BFI new box sets ?

Hi

I know the BFI Kurosawa DVDs haven’t always been the best but there seem to be some new box sets coming out . At first I thought they were just re-packaging their current titles but I think they have added a couple of films not previously available in region 2 ?

Kurosawa Classic collection

Kurosawa Crime collection

cheers

Mike

I think all those films are available in Region 2 through Criterion/Eclipse, so I’m not sure if there is anything new there. I assumed when I saw those releases that they are just a repackaging exercise, I haven’t seen anything to suggest they are a new edition.

In my experience the Region 2 Criterion releases are superior in every way to the BFI releases, if you have a multiregion player there is no reason to get the BFI version unless you are a completist. It is sometimes interesting to compare the alternative subtitling – I find that while the US versions tend to be a little annoyingly colloquial, they seem better to me (as a non-Japanese speaker).

Ugetsu, I think that you got your regions mixed there — region 1 for North America, region 2 for Europe and Japan. 🙂 But I do agree with you about the superiority of the Criterion sets.

In any case, as far as I know, this is the first time that The Lower Depths and Dodesukaden will be available on region 2 DVDs with English subtitles, so it is great news to see BFI put out this set. It will be interesting to see what their transfers for these two films will be like. I was quite positively surprised with the quality of their previous box set Early Kurosawa.

Thanks for the heads-up, Longstone!

🙄 oops, yes, quite right, I meant region 1 when I said region 2, and vice versa.

I’m so pleased The Lower Depths and Dodeskaden are available at last – I ordered them yesterday. A bit expensive, as I already have the other films in the set, but worth it – I’ve been waiting a long time to see these (the only two I haven’t seen)!