Ozu Collection: Brutus Magazine December 2013

Brutus Magazine is a Japanese men's magazine that focuses on pop culture and Japanese lifestyle. Their December 2013 issue was dedicated to Ozu, with 84 of it's 156 pages devoted to him. The text is all Japanese, but it obviously includes photos/illustrations as well. At some point i hope to update this with some photos of the interior of the magazine as well.

Ozu Collection: Sight & Sound Magazine Spring 1964

This is a copy of the Spring 1964 edition of Sight and Sound Magazine. This issue includes an English article by Chishu Ryu where he remembers Ozu. Ozu had just passed away in December 1963, so this article was written by Ryu while the death of Ozu was still fresh for him. Hopefully the photo of actual article is taken well enough to read.

Ozu Collection: Ozu 8 DVD Australian Box Set

This is an Australian box set of 7 Ozu films on DVD. All films are Region 4/PAL.

Included films are:

Tokyo Story
- Theatrical Trailer
- Stills Gallery
- Tokyo-ga (1985)
- Tokya-ga deleted scenes*
- Liner notes by Freda Freiberg*

An Autumn Afternoon
- I lived, but... (1983)
- Theatrical Trailer
- Stills Gallery

Early Summer
- Talking With Ozu (1993)
- Theatrical Trailer
- Stills Gallery

Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice
- Audio commentary by Dr Wendy Haslem, and Dr Gabrielle Murray*

Late Spring
- Audio commentary by Ross Gibson*

Good Morning
- Audio Commentary by John Flaus, and Adrian Martin*
- Theatrical Trailer

Floating Weeds
- Audio Commentary by Dr Wendy Haslem*

* Indicates supplement unique to this item of my collection

Box also includes 12 page booklet, with English text and photos:

The Mu on the back of the box is a nice touch.

Forthcoming Ozu Collection, and Ozu Links

Yasujiro Ozu is my favorite director of all time, and over the course of a few years, i have a acquired quite a bit of Ozu related items in my collection. These items range from his films on DVD and Blu-ray, to books, magazines, and collectables related to the man and his work. As I've spend time purchasing Ozu items, frequently on an import basis, I've noticed that most times i have very little information about the item i am purchasing. It's not uncommon to be surprised, both positively and negatively, when the item actually arrives, due to the incomplete/incorrect/sparse info available when purchasing.

I'm going to begin to take photos of all the items i have and post them here on the blog. I'll do my best to cover as much info as i can about the item. For books and magazines I'll try to get as much info out about length and language, and if there are any English friendly items or pictures. For copies of his films, I'll include as much info as i know about supplemental features, quality, and anything unique to a particular version of the released film. I'll always try to mention if an item seems to be rare or hard to find, or if it's something that you can add to your collection with relative ease. I hope to eventually have the most comprehensive collection of information about Ozu items on the web.

In this post I want to include a list of Ozu sites on the web that contain more information about Ozu and his films. Some of the better sites appear to no longer be actively updated, which is another reason i want to get as much info out on the web. Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me if you know of any good Ozu sites that are missing from my links. I'll keep the list updated with any new submissions.

Ozu-san.com

The 29 Most Rewatchable Films in My Collection: Part 28

The 29 Most Rewatchable Films in My Collection: Part 5

Koreeda!

I felt lucky enough that I was getting a chance to see the North American premiere of Hirokazu Koreeda's latest film Our Little Sister. I didn't know that he'd be there as well to introduce the film and give a small Q&A session afterwards. As you can see, i even got to snag a quick photo op with him afterwards.

The movie was tremendous, reminding me a bit of his Excellent Stll Walking. While his style of filmmaking is much different, if there is any director that kids able to continue the spirit of Yasujiro Ozu's Japanese family dramas, It's Koreeda. There are a few of his films that have yet to find their way into my collection, but I'll be rectifying that soon!

April Story

Finally got around to watching my Korean import blu-ray of Shunji Iwai's April Story. The film is a fairly gentle introspective romance film, clocking in at a brief 67 minutes. My only previous experience with Iwai's work was Love Letter, which i recall liking, and his contribution to the anthology film New York, I Love You. I also have his films Hana and Alice, as well as All About Lily Chou Chou in my collection as well. Iwai also made a documentary about Kon Ichikawa as well, which I hope to acquire sooner rather than later.

Ozu would have been proud!

Collection of Ozu Films

Yasujiro Ozu is my favorite director of all time, so my shelf where I keep all of his films is one of my favorite spots in my collection. I'm only missing one of his surviving films (his only documentary Kagami Jishi) and one of his partially survived films (a silent film called Fighting Friends Japanese Style). Ozu is a director that is appreciated throughout the world so there are frequently new releases of his films coming out in different territories. His main studio in Japan has been releasing newly restored 4K scans of some of his best films, so I've been cheerfully re-purchasing each new release as they come out.

Film Collection: Beyond The Films

I'm a collector by nature, so my enjoyment of films has led to healthy film collection. My film collection however is not just composed of the films themselves. When an individual film or director makes a strong impression upon, there is a good chance I'll seek out things to add to my collection that go beyond the films themselves. This could include, but is not limited to, things like posters, books, programs, stamps.... whatever. From time to time i'll share some details and photos of the things that have made their way into my collection.

My favorite director is Yasujiro Ozu, so I'm always looking for new Ozu items to add to my collection. I'm sure there are people with much larger collections of Ozu items, but I'm pretty proud of what I've managed to acquire. Here is a program from an exhibition they had at The Kamakura Museum Of Literature in 2003. Some information about the exhibition as well as this program can be found here. I'm glad i picked it up when i did, since it was reasonably priced, and i haven't seen one up for sale since. As you can imagine i get pretty excited when i find a new Ozu thing to add to the collection!

Ozu At The Bar

Ozu with Okada Mariko and Tsukasa Yoko on the set of Late Autumn (1960).