Akira Kurosawa 25-film DVD box set coming from Criterion?

by Chris MaGee

Lord knows that the Criterion Collection have been the major source of the films of Akira Kurosawa (above with Tatsuya Nakadai) on Region 1 DVD in North America, but if what Jon Mulvaney, one of the customer relations reps from the New York-based company, is saying at The Playlist> is true then the Criterion collectors, and especially collectors of Kurosawa's films, will be getting a massive treat before the end of 2009.

According to Mulvaney Criterion will be releasing a huge 25-film Kurosawa box set before the beginning of 2010, the centenary of the iconic Japanese director's birth. With Criterion and their Eclipse division already making 21 of Kurosawa's films available the question is will the proposed box set be a rehash of such classic titles as "Rashomon", "The Seven Samurai" and "Ikiru", all of which are currently available on single discs or will this set be made up of at least some films not yet released under the Criterion banner. Seeing that Kurosawa only made 32 films in his 52-year career I'd think that this set would be a combination of both of those possibilities.

More word on this massive Kurosawa set as it comes out. Keep checking back. Thanks to 24 Frames per Second for this piece of news.