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Region 4 Winners and Losers

Region 4 Winners and Losers

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Explanatory Notes
Additions or corrections (Please refer to the Explanatory Notes before emailing an addition or correction to this listing)
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Sansho the Bailiff (Sanshô dayű) (Directors Suite)R1

    Sansho the Bailiff was first released on DVD for English-speaking audiences in 2007. In that year Mizoguchi fans were treated to two spectacular releases, one by the Criterion Collection in Region 1 and one by Eureka's Masters of Cinema label in Region 2.

    The Region 1 Criterion Collection release included a video transfer which was darker in contrast to the Region 2 release which made it slightly sharper, although it is window-boxed. It also includes an audio commentary by Japanese literature professor Jeffrey Angles, video interviews with actress Kyoko Kagawa, first assistant director Tokuzo Tanaka and film critic and historian Tadao Sato and an 80-page book, featuring an essay by scholar Mark Le Fanu and two versions of the story on which the film was based: Ogai Mori’s 1915 Sansho Dayu, in an acclaimed translation by J. Thomas Rimer, and a written form of an earlier oral variation, in a new English translation.

    The Region 2 Masters of Cinema release included a full-frame transfer, a discussion on the film by renowned film critic Tony Rayns and an 80-page booklet containing cast and credits for Sansho the Bailiff, Mizoguchi: The Ghost Princess and the Seaweed Gatherer, an article by Robin Wood discussing Sansho the Bailiff and Ugetsu originally published in Film Comment March-April 1973, Sansho Dayu: Story and Film, extract from Mark Le Fanu's book Mizoguchi and Japan and Sansho Dayu by Mori Ogai, translated by J. Thomas Rimer, the 1915 short story on which the film was based. Also included is the Mizoguchi film Gion Biyashi on another disc.

    If you are familiar with this film you will no doubt own the Region 1 Criterion Collection version of the film, as I do. Otherwise, the Region 4 release, while not as extensive with extras as the Criterion and Masters of Cinemas releases, does still have an exemplary video transfer and an audio commentary.