Maborosi (1995) - July 10, 2018

[Yami]

Coming Soon from Milestone Films

One of the finest films of Japanese cinema, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s first feature film Maborosi is a story of love, loss, and ultimately, regeneration.

Haunted by the mysterious loss of her grandmother many years ago, a beautiful young mother (Yumiko, played by Makiko Esumi) struggles to come to terms with the sudden loss of her husband. Yumiko remarries and with her young son moves to her new husband’s home in a remote village on the wild, untamed Sea of Japan. There, she is haunted by the past, but with time and the natural wonders around her, she awakens to find love, understanding, and a sense of peace.

Perhaps the finest Japanese director working today, Kore-eda has gone on to create such masterpieces as After Life, Nobody Knows and Still Walking. His feature films reflect back on his beginnings in documentary with a regard to truth and a incredibly humane sense of his characters' strength and fallibilities.

Working with almost entirely natural lighting, Kore-eda's remarkable and elegent camerawork makes Maborosi one of the most striking visual works in cinema.

[Xtempo]

dibs on the very first one off the production line.

love this so much.

[cardiac161]

One of the most devastating & contemplative films I've ever seen. Can't wait to finally have this in Bluray!!

[Fabs]

I emailed Milestone Films to see what was up with the release for this, and they told me that they are trying to release a beautiful transfer of it, but the Sales Representative for it is not helping them out. No idea when they will be able to release it. But they still want to.

Hopefully they do, not many films look as gorgeous as this one.

[baldorr]

I am so ready for this to be on bluray!! I'm watching my DVD copy again and I'm remembering how poor the quality is. I have to zoom in on my tv to get it to fit. Half of my love for this movie is the cinematography, so to see a beautiful new version would be amazing. I do remember noticing how much nicer the DVD was compared to my VHS copy years ago. So let's upgrade again.

Anyway, if the company needs to know people want this badly, what can we do?

[Shingster]

I would kill to get After Life on Blu-ray! Maborosi would be awesome as well, but alas if it was gonna happen I think it would by now.

[John_Drake]

Unfortunately, this seems to be a case of "file under what might have been."

But Milestone could still surprise.

They don't always work fast, but what they do is typically worth the wait.

[cardiac161]

Maborosi, After Life, Nobody Knows, Like Father Like Son, Our Little Sister, After the Storm...what the hell ever happened to planned releases of these??

Like Father Like Son never got a BD release though it was available in Netflix before.

I heard Sony was to release Our Little Sister BD but that was supposed to be November of this year, and that came and went.

I can only hope Criterion would consider these titles soon!!

[John_Drake]

Originally Posted by cardiac161

Like Father Like Son never got a BD release though it was available in Netflix before.

Arrow's release of Like Father Like Son and Artificial Eye's releases of Our Little Sister are both quite good if you're region free.

What I would really like to see released is Hana yorimo nao.

[Scottie]

Release Date: July 10, 2018

[Alastor]

Don't go to sleep on the Hirokazu Kore-eda Region A boxset coming out next week. https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Hirok...lu-ray/200704/

The listing shows English subtitles, and since all the R2 DVDs of the movies in this set had English subtitles, I tend to believe it. 24,000 yen for 7 movies, or about $35 per movie.

Includes:

• Maboroshi no Hikari (Maborosi)
• Wonderful Life (After Life)
• Distance
• Dare mo Shiranai (Nobody Knows)
• Hana yori mo Naho (Hana - Tale of the Reluctant Samurai)
• Aruite Aruite (Still Walking)
• Kuuki Ningyo (Air Doll)

I like supporting small domestic distributors who take a chance on bringing over great movies with limited market appeal, but this box set is too tempting not to import!

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Release Date: July 10, 2018

Hope it's finally happening this time.

[cardiac161]

The minute that news came out with Kore-eda set being released, I jumped on it right away and ordered it from YesAsia. I would've supported this Maborosi release from Milestone but it was just announced recently.

Films by Kore-eda that are Region A-friendly and have English subs come so rarely. Thankful for Criterion and a couple of Korean releases.

[Ssnake]

Wow! I had missed this announcement about the box set release. Just ordered Maborosi, After Life and Air Doll from YesAsia.

Haven't seen Distance or Hana. May pick those up later. While recognizing Nobody Know's excellence, it was just too disturbing a movie for my taste. One viewing was enough. Already have Still Walking from Criterion.

[harpolini]

I saw the Milestone disc a month or so ago screening at an event at my indie theater, here were my thoughts:

Originally Posted by harpolini

Saw the blu-ray screening of the upcoming US Milestone Films release of Maborosi. Here is what is confirmed for that disc according the the guest lecturer Linda Ehrlich. Commentary by Linda Ehrlich, transfer "approved by the director."

That being said, here are my thoughts on the disc and see the fairly recently released 1080P trailer below for comparison.

Black levels are very weak, dark gray at best. This transfer has virtually no grain, even in dark scenes, however shows no aggressive DNR in motion. Detail levels are very similar to the trailer below, and this film has a very soft look in general. Daylight sequences looked great. The big problem of this transfer is a possible pulldown error as there is a slight skip present throughout the entire film and very noticeable during pans and fast motion (passing trains or bikes.)

On to the audio. This is not an demo style presentation and that stems from that fact that this is a very subtle film captured with only available light and what I assume is mostly natural captured audio. Audio is good, but not groundbreaking. I was hoping this would be an ASMR dream with wonderful naturals sounds of wind, the slow churning of the ocean or a bicycle bell. Sound did not really achieve an noticeable depth, it was not hollow but also not noteworthy.

This review seems harsh, but this is only because I love this film so much. I will say this, compared to all other releases, this is the best and there is a noticeable improvement and for any of those who own any of the DVD releases.

While the transfer was mostly like approved by the director (most likely sourced from from this upcoming JP boxset,) the disc has problems that seem like they were created in the mastering of the disc, also keeping in mind that Milestone Films is a super small company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ9x9hODI5c&t=8s

[cardiac161]

And Kore-eda's latest film Shoplifters just wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

[Shingster]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Release Date: July 10, 2018

Awesome ****ing sauce!

[harpolini]

Review is up. What's up with the jagged edges on the screen caps (interlacing issues?). Hopefully not visible in motion.

[Shingster]

Blu-ray.com review.

Aliasing is always noticeable in motion I'm afraid! 1080i transfer! The Japanese studios's policy of fobbing off old, inferior scans onto Western distributors strikes again! Other than the aliasing I'm happy enough with the transfer though, bit soft but otherwise pleasing.

[witchmania]

How likely is it that the recent Japanese release is an improvement on this? Just wondering to what extent the issues lie with Milestone's encode, or are all the problems here a direct result of the master.

What's Milestone's record like on encoding?