Master Thief has kindly brought to my attention the fact that March 7th, 2007 will see the release of two region 4 Akira Kurosawa DVDs from the Australian company Madman Films.
The movies to be released are The Quiet Duel and Madadayo. Note that the Madadayo release, whose cover is pictured above (and which I quite like), is spelled “Maadadayo” by the company.
While I don’t have any idea about the sound and image qualities of these releases, the extras included are modest with only a trailer each. Yet, it is good to see that these films are finally being made available in Region 4.
For more details about the two releases, see here for The Quiet Duel, and here for Maadadayo.
The company has already put a number of other Akira Kurosawa films out on DVD. A complete list can be seen at their Akira Kurosawa Director Profile (scroll down to the “Available to Own” section).
I have ordered both of these, so I’ll let you know what they are like later next month.