A new Seven Samurai DVD set hit the streets yesterday!

[thewayne]

Including....

A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create

My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima produced by the Directors Guild of Japan

and a booklet of essays including an interview with Toshiro Mifune!

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=2

(Criterion also released a new Brazil set. It looks like they cleaned up the sound track and maybe included some add'l stuff, but it doesn't look significantly different from the 3-disc set that I already have.)

Comments

[greyweirdo.livejournal.com]

You can also get a single disc of Brazil, because that was all that they. The movie has been remastered and is now good for real wide screen instead of fake widescreeen.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

It's been so long since I watched my Criterion DVD of Brazil that I really don't remember what it looks like. IIRC, the quality was fine.

[greyweirdo.livejournal.com]

Really it's only an issue if you watch it on a 16x9 screen (or in a computer window or something like that) although they claim that they completely re-did the transfer to make it look a bit better.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to get the new Brazil disc or not, but I'm certianly going to get Seven Samurai at my earliest possible convience.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I see no need to repurchase the Brazil set. I don't watch it often enough, nor do I have a 16x9 set. But the Kurosawa definitely appeals!