Yamanaka and Imai Toho DVDs

[Michael E Kerpan Jr.]

Well, the Toho DVD of Sadao Yamanaka's final surviving masterpiece is out.  As 
anticipated, only Japanese subtitles.  Somewhat surprising, no extras of any 
sort.  I don't know how much restoration was done on this, but the image is 
certainly a lot nicer looking than I am used to from my video copy of a copy 
(etc.).  All in all, a magnificent movie -- and one which clearly inspired 
Kurosawa's (to my mind) wonderful "Lower Depths".

Also received but not watched, Tadashi Imai's "Blue Mountains" (also from 
Toho).  I was surprised to discover that this  3 hour long film was released 
in two parts (the second part came out a week later than the first). Also no 
English subtitles or extras. I wonder whether I'm going to be able to 
decipher what's going on in this one. (No lucvk at all in synopsis hunting).

MEK