18
May
Japanese Films in London: Prewar Anime at the Barbican and Kurosawa at the BFI

I’ve not posted for a while now – there’s been lots to write about, I just haven’t had the time. I hope to pull my finger out a bit more over the coming weeks, but for now, I thought I’d do a very brief post about some Japanese related stuff coming up in London over the next few weeks.

First up, though I’ve posted it before, is the Origins of Anime programme playing at the Barbican in just over a week, as part of the Barbican’s Animate the World festival beginning this weekend and running to the 27 May. The Origins of Anime, a whistle-stop tour of Japanese animation’s formative decades as presented by yours truly, is next Wednesday. Hope to see some of you there, and while you’re in the area, I advise you to check out some of the other great screenings being held as part of the festival. Should be quite a week!

Following their comprehensive retrospective of Ozu’s existing films in January and February, June sees the BFI celebrating the oeuvre of Akira Kurosawa for the first time since 2001, taking on a touring programme that’s played in a number of other countries so far. The season is called Akira Kurosawa & His Influence and stretches through to July. Quoting from the BFI press release; “In his centenary year, Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) continues to win admirers and inspire homage. We present a season of the director’s finest films, complemented by a selection of films testifying to his enduring influence abroad.”

I’ve only seen the June programme so far, so it’s too early to judge whether they’re going to screen the one Kurosawa film that doesn’t appear to be on DVD anywhere, the home-front propaganda film made at the tail-end of the war

Akira Kurosawa's forgotten The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku, 1944)

Akira Kurosawa's forgotten The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku, 1944)

. Shame, as I’d love to see it, but for now, this image will have to suffice.

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Posted at 13:32 on 18 May 2010 Filed under news.
3 replies to this post
  • Jonathan 18 May 2010  14:52 1

    Amazon Japan lists The Most Beautiful as available in both DVD and Blu-Ray editions. I bought my copy from Hong Kong about five years ago, also on DVD, but with crap English subtitles.

  • Alo 19 May 2010  8:47 2

    I believe it was also released by Criterion, as part of that voluptuous box set, and apparently will be once more later this year, under the Eclipse label.

  • Jasper 19 May 2010  10:30 3

    Wow, you are right, it is available, now I’ve looked a bit further. As you point out Jonathan, there’s a Japanese DVD and Blu-Ray, although it is unclear if they are subbed, but knowing Japanese distributors, probably not. I got a load of Kurosawa DVDs from Hong Kong a while back, though not this one – the subtitles were so bad they made the films almost unwatchable.

    As for Western releases, thanks Alo, it is one of the films in Criterion’s huge 25-disk box set:
    http://www.amazon.com/AK-100-Kurosawa-Criterion-Collection/dp/B002NOZUEW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1274260682&sr=1-1

    There doesn’t seem to be a standalone release as yet, and I doubt there will be either – assuming the BFI retrospective is chronological, then the film’s omission does suggest that the powers that be don’t judge it worthy of screening (most of the Japanese seasons at the BFI such as this originate from other film institutions), and it seems highly unlikely they’d add it to the various other Kurosawa DVDs that the BFI have already released. Of course, I could be wrong, and the film might be showing in July, but I’m pretty disappointed, as this was the main point of excitement for me when I heard the BFI were doing another Kurosawa retro.

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