Ikiru (1949) and Stray Dog (1952) 4K UHD

[qw0aszx]

Toho is going to release UHD of Akira Kurosawa's IKIRU and STRAY DOG on March 15th.
Both sourced from the 4K restored master, UHD releases are in BD-66 and SDR only. There're BD-only releases with this new 4K master also.

[AreaFive]

Any idea of whether these will have English subs or not?

[qw0aszx]

Originally Posted by AreaFive

Any idea of whether these will have English subs or not?

No, the audio for both releases are Japanese LPCM Mono and subtitles are all Japanese SDH only. But TOHO releasing them may finally means other label can license out these new masters for their own UHD releases...

[Sifox211]

Stray Dog - finally! Let's hope Criterion can free it from its DVD prison and go straight for a UHD!

[kristoffer]

Here we go! I hope the DNR is mild and it has English subs! Seven Samurai 4K is my dream.

[RevolverOcelScott]

Originally Posted by Sifox211

Stray Dog - finally! Let's hope Criterion can free it from its DVD prison and go straight for a UHD!

This would be awesome. Going from DVD to 4K would be a perfect upgrade choice!

[fabio_p]

Such a fun times with physical media. Every few days, a new UHD bluray is announced and the wish list (at least for the classics) gets shorter.

Hope Kurosawa will have nice US of UK editions in the near future.

[MifuneFan]

[StarDestroyer52]

Hopefully this means a U.S. release is not far off, even if it's just BD only. Stray Dog has been one of my most requested titles.

[James Luckard]

Maybe Criterion will be moved to do a UHD of Ikiru due to the release of the remake, Living.

I'd love both on UHD, but that might be too much to hope for.

Criterion hasn't done a Kurosawa film in a LONG time, from what I remember.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Maybe Criterion will be moved to do a UHD of Ikiru due to the release of the remake, Living.

I'd love both on UHD, but that might be too much to hope for.

Criterion hasn't done a Kurosawa film in a LONG time, from what I remember.

If (Big IF) Toho grants 4K rights to them.

[cakefactory]

How does Toho handle non-Godzilla movies? IIRC they always refused to license out rights for their transfers for at least 3 years for the Godzilla movies. So with these that would put the earliest possible English-friendly transfer in 2026. But I dunno if they give Criterion special exception with Kurosawa or something.

[KubrickKurasawa]

What a wait!

[NathanLurker]

I think I've alway been waiting for a blu boxset to materialize before I start diving into Kurosawa's films. I think I only ever watched Seven Samurai and Dreams. My dilemma is that if his titles start getting released one by one on 4k, will I want to start picking them up, or keep waiting for a potential set.

Me and my girlfriend enjoyed so much the experience of diving into film sets like the Zatoichi from Criterion, the Seijun Suzukis from Arrow... We'd really love having a Kurosawa set that we can have a weekly routine with.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by NathanLurker

I think I've alway been waiting for a blu boxset to materialize before I start diving into Kurosawa's films. I think I only ever watched Seven Samurai and Dreams. My dilemma is that if his titles start getting released one by one on 4k, will I want to start picking them up, or keep waiting for a potential set.

Me and my girlfriend enjoyed so much the experience of diving into film sets like the Zatoichi from Criterion, the Seijun Suzukis from Arrow... We'd really love having a Kurosawa set that we can have a weekly routine with.

If you're going to use Criterion for this, the resale value of their disks can answer your dilemma. I had around ten Bergman films on Criterion BDs which I sold on eBay once they announced the set. I ended up getting almost all the money required to buy the boxset from those sales! Did similar with Fellini.

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

How does Toho handle non-Godzilla movies? IIRC they always refused to license out rights for their transfers for at least 3 years for the Godzilla movies. So with these that would put the earliest possible English-friendly transfer in 2026. But I dunno if they give Criterion special exception with Kurosawa or something.

Toho let Arrow release The Bloodthirsty Trilogy back in 2018, but their own blu-ray is only coming out this year.

I think I heard Arrow found dealing with Toho rather difficult.

[d1360]

WOW. Until now I could not see them, I will gladly wait and get it in 4K.

[Pans]

Day one. Hopefully High & Low can be secured some time, too.

Edit: no subs is eh but people waited ages for a standalone Lawrence of Arabia which even as a flagship title took like two years so idk if waiting is the right move for these smaller titles. Maybe just I'm not optimistic enough

[cakefactory]

Toho does this insane possessive stuff with Godzilla that hammers non-Japanese speakers on two fronts: first, they won't put any english subtitles on their Japanese releases because that means they can point to that when demanding more money for rights saying "see, you'll have the only English-friendly release!" Second, they won't let any US releases come out anywhere close to theirs, cause they don't want people to import the much-cheaper US editions and take away their own sales, so they generally refuse to license anything for years after their own releases. (I don't know if this was a problem in the DVD era when Japan had different region coding to the US, but it sure has been with bluray when we're both A) So the US gets stuck waiting for years for English-friendly releases of existing transfers.

Which often were garbage anyway. God, those old HD masters of the Godzilla/kaiju movies look like junk. I hope the next generation of their transfers are actually up to par. The 4K re-scan of King Kong Vs Godzilla has been out for years but I still haven't actually seen anything from it yet.

I think most of the Kurosawa movies on Criterion actually look good, though.

[NeilZ]

Kurosawa box from Criterion incoming sometime this year I guess!