Extras |
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Menus (English) |
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Chapters (24) |
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Trailers: Throne of Blood |
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Audio Commentary by Michael Jeck |
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Includes a 21 page booklet with a essay Stephen
Prince and notes by Linda Hoaglund and Donald
Richie |
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Captures |
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Review |
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Anthony Romero |
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After a year break, Criterion releases
another Akira
Kurosawa production on DVD that, while
stunning for its day, has been long surpassed
by other efforts on the format. The star attraction
here is the excellent video track, although
the disc doesn't suffer in any particular
field having okay audio and extra presentations
as well. |
Video: |
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For
a relatively early release from Criterion,
the video quality here is fairly spectacular
for a film this age. The transfer process
used is nothing short of extraordinary. The
black and white feature looks incredibly rich
in detail through out, looking very sharp
while at the same time avoiding signs of edge
enhancement to artificially achieve this.
The downfall of the video track, though, is
simply the print used for the transfer. It
has noticeable damage, especially early on
in the film. As for noise, it does contain a thick layer of
grain that due to the sharpness of the transfer
process is easy to pick up while watching
the feature.
Throne of Blood is presented
in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, or
full screen. |
Audio: |
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Throne of Blood has one audio
track, which is a 1.0 mono presentation. To
Criterion's credit, they have done a good
job cleaning up the source, as it's devoid
of pops or crackles. On the downside, though,
the audio sounds harsh in places and not as
clear or vivid as it could, with dialogue
or other aspects sounding muffled, especially
toward the start of the movie.
The audio can be accompanied with, removable,
English subtitles. As an extra feature, the
disc contains two different subtitle tracks.
The first is by Linda Hoaglund, a renowned
translator of Japanese, while the second is
by Donald Richie, a Kurosawa enthusiast. While
both subtitle tracks are nice, I personally
found Linda's to be the more interesting of
the two to read, which happens to be the default
subtitle track. There are aspects of both
to appreciate, though, such as Richie's preference
for avoiding a more modern way of speaking
and keeping with the period, which Hoaglund
does not follow. To be frank, it's a fairly
unique aspect to include two different subtitle
tracks for the same audio in the same language.
It's not exactly a great feature, but due
to its uncommonness it stands out well and
does, in its own way, demonstrate how much
of an unsung art form translating between
languages is.
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Extras: |
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Although nothing special today, back in
its day this release showed Criterion's new
commitment to creating extras for these films
beyond simply including a trailer. The DVD
contains an audio commentary by Michael Jeck,
a Japanese film expert. While Micheal Jeck's
commentary is not quite as informative as
the one he did for previous Criterion releases,
he still manages to not tread over anything
he stated before allowing for the commentary
to still be more than worth your while for
fans of the great director.
A trailer for the movie is also included,
as previously mentioned. Sadly, the quality
here is very lacking. The trailer has a lot
of print damage, while the audio is very diluted
sounding, lacking the level of contrast in
levels and clear tones one would hope to hear.
As another added bonus, Criterion has also
included a 21 page booklet with a essay by
Stephen Prince on Kurosawa and Shakespeare,
from which Throne of Blood is inspired
by Macbeth. The booklet also contains
notes from Linda Hoaglund and Donald Richie
on their individual subtitling methods.
As a last note, this DVD also marked a change
in direction for Criterion in terms of menus.
The menus here are noticeably more diverse
than earlier releases by them and the first
is animated with sound, a very nice improvement,
and all are done in a stylistic cell shaded
fashion like the cover. |
Overview: |
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Bottom
line, Criterion has done a lot better since
this release, but this clearly marks a clear
turning point from their early transfers to
when the firm would become incresingly renowned
for their attention to detail. Still, those
wishing to view Throne of Blood
would be well merited to check this release
out, although it's very unfortunate that it
has yet to waver from its hefty $40 price
tag. |
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