Floating Weeds / A Story of Floating Weeds (1934-1959) (Criterion Collection)

[MifuneFan]

My favorite Ozu film Floating Weeds (1959) will finally be getting a Blu-ray release from Criterion, alongside the original silent version A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) in May!

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/36...y-yasujiro-ozu

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 4K digital master of Floating Weeds, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack (Blu-ray); high-definition digital transfer of Floating Weeds (DVD)
• High-definition digital master of A Story of Floating Weeds, featuring a score by composer Donald Sosin, presented in 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary for A Story of Floating Weeds by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie and for Floating Weeds by film critic Roger Ebert
• Trailer
• English subtitle translation by Richie for Floating Weeds
• PLUS: An essay by Richie

Covers by Lucien S. Y. Yang

[bytor]

I've seen the Kadokawa release and it's a beautiful restoration, this should be great if Criterion doesn't mess it up.

[etimh]

Excellent. Love both versions of Floating Weeds. Very excited!

[Jafar]

Been a long way coming! Criterion could have redeemed themselves by announcing a 4K when the 4K digital master was already available Oh well, I'll take it for now and prepare for the double dip.

[eChopper]

this should be great , minus the usual criterion scratched discs

hopefully Criterion UK will get this

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by eChopper

this should be great , minus the usual criterion scratched discs

hopefully Criterion UK will get this

Every US company has (supposedly) scratched discs, they all use the same (one) factory. Although owning 2200+ discs, I've never received one with scratches.

[sandman slim]

If anyone wants to "try before you buy", both films are on TCM next Monday the 18th. Starts at 2am Eastern.

[jheez]

I’m sorry you’ve had issues with scratched discs. I’ve only had one disc out of a few hundred Criterions I’ve bought over the past four years have issues. So there are other people who haven’t had issues as another data point.

These are great films and I’m excited to upgrade them! Always have fond memories of hearing the commentaries for the first time and how it increased my appreciation of works I always loved.

[amputd]

Review is up and the caps look most disappointing. This looks no better than the Eureka.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by amputd

Review is up and the caps look most disappointing. This looks no better than the Eureka.

Sorry, but that's completely wrong. This new restoration is a significant improvement over Eureka's release.

[MifuneFan]

This looks no better than the Eureka disc? Seriously?

Eureka (top) / Criterion (bottom)

[javy]

Mifunefan, what do you think of the color changes?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by javy

Mifunefan, what do you think of the color changes?

Both the Criterion DVD, and Eureka's BD did not have accurate colors, so I'd say this is very likely closer to how the film is intended to look than any previous version. The color range appears in line with most, if not all of Ozu's other color films like Good Morning, An Autumn Afternoon, Late Autumn, Equinox Flower, etc..I've watched my Criterion DVD numerous times, and I became accustomed to its somewhat dialed up colors, so there are a couple instances with the 4K restoration where I feel colors look a bit too muted, or skies not as blue in direct comparison. I've seen the restoration twice now in theaters (2019 and 2023), and none of these things were an issue thankfully. It looked excellent.

[Jafar]

Came to ask the same questions having read the review but looks like someone bet me to it I have only ever owned the film on Eureka blu and the colors don't look very convincing on that release either so not sure if that is an ideal comparison. Criterion screenshots show huge improvements across the board and it surely blows Eureka out of the water. Thanks MituneFan for these posts.

[DukeTogo84]

I've never seen this film and really looking forward to it. Detail on the Criterion is a huge improvement for sure, but the colors look more subdued and dreary compared to the Eureka? Not sure, but I'm sure it will be fine when I start watching it.

[amputd]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Sorry, but that's completely wrong. This new restoration is a significant improvement over Eureka's release.

Resolution is much better, no question. But I have to agree with Svet on the color timing. It just doesn’t look right to me. The colors on the Criterion resemble those on their release of A Touch of Zen to my eyes.The Eureka appears a little washed by comparison. I wish we were getting better masters generally on some of these Asian films.

I have the Eureka disc and it has its issues. I just think it’s one step forward and one step back. Not enough of an improvement for me to double dip, but if you don’t own the film I think the choice isn’t as straight forward.

Having said that, I value your opinion and really appreciate you took the time to put the caps up. I might re-evaluate if I have the chance to watch the new restoration on a decent sized monitor.

[Akibiyori]

Originally Posted by amputd

Resolution is much better, no question. But I have to agree with Svet on the color timing. It just doesn’t look right to me.

This new release actually looks more like older DVDs in terms of color, which doesn’t necessarily mean much but it’s not a “Ritrovata” type of thing (without opening that can of worms.) This and End of Summer seem to have a different flavor of color compared to the Shochiku films despite using the same process.

[MifuneFan]

There's no question the new 4K restoration isn't as blue as previous releases, but I'm unsure what the site reviewer is basing his opinion on that it's now incorrect. I don't think relying on a previous home video release as your basis is any kind of proof, especially masters from the DVD-era which were often very inaccurate. I also have to imagine the professional restorers in Japan were basing the color grading on reference prints, and not an old DVD master.

If you look at the Eureka release, it is problematic in so many ways. Besides being washed out, and lacking detail, skin tones are off, sometimes having a yellow/green tinge to them. Outside shots of the sky are blue, but sometimes that blue covers the whole screen, so you even see hues of blue in the grass. The Criterion DVD is a little more balanced in terms of its uses of blues and other colors, but its saturation and contrast levels were clearly boosted, so that isn't exactly a marker of accuracy either.

What I don't understand about the reviewer's take for Floating Weeds is he harshly criticizes the lack of blues, yet if you look at Good Morning, a film made the exact same year as Floating Weeds (1959), it's 4K restoration features the same kinds of changes, with most skies going from stronger blue color in older presentations to more muted colors now. Yet, the site reviewer gives it a perfect 5.0 there, and doesn't mention anything about the colors. The restorations weren't even done by the same studio, so is it a coincidence that two films made by Ozu in the same year, features a very similar color range? An Autumn Afternoon (1962) also has a similar color palette, and the site reviewer gave that one a 4.5, simply adding this small criticism about the blues: 'but I also feel that there are a couple of outdoor sequences that should have a wider range of nuanced blues".

Good Morning

An Autumn Afternoon

I wasn't around in Japan in 1959 to state what the film originally looked like. All i can say is the new 4K restoration looks pretty consistent with other Ozu films of the time, and that I had no problems with the less blue presentation of the film when seeing it in theaters.

[Akibiyori]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I also have to imagine the professional restorers in Japan were basing the color grading on reference prints, and not an old DVD master.

Oh, I have no problem with the new version and the DVDs I’m thinking of (the old Japanese ones which were less messed with in those days, either for better or worse) look a lot like it. Just a note of consistency under different conditions. It is more like the Shochiku films but there’s always been something slightly different about the look of the two non-Shochiku films to me over the years (different light quality - Miyagawa in this case - and maybe slightly less bold in some ways.) It seems to throw people off.

[Modren]