Sound / Kurosawa Script / DVD prices

[M Arnold]

Certainly a lot of independent documentaries in the 60s and 70s were without
synch sound, and I can understand why most pink films and Roman Porno aren't
synched even now, but I'm still surprised by some of the more or less
"major" releases of the last couple of decades I've seen like that.  Anyway,
I think Hara Kazuo's The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On and A Dedicated
Life were done with synch sound, but his earlier films weren't.  Recent
documentaries I've seen (A2, Hanako, The New God, etc.) were all synched.  I
went to the Bantsuma festival at the Shin-bungeiza on Saturday and saw The
Life of Tsumasaburo Bando (which I think was 1979 or 1980, but the JMDB
lists it as 1993), and a good chunk of the interview footage used in the
film wasn't synched, even though there were microphones being held up to the
interviewees' faces the whole time.  On the other hand, if I'm not mistaken
I think the majority of Japanese films I've seen from the 40s and 50s did
use synch sound.  I watched Kiarostami's Close-Up on video last night and it
is all synched, but the climactic final scene becomes very interesting when
the microphone they're using starts to fail.

Before this thread disappears, one more thing that puzzles me is the way
that foreign films broadcast on TV (dubbed) often use brief subtitles to
introduce the names of the characters and the actors playing them.  The only
other place I've seen this is in some Japanese silent film.

A few more quick things:

I believe the theatrical pamphlet that was sold for Kurosawa Kiyoshi's
Charisma included a copy of the script for the film.  I don't have it with
me now so I can't check, but I think it was a different version, possibly
the (an) original version of the script.

For DVDs, most Japanese titles still seem to be around 4700 or 4800, but
some recent releases (like GO) have edged up over 5000 yen.  In the last
couple of months electronics and CD/video stores have developed huge
selections of Hollywood films from the last 10 or 20 years that are being
sold for 1500-2500 each.  The only things coming close to that in Japanese
productions are porno (that is, "AV") videos, which can be really cheap:
2000 yen or less.  As far as Kurosawa goes, I picked up a Pioneer upcoming
releases flyer today and it lists Shizukanaru ketto, Rashomon and Madadayo
for releases on 9/6.  The first two are 4,700 yen, the last 5,700.  They
don't appear to have a lot of special bonuses, but the latter two are
scheduled to have audio commentary tracks by Nogami Teruyo.

Two other interesting releases listed in the flyer are animation collections
by Kawamoto Kihachiro and Kuri Yoji, in the New Animation Animation ("NAA")
series of DVDs.  They're each 5,800 yen, about 150 minutes long and ALL
regions, and the Kawamoto Kihachiro disc apparently does include English
subtitles for a few of the films included.  Maybe videos like these will
prove useful in teaching Americans the "true meanings of Japanese
Animation". (?)

Michael Arnold