(aka "Ukigusa" or "Drifting Weeds" or "Floating Weeds")

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/ozu.htm
Japan 1959

Subtle, lyrical, and delicately bittersweet, Floating Weeds offers an excellent introduction to the cinema of Yasujiro Ozu -- one of the greatest of all Japanese filmmakers, and until recently in the West, one of the least known.

 

"The Japanese . . . think of Ozu as the most Japanese of all their directors," wrote film scholar Donald Richie of this master of lyric melodrama and low-key comedy whose career spanned the silent era to the post-war period. And from every angle it's easy to see why. For while the period dramas of his great filmmaking compatriots Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi won acceptance in the West (as their stories sparked comparisons with our Westerns and "women's pictures"), Ozu's work was seldom seen outside Japan until some ten years after his death in 1963. His devotion to detailing everyday Japanese life, and his refusal to jazz things up with fancy camerawork and slick melodramatic formulas, made most distributors feel his work was unexportable -- a quality that made the Japanese take Ozu to their hearts more than ever.

Excerpt from David Ehrenstein'as review found HERE

Poster

Theatrical Release: November 17th, 1959 - Japan

Reviews    More Reviews    DVD Reviews    Yasujiro Ozu Site

DVD Review: Criterion -  Region 0 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover

   

CLICK to order from:

Distribution Criterion Collection Spine # 232 - Region 0 - NTSC

(click titles for DVDBeaver reviews)

Criterion (without the extras) also available in The Essential Art House - 50 Years of Janus Films - a 50-disc celebration of international films collected under the auspices of the groundbreaking theatrical distributor. It contains Alexander Nevsky (1938), Ashes And Diamonds (1958), L'avventura (1960), Ballad Of A Soldier (1959), Beauty And The Beast (1946), Black Orpheus (1959), Brief Encounter (1945), The Fallen Idol (1948), Fires On The Plain (1959), Fists In The Pocket (1965), Floating Weeds (1959), Forbidden Games (1952), The 400 Blows (1959), Grand Illusion (1937), Häxan (1922), Ikiru (1952), The Importance Of Being Earnest (1952), Ivan The Terrible, Part II (1958), Le Jour Se Lève (1939), Jules And Jim (1962), Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949), Knife In The Water (1962), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), Loves Of A Blonde (1965), M (1931), M. Hulot's Holiday (1953), Miss Julie (1951), Pandora's Box (1929), Pépé Le Moko (1937), Il Posto (1961), Pygmalion (1938), Rashomon (1950), Richard III (1955), The Rules Of The Game (1939), Seven Samurai (1954), The Seventh Seal (1957), The Spirit Of The Beehive (1973), La Strada (1954), Summertime (1955), The Third Man (1949), The 39 Steps (1935), Ugetsu (1953), Umberto D. (1952), The Virgin Spring (1960), Viridiana (1961), The Wages Of Fear (1953), The White Sheik (1952), Wild Strawberries (1957), Three Documentaries By Saul J. Turell plus the hardcover, full color 240-page book.
Runtime 1:59:08 
Video 1.37:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 8.11 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
 

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:

 

Audio Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) 
Subtitles English, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: Criterion Collection / Home Vision

Aspect Ratio:
Original aspect Ratio 1.37:1

Edition Details:


Disc One: A Story of Floating Weeds
• New high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound
• Audio commentary by Japanese film historian Donald Richie
• New score by noted silent-film composer Donald Sosin
• New and improved English subtitle translation by Donald Richie
• Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Disc Two: Floating Weeds
• New high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound
• Audio commentary by film critic Roger Ebert
• Original theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation by Donald Richie
• Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

DVD Release Date: April 20th, 2004
Keep Case
Chapters: 21

Comments:

Bright, lots of film grain, sharp, excellent subtitles, extensive Extras - exactly what we were hoping (and expecting). Comparisons to the Artificial Eye - Region 2- PAL edition are shockingly different. We have again the 'blue-west'... 'green-east' versions visible, if you compare similar Ozu films from Region 2 + 3 (Panorama). Overall another Criterion success, I can't wait to dig into the Extras...    out of .

Gary W. Tooze

Recommended Reading for Japanese Film Fans (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

The Japan Journals : 1947-2004,

by  Donald Richie

 The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film
by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp

Kon Ichikawa (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs)

by James Quandt, Cinematheque Ontario

 Shohei Imamura (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 1)
by James Quandt 		Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema (Midland Book, Mb 469)
by David Desser 		The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Ritchie

Tokyo Story

by Yasujiro Ozu, Kogo Noda, Donald Richie, Eric Klestadt

Ozu by Donald Ritchie

 A Hundred Years of Japanese Film by Donald Richie

Check out more in "The Library"



DVD Menus

 

Subtitle Sample

 

 

 

Screen Captures Comparison with AE

 

(Artificial Eye - Region 2- PAL - TOP vs. Criterion - Region 1- NTSC - BOTTOM )

 

 

 

Criterion Screen Captures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Box Cover

   

CLICK to order from:

Distribution Criterion Collection Spine # 232 - Region 0 - NTSC

(click titles for DVDBeaver reviews)

Criterion (without the extras) also available in The Essential Art House - 50 Years of Janus Films - a 50-disc celebration of international films collected under the auspices of the groundbreaking theatrical distributor. It contains Alexander Nevsky (1938), Ashes And Diamonds (1958), L'avventura (1960), Ballad Of A Soldier (1959), Beauty And The Beast (1946), Black Orpheus (1959), Brief Encounter (1945), The Fallen Idol (1948), Fires On The Plain (1959), Fists In The Pocket (1965), Floating Weeds (1959), Forbidden Games (1952), The 400 Blows (1959), Grand Illusion (1937), Häxan (1922), Ikiru (1952), The Importance Of Being Earnest (1952), Ivan The Terrible, Part II (1958), Le Jour Se Lève (1939), Jules And Jim (1962), Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949), Knife In The Water (1962), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), Loves Of A Blonde (1965), M (1931), M. Hulot's Holiday (1953), Miss Julie (1951), Pandora's Box (1929), Pépé Le Moko (1937), Il Posto (1961), Pygmalion (1938), Rashomon (1950), Richard III (1955), The Rules Of The Game (1939), Seven Samurai (1954), The Seventh Seal (1957), The Spirit Of The Beehive (1973), La Strada (1954), Summertime (1955), The Third Man (1949), The 39 Steps (1935), Ugetsu (1953), Umberto D. (1952), The Virgin Spring (1960), Viridiana (1961), The Wages Of Fear (1953), The White Sheik (1952), Wild Strawberries (1957), Three Documentaries By Saul J. Turell plus the hardcover, full color 240-page book.

 

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