New Kurosawa DVDs From HVE

Reader Comments

1. stauffen 02/28/2005 @ 8:16am

   I have a subtitled copy of ‘Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl’and I’m sure, that many Kiyoshi-fans would be confused about it, if they got the chance to watch it. I didn’t enjoy it really. The movie is a pretty radical sociocritical, kinda funny and philosophic experiment. When I look at the rest of Kurosawa’s movies I’d say, it isn’t an essential work of him, but a way to live out his inner rebel. Maybe he missed the chance to rebel when he was younger, since he was 30 years old when he made Doremifa Girl.

   I heard rumors that there was something going on with Criterion and his 1989 movie ‘Sweet Home’. But no guarantee.

2. Fabool 02/28/2005 @ 8:48am

   I have also seen Do-re-mi-fa girl. Quite an interesting film but definetly not something that many would actually ‘like’.

   So.. was there any actual details on the DVDs except the release date? Or are they on the KFCCinema boards that seem to require registering, which I’m too lazy to do

   I’m praying that these will be good quality DVDs.

3. Todd 02/28/2005 @ 9:27am

   They haven’t released specs yet, but Canfield’s been getting all chummy with the guy who runs HVE so I’ll have him ask ...

4. tkbowman 02/28/2005 @ 10:28am

   You couldn’t PAY me to sit through BARREN ILLUSION again. I was just getting introduced to Kurosawa’s work at the Toronto retrospective and this one nearly killed all my enthusiasm for him. I’ve really liked everything he’s done since.

5. Triflic 02/28/2005 @ 1:33pm

   I caught two of his films at the TIFF a couple years ago (the retrospective)...The above mentioned “Barren Illusion” and “Cure”

   I wasn’t overly ‘grabbed’ by either...I should give him another chance though…

6. Benjamin Brown 03/01/2005 @ 4:44am

   Someone really needs to pick distribution of Kairo (Pulse)!  True, it was him working somewhat more within a genre than he usually does, and there will always be people who shout “Ring ripoff hack lol!!11”, but among all the responses to the horror boom, what a shining example it ended up being.

   Or whatever.  Different strokes for different folks and all, but I really enjoyed it.

7. Collin A 03/01/2005 @ 8:13am

   I think, at one point, Dimension had US rights for KAIRO.  They were developing a remake with Wes Craven (to star Kiersten Dunst) that fell apart (and resulted in Craven instead directing CURSED).  Perhaps, in their upcoming purge of backlogged titles, Dimension will give KAIRO some kind of release here in the states.  Who knows, though - they may no longer have any of the rights.

8. Todd 03/01/2005 @ 9:06am

   You took the words out of my mouth Collin ... Miramax bought it when Craven was prepping a remake and then promptly shelved it.  There are rumblings that Miramax may purge a lot of the titles currently wasting away on their shelves prior to Harvey and Bob exiting to boost their bottom line and make the Weinstein boys more attractive to potential new business partners but Kairo isn’t one of the titles I’ve seen talked about ... I’d love to see it get a decent domestic release, but I’m not holding my breath.

9. Triflic 03/01/2005 @ 10:30am

   One example of purging was Prozac Nation being sold to some TV station for broadcast.  Miramax has been sitting on Prozac Nation for years...without a theatrical release, or even a DVD…

10. Todd 03/01/2005 @ 10:51am

    I think the only official DVD release of Prozac Nation is a Russian one ...

11. logboy 03/01/2005 @ 11:00am

    charisma and seance made todays may release list update at homevision.com ... usually they put the artwork up at the same time, but as with “hanzo” last month, they havent… the disc details are up there though, and they include interviews with kurosawa…

12. Fabool 03/01/2005 @ 2:11pm

    Nice, not much extras but didn’t really think there would be any. Those linear notes are probably by Tom Mes again like they were with Cure.
    Let’s hope they have a good master for Charisma. Can’t wait to see both of these.

13. Steve 03/02/2005 @ 2:34pm

    According to an article in TIME OUT NY last year, KAIRO (PULSE) will be released theatrically by Magnolia Films, probably in the summer of 2005.

14. Todd 03/02/2005 @ 5:06pm

    Sweet!  I hadn’t heard that!  Hurray for Mark Cuban and his bottomless pockets!

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