Criterion dealt a major blow to Blu-ray collections the world over a few weeks ago when announcing Akira Kurosawa’s Ran would not be coming to Blu-ray Disc due to rights issues. At the time it would have been the first Kurosawa film to make its way to Blu-ray.
Fear not, Kurosawa fans. Criterion is more than aware of the famed Japanese filmmaker’s draw and will release 1980’s Kagemusha on Blu-ray Disc August 18 with the complete cut for the first time on North American shores, DTS-HD Master Audio and a new remastered high definition transfer.
August 18 will also see the release of French director Jacques Tati’s 1967 Playtime on Blu-ray Disc which, like Kagemusha, will feature an all-new remastered high definition transfer. Playtime’s audio will be uncompressed stereo.
Complete features for each title are as follows:
Playtime
- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer (uncompressed stereo soundtrack on Blu-ray edition)
- Video introduction by writer, director, and performer Terry Jones
- Selected scene commentary by film historian Philip Kemp
- Au-delà de Playtime, a short documentary featuring archival behind-the-scenes footage from the set
- Tati Story, a short biographical film about Tati
- acques Tati in Monsieur Hulot’s Work, a 1976 BBC Omnibus program featuring Tati
- Rare audio interview with Tati from the U.S. debut of Playtime at the 1972 San Francisco International Film Festival (Courtesy of Pacifica Radio Archives)
- Video interview with script supervisor Sylvette Baudrot
- Cours du soir, a 1967 short film written by and starring Tati
- Alternate international soundtrack
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum
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Kagemusha
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer enhanced for widescreen televisions (DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince (The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa)
- Lucas, Coppola, and Kurosawa (19 minutes, 2005), directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola discuss Kurosawa and their roles as executive producers of Kagemusha
- A 41-minute documentary on the making of Kagemusha, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- Image: Kurosawa’s Continuity, a new video piece that reconstructs Kagemusha through Kurosawa’s paintings and sketches
- A series of Suntory Whiskey commercials made on the set of Kagemusha
- A gallery of storyboards painted by Kurosawa and images of their realization on-screen
- Theatrical trailers and teasers
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A 48-page booklet featuring a new essay by scholar Peter Grilli, a reprinted 1981 interview with Kurosawa by renowned critic Tony Rayns, and biographical sketches by Japanese film historian Donald Richie
Playtime and Kagemusha have retail prices set at $39.95. Check back regularly for Amazon.com pre-order pricing.
