Thanks and New Question re Kurosawa's "Quiet Duel"

[mccaskem at georgetown.edu]

I'd like to thank everyone for helping answer my two questions re film and 
clothing, in particular colleagues Faith Bach, M. Raine, D. Martinez, A. Zahlten, 
and M. Kerpan. The information you sent was both interesting and highly 
helpful, and I was introduced to several new information sources as well.

I have yet another Kurosawa-related historical question, but I'd like to put that 
on hold in favor of questions about something that has surprised and puzzled 
me.

I got a set of the AK 100 collection of 25 Kurosawa films a while ago. I've seen 
all the Kurosawa films, so the AK 100 set is more of a resource for my students 
in a class re Kurosawa films starting shortly. Our univ. library has a set as well.

I had just assumed that the 5 missing films were early ones, and I got the 
Kurosawa First Films collection to remedy that.

But as I was organizing reserve book and film matters yesterday, I realized that 
the films missing from AK 100 are actually:

Shizukanaru ketto/Quiet Duel
Dersu Uzala
Ran
Rhapsody in August
Dreams

Dersu Uzala, Ran, and Rhapsody in August are readily available separately on 
DVD, but I was surprised to find that Quiet Duel and Dreams have become 
scarcer items - though I was able to order DVD copies of both.

I realize that I've only seen Quiet Duel on DVD in the older Japanese set of 
Kurosawa films. I've never seen an edition with English subtitles. There's just 
one, and it's not a Criterion or Eclipse or Fiim Masters edition at all. Our univ. 
library does not have a copy, even on VHS (except on DVD in our Qatar Branch, 
which turns out to have a great film collection of its own).

I was even more surprised to find that Dreams is becoming harder to get on 
DVD. I know it may be available for online rental viewing, but it's good to have 
DVD copies as well, I think.

Are these situations re Quiet Duel and Dreams on DVD the result of problems in 
getting business rights, or due to some other issue(s)? I had just assumed they 
would both be quite readily available in "in print" DVD versions - until yesterday.

Many Thanks,

Michael McC
Georgetown Univ.