ADDITION: Criterion - Region 'A'  Blu-ray - April 2017: This Criterion transfer is cited as being from a "New 4K digital restoration". I can find almost no difference at all between it and the Shochiku. The colors, and flesh tones, of Criterion new 1080P are supported by the Japanese release with no shifting on the frame whatsoever. The Criterion may be marginally superior in-motion showing a shade thicker grain when expanded. Really though, no visible differences.

Criterion also go liner PCM with the original Japanese audio - in 24-bit. The Criterion  is less robust and flatter with authentic mono. Criterion's subtitle translation seems more fleshed-out and detailed than the other releases. The Criterion is region 'A'-locked.

As expected, Criterion handily advance in the supplements including a 1080P version of Yasujiro Ozu’s 1932 silent comedy I Was Born, But . . . with a 2008 composed score by Donald Sosin but it only has lossy audio. In it Ozu examines Japanese society through the yes of two rebellious young boys, a narrative device he would return to 27-years later. There is a new 9-minute interview with film scholar David Bordwell who analyzes the evolution of director Yasujiro Ozu's style by comparing the 1932 silent film I Was Born, But . . . with the filmmaker's own 1959 reworking of the story, Good Morning. We get a humorous new, 17-minute, video essay on Ozu’s use of humor by critic David Cairns entitled 'Transcendental Style and Flatulence' and a fragment of A Straightforward Boy, a 1929 silent film by Ozu running just under 14-minutes. The package has an essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.

With the extras the Criterion mark their edition as the definitive for Ozu's film. I loved the analysis and give it our highest recommendation. It's a beautiful Blu-ray package.

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ADDITION: Shochiku - Region FREE  Blu-ray - September 2016: This Shochiku Blu-ray uses a domestic print and it's an upgrade in terms of richer colors in comparison to the BFI 1080P. Both have the same technical transfer (single-layered , similar bitrate) but the Japanese visuals look heavier and the colors more dynamic. The BFI detail may be minutely higher. There is either some vertical stretching on the BFI or horizontal stretching on the Shochiku - but it may be a little of both . Looking at the Hula-hoop on the wall it appears as though the Shochiku is more accurate to the proper ratio. There is a small amount of less/more information in the frame - but it seems negligible. Despite it may be a shade thicker and softer - I lean to the Shochiku - as it seems, in my mind, to more accurately represent the original appearance - but both Blu-rays give a strong presentation.

Audio is the same - a linear PCM track for both and the Shochiku also includes optional English subtitles - but their disc is region FREE.

Not much in the way of extras on the Shochiku Blu-ray - two trailers and the package includes a postcard.

This is a nice option for serious Ozu fans - the video presentation does effect the film's viewing experience. Good to have the choice of picking up this visually richer Blu-ray.       

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ADDITION: BFI Region 'B' Blu-ray December 10': The BFI Blu-ray transfer really brings out the beauty of the film appearance. Detail rises dramatically from the SD-DVD transfers and it supports the greenish tinged color scheme of the Asian discs. There is a beautiful consistent sheen of grain present on the BFI and will produce the best presentation of Good Morning for your home theater. There are no digital extras on this disc and it is single-layered with a healthy bitrate. Audio is lossless in a linear PCM track and sounds as perfect as the source allows. Extras consist of an included DVD with both Good Morning and I Was Born, But... (NOTE: now compared to the Eclipse's Silent Ozu Box - HERE) and that film contains a newly recorded score by composer Ed Hughes and the New Music Players. Also included are a fully illustrated booklet features newly commissioned sleevenote essay by silent film curator Bryony Dixon and contemporary review by Jonathan Rosenbaum.

I'm incredibly grateful to BFI for this and their other hi-def Ozu's (Late Spring, Early Summer, and Tokyo Story - and the forthcoming Equinox Flower and There Was a Father). It is so wonderful to revisit the director's masterpieces in these definitive a/v editions. This has a huge recommendation for both fans and those yet to become one.

NOTE: From email from a reliable source states: "I can absolutely assure you that the original theatrical prints of OHAYO (GOOD MORNING) were not green tinged. They looked like any other color film of quality that you have seen. (I saw the film screened at least 10 times over the life of the print that Janus (?) had circulating in the US. I saw it go from pretty pristine to battered and faded.)

The green edge is most likely the result of faded negative or IP. Criterion tried to compensate by boosting the reds, but it was a total botch. Also, I think that their colorist was trying to make the skin tones more occidental and less oriental.

At any rate, it seems that Shochiku's master version is the source for all the current editions (save the Criterion mess). Short of a total photochemical restoration, the fading loss is what we have. Of course, I have no idea what original printing materials remain in Japan. This may be it. And if so, we will always know this film by its green tinge. (Unless some digital genius comes up with some new way of restoration, always a possibility I guess.)

The original prints were lovely with a full spectrum of colors and contrasts. The Japanese cinematographers would never put up with prints with a green cast. Nor would have Ozu-sama, who wielded considerable clout at the studio during his lifetime.

Green or not, it is still one of my all-time favorite films."

Michael Brooke says: "First of all, the booklet is indeed incorrect, so apologies for that: the film was definitely shot in Afgacolor. The three-strip Technicolor process had been phased out by the mid-1950s (along with cellulose nitrate stock), due to the high cost of production and processing - so by the time Ozu belatedly started shooting in colour, he was faced with a choice between single-strip systems, and he favoured Agfacolor over Eastmancolor. The fact that Good Morning was shot on Agfacolor negative stock was definitively verified by David Bordwell in his book Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema - though it's highly possible that prints in Europe may have been produced in Technicolor's labs, which may be where the misapprehension arose.

As Ozu produced both Equinox Flower and Good Morning in Agfacolor so closely together, they would both have a similar look and feel, although the elements from both films would be subject to individual storage and fading issues, which would affect colour somewhat. Our HD master for Good Morning was transferred from the best available source material - in this case the original 35mm Interpositive - and as such reflects the colour present in that element. We have not made any attempt to push this or any of our Ozu titles in an overly green direction, just work to a palette we feel is the best appropriation of Ozu's original colour scheme, which has often been brightened up, over-saturated or pushed to Western standards for colour films on past DVD releases."

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ON THE DVDs: This is quite unfortunate. With three different version of the same film, I wouldn't recommend any of these DVDs.  The Criterion has some vivid, if inaccurate, colors and this is one of their few tape-sourced transfers. Aside from 2 pages of liner notes the Criterion has no Extras. The Criterion appears to be the worst in terms of clarity and sharpness. The Panorama transfer was taken from the same film elements as the Shochiku, this is why both look similar. The Shochiku is on a dual layered disc, where as the other two are on single layers. The Shochiku has no English subtitles. As the Panorama image quality appears as clear as the Shochiku AND it has English subs. I have been told that the Panorama has a number of little image problems that aren't discernible from the stills. They're the sort of problem that Criterion just wouldn't allow - digital errors, static areas of the screen due to over-compression. Its very unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be a release of this film on DVD that is worthy of its stature... or of director Ozu. 

Criterion, being the premiere DVD production company in the world should re-issue this title (perhaps in a Boxset with "I Was Born... But").  

- Gary W. Tooze