The Criterion Collection

[B25]

Sorry to cross post both here and in the international section, but I couldn't find a thread for CC's Late Spring.

I realize this involves conjecture, but how likely is it that the most recent 4K restoration will be released on BD in the US (or UK) or better yet, on UHD? I know there have been "rumors" and wishful thinking, but any recent reasons to believe this will materialize?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by B25

Sorry to cross post both here and in the international section, but I couldn't find a thread for CC's Late Spring.

I realize this involves conjecture, but how likely is it that the most recent 4K restoration will be released on BD in the US (or UK) or better yet, on UHD? I know there have been "rumors" and wishful thinking, but any recent reasons to believe this will materialize?

For the UHD, it partly depends on whether Shochiku is willing to grant 4K rights to Criterion. Japanese studios are notoriously difficult to deal with, so I would say it's probably unlikely. If they were to get 4K rights to any Ozu films, I would imagine Tokyo Story, and Floating Weeds may take priority over Late Spring. I also don't see Criterion re-releasing Late Spring with a newer restoration, unless it was included in a box set like some of the titles included with the Bergman, and Fellini sets.

I should also point out (though you may already know), the 4K-restored version of Late Spring was released in Japan, and it actually includes English subtitles too.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I'm still not sure what a second line accomplishes though. Like, Criterion has always been a label that encompasses films from all eras, and genres. So, what's the point of a second line exactly? Because people want some films under one line and others under another? It's kind of silly to me. Unless people want Criterion to create a "bargain" line, like say Flicker Alley is doing with their Fusion series, sort of like the Eclipse series, but for BD's, but then that comes at a cost of possibly having barebone releases, lacking proper restorations in many cases, which no doubt people would complain about too.

In terms of output, I think people don't seem to realize how much work goes into each release. If they felt they could up the amount of titles they could put out in a month, I imagine they would have done so already, since it would obviously mean more revenue coming in, but the fact that they haven't likely means it's just not possible.

Last month they announced 7 titles, including 4 UHD's, which most were praising and saying was one of their biggest and strongest months ever. Fast Forward a month later, and they announce titles that many haven't heard of,, and all of a sudden the boo birds come out, and declare Criterion needs to create a second line, and other ridiculous comments. People have a short memory it seems..

I ultimately want the movies in HD. I don't care about the brand or the extras. A complete Kobayashi set of bare bones releases on the Eclipse line would be fine by me. No booklets, simple artwork. I'd have the films.

The problem is that they sit on stuff we know about for years. They probably have other stuff we don't know about that they sit on forever, and we don't get the films that we are already interested in. Are there gems in the things we haven't heard of? Surely, there are, but in comparison to the promise of something like a Mean Streets or Duke's Cure, it pales.

I'll take a complete Kobayashi from Mill Creek (it's not like Criterion does most of the restorations themselves), but still, there's no HD physical release of Samurai Rebellion in America. "Hey, here's some minor work from the Safdie brothers," would be akin to Criterion releasing Who's that Knocking at my Door? instead of Mean Streets to me.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by dvining

I ultimately want the movies in HD. I don't care about the brand or the extras. A complete Kobayashi set of bare bones releases on the Eclipse line would be fine by me. No booklets, simple artwork. I'd have the films.

The problem is that they sit on stuff we know about for years. They probably have other stuff we don't know about that they sit on forever, and we don't get the films that we are already interested in. Are there gems in the things we haven't heard of? Surely, there are, but in comparison to the promise of something like a Mean Streets or Duke's Cure, it pales.

I'll take a complete Kobayashi from Mill Creek (it's not like Criterion does most of the restorations themselves), but still, there's no HD physical release of Samurai Rebellion in America. "Hey, here's some minor work from the Safdie brothers," would be akin to Criterion releasing Who's that Knocking at my Door? instead of Mean Streets to me.

I'm with you on this. I love Criterion, but they are probably the label that infuriates me the most at the same time. A few months ago I talked to a rep for another label and they mentioned that there are movies they want to acquire, but can't because Criterion has them. The insane part, Criterion has had those films for over 15 years and hasn't even released them on DVD let alone Blu-ray.

As a business I can understand that Criterion is more focused on their streaming, but as a physical collector first and foremost, they suck for hoarding so many films.

At the end of the day, I'm sure I won't see a lot of my favorites ever come out on Blu-ray. It's something I have to accept. Still, what's really frustrating, is that a lot of these films would actually have gotten releases if Criterion didn't have the license.

[Fabs]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

If anything Criterion could just start doing something similar to the Eclipse sets, but in HD. Limited features, but we get the films in HD and at the end of the day, that's the most important part, especially films that probably won't get a release otherwise.

Love this idea. I'm just imagining some of my favorite directors, who films haven't received many mainline releases (like Mikio Naruse) getting Eclipse BD sets.

Don't know why they haven't done this already. This way, they could finally get some films out there on disc, that are just sitting in their backlog.

[NeoNical]

I do hope more Eclipse titles get a Blu-Ray release, even if from some other companies. Was devastated when I found out Victim was an Eclipse title and the UK had their Blu-Ray upgrade a while back. Wouldn’t mind buying a barebones release (for a cheaper price) of some of them like A Colt Is My Passport, The Warped Ones, and Blood Wedding, to name a few. The Ascent is phenomenal and I’m hoping this isn’t their one and only Eclipse title to get that treatment

[CRASHLANDING]

Originally Posted by Fabs

Love this idea. I'm just imagining some of my favorite directors, who films haven't received many mainline releases (like Mikio Naruse) getting Eclipse BD sets.

Don't know why they haven't done this already. This way, they could finally get some films out there on disc, that are just sitting in their backlog.

Creating yet another product tier isn't going to magically create more resources for Criterion, which I'm fairly confident is the limiting factor here. Surely people don't think they are deliberately "sitting" on titles and not releasing out of some kind of spite or malice?

Indeed, splitting their resources further seems more likely to result in fewer releases, not more. Like everyone, I'd like to see more (or different) titles released but their business model has served them pretty well for nearly 40yrs and in many ways sets the bar for boutique labels. Criterion certainly aren't perfect, but I doubt they're going to change their approach just to rush out a bunch of barebones HD discs. The place you're going to find those films is on the Channel.

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by CRASHLANDING

Creating yet another product tier isn't going to magically create more resources for Criterion, which I'm fairly confident is the limiting factor here. Surely people don't think they are deliberately "sitting" on titles and not releasing out of some kind of spite or malice?

Indeed, splitting their resources further seems more likely to result in fewer releases, not more. Like everyone, I'd like to see more (or different) titles released but their business model has served them pretty well for nearly 40yrs and in many ways sets the bar for boutique labels. Criterion certainly aren't perfect, but I doubt they're going to change their approach just to rush out a bunch of barebones HD discs. The place you're going to find those films is on the Channel.

At the very least they should re-imagine the Eclipse line and start releasing Blu-ray sets of older films they've been sitting on for years. That way everyone happy.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

At the very least they should re-imagine the Eclipse line and start releasing Blu-ray sets of older films they've been sitting on for years. That way everyone happy.

No one will ever be happy. There will always be something they find to complain about. Maybe they should put what resources they have into better encoding on the discs they are releasing.

[filmlover22]

reviews of Mr. Klein are not good forPQ. Seems a large greenish tint is present throughout the movie. Read about 5 reviews so far and they all say the same thing. For some reviewers it was enough not to recommend the release, for others it wasn't enough of a problem.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by filmlover22

reviews of Mr. Klein are not good forPQ. Seems a large greenish tint is present throughout the movie.

While there is apparent revisionism present in terms of its grading, it's not any kind of blanket greenish tint throughout the film. One look at the screenshots can prove as much to you.

[fred25_Ca]

Anyone know if Criterion owns the rights to other 50 and 60's Japanese samurai movies? I own their Zatoichi, Lone wolf and cub and Samurai trilogy sets, along with all their Kurosawa movies released on blu ray and finally Three outlaw Samurai, Sword of Doom and Harakiri. Am I missing anything? Oh Lady Snowblood I guess, I haven't bought that one yet. I remember they had a few more movies during the Dvd days, like Rebellion and Kill if I remember correctly but it's been so long haha. I'm dying for more Mifune movies too (will someone finally release the Three treasures, for godsake lol). He's my favorite actor and I feel like we haven't gotten anything in years now.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

While there is apparent revisionism present in terms of its grading, it's not any kind of blanket greenish tint throughout the film. One look at the screenshots can prove as much to you.

I know less about this type of thing than others, but that was my thought, as well. I haven't seen this film... green or no green, this looks like it will be a really good one. Won't stop me from picking it up.

[filmlover22]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

While there is apparent revisionism present in terms of its grading, it's not any kind of blanket greenish tint throughout the film. One look at the screenshots can prove as much to you.

I have not seen the film and was merely sharing what I thought the reviews were saying:
"The dominant attribute is the remarkable rise in detail although some may be displeased with the heavy greenish hue."
"After the makeover the film looks unnaturally green, often to the point of being unbearably distracting"
etc.

How much of the film is actually affected by this, I do not know.

[CRASHLANDING]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

At the very least they should re-imagine the Eclipse line and start releasing Blu-ray sets of older films they've been sitting on for years. That way everyone happy.

But as I noted, their strategy for bringing those films to market now is streaming. To my knowledge they haven't released any new Eclipse sets for years, and probably won't now that they have another channel (pun intended). The whole point of Eclipse was to distribute films they didn't think justified a full BD release, and many of those films are now being used as library content for the Criterion Channel. That's why I'm still buying some Eclipse sets, as I don't expect most of those to ever get a physical HD release. Eclipse has some flaws but there's a lot of great content, and I'm worried that some day even the DVDs will no longer be available.

In any case, not trying to be argumentative. I just wouldn't get my hopes up for many of those titles to ever see BD releases. Cheers.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by CRASHLANDING

In any case, not trying to be argumentative. I just wouldn't get my hopes up for many of those titles to ever see BD releases. Cheers.

For me, I'll always prefer to watch a film on disc over streaming, so all these great films are pretty much stuck in streaming purgatory is bad news. I've always hated to rely on the internet in order to watch something.

I really wish Criterion would do one of the following.

A. Sub license titles they know they have no intention of ever releasing. Companies like Arrow, 88, Kino, Shout, would take a ton of films off their table and give physical media fans a chance to own one of their favorites.

B. If it's a resource issue, instead of 4-6 monthly titles, make it 3-4 titles and focus some of those resources in Eclipse style boxsets with no features, but an HD scan. This way we get some more titles.

At the end of the day, I do enjoy Criterion, but man do they ever suck for hoarding so many great titles that languish on their channel. Yay for streaming, but I'm not a streaming fan period.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by fred25_Ca

Anyone know if Criterion owns the rights to other 50 and 60's Japanese samurai movies? I own their Zatoichi, Lone wolf and cub and Samurai trilogy sets, along with all their Kurosawa movies released on blu ray and finally Three outlaw Samurai, Sword of Doom and Harakiri. Am I missing anything? Oh Lady Snowblood I guess, I haven't bought that one yet. I remember they had a few more movies during the Dvd days, like Rebellion and Kill if I remember correctly but it's been so long haha. I'm dying for more Mifune movies too (will someone finally release the Three treasures, for godsake lol). He's my favorite actor and I feel like we haven't gotten anything in years now.

Yes, they have a ton. If you browse their Criterion Channel you can find a lot of the ones they have. They even have my third favorite Samurai film ever, Hunter in the Dark, and I've been bugging them about it for years.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Yes, they have a ton. If you browse their Criterion Channel you can find a lot of the ones they have. They even have my third favorite Samurai film ever, Hunter in the Dark, and I've been bugging them about it for years.

*obligatory note saying that just because they have streaming rights doesn't mean they have physical media rights*

[Benoit Blanc]

Anyone who already owns the Arrow release of Hotel du Nord planning on double-dipping and getting the Criterion one too?

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by dvining

*obligatory note saying that just because they have streaming rights doesn't mean they have physical media rights*

Sure, but they probably still have physical rights to a lot of the titles they are streaming as well, especially the ones they sell digital copies on Amazon which is a lot of titles. I don't want to spend $14.99 on a digital title when I can spend $20-30 for a physical.