by Chris MaGeeI was a very happy boy today when I went to my mailbox and found that my copy of the Criterion Collection's 4-DVD box set of Masaki Kobayashi's 1959 "The Human Condition" Trilogy had arrived (review in the coming weeks). Of course the folks have a great track record making us Japanese cinephiles happy with releases of classic films boy our favorite directors. One release that we already reported on a week or so ago was a proposed 24-disc box set of the films of Akira Kurosawa. To be fair despite some heavy hints from the Criterion camp official confirmation of this box set have yet to be confirmed, but according to 24 Frames per Second the contents of this monumental set have already been revealed.
24 Frames have quoted their source at The Playlist that the set will be released on December 8th (right in time for Christmas!), will retail for $400.00, and will include the folloing films:
The Bad Sleep Well, Dodes’ka-den, Drunken Angel, The Hidden Fortress, High and Low, Ikiru, Kagemusha, The Lower Depths, Rashomon, Red Beard, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, Scandal, I Live in Fear, The Idiot, No Regrets for Our Youth, & One Wonderful Sunday, Madadayo ,The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail, The Most Beautiful, Sanshiro Sugata, & Sanshiro Sugata Part II
Wow! Even though the vast majority of those films are already available through single disc releases or Eclipse box-sets from Eclipse the last five on the list, "Madadayo" ,"The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail", "The Most Beautiful", "Sanshiro Sugata" (above), and "Sanshiro Sugata Part II", are firsts to the Collection. $400.00 for 24 films? Seems like a lot, but if you, for some unknown reason, don't have any Kurosawa in your DVD collection this might be the way to rectify that situation and become the envy of all the film geeks on your block at the same time.
More on this box set as soon as Criterion gives the official word... which will hopefully be soon.
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"The Human Condition" arrived on my doorstep yesterday too...I gave it a small hug before taking off the shrinkwrap. Criterion sure designs their packages well too - simply, clean and just extremely appealing (e.g. the different shading on each of the 4 discs, etc.).
I'll have to wait until after TIFF to dive into it though. Wondering if that Shinoda interview with Kobayashi is the same as what's on the Harakiri set or a different part.
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