Third Window Films Discussion Thread

[Yurakucho]

TWF will release Adrift in Tokyo on Blu-ray.
Still hopeful for Turtles being TWF's first 4K release.

[jonboy24]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

TWF will release Adrift in Tokyo on Blu-ray.
Still hopeful for Turtles being TWF's first 4K release.

Well Turtles doesn't currently even have a HD master available so no chance of a 4k release.

It wouldn't even be financially viable to release on 4k anyway

[Yurakucho]

Originally Posted by jonboy24

Well Turtles doesn't currently even have a HD master available so no chance of a 4k release.

It wouldn't even be financially viable to release on 4k anyway

You don't say.

[roguejp]

Originally Posted by Cinematt

Terracotta tweeted that they're have their stock and are packing them at the moment ready to go out. Very much looking forward to this landing on the doorstep.

Bring it on! The box looks lovely, very keen to dive into the movies!

[Ben_C]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

TWF will release Adrift in Tokyo on Blu-ray.
Still hopeful for Turtles being TWF's first 4K release.

That’s good. AiT was probably my favourite from the Miki Satoshi dvd set, and I’m pretty sure it was the primary reason I bought that set in the first place.

[jonboy24]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

You don't say.

Yes, I was indeed stating the obvious

Sonetimes it needs to be said

[Yurakucho]

Originally Posted by jonboy24

Yes, I was indeed stating the obvious

Sonetimes it needs to be said

I would like to retract my sarcastic post, as I would actually buy a 4K Turtles release.
It's not like there're any good new Japanese films being released, it's all just Yokai Monsters 27, Shin Mothra and Terrible Anime Adaptation Starring Someone Who Used To Be In An Idol Group.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

I would like to retract my sarcastic post, as I would actually buy a 4K Turtles release.
It's not like there're any good new Japanese films being released, it's all just Yokai Monsters 27, Shin Mothra and Terrible Anime Adaptation Starring Someone Who Used To Be In An Idol Group.

I don't want to get into it again, but man your post reminded how bad Japanese cinema is today, compared to where it was 10-15 years ago. Japanese cinema was once the echelon of great cinema in the 50's and 60's, and outside a few rarities is a joke today. I'm hoping Drive My Car gets it back on the right track as that at least felt real. Thankfully Japan has produced so many great films, that the oldies will do just fine.

[Yami]

There's a new episode of the Third Window Podcast out - focused on His Motorbike, Her Island and star Riki Takeuchi, with Tom Mes guesting.

It's worth a listen, there's some interesting discussion - particuarly in the latter stages, about parallels between Obayashi and Tsukamoto.

Sadly, it sounds as if there's no more Obayashi releases in the planning beyond this but Adam does tease that he's working on remastering a film that is one of Tom Mes' favourites for release in 2023.

[Yami]

Terracotta have been sending out the Obayashi sets early. Mine arrived with me yesterday, though I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Very well packaged by Terracotta; I think their special pre-order price is on for another week so get in there while you can.

[Yami]

One of Obayashi’s most popular films in his homeland, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was voted as one of the top 100 Japanese films ever made in the most recent Kinema Junpo poll. The middle film in his ‘Onomichi Trilogy’ of films set in his hometown, it is based upon an early novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui which was also later adapted into an animated film of the same name by Mamoru Hosoda.

From what I gather, the film was produced as a vehicle for upcoming idol Tomoyo Harada who, at that point, was the lead in the TV series adaptation of Sailor Suit and Machine Gun which had earlier been a massive hit as a theatrical feature directed by Shinji Somai that launched the career of Hiroko Yakushimaru. Yakushimaru also starred in Detective Story, the film that was double billed with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on original release. Harada would go on to a successful singing career, as well as working with Obayashi on The Island Closest to Heaven (also included in this set), Samurai Kids, Goodbye for Tomorrow, and as lead voice actress on his lone anime Kenya Boy. She would also narrate the 1997 version/60s-set prequel of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time directed by Haruki Kadokawa, who personally funded the original Obayashi film and as then-president of Kadokawa was instrumental in launching her career. Kadokawa directed the film after being released from jail, where he was serving time for drug smuggling and embezzlement. Anyway…



The Girl Who Leapt Through Time foregrounds some of the themes that would occupy Obayashi for his entire career, most obviously that of the non-linearity of time; as Faulkner famously wrote in Requiem for a Nun, “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In the work of Obayashi, characters and communities forever struggle to escape from the past – and to understand it. From House to his War Trilogy, he spent his career illustrating how the past, whether personal or impersonal, exerts influence on the relationships and actions of his characters in the present day.

In The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, “time isn’t the past, it’s the future” as schoolgirl Kazuko finds herself reliving the same day after a lavender-related laboratory accident. In comparison to other Obayashi films, time is something more tangible in this film – a dimension through which characters can travel – but nevertheless, the principle is largely the same as is best summed up in the final couple of scenes.

The film directly ties Kazuko’s slightly-wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey experience to puberty and coming-of-age, anchoring the fantastic in a relatable narrative of first love - the heady rush of hormones and confusingly new emotions.

I think that Obayashi’s distinctive visual style really came of age in this film, with his use of both black-and-white and colour photography being influenced by not only The Wizard of Oz (a poster of which is present in Kazuko’s bedroom) but, perhaps more overtly, by Otto Preminger’s Bonjour Tristesse. Despite being famed for his wacky, sometimes incongruous, visuals, Obayashi’s aesthetic has always been in service to his thematic concerns and the time travel scene, perhaps the centrepiece of the film, uses optical effects, still photographs, multiple exposures, time lapse photography and other techniques that draw on Obayashi’s background in experimental shorts and make it perhaps the most interesting depiction of travel this side of Marker’s La jetee.



Given the popularity of Obayashi’s House and Hosoda’s anime version of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, I’m surprised that it has taken so long for this film to get a release outside of Japan. It’s one of his most purely enjoyable works – romantic and sincerely sentimental but not cloyingly so, wrapped up in a lo-fi sci-fi package with a splash of pastel colours and a touch of early MTV that so defined the 80s idol movie. Alongside Somai’s Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, it might be the best of them.

Finally, Third Window have rescued this and included it in their absolutely essential set Nobuhiko Obayashi 80s Kadokawa Years. Technical quality is fine; this has had two Blu-Ray releases in Japan – one from an older, probably DVD-era, master and one from a more recent 4K restoration. I think this is the former – it’s certainly softer than I’d expect a 4K restoration to be. I seem to remember seeing screencaps a few years ago that showed that the colour timing had been set a lot warmer with a yellow push in the new restoration, whereas the colours in this transfer are more natural.

Extras wise, we have an archival interview with Obayashi who is always engaging and worth listening to. There’s also short promo called The Tomoyo Harada Story which shows her initial audition for Kadokawa and recounts her rise to fame. Finally, there’s a music video and trailer.

[roguejp]

Originally Posted by Yami

Terracotta have been sending out the Obayashi sets early. Mine arrived with me yesterday, though I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Very well packaged by Terracotta; I think their special pre-order price is on for another week so get in there while you can.

Got mine today from Terracotta and it arrived customsfriendly here in the Netherlands. And very, very well packed, only packaging I seen that good is from the Korean companies and Indicator. Now I have to wait a week before I can connect my tv again.....

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by Yami

Sadly, it sounds as if there's no more Obayashi releases in the planning beyond this but Adam does tease that he's working on remastering a film that is one of Tom Mes' favourites for release in 2023.

Maybe not in the planning, but the desire to release more seems to be there.

[Broomey]

Any chance of the drifting classroom getting a release?

[DukeTogo84]

I'm curious that since Third Window's Films plans for Suicide Club have stalled, if the US label that paid for the restoration is willing to release it? We still don't even know who they are yet.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

Maybe not in the planning, but the desire to release more seems to be there.

Well, that's something at least!

While it sounds like this set was tricky to get off the ground, if Third Window now have an in with the Kadokawa titles there's more Obayashi to be had there. Some of which are unknown quantities - I've not been able to find much English-language information on films like The Last Snow and Song of Goodbye.

Kadokawa do have Switching - Goodbye Me (a title that might need to be reworked for an English release...), which I do regard as one of his best and certainly an essential work linking his earlier, more mainstream 80s films like Transfer Students (which it is a remake/spiritual sequel to) to his latter period. It's also gorgeous, even when watched in compressed 480p...

For some of the 90s films, like Chizuko's Younger Sister, I'm not sure who the rightsholders are but it doesn't seem like it's one of the big studios which might be a good thing.

Originally Posted by Broomey

Any chance of the drifting classroom getting a release?

It's mentioned on the podcast that there's definitely rights issues with that one - it hasn't even had a DVD release in Japan. So probably not.

[Yami]

This is the final day to get the Obayashi set from Terracotta for £57.99

[Ben_C]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

TWF will release Adrift in Tokyo on Blu-ray.
Still hopeful for Turtles being TWF's first 4K release.

Just noticed that Adrift in Tokyo Blu-ray is now available to preorder from Terracotta (£15.99).

[Broomey]

Originally Posted by Yami

This is the final day to get the Obayashi set from Terracotta for £57.99

Seems strange that all the films have Commentaries apart from "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" I thought this would be the one with the most to comment on.

[WJA]

Mines arrived today from Terracotta - well packaged! I've never seen any of these films before. I think I'll watch His Motorbike, Her Island first. I've wanted to see that for so long.