Criterion (was, for a minute, Hikaru Hayashi)

[Peter Larson]

It's always really easy for people to pick on the big guys, especially in
Otaku circles ("lesser known and hard to get" equals "better"). I think the
Criterion disks are excellent and I'm happy that Criterion is out there
getting movies out to the public that otherwise wouldn't see the light of
day. Like I said, I can go to the mall in tiny, out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere
Adrian, MI and buy Criterion disks. That says that they are doing something
right. Perhpaps this means nothing in the middle of Europe but Criterion is
making these movies available to North Americans.

Keep up the good work.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Chuck Stephens
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 2:37 AM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Criterion (was, for a minute, Hikaru Hayashi)


Thanks to Jason Gray for the info about Hayashi and Shindo's new
film; if you could post here or email me an English-language copy of
your review, I'd be very interested to read it.

Otherwise, it's amazing to me to see how quickly this discussion
veered into uninformed quibbling about Criterion (for whom I work
strictly as a freelancer and have no vested interest.)

Nuzumaki: the Criterion ONIBABA will be USD $29.00, and the version
listed on YesAsia is USD $41.31, not including shipping, and it is
clearly marked as Region 2. As for your ridiculous comment about
Criterion discs being "not very good" -- care to back that up at all?
Yes, some Criterion releases have had problems (Von Sternberg's
SCARLET EMPRESS is a pretty thoroughly-discussed example.) But you go
ahead and take a look at the recent Fassbinder BDR trilogy box set,
or Jean-Pierre Melville's LE CERCLE ROUGE, or Imamura's PORNOGRAPHERS
and get back to us. I'll leave aside your rather lopsided comment
about how "the guys" who would want a DVD of ONIBABA  would already
have ordered it from Japan, which presumes not only various cultural,
geographic and market-force biases, but a rather sweeping gender
assumption as well.

I have seen, in another forum, Michael Kerpan (who I believe is also
a subscriber here) disparage Criterion's release of Ozu's OHAYO (GOOD
MORNING) at the expense of the Japanese edition of same, and would
enjoy hearing more from him with a comparative analysis.