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Region 4 Winners and Losers

Region 4 Winners and Losers

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Explanatory Notes
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Title Best
YojimboR4

    There are a number of releases of this film in other regions. I have the Region 1 release from the normally reliable Criterion, but this is not one of their better releases. The video is in widescreen but not 16x9 enhanced. It looks fine on a 4x3 television, but on a 16x9 display the shortcomings of the transfer are revealed. Zooming the image in to fill the whole screen of a 16x9 TV shows a marked lack of clarity and detail. It also reveals that the subtitles are not 16x9 friendly and appear somewhere in the ether below the bottom of the television. Compounding the problems is the aspect ratio which is about 2.05:1, not the 2.35:1 advertised on the slick. There is obvious cropping at the right of the frame in comparison to the Region 4 release. There also appear to be more artefacts on the Criterion version than on the Region 4. And the Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track has a noticeable amount of hiss.

    The sole extra on the Criterion is the same theatrical trailer as on the Region 4, though there is an essay provided in a small leaflet.

    The UK Region 2 release is from the British Film Institute. This version has burned-in subtitles and the contrast level apparently has problems, with the image being dark and lacking shadow detail according to the reviews I have read. It does contain an audio commentary, plus cast and crew biographies and a stills gallery.

    The Japanese Region 2 disc apparently has restored video and audio with a widescreen enhanced transfer, but the lack of English subtitles will be a barrier to most viewers. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, and the disc includes a making of documentary (which is possibly an episode from the documentary series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful To Create.)

    The French Region 2 disc is widescreen enhanced and contains a video introduction to the film as well as a director biography, but has non-removable French subtitles and obviously no English subtitles.

    There is a Region 0 disc available from Mei Ah in Hong Kong, which is not widescreen enhanced but does have English subtitles. Judging by several releases in their Kurosawa series and other assorted discs from this company that I own, I would not recommend this disc. The video quality tends to be poor and the subtitles are often incomprehensible, apparently due to having been translated from Japanese into Chinese and then into English.

    While the Region 4 is not perfect by any means, it would seem to me to be the clear winner at the present time. The Criterion is seriously flawed, and while the Region 2 release has an apparently superb commentary track, the lack of 16x9 enhancement and the apparent flaws with the video transfer mitigate against it.