5 ms·

Kurosawa's Japan Revisited

57 points by lermontov 11y ago

ZenoArrow 11y ago
Great article, thanks for sharing it.
fitzwatermellow 11y ago
Watch Ikiru. Be enlightened. http://www.hulu.com/watch/215850 http://www.hulu.com/watch/215850
- J_Darnley 11y ago
  > Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States Fuck you then. I'll go to the pirate bay and find one. Oh that domain name's gone now? I'll try another. Oh look 3 results. What about demonoid? 39 results.
  - cooper12 11y ago
    You can purchase it from the Criterion Collection: https://www.criterion.com/films/353-ikiru https://www.criterion.com/films/353-ikiru Not only did they restore it, there are extras like a commentary track, documentaries on Kurosawa and Ikiru itself, and some writings. Yeah the streaming wasn't as convenient as one would like but we should support the Criterion Collection, which goes all out for its films and restores unappreciated masterpieces. It's a much better experience than watching a horrible compressed-to-hell encode by YIFY with inaudible audio.
    - sxcurry 11y ago
      Many of the Kurosawa DVD's available on Netflix are from the Criterion Collection. Highly recommended, and the commentaries are excellent.
    - J_Darnley 11y ago
      1 - That's not available for immediate download. 2 - It is a DRMed-to-hell Bluray. 3 - I don't have a fantastic Full HD display (or 4K according to that link) upon which to show the glorious remastered work. So I think I will get a "a horrible compressed-to-hell encode by YIFY with inaudible audio". But to be honest I have no idea what shit you've been downloading but I was thoroughly impressed YIFY's work. From this new link's help pages: > 20. Are Criterion’s Blu-ray discs region-encoded? > Yes. Criterion is licensed to sell most of its editions only in North America. > 4. Can my order be shipped outside the United States? > We only ship our DVDs in the United States and to Canada. Fuck them again and fuck you specifically, cooper12. I would try Amazon but my first 3 points still stand for them.
      - uniclaude 11y ago
        You're being harsh, he's just trying to provide you with a solution. I understand your feeling though, DRM is infuriating to say the least.
      - cooper12 11y ago
        It's a shame that distributors haven't made it easier to purchase the film in your area but you have to realize that behind-the-scenes rights deals have many involved parties each taking their own risks and these restrictions are usually the result of that. I don't understand your fixation on piracy though, if you read the article I would hope that you'd see that this was a valuable work by a very well-respected director that is worth buying, especially for the things I mentioned, but I guess not. It's not like shipping takes that long these days or that waiting a few days would make you not want to watch it. I agree that DRM is bad. While a nice screen helps, it's not required, but you will get a much better experience from a Bluray restoration. As for our friend YIFY, do you wonder what kind of "magic" they do to fit feature-length films into 700MB? Most importantly they completely starve the bitrate so nothing looks as good as it could. Then they use a whole variety of filters to change the film from how it originally looked so it will compress better like denoising or color changes. Not to mention other atrocities such as changing the aspect ratio, downscaling, low bitrate audio, or even cutting out parts like intros and credits. You're only impressed with it because you haven't seen what you're missing. And thanks for the personal attack, In the future I'll make sure not to write well-meaning comments to someone who had trouble with a specific method of watching something. Excuse me, I gotta get back to sending cease-and-desists letters and meeting my shill quota for the day.
  - executesorder66 11y ago
    > Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States I always wonder why a company would do that. "Oh, you are not in America? Well fuck you, we don't want your money."
    - dasil003 11y ago
      The reason is because they don't have the rights to show it in other countries, and they will be sued if they do so. It is very difficult to put together global film rights unless you are the producer, but usually those rights are sold to agents who then resell them to individual distributors in individual territories. By the time your streaming company gets to it it's been chopped up into such small pieces that it's harder to put together than humpty dumpty.
hitlin37 11y ago
One of my best directors, all his movies are timeless.
cooper12 11y ago
Every time I watch Ikiru, the scene with the piano where the protagonist sings "Life is Brief" in a low voice always tears at my heartstrings. He sings it with such conviction that everyone stops their festivities just for a second to hear the desperate song from an old man. One thing that's intriguing is that the author chose to move to Japan over some kind of idealization whereas he felt that New York City was a dead end. One would think you could be much more effective in an established area rather than a country known for its xenophobia, but I won't judge.
- shas3 11y ago
  Pico Iyer is a well regarded author who has written a lot about Japan. If you look at it from a purely utilitarian writer-looking-for-exciting-experiences-to-write-about perspective, Indian-ethnicity British-American choosing to live in Japan isn't a bad bet.
  - cooper12 11y ago
    Fair point, and as we can see he has learned a lot from the experience which he might not have in New York City.
- Steko 11y ago
  > known for it's xenophobia Broad brushes like these are usually dangerous to paint with. Japan has it's xenophobic streaks but is also one of the most cosmopolitan cultures around. For similar reasons, lines like the following in the article piqued my annoyance as well: how very un-Japanese it seemed: in the broadness of its satire, in the zaniness of its switches from one genre to another, in the almost violent simplicity of its message and story Author's certainly entitled to his own reaction but I don't find these traits uncommon in Japanese cinema (and literature). I'm not contesting the whole 'Kurosawa is the least Japanese of Japanese directors' trope but that reputation was largely earned for his later career. Imho Kurosawa in the 50's was as Japanese as anyone, and that's especially true with Ikiru, a film that fits perfectly alongside the better contemporary efforts from directors like Kinoshita and Ichikawa.

57 points by lermontov 11y ago

ZenoArrow 11y ago

Great article, thanks for sharing it.

fitzwatermellow 11y ago

Watch Ikiru. Be enlightened. http://www.hulu.com/watch/215850 http://www.hulu.com/watch/215850

J_Darnley 11y ago
> Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States Fuck you then. I'll go to the pirate bay and find one. Oh that domain name's gone now? I'll try another. Oh look 3 results. What about demonoid? 39 results.
- cooper12 11y ago
  You can purchase it from the Criterion Collection: https://www.criterion.com/films/353-ikiru https://www.criterion.com/films/353-ikiru Not only did they restore it, there are extras like a commentary track, documentaries on Kurosawa and Ikiru itself, and some writings. Yeah the streaming wasn't as convenient as one would like but we should support the Criterion Collection, which goes all out for its films and restores unappreciated masterpieces. It's a much better experience than watching a horrible compressed-to-hell encode by YIFY with inaudible audio.
  - sxcurry 11y ago
    Many of the Kurosawa DVD's available on Netflix are from the Criterion Collection. Highly recommended, and the commentaries are excellent.
  - J_Darnley 11y ago
    1 - That's not available for immediate download. 2 - It is a DRMed-to-hell Bluray. 3 - I don't have a fantastic Full HD display (or 4K according to that link) upon which to show the glorious remastered work. So I think I will get a "a horrible compressed-to-hell encode by YIFY with inaudible audio". But to be honest I have no idea what shit you've been downloading but I was thoroughly impressed YIFY's work. From this new link's help pages: > 20. Are Criterion’s Blu-ray discs region-encoded? > Yes. Criterion is licensed to sell most of its editions only in North America. > 4. Can my order be shipped outside the United States? > We only ship our DVDs in the United States and to Canada. Fuck them again and fuck you specifically, cooper12. I would try Amazon but my first 3 points still stand for them.
    - uniclaude 11y ago
      You're being harsh, he's just trying to provide you with a solution. I understand your feeling though, DRM is infuriating to say the least.
    - cooper12 11y ago
      It's a shame that distributors haven't made it easier to purchase the film in your area but you have to realize that behind-the-scenes rights deals have many involved parties each taking their own risks and these restrictions are usually the result of that. I don't understand your fixation on piracy though, if you read the article I would hope that you'd see that this was a valuable work by a very well-respected director that is worth buying, especially for the things I mentioned, but I guess not. It's not like shipping takes that long these days or that waiting a few days would make you not want to watch it. I agree that DRM is bad. While a nice screen helps, it's not required, but you will get a much better experience from a Bluray restoration. As for our friend YIFY, do you wonder what kind of "magic" they do to fit feature-length films into 700MB? Most importantly they completely starve the bitrate so nothing looks as good as it could. Then they use a whole variety of filters to change the film from how it originally looked so it will compress better like denoising or color changes. Not to mention other atrocities such as changing the aspect ratio, downscaling, low bitrate audio, or even cutting out parts like intros and credits. You're only impressed with it because you haven't seen what you're missing. And thanks for the personal attack, In the future I'll make sure not to write well-meaning comments to someone who had trouble with a specific method of watching something. Excuse me, I gotta get back to sending cease-and-desists letters and meeting my shill quota for the day.
- executesorder66 11y ago
  > Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within the United States I always wonder why a company would do that. "Oh, you are not in America? Well fuck you, we don't want your money."
  - dasil003 11y ago
    The reason is because they don't have the rights to show it in other countries, and they will be sued if they do so. It is very difficult to put together global film rights unless you are the producer, but usually those rights are sold to agents who then resell them to individual distributors in individual territories. By the time your streaming company gets to it it's been chopped up into such small pieces that it's harder to put together than humpty dumpty.

hitlin37 11y ago

One of my best directors, all his movies are timeless.

cooper12 11y ago

Every time I watch Ikiru, the scene with the piano where the protagonist sings "Life is Brief" in a low voice always tears at my heartstrings. He sings it with such conviction that everyone stops their festivities just for a second to hear the desperate song from an old man. One thing that's intriguing is that the author chose to move to Japan over some kind of idealization whereas he felt that New York City was a dead end. One would think you could be much more effective in an established area rather than a country known for its xenophobia, but I won't judge.

shas3 11y ago
Pico Iyer is a well regarded author who has written a lot about Japan. If you look at it from a purely utilitarian writer-looking-for-exciting-experiences-to-write-about perspective, Indian-ethnicity British-American choosing to live in Japan isn't a bad bet.
- cooper12 11y ago
  Fair point, and as we can see he has learned a lot from the experience which he might not have in New York City.
Steko 11y ago
> known for it's xenophobia Broad brushes like these are usually dangerous to paint with. Japan has it's xenophobic streaks but is also one of the most cosmopolitan cultures around. For similar reasons, lines like the following in the article piqued my annoyance as well: how very un-Japanese it seemed: in the broadness of its satire, in the zaniness of its switches from one genre to another, in the almost violent simplicity of its message and story Author's certainly entitled to his own reaction but I don't find these traits uncommon in Japanese cinema (and literature). I'm not contesting the whole 'Kurosawa is the least Japanese of Japanese directors' trope but that reputation was largely earned for his later career. Imho Kurosawa in the 50's was as Japanese as anyone, and that's especially true with Ikiru, a film that fits perfectly alongside the better contemporary efforts from directors like Kinoshita and Ichikawa.