker
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:49 am
Location: Bowling Green, Ohio
Contact:

#27 Post by sidehacker » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:25 pm

Everything looks gorgeous. You definitely have my money, though you probably would regardless of the website's presentation. I watched Kurosawa's excellent and very underrated Barren Illusions a couple days ago so I'm definitely excited for more "not so J-Horror" efforts.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

#28 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:27 pm

sidehacker wrote:I watched Kurosawa's excellent and very under-rated Barren Illusions a couple days ago so I'm definitely excited for more "not so J-Horror" efforts.
Has this come out with subs somewhere?

User avatar
sidehacker
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:49 am
Location: Bowling Green, Ohio
Contact:

#29 Post by sidehacker » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:33 pm

Not that I know of, but subs aren't necessarily needed anyway.

User avatar
The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

#30 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:16 am

Custom subs have been around for awhile. They're rough but serviceable, and as already noted, they're barely necessary: just 140 lines all told, including opening titles.

It would still be nice to see a proper English-subbed release. The film needs revisiting anyway -- the R2J looks surprisingly bad, even considering the low budget.

rs98762001
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2005 6:04 pm

Re:

#31 Post by rs98762001 » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:06 pm

Grimfarrow wrote:But FWIW, quite a few people in Cannes said to me that they believe this is Kurosawa's best film.
Not sure if I completely agree with that (Cure still seems to me his "perfect" film) but it's certainly his best non-"horror" work so far (although there's much that's horrific in it). More accomplished to my mind than Charisma and Bright Future, much as I like both those films. Tokyo Sonata seems to me to be a critique of modern Japan in the guise of a domestic melodrama, and it's extremely successful on both counts. And just to reassure the viewer that they are indeed watching a KK film, the last third veers off into some pretty wild directions, both comic and tragic, only to be resolved beautifully in a final scene that's surprisingly moving.

Another reason why KK is one of my favorite living directors - the motherfucker knows how to end a film. So many iconic final shots in his filmography: the almost unnoticeable movement of the waitress with the knife in Cure, the crowd of teenagers wearing the Che Guevara t-shirts in Bright Future, the robot committing 'suicide' in Doppelganger. You can definitely add the ambiguously hopeful conclusion of Tokyo to this list.

Kudos to MoC for picking this one up for release. Although from what I understand the film is getting a theatrical release in both the UK and US in early 2009.

User avatar
What A Disgrace
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:34 pm
Contact:

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#32 Post by What A Disgrace » Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:40 am

Eureka's website lists the video edition as a June release.

User avatar
What A Disgrace
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:34 pm
Contact:

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#33 Post by What A Disgrace » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:11 pm

...and now it lists a May release.

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#34 Post by manicsounds » Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:25 am


User avatar
denti alligator
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#35 Post by denti alligator » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:50 pm

Is the Blu-ray still gonna happen? Only the SD edition is up at amazon.

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#36 Post by peerpee » Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:49 pm

We're going to do both DVD and Blu-ray. The major reviews here over the last week have been very good, it's been holding its own against REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and a re-release of BARRY LYNDON. So we're pretty chuffed.

User avatar
Elephant
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:17 pm
Location: Brooklyn

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#37 Post by Elephant » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:01 pm

denti alligator wrote:Is the Blu-ray still gonna happen? Only the SD edition is up at amazon.
Is the Blu-Ray all-region? I feel like it was discussed on the forum somewhere but there's no info on the Amazon listing, now that it's available for pre-order.

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#38 Post by peerpee » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:51 pm

We're about to start authoring it. We only ever intend to release non-crippled, region-free Blu-rays -- like Artificial Eye are doing...

User avatar
Elephant
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:17 pm
Location: Brooklyn

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#39 Post by Elephant » Thu Feb 12, 2009 4:07 pm

peerpee wrote:We're about to start authoring it. We only ever intend to release non-crippled, region-free Blu-rays -- like Artificial Eye are doing...
Awesome news! Thanks peerpee. I'll order my copy now.

User avatar
foggy eyes
Joined: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:58 am
Location: UK

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#40 Post by foggy eyes » Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:31 am

Saw this last night, and am not quite sure what to make of it... The first 2/3s are great, but I was left a little bemused by the last act's jarring metaphorical shift to (rather overt) surrealism. Kurosawa certainly has an amazing eye for uncanny compositions, and he builds the first half's domestic scenes as well as Kore-eda in Still Walking. However, whilst I was prepared to forgive Kore-eda anything by the time Still Walking veered off into slightly drippy territory towards the end, I didn't feel quite the same way about the absurdist shift in this one. Perhaps I'm just not yet attuned to what Kurosawa is up to (more than likely, having only seen Pulse), so would be interested to hear if anybody else has had a similarly divisive response...
Last edited by foggy eyes on Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

poohbear
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:35 am

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#41 Post by poohbear » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:25 pm

manicsounds wrote:4/24/2009 in Japan, 2 Discs
Thanks. The 27% preorder discount is nice.

User avatar
cdnchris
Site Admin
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:45 pm
Location: Washington
Contact:

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#42 Post by cdnchris » Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:06 am

peerpee wrote:We're about to start authoring it. We only ever intend to release non-crippled, region-free Blu-rays -- like Artificial Eye are doing...
I'm happy to hear this. I'm unfortunately not set up for multi-region DVDs so I haven't picked up any of the MOC DVDs, but I just picked up Mad Detective on Blu and I was more than thrilled with it. I'll most certainly be picking this up after hearing so much about it (and any other Blu titles from MOC.)

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#43 Post by peerpee » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:27 am

The official MoC trailer for the UK theatrical release of TOKYO SONATA -- about a month late... but it's travelling around the country for a few months.

arigato-san
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:03 am

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#44 Post by arigato-san » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:40 pm

foggy eyes wrote:Saw this last night, and am not quite sure what to make of it... The first 2/3s are great, but I was left a little bemused by the last act's jarring metaphorical shift to (rather overt) surrealism. Kurosawa certainly has an amazing eye for uncanny compositions, and he builds the first half's domestic scenes as well as Kore-eda in Still Walking. However, whilst I was prepared to forgive Kore-eda anything by the time Still Walking veered off into slightly drippy territory towards the end, I didn't feel quite the same way about the absurdist shift in this one. Perhaps I'm just not yet attuned to what Kurosawa is up to (more than likely, having only seen Pulse), so would be interested to hear if anybody else has had a similarly divisive response...
I know exactly what you mean. The first 1/2 - 2/3 is great, but especially the absurdistic part feels forced, as well as Kurosawa's statement about Iraq. They just served to reveal a character's feeling or make a statement, but added nothing to the film.

I don't agree with you about Koreeda though. I felt this was his first film where he totally abandoned the documentary genre. (I haven't seen Hana) While his main themes are present in the film, he did make something quite different from his other films. But I guess that's all a bit off-topic here.

User avatar
AtlantaFella
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:19 pm

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#45 Post by AtlantaFella » Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:31 am

peerpee wrote:We're about to start authoring it. We only ever intend to release non-crippled, region-free Blu-rays -- like Artificial Eye are doing...

This is great to hear. Please also bear your global audience in mind when planning supplemental features. "Mad Detective" is splendid in this regard -- thank you. One other minor query: are there plans to release a MoC BD spine #1?

User avatar
foggy eyes
Joined: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:58 am
Location: UK

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#46 Post by foggy eyes » Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:07 pm

Amy Taubin's review in the new issue of Artforum. (registration required/contains spoilers)

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#47 Post by manicsounds » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:44 am

DVD Times currently has the special features listed.

User avatar
eerik
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:53 pm
Location: Estonia

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#48 Post by eerik » Fri Jun 12, 2009 4:56 pm


User avatar
Jun-Dai
監督
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 4:34 am
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#49 Post by Jun-Dai » Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:18 pm

eerik wrote:Blu-ray.com review
Their rating system seems pretty inconsistent. I mean, their "movie" ratings are totally ridiculous, but it makes sense given that they have reviewers focusing on very different areas of filmmaking. But I wonder how this equates to a four-star "video" rating:
bluray.com wrote:I liked this transfer a lot. Contrast is very good, clarity adequate and detail pleasing. The color-scheme is convincing as well – blues, greens, grays, blacks and whites are well saturated and natural. Furthermore, neither edge-enhancement nor macroblocking are a serious issue of concern. When blown through a digital projector, the transfer also remains notably stable and tight to the frame. This being said, some of the indoor scenes occasionally look a bit soft (as intended by director Kurosawa). On the other hand, the outdoor scenes are consistently sharp. Additionally, I did not detect patterns of heavy noise reduction. Finally, the actual transfer is notably healthy – there are no disturbing scratches, debris, dirt, or stains to report in this review.
I mean, they didn't mention a single negative trait about the transfer. Mostly they just listed flaws the transfer could have had but didn't. A very strange review.

User avatar
htdm
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:46 am

Re: 81 Tokyo Sonata

#50 Post by htdm » Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:38 pm

Is the SD release NTSC or PAL? Amazon lists it as the former while the website mentions that extras on the BD are in NTSC.

Post Reply