Yasujiro Ozu's Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review Yasujiro Ozu Kohayagawa-ke no aki DVD Review Early Autumn The End of Summer DVD Review

(aka "Kohayagawa-ke no aki" or " Autumn for the Kohayagawa Family" or "Early Autumn" or "The End of Summer" or "The Last of Summer")

Japan 1961

"Ozu here creates a picture about an entire family, enriching the several strands of his story with many anecdotes. The film is unusually rich in character vignettes: at the same time it is one of the director's bleakest films. The Japanese title "Kohayagawa-ke no Aki" literally translates as The Autumn Of The Kohayagawa Family. Donald Richie said of the film, "It is perhaps the only Ozu picture in which there is no spiritual survivor. One of Ozu's most beautiful films, it is also one of his most disturbing."

- Alan Stanbrook, bfi booklet

Theatrical Release: October 29th, 1961 - Japan

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DVD Comparison:

Artificial Eye - Region 2- PAL vs. Toho - Region 2 - NTSC

Big thanks to Kimitoshi Sato and Nick Wrigley of Masters of Cinema captures!

(Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Toho - Region 2 - NTSC - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Artificial Eye Film Co. Region 2 - PAL	Toho Region 2 - NTSC
Runtime	1:38:31 (4% PAL speedup)	1:42:40
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: ? mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: Approx. 9.0 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s
Audio	Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	English, None	Japanese or none (No English)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Artificial Eye Films Co. Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: Ozu Filmography (text pagees) DVD Release Date: January 28th, 2004 Keep Case Chapters: 11	Release Information: Studio: Toho Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • special news on cinemascope size (the first ever cinemascope trailer in Japan, 54 seconds) • pamphlet • stills collection (40 stills) DVD Release Date: January 30th, 2004 Keep Case Chapters: 20
Comments:	*If you can't understand Japanese your only option is the Artificial Eye disc as the Japanese Toho version does not* contain English subtitles. Back to the visuals... we have a similar situation here to the GOOD MORNING [OHAYO] comparison. The strange thing is that completely different companies are involved. With GOOD MORNING it was Criterion vs. Shochiku, and with this disc (END OF SUMMER) it's Artificial Eye vs. Toho! --- There seems to be a distinct East/West difference in the colour scheme representation of Ozu's films on DVD. The West seem to increase the blue, and the East seem to increase the green. My Japanese friend said he thought the Western releases were misguidedly making Ozu films look like the Western Technicolor process. Many believe the Japanese discs to represent the original Agfa filmstock better than the Western discs do. I suppose there are two possibilities: either both Artificial Eye and Criterion are changing the colours, or the Japanese are seeding prints to the West which have different colour balance. The menus on the Toho END OF SUMMER disc are identical to the Shochiku Ozu DVD boxsets which suggests that maybe the same company have prepared the Ozu titles for both companies in Japan, perhaps? The image resolution on the Japanese disc is superior, and if I had to choose one, I'd go for the Toho. Unfortunately, it doesn't have English subtitles, so most Westerners will be going for the Artificial Eye version which has optional English subtitles. I'd love to see how Criterion would render the colours on this film, but unfortunately there's been no word on them releasing this title yet, and if they did it would probably be 2005. . Nick Wrigley of Masters of Cinema**

DVD Menus

(Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Toho - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

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