Branded to Kill 4K UHD (1967)

[StLouisRibs]

Branded to Kill 4K Blu-ray


Coming from Criterion in May

[Lope de Aguirre]

I am hoping for Blu-rays of "Princess Racoon" and "Pistol Opera" and UHDs of "Kagero-za" "Yumeji" and "Tokyo Drifter"!

[BigDmo531]

Criterion going hard on the no-HDR 4K releases recently. Feels kinda stubborn honestly

[lilboyblu]

[profholt82]

I recall doing a power point presentation on Seijun Suzuki for a Japanese film studies course back in college in the stone ages. Ha! And this was my favorite movie of his. I still have the old Criterion dvd that was fairly new at the time, but it is non-anamorphic. To be honest, I didn't even realize it had gotten a blu upgrade, so this is a cool announcement for me. Now I'll get to revisit Joe Shishido's signature chipmunk cheeks in glorious 4k.

[PNguyen]

never heard of it ill check it out

[Kyle15]

Came out of nowhere. HOT!!

[El Sleezo]

I’d also recommend the Arrow for the extra film, Trapped in Lust.

[Maximux]

great news!

[Hammerlover]

TOKYO DRIFTER next, please!

[Dragun]

Originally Posted by BigDmo531

Criterion going hard on the no-HDR 4K releases recently. Feels kinda stubborn honestly

Some of their releases have HDR, so HDR/SDR is likely determined by whoever supplies the master.

[LexInHD]

Originally Posted by BigDmo531

Criterion going hard on the no-HDR 4K releases recently. Feels kinda stubborn honestly

You will find that the Japanese generally do not allow or use HDR grading for old content and the domestic UHD-BD releases of that content is almost entirely SDR.

[BluProofie]

Will definitely be picking this up.

[BigDmo531]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

You will find that the Japanese generally do not allow or use HDR grading for old content and the domestic UHD-BD releases of that content is almost entirely SDR.

Huh, learn something new every day

[GenPion]

Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter are both great fun. I hope Tokyo Drifter gets an upgrade next.

[Hammerlover]

I'll never smell rice the same way again.

[LexInHD]

Originally Posted by BigDmo531

Huh, learn something new every day

At this point, the majority of 4K masters from Japan are stuff pre-dating 1980, with an emphasis on the old B&W stuff, like the Kurosawa Samurai films and the 50's/60's Yakuza gangster films that weren't colorized. They seem to have no interest in tweaking the imagery with HDR, so SDR is what's put out.

[reanimator]

Definitely in for this. Does Criterion also have WOMAN IN THE DUNES?

[Grethiwha]

Oh man. Wow. This is Criterion's first 4K Japanese release.

I mean. It's one of my favourite movies. So is Wings of Desire, for that matter, but if I'm going to upgrade, I think I'd rather import the UK release, to not have an edition that is, aside from the transfer, identical to the one I already own. Similarly, I'd rather wait and see if Arrow upgrades their version of Branded to Kill to 4K, as I'd much sooner go that route.

Also, as much as I prefer Branded to Kill to Tokyo Drifter (which was released on blu-ray simultaneously with Branded to Kill back in the days when Criterion actually cared about classic Japanese cinema)... if they're only going to upgrade one of them, isn't Tokyo Drifter the much more obvious candidate, given its visual flamboyance?

Of course if they had announced something that was actually new-to-blu-ray like Pistol Opera that would have made my day. Criterion's Japanese slate for the past several years has been so depressing, and as much as I love Branded to Kill, this upgrade just seems random and lazy. Oh well. I'll just keep hoping they have some massive Kurosawa boxset in the pipeline that will totally redeem them.

[javi92]

What a bizarre choice to do a 4K disc for