Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
With the auteristic verve that typified so many of Yasujiro Ozu’s films Late Autumn begins and ends with an almost tangible scene of human warmth. From the opening memorial service to the closing scenes, the film revels in the richly developed skill of its director in creating an atmosphere thick with irresistible humour and depth.

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Once again Ozu welcomes viewers "home" with familiar low angle establishing shots of distant apartments framed by power lines as a ubiquitous train passes, but Tokyo Twilight (Tokyo boshoku) soon hints at its darker side. On a frigid winter night Mr. Sugiyama (Chishu Ryu) strides down an empty alleyway into a noodle shop for dinner—something he would have rarely done in traditional family life. His wife walked out years ago, leaving him to raise two daughters: older daughter Takako (Setsuko Hara) is unhappily married while younger daughter Akiko (Ineko Arima) spends most of her time looking for her boyfriend Keiji.

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Prolific filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu finished strong, directing at least one movie annually during his final seven years. Following his critically acclaimed and commercially successful Tokyo Story (Tôkyô monogatari) are stories that continue to examine post war family life in Japan and the resulting generational conflicts, but these films are told primarily from the perspective of the younger generation. Before this month (June, 2007) only Floating Weeds (Ukigusa) and Good Morning (Ohayô) have been available on DVD, but now the Criterion Collection has blessed film lovers with its Late Ozu box set in its Eclipse Series—Ozu's other five films from 1956-62. Leading off is Early Spring (Shoshun), offering an existential critique of industrial working class life.

New high quality XviD rip - not a dupe.
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Roger Ebert frequently compares Yasujiro Ozu films as "comfortable old shoes" for good reason. Ozu's films gently examine family life in post war Japan, and contain signature motifs and techniques: a still camera, low angle shots, economical editing, "pillow" shots, hallway shots, and prominent use of trains. Equinox Flower (Higanbana), retains these trademarks as it compassionately draws a family portrait of changing values.

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Yasujiro Ozu clearly had a lot on his mind as he wrote The End of Summer, his penultimate film: the old vs. the new, generational shifts, family loyalty, death. It's all in there in this wonderfully elegiac film. Leave it to Ozu to make the smoke from a crematorium chimney look positively poetic. "It's the cycle of life," someone watching the smoke comments. Indeed.

These colourful BBC recordings are brimming with life and individual character, featuring performances of racing tempo and high energy. Don't listen to another version of The Planets straight after this - it'll sound slow and plodding by comparison.

Conducter: John Williams
Includes songs and scans in English.
Just mentioning the name John Williams brings a myriad of themes to mind: Superman, Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, etc. Well, Sony Classical has done a nice job of incorporating all of these themes and more into a double CD set. Sony Classical has released one of the best compilations in the last few years with John Williams Greatest Hits 1969 - 1999. This tribute to maestro John Williams has just about every score fan's favorite John Williams' themes, with only a few curious inclusions, great track flow, and all in a decent package. This is a near-perfect compilation.

Conducter: Zubin Mehta
This Eloquence release contains Mehta's exceptionally well done Planets, wherein he leads a bracing and ferocious rendition of Mars, with the Los Angeles brass (especially the prominent tuba) blazing like so many war cannons. In Venus, Mehta coaxes warm, sweet sounds from the high strings in the more ethereal passages. The same can be said for Neptune, with the angelic tones of the Los Angeles Master Chorale perfectly balanced in the aural picture. The end of Uranus features an arresting organ pedal tone, not as floor-rattling as Dutoit's on his Montreal/Decca recording, but impressive nonetheless. Decca's engineers make excellent use of the (unidentified) hall, giving the end of Saturn a room-filling impact.
Artistic Quality: 10/10. Sound Quality: 10/10. Victor Carr Jr., classicstoday.com

The first part of director Eiichi Kudo's Samurai Revolution Trilogy, Thirteen Assassins opens with a voice-over narration, setting the time (1844, late in the Tokugawa Shogunate), place (Edo, the future Tokyo), and cause of the action. The younger half-brother of the shogun, Sir Naritsugu (Kantaro Suga), who has been “adopted” into the wealthy and lordly Matsudaira clan for the sake of propriety, has been running amok, raping and murdering vassals, including samurai. In a final, desperate effort to force the shogunate to bring the rogue noble to heel, the Matsudaira chamberlain has committed seppuku (ritual self-disembowelment) on the doorstep of Edo Castle...

Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954) is not only a great film in its own right, but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century. The critic Michael Jeck suggests that this was the first film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission - an idea which gave birth to its direct Hollywood remake, The Magnificent Seven, as well as The Guns of Navarone, The Dirty Dozen and countless later war, heist and caper movies.
This rip features three separate audio tracks: the main film soundtrack plus two commentaries.

If you take the title of Akira Kurosawa's first color film, Dodes'ka-den (1970), and translate it into English, what you get is "Clickety-Clack." In the movie it's the sound made by a mentally challenged adolescent (Yoshitaka Zushi) who clickety-clacks on foot through his Tokyo slum pretending to be the conductor of an invisible streetcar.
Ripped to one third-DVD size.

Included on the latest Criterion issue of Dodes'ka-den, this 36-minute documentary looks at the making of the watershed 1970 film. Part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create. Also included in this post is the trailer, again taken from the Criterion DVD.

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War is the story of two brothers - Jin-Tae (Jang Don-Gun), an uneducated shoemaker, and Jin-Seok (Won Bin) a frail student whom Jin-tae works to pay for his education - living in South Korea in June 1950, mere weeks before the Communist North Korean forces stormed across the border, throwing the nation into war.

With audio commentary by Kurosawa film scholar Stephen Prince. A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard (Akahige) chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa weaves a fascinating tapestry of time, place, and emotion.

Included (strangely) on the latest Criterion issue of 1963's High And Low, is a 1981 interview conducted by host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi for her talk show, Tetsuko's Room. As Mifune rarely participated in filmed interviews, this is something of a unique experience - and though he doesn't speak about High And Low specifically, it is an entertaining interview that touches upon several points in the actor's career. Among other topics, Mifune discusses his rather turbulent childhood, time spent in the military, and his working relationship with Kurosawa, not to mention projects like Shogun.