Stray Dog (1949) and High and Low (1963) BFI 1/27/25

[James Luckard]

I bought these two BDs. They both use the recent Toho 4K restorations.

- Stray Dog comes from a 4K scan of a positive element, the negative is gone. It looks as good as it can. It blows away the ancient Criterion DVD. Since there's very little fine detail, a BD is as good as this is ever going to look.

It plays on US Panasonic machines with the STOP-TOP MENU-TOP MENU trick.

- High and Low comes from a 4K scan of the negative. It's superior to the 2011 Criterion BD.

That said, a word of warning to any Americans:

Watching High and Low is more complicated, follow asacmurr's directions below.

Originally Posted by asacmurr

High and Low works if you do STOP > TOP MENU > STOP > 1 > ENTER/OK. 2 for the commentary track, 3 for "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create - High and Low". You have to do the top menu trick to load the menu first, and after that you can do the numbers trick.

Since this is a scan of the negative, a UHD would have shown more fine detail than this BD, and it would have been region-free too.

[Jospef]

I've just received a copy from Rarewaves, and it came without a booklet. Is it normal that this would be the second press (without booklet) this soon after the release date?

[latehong]

Originally Posted by Jospef

I've just received a copy from Rarewaves, and it came without a booklet. Is it normal that this would be the second press (without booklet) this soon after the release date?

I'm sorry to hear that. BFI gave a warning a month ago:

Originally Posted by CrockettandTubbs

Facebook:

**Booklet update** Our Kurosawa re-releases including a booklet are selling fast.

Ikiru stock in the marketplace still has one, including those units available from the BFI Shop for £14.99! I had the listing edited but can assure you any units they have left inlude a booklet.

High and Low - stock now in warehouse is without a booklet so buy it now if you want a copy with one.

Stray Dog - 2nd pressing due into warehouse 25/02 won't have one, so again, purchasing very soon would be my advice.

Yojimbo & Sanjuro - the first pressing Blu-ray and UHD (booklet and slipcase) will go and probably pretty quickly....

[dvdspice]

Originally Posted by Jospef

I've just received a copy from Rarewaves, and it came without a booklet. Is it normal that this would be the second press (without booklet) this soon after the release date?

Just got both from Amazon UK today and they came with the booklet.

[asacmurr]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

You can access the main menu with the STOP-TOP MENU-TOP MENU trick, but you can't get any further. You cannot actually watch the movie on a US Panasonic machine. All options to do anything once you get to the main menu are locked. You can't "Play Film" or select subtitles or watch the bonus features. Press any button and nothing happens. I've only seen this once before with the included BDs for StudioCanal's recent restoration of Brotherhood of the Wolf.

This disc can only be watched on a fully regionless machine.

Since this is a scan of the negative, a UHD would have shown more fine detail than this BD, and it would have been region-free too.

High and Low works if you do STOP > TOP MENU > STOP > 1 > ENTER/OK. 2 for the commentary track, 3 for "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create - High and Low". You have to do the top menu trick to load the menu first, and after that you can do the numbers trick.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by asacmurr

High and Low works if you do STOP > TOP MENU > STOP > 1 > ENTER/OK. 2 for the commentary track, 3 for "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create - High and Low". You have to do the top menu trick to load the menu first, and after that you can do the numbers trick.

Amazing!!! Just tried it and it works! Thanks!!

[asacmurr]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Amazing!!! Just tried it and it works! Thanks!!

Feel free to add my quote to the original post so people don't have to scroll for my reply

[JackyJacquard]

I just got ‘em both from Brown’s Books - had no idea the booklet sold out so fast - both came without booklets.

Wish I’d seen this thread earlier, I wouldn’t have paid >£10 for a blu-ray without a booklet. Whereas I was happy to chance it on all the £7-£8 ones in HMV’s 50% sale recently. Returns policy on the site is outdated - literally only mentions books but seems like they won’t take anything back unless its faulty

[d34073505]

BFI did 5 4K HDR discs for the samurai films in a row then left out High and Low, the newer production with existing original elements. I don't understand.

[OnlyJapantown]

Originally Posted by d34073505

BFI did 5 4K HDR discs for the samurai films in a row then left out High and Low, the newer production with existing original elements. I don't understand.

High and Low was one of the first they rolled out recently and I don't think they were expecting the films to sell as well as they have. Be patient and I'm sure they will put out High and Low on 4K.

[d34073505]

Originally Posted by OnlyJapantown

High and Low was one of the first they rolled out recently and I don't think they were expecting the films to sell as well as they have. Be patient and I'm sure they will put out High and Low on 4K.

Also the Big C : https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=387563

[ViscountCarnacki]

Originally Posted by OnlyJapantown

High and Low was one of the first they rolled out recently and I don't think they were expecting the films to sell as well as they have. Be patient and I'm sure they will put out High and Low on 4K.

I don't think they will - they said there wasn't enough interest. They're not going to do a 4K anytime soon, they have an entire stock of new blu-rays to sell first.

Criterion will do me just fine.

[Walopoh]

Originally Posted by ViscountCarnacki

I don't think they will - they said there wasn't enough interest. They're not going to do a 4K anytime soon, they have an entire stock of new blu-rays to sell first.

Criterion will do me just fine.

Which is an absolutely absurd thing to say, it's KUROSAWA. How could it not sell better than most of the 4Ks BFI releases? Plus, High & Low is one of the most acclaimed films ever made. It's #6 on the Letterboxd Top 250, and Ikiru is #16.

I just can't follow the logic of how all these niche horror films can get 4KUHD releases but the rightsholders for the Kurosawa catalogue, one of the most revered directors of all time, are dragging their feet on these releases. Pretending not enough people may be interested in Ikiru and High & Low???? I feel like I'm going ****ing insane lol

[PondaBaba]

Originally Posted by Walopoh

[Show spoiler]Which is an absolutely absurd thing to say, it's KUROSAWA. How could it not sell better than most of the 4Ks BFI releases? Plus, High & Low is one of the most acclaimed films ever made. It's #6 on the Letterboxd Top 250, and Ikiru is #16.

I just can't follow the logic of how all these niche horror films can get 4KUHD releases but the rightsholders for the Kurosawa catalogue, one of the most revered directors of all time, are dragging their feet on these releases.

Pretending not enough people may be interested in Ikiru and High & Low???? I feel like I'm going ****ing insane lol

Indicator explained the reasoning behind BFI’s decision to not do a 4K for Ikiru in a post in their thread recently:

Originally Posted by Indicator

Our friends and former colleagues at the BFI have a very sensible official policy of only releasing something in 4K UHD if they feel that it offers a significant improvement over a normal Blu-ray.

Despite 4K masters being made available to them, they didn't feel that this was the case with La Règle du Jeu or Ikiru, whose original negatives no longer survive, and much of the Renoir film was reconstructed from footage that wasn't even second-generation.

In other words, a UHD release will look pretty much identical to a normal BD, but would unavoidably cost more thanks to increased per-unit mastering and manufacturing charges - and therefore it's literally not worth doing.

[Show spoiler]

And that's very much our attitude too. Not that we can invariably get the UHD rights anyway, but it's not hard to envisage a scenario whereby we can get those rights but decide that a UHD release isn't the best course of action. We're mad keen on UHD as a format, but only if it's actually justified by the source materials.

[Jerry2345]

Originally Posted by Walopoh

Which is an absolutely absurd thing to say, it's KUROSAWA. How could it not sell better than most of the 4Ks BFI releases? Plus, High & Low is one of the most acclaimed films ever made. It's #6 on the Letterboxd Top 250, and Ikiru is #16.

I just can't follow the logic of how all these niche horror films can get 4KUHD releases but the rightsholders for the Kurosawa catalogue, one of the most revered directors of all time, are dragging their feet on these releases. Pretending not enough people may be interested in Ikiru and High & Low???? I feel like I'm going ****ing insane lol

They actually didn’t say there wasn’t enough interest. They said the current masters do not justify a 4K release.

Looking at the screengrabs, I could understand this for Stray Dog and Ikiru (the Toho 4K releases do not seem particularly better than the BFI Blu ray releases - I believe somebody on here also owns the Toho 4Ks and confirmed as much).

For High and Low however, it is very hard to believe that this was the real reason, as from all the recent 4K releases, I believe this was the movie whose master was in the best shape (it is btw also the most recent film). So people naturally assume that an expected “lack of interest” was the real reason (and, frankly, what other reason could there be?).

Besides that, I definitely understand your frustration. While I definitely do not want to deny niche genre fans their 4K releases, it is a bit frustrating to notice that some obscure niche horror (or other pulp genre) movies - which I personally have no interest in and often have never even heard of - seem to have an easier time finding their way to 4K than a movie which is often included in the list of greatest Kurosawa movies, as well as “greatest movies of all time” lists (of course, being in the former lists will usually lead to being in the latter lists ).

[Seasnake30]

Has anyone bought Stray Dog or High and Low recently? Are the versions with booklets from retailers gone forever?

[JackyJacquard]

Originally Posted by Seasnake30

Has anyone bought Stray Dog or High and Low recently? Are the versions with booklets from retailers gone forever?

Odds of you getting one from online purchase unless its explicitly listed with it on ebay or somewhere is like 0%. I think I saw them going for about £25 on said auction site but that might've been a while ago.

But if you have shops near you, could go in and physically look. That’s how I got both of them from my local HMV - I checked the stock checker online first luckily, as none of them were actually out on the shelf!