9 Mizoguchi films on DVD....

[Michael E Kerpan Jr.]

....IF...

.....you can read French (or understand spoken Japanese).

2 sets of 5 DVDs apiece. These are being distributed by 
Gaumont-Columbia-Tristar Home Video (but their name doesn't really even 
appear on the sets -- just "GCTHV".

Released in France a couple of days ago -- and arrived in Boston yesterday:


Vol. 1

Chikamatsu monogatari (The Crucified Lovers)
Sansho dayu (Sansho the Bailiff)
Yohiki (Empress Yang Kwei Fei)
Shin heike monogatari (Tales of the Taira Clan)
Supplemental discs -- with comments by a variety of French film makers and 
film writers

5 DVD set

Vol. 2

Ugetsu monogatari (Ugetsu)
Gion bayashi (A Geisha)
Oyu-sama (Miss Oyu)
Saikaku ichidai onna (Life of Oharu)
Akasen chitai (Street of Shame)

5 DVD set

Only French subtitles. These appear to be forced subs (that can be removed if 
one uses the right equipment and/or software. The set includes both DVD-5s 
and DVD-9s -- depending on the length of the films and whether the film discs 
themselves have any significant extras.

Overall, these DVDs look pretty good -- well worth the around 9 euros per film 
FNAC charged. "Sansho", "Ugetsu", "Princess YKF", and "Street of Shame" all 
look noticeably better than their prevuious incarnations on video. Everyhing 
else -- except "Oharu" looks equally nice. "Oharu" seems to me to be a 
problem child -- like Ozu's "Green Tea". I wonder if the original sources are 
just too battered and abused to fix -- absent a massively expensive 
restoration project (like the gorgeous one given recently to "M").

The supplementary disc seems like it would be quite nice if only one 
understood spoken French better than I do. One of the extras (a 49 minute 
long set of comments by various film makers) has an almost 20 minute long 
disquisition by Claude Chabrol.

So far, I've watched "Gion bayashi", "Akasen chitai" and "Ugetsu". I am pretty 
pleased with all of these -- and even more pleased that I can read the French 
subs well enough to follow what's going on.

MEK