The Amazon.com exclusive Criterion Collection Director Series: Akira Kurosawa that I wrote about recently turns out to consist of Criterion’s new version of Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and Sanjuro (as well as the standard Throne Of Blood) and not the old versions, as we had feared. Note, however, that if you don’t take postage into account, the price tag of $109.99 is the same (well, actually two cents more) than it would be if you ordered the DVDs separately. With shipping included, the set may turn out to be cheaper for overseas customers, but again breaks even for US customers who would get free shipping in any case for orders over $25. As such, the whole collection seems to be nothing more than a marketing trick. If you like to be tricked, the item is currently available at Amazon.com.

Another new-but-old Amazon.com exlusive Kurosawa item on sale is the Rutgers Films in Print series book on Rashomon, which is now available in the Kindle store. Amazon Kindle is a new electronic book that was launched a few months ago by Amazon, and this seems to be the first Kurosawa book that has been made available for it. For more information about Kindle, see Wikipedia’s entry on Kindle. For more information about the book, see Amazon.com. Kindle is currently available only for US customers (too bad, I’d love to own one).