Few films have captured the horror and futility of war with the bleak power of Kon Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain. Near the end of World War II, as Japanese soldiers attempt to flee the Philippines before the arrival of invading American troops, soldier Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi) is perhaps the most damned of all men. Suffering from a severe case of tuberculosis, Tamura is unfit for duty, but the Japanese field hospitals have no beds for a man destined to die soon of consumption, so he is doomed to wander the jungles as his fellow soldiers sink deeper into hunger, disease, and madness. His journey reaches a shocking conclusion when he encounters a band of soldiers who have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. While it's hard to imagine a film presenting a more unrelentingly grim portrait of war, Fires on the Plain does not concern itself with shock for its own sake. Ichikawa (with the help of cinematographer Setsuo Kobayashi) wrings a dark poetry from this story, as the soldiers struggle to hold on to the last threads of their dignity and humanity, until they finally submerge into insanity at its most beastly. There is a terrible desperation as the men cling to such precious commodities as potatoes and salt, but also a flash of human compassion as they share their meager treasures. And Funakoshi delivers an unforgettable, profoundly moving performance as Tamura; from the first time his deep, haunted eyes meet the camera, we sense that we are visiting a ghost sent to give us a vision of hell, and, as we follow him through the Philippine jungles, that is exactly what he presents to us.

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Floating Weeds (1959) is like a familiar piece of music that gives reassurance and consolation. It is so atmospheric - so evocative of a quiet fishing village during a hot and muggy summer - that it envelops the viewer. Its characters are like neighbors. It isn't a sad story; the central character is an actor with a healthy ego, who has tried to arrange his life according to his own liking and finds to his amazement that other people have wills of their own. He is funny, wrong-headed and finally touching.

With audio commentary by filmmaker, critic, and festival programmer Tony Rayns.
Known to American audiences simply as Ugetsu, this was the film which introduced Mizoguchi to the West. During the civil wars of the 16th century, a potter desperately trying to continue his craft in a war-torn village meets a phantom princess and is lured away to a land of sensual delights. Meanwhile his neighbor, dreaming of military glory, achieves a general's rank for his fraudulent exploits. Eventually, both men are brought down to earth, and they return home to spend the rest of their lives in the fields. But for the women of the tale the lesson has been even more bitter: the potter's wife is murdered by bandits, the samurai's is reduced to prostitution; even the ghost princess, Lady Wakasa, is destroyed by male betrayal. Phantoms and ghosts are evoked in imagic scenes, and fantasy and reality are inseparable, making Mizoguchi's stylistically superb film a powerful study in psychology and an intense tragedy.

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu with audio commentary by Richard Peña. Late Spring (Banshun) is a simple yet deceptively profound study of Japanese family life during American occupation in 1949. A transitional stage in Japanese culture and history, the characters are silently challenged to resolve conflicts between traditional life and the modern age. For example, 1948 marks the first time that Japanese women were lawfully granted the legal right to initiate divorce and assert themselves. Supporting character Aya (Yumeji Tsukioka) illustrates this new independent woman; she has divorced over irreconcilable differences and works as a well-paid stenographer. Further establishing herself as a modern woman, Aya has furnished her Tokyo apartment with western style sofas, tables, and chairs. Ozu doesn't linger here long, however, his 50mm lens more suitably finds its home at knee level in more traditional Japanese settings.

Stray Dog is not only one of Kurosawa’s aforementioned masterpiece films, it is also one that appeared early in his career and is arguably his most influential film being that it created the police drama genre in Japan, a staple of that country’s cinema to this day. This edition features an audio commentary by Stephen Prince, and an excellent episode of the series It Is Wonderful To Create.

And now at last, something of the true extent and value of much of the buried treasure long sought after by tape collectors is brought to light. In this cornucopia of previously unissued material are stashed home recordings, demo recordings, outtakes, alternative takes, coffeehouse recordings, concert recordings, and more. Much of it teaches us a good deal about the way in which Dylan developed as a songwriter or performer in those early years; some of it is nothing short of sensational -- performances of staggering power and subtlety and seemingly infinite variety. The main focus in this collection is on Dylan as the songwriter: 38 songs that have never been released on an official album, as well as demo and rehearsal versions of well-known songs. Subsequent volumes will deal with live work, including the legendary 1966 Royal Albert hall appearance. For those who never suspected this material even existed, there are untold delights in store. And for those exhaustive and insatiable collectors, the "completists" who like to think that they've heard everything, included here are a bunch of previously unsuspected tracks.

If the so-called 'Royal Albert Hall' concert in 1966 is the holy grail of Bob Dylan concerts then this 'Halloween Concert' going back to 31 October 1964 probably comes in a close second, when the folk singer was just 23 years-old.

Akira Kurosawa's The Quiet Duel contains many touches of Kurosawa's brilliance. In the opening sequence we see military doctor Kyoji Fujisaki (Toshiro Mifune) performing surgery in less than optimal conditions. Like the opening of Rashomon, the rain hammers down mercilessly, and water has begun dripping from the roof of the tent. A nurse uses a tin pot to capture it, making a constant plunking sound against the tense silence. Fujisaki can't quite keep the sweat off his brow. Frustrated, he removes his rubber gloves to finish tying a suture, and cuts his hand on a scalpel. He is to discover soon that his patient's blood is tainted with syphilis.

Based on the play by Maxim Gorky, Akira Kurosawa's film is a faithful adaptation, taking liberties only with the change in character names and setting (from imperial Russia to Edo-period Japan). This surprisingly comical tale focuses on the daily tribulations of a group of lower-class people living in a small tenement. Osugi (Isuzu Yamada), the landlady, bickers with Okayo (Kyôko Kagawa), her sister, over the man they both want - Sutekichi (Toshirô Mifune), the thief. Other characters in the close confines include a priest (Bokuzen Hidari), an ex-samurai (Minoru Chiaki), an actor (Kamatari Fujiwara), and a gambler (Koji Mitsui). By setting the film in one room and a small adjoining courtyard, Kurosawa emphasizes both its claustrophobic premise and theatrical origins. Featuring an excellent ensemble cast, Kurosawa's tragicomic film is especially notable for Mifune's remarkable performance as the edgy yet sensitive Sutekichi.

With audio commentary by Donald Richie. Also included is the DVD extra, documentary It Is Wonderful To Create: The Lower Depths.

Ozu's most famous film, and certainly one of his masterpieces, is Tokyo Story. In it an elderly couple are taken to visit their grown-up children in Tokyo. Too busy to entertain them, the children pack them off to a noisy resort. Returning to Tokyo, the old woman visits the widow of another son, who treats her better, while the old man gets drunk with some old companions. They seem to realise they are a burden, and simply try to smooth things over as best they can. By now the children have, albeit guiltily, given up on them; even when their mother is taken ill and dies, they rush back to Tokyo after attending the funeral. A simple proverb expresses their failure: "Be kind to your parents while they are alive. Filial piety cannot reach beyond the grave." The last sequence is of the old man alone in his seaside home, followed by an outside shot of the rooftops of the town and a boat passing by on the water. Life goes on.

With Audio commentary by Ozu film scholar David Desser.

Driving music designed for sun-drenched drives in sleek convertables along winding coasts with the one you love by your side. Jazz Samba is the album responsible for importing the Brazilian Bossa Nova craze to America in 1962. What makes this musical genre so infectious is the delicate tension between its intricate rhythms and its deceptively light-handed melodic approach. It’s the music of tropical drinks and lazy afternoons, and of all the Bossa Nova albums to be recorded in the ’60s, this is the definitive one.

Director Akira Kurosawa’s epic Samurai films are among the greatest movies ever made. But it is a quiet, intimate story about a very different sort of hero, a mid-level bureaucrat confronted with the futility of his own life, that may be the director’s masterpiece. Certainly it’s one of his most spiritual films. Ikiru is the story of Mr Watanabe, the paper-shifting Section Chief of the municipal Public Affairs Department. For decades he has hoarded his money, his time and his affections until, with only months left to live, he discovers he no longer knows how to spend them. Played with wrenching vulnerability by Takashi Shimura, this may be the definitive portrait of a man who, examining his life, discovers that it may not be worth living.

Often referred to as the product of a single day's recording, 10 of Please Please Me's 14 tracks were committed to tape in just 9 hours 45 minutes at Abbey Road on 11 February 1963. Although it is rarely afforded the same level of acclaim and significance as their later long players, for this writer, Please Please Me has always been a thing of alien beauty. Lennon's voice in particular – remarkably singing through a heavy cold on the day – underpinned by McCartney's ambitious, mobile bass lines and that truly wonderful snare drum sound, is still astonishing.

This is the 2009 remaster of the 1965 UK mono LP Rubber Soul. The CD also includes the original 1965 wide stereo mix remastered.