Antarctica (1983)

[moviemaker]

Just wanted to say I’m a huge fan of this film. I remember seeing this as a little kid on VHS with subtitles. It was the combination of visuals almost devoid of dialogue, accompanied by Vangelis score left a lasting impression on me.

I’m sure there was a laserdisc release with subs if I’m not mistaken.

Antarctica was one of the highest grossing films ever in Japan. And it starred Ken Takakura, the same actor who was in Ridley Scitt’s “Black Rain. Again I was a little kid, so that was my association. I’m sure Ridley chose him for Black Rain because of how big Antarctica was six years before.

I have a good Japanese friend who is also a collector and I remember him finding the 8-disc box set for me that includes cast and crew interviews, a making of documentary the movie, and the making of the soundtrack with Vangelis, but all of it only in Japanese. The latest release was a French Blu Ray from Carlotta Films (again with no English subtitles), available from Amazon and FNAC.

I would have thought someone would have released an English friendly version by now. It’s a shame so many obscure films, some good but mostly cringe-worthy D-movies get released on a daily basis, but classic award winning films like this, Costa-Gavras’ “Missing,” or Peter Weir’s “The Year of Living Dangerously” to name a few seem relegated to out of print DVD/Laserdisc/VHS, abandoned, and forgotten.

With so many Antarctica related penguin, explorer, IMAX movies out, this gem of a movie is proving even harder to find nowadays.

[PonyoBellanote]

Originally Posted by moviemaker

I have a good Japanese friend who is also a collector and I remember him finding the 8-disc box set for me that includes cast and crew interviews, a making of documentary the movie, and the making of the soundtrack with Vangelis, but all of it only in Japanese.

Damn, that's hot. I can't believe they had all those features and didn't include it in the Blu-ray release in Japan. Now those are gone forever.