If you could see any classic film on the big screen subtitled...

Richard Suchenski rsuchens at Princeton.EDU
Thu Apr 8 09:30:23 EDT 2004


My immediate response when I read this email was to say Kenji Mizoguchi's
"Sansho the Bailiff" and Yasujiro Ozu's "Late Spring," my two favorite
"classic" Japanese films.  However, both of those films are readily
available on subtitled film prints and video/DVD.  So, pretending for a
moment that we could ignore print availability, I would pick Mizoguchi's
"Straits of Love and Hate" (Aien kyo, 1937) and "Chikamatsu Monogatari"
(1954), two rare masterpieces by my favorite director that, unfortunately,
I've never had the chance to see properly (i.e., on anything other than
5th-generation tapes).  If I could pick two more, I'd add Yoshida Kiju's
"Eros Plus Massacre" (1969) and Naruse's "Nagareru" (1954), two breathtaking
films that are much harder to find than they should be.

Richard Suchenski



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