Pony Canyon releasing Hitokiri, Goyokin, Oil Hell Murder on BD (Aug. 30, 2022)

[Takuma]

30 years since Gosha's passing.
https://www.toei-video.co.jp/goshahideo/

Coming to BD on August 30, 2022

Hitokiri
https://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/visual/PCXC000050168

Goyokin
https://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/visual/PCXC000050167

Oil Hell Murder
https://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/visual/PCXC000050169

No details yet, but presumably no English subs.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by Takuma

30 years since Gosha's passing.
https://www.toei-video.co.jp/goshahideo/

Coming to BD on August 30, 2022

Hitokiri
https://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/visual/PCXC000050168

Goyokin
https://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/visual/PCXC000050167

Oil Hell Murder
https://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/visual/PCXC000050169

No details yet, but presumably no English subs.

Interesting. I don't know much about Pony Canyon, but I thought Goyokin was with Toho? Did they license that from them?

[Takuma]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Interesting. I don't know much about Pony Canyon, but I thought Goyokin was with Toho? Did they license that from them?

I think they licensed it from Fuji Television, who co-produced Goyokin with Tokyo Eiga. Toho was the theatrical distributor. It's hard to know how far Toho's rights extend to, but on Amazon Video Fuji Television is credited as the content provider (for Hitokiri as well).

A lot of these rights issues can be a little complex. Toho hardly produced any films in the 70s. Lady Snowblood? Lone Wolf and Cub? Hanzo the Razor? None of those were produced by Toho. Those were made by Tokyo Eiga and Katsu Pro. who sold the completed films to Toho. Back then small studios found it very difficult to distribute their own films since they didn't have a theatrical network like the majors did. It was hence a common business model to make films and sell them (negatives, rights, everything) to bigger studios who would release them as their own. But some companies would retain the rights to the films they made, and the majors would merely serve as a distributor. For us fans, knowing what exactly is the case with each film, that's the difficult part (especially with Toho... there's much less confusion with someone like Toei who produced most of their own films).

[Ed Sage]

Originally Posted by Takuma

No details yet, but presumably no English subs.

Any updates to confirm if there are English subs? Been trying to find Hitokiri with them in any format.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Ed Sage

Any updates to confirm if there are English subs? Been trying to find Hitokiri with them in any format.

Here is the back cover for Hitokiri from a Yahoo! Japan auction listing:

[Show spoiler]

Not only are there no English (英語) subtitles, but there are no subtitles (字幕) period, which is bizarrely common for many Japanese distributors. You would think Japanese (日本語) / Japanese SDH (バリアフリー日本語字幕) subtitles would be virtually mandatory by now. I wonder if they have laws about subtitling TV broadcasts or not, because if they do, that means Japanese subtitles are being created, but not put on discs.

[Ed Sage]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Here is the back cover for Hitokiri from a Yahoo! Japan auction listing:

[Show spoiler]

Not only are there no English (英語) subtitles, but there are no subtitles (字幕) period, which is bizarrely common for many Japanese distributors. You would think Japanese (日本語) / Japanese SDH (バリアフリー日本語字幕) subtitles would be virtually mandatory by now. I wonder if they have laws about subtitling TV broadcasts or not, because if they do, that means Japanese subtitles are being created, but not put on discs.

Thanks!

And that really sucks. Shout! doesn’t do SDH on too many of their releases, I thought other countries, especially with aging populations, would do better.

[goldenarm84]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Here is the back cover for Hitokiri from a Yahoo! Japan auction listing:

[Show spoiler]

Not only are there no English (英語) subtitles, but there are no subtitles (字幕) period, which is bizarrely common for many Japanese distributors. You would think Japanese (日本語) / Japanese SDH (バリアフリー日本語字幕) subtitles would be virtually mandatory by now. I wonder if they have laws about subtitling TV broadcasts or not, because if they do, that means Japanese subtitles are being created, but not put on discs.

I think the reason why Japanese distributors don't put English subtitles on their releases is because they want to resell the film to other distributors in other territories.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by goldenarm84

I think the reason why Japanese distributors don't put English subtitles on their releases is because they want to resell the film to other distributors in other territories.

Yes, but was also talking about putting any Japanese and / or Japanese SDH subtitles on the discs. Why this hasn't become standard in Japan--of all places--is mystifying to me.

[Jigvell]

Well, the reason is quite simple: They don't care.
Adam Torel (from Third Window Films) who lives and works in Japan talked about it many times on his podcast. Japanese producers/distributors are satisfied when films make their money back on home market. Also lots of film companies don't even have departments or people in charge whose job would be to sell their products to foreign countries (like in Hollywood).
So, if you don't care about distribution/making money beyond your borders, why would you care if your physical media have english subtitles.