ECLIPSE SERIES 7: POSTWAR KUROSAWA (The Criterion Collection) [5 DVD9s] [2008]

No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) / One Wonderful Sunday (1947) / Scandal (1950) / The Idiot (1951) / I Live in Fear (1955)

5 Films by Akira Kurosawa

Art House | 1:33:1 OAR | Japanese Dolby Digital Mono | English Subtitles | 593 min.

5 Full Dual-Layer DVD Images (.ISO) + 300dpi HQ Scans & Booklets = 31.8 GBs | 200MB RARs | RS

Akira Kurosawa came into his own as a filmmaker directly following World War II, delving into the state of his devastated nation with a series of pensive, topical dramas. Amid Japan’s economic collapse and U.S. occupation, Kurosawa managed to find humor and redemption existing alongside despair and anxiety. In these five early films, which range from political epic to Capraesque whimsy to courtroom potboiler, Kurosawa revealed the artistic range and social acuity that would mark his career and make him the most popular Japanese director in the world.

COLLECTOR'S SET INCLUDES

In Akira Kurosawa’s first film after the end of World War II, future beloved Ozu regular Setsuko Hara gives an astonishing performance as Yukie, the only female protagonist in Kurosawa’s body of work and one of his strongest heroes. Transforming herself from genteel bourgeois daughter to independent social activist, Yukie traverses a tumultuous decade in Japanese history.

This affectionate paean to young love is also a frank examination by Akira Kurosawa of the harsh realities of postwar Japan. During a Sunday trip into war-ravaged Tokyo, Yuzo and Masako look for work and lodging, as well as affordable entertainments to pass the time. Reminiscent of Frank Capra’s social-realist comedies and echoing contemporaneous Italian neorealism, One Wonderful Sunday touchingly offers a sliver of hope in dark times.

A handsome, suave Toshiro Mifune lights up the screen as painter Ichiro, whose circumstantial meeting with a famous singer (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) is twisted by the tabloid press into a torrid affair. Ichiro files a lawsuit against the seedy gossip magazine, but his lawyer, Hiruta (Kurosawa stalwart Takashi Shimura), is playing both sides. A portrait of cultural moral decline, Scandal is also a compelling courtroom drama and a moving tale of human redemption.

After finishing what would become his international phenomenon Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa immediately turned to one of the most daring, and problem-plagued, productions of his career. The Idiot, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s nineteenth-century masterpiece about a wayward, pure soul’s reintegration into society—updated by Kurosawa to capture Japan’s postwar aimlessness—was a victim of studio interference and, finally, public indifference. Today, this “folly” looks ever more fascinating, a stylish, otherworldly evocation of one man’s wintry mindscape.

The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress, in one of Ozu’s most deftly modulated blendings of comedy and tragedy.

MOVIES:

DIRECTOR: Akira Kurosawa

COUNTRY: Japan

YEAR: 1946-55

DVD:

DVD RELEASE: January 15, 2008

STUDIO: Criterion

CATALOG: ECL030

SYSTEM: NTSC

SCREEN: 1.33:1 OAR

COLOR: Black & White

AUDIO: Japanese Dolby Digital Mono

SUBTITLES: English

RUNTIME (MOVIEs): 593 minutes

EXTRACTION:

ENGINE: Mac DVDRipper Pro 1.2

DVD: 5 Full Dual-Layer DVDs

FILE EXTENSION: .ISO (Image)

FILE SIZE: 6.6 GBs / 6.4 GBs / 5.7 GBs / 6.8 GBs / 6.1 GBs

SCANS: Full Art Scan

SCAN FILE SIZE: 181.4 MBs

TOTAL SIZE: 31.8 GBs

This is a full DVD image ripped from the original Dual-Layered Eclipse Series - Criterion DVD.

Includes full hi-res Cover/DVD scans.

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