Ozu questions

[Graham Steward]

Michael,

I bought an NTSC VHS copy of Kohayakawake no aki in May 1998 from Toho's 
'Kinema Club' (at least I think it was called that).  I had to get a 
Japanese friend to 'phone them in Tokyo to order it and it cost about 10,000 
yen, but it's a good quality tape which was worth the money. I don't know if 
it's still available, but if you want to try to get them to send you a copy, 
I can look up their 'phone number for you. I doubt they'll be interested 
sending the tape abroad though, but you never know (I had to pay the 
delivery man cash on delivery).

Alternatively, if you can read French and have a VCR which can play-back PAL 
or SECAM tapes, you can buy the French sub-titled version over the internet 
from www.fnac.com for 135FF (20.58 euro). (It's called 'Dernier Caprice' in 
France - another spin on the titling, which I think fits reasonably well).  
It'll come out in black and white if you play it as PAL, but it's an option.

It's an interesting film - with some rather 'un-Ozu' music (different 
composer to usual) and a bizarre American who pops up for a few seconds and 
speaks a weird variety of English.

I wish I had an English script of it though - have you seen one anywhere by 
any chance ?

Good luck !

Graham Steward


>From: "Michael E. Kerpan" <kerpan at attglobal.net>
>Reply-To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Ozu questions
>Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 19:49:10 -0400
>
>  In reading Bordwell, I discovered that the "importers" of Ozu's late 
>films
>really messed up on the names of the last two films. "Summer's End" is 
>really
>"Autumn of the Kohayakawa Family" and "Autumn Afternoon" is really "Taste 
>of
>Mackerel" (more or less -- the fish in question is apparently a treat
>available in late summer. Does anyone have any idea how the 
>title-translators
>goofed this up. Would Shochiku and  Toho have been responsible?  Or did 
>this
>happen after the films "left their hands"?
>
>BTW, does anyone know if Toho has ever released even a Japanese video 
>version of
>Kohayakawa-ke no Aki / Summer's End?  If so is it still available?  If so
>(again), can it be ordered by someone who is not literate in Japanese? <g>
>
>Thanks,
>
>Michael Kerpan
>Boston, MA

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