Restored Kurosawa on DVD

[Don Brown]

Sanspo reported yesterday that 23 of Kurosawa Akira's films will at last be 
released on DVD.  They include works from the period spanning "Sugata 
Sanshiro" to "Ran", and have been supposedly been restored digitally, 
removing most soundtrack noise, scratches and discoloration. 

The first batch of seven films including "Seven Samurai" will be released 
on October 25th, followed by another on December 21st, and then February 
21st next year.  No word on price, subtitle availability etc.

Kurosawa's eldest son and president of Kurosawa Productions, Kurosawa 
Hisao, said: "Recently there have been many movies that only aim to shock,  
but I hope that young people will be able to learn what film is really 
about through watching the works of Kurosawa."

It's taken such a long time for Kurosawa's films to be released in Japan, 
while Criterion, the BFI, companies from Hong Kong etc. have been putting 
out DVDs of varying quality for several years now.  Considering the lack of 
features (and overall quality for that matter) that most Japanese companies 
have been putting into their releases of local product, it remains to be 
seen if these releases will match the quality of Kurosawa DVDs produced by 
the likes of Criterion, but at the very least it's good to see Kurosawa's 
work finally being released on DVD in his own country.    

Don Brown

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