679 Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman

[med]

I wonder if the Zatoichi films will be flip discs or contain more than 1 film per disc?

The Zatoichi movies are really short—often less than 90 minutes per. Two to three of them will be on each disc.

[zedz]

I wonder if the Zatoichi films will be flip discs or contain more than 1 film per disc?

Is there any such thing as a flipper with dvd on one side and blu on the other?

I know there's CDs with DVDs on the flip-side, but never heard of it for Blu-rays. But there's no chance in hell of Criterion putting out a flipper disc

Weren't the Louie TV Series discs (in variable Blu or DVD packaging) released like that?

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Chris D. made sure films like Zatoichi were screen at the American Cinematheque back in its heyday of playing obscure and rare cinema instead of playing established Hollywood classics. Along with his book Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film and Gun and Sword, he's proven himself to be a devotee of Japanese genre cinema. He's not the best writer, but he's very enthusiastic and I'm sure will do a fantastic job with summarizing films I'm sure he knows left-to-right.

[zedz]

What an insane release to chose to start dual format with. I guess if you're going to go for something new, you may as well go all-in.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the prospect of having two produce two different versions of this behemoth was the tipping point. Remember the hassles (and hold-ups) with the BBS set?

[Moe Dickstein]

They released HD-DVD/DVD flippers and I read somewhere about them trying to get it to work with Blu, but I don't think CC would do that.

And BN has extended the last 2 sales a week at least so I bet that this one will follow suit. At least God I hope so what a fucking tease that would be...

[Yaanu]

Judging by the packaging shot of the box set, I don't think we'll be getting flip-discs. Look closely and you'll see one of the discs in one of the visible pages. The disc has artwork such as the "C" logo. Flip-discs can't have artwork on them.

Unless the technology has changed, of course. Still, it looks as though we'll be getting two separate discs for now, rather than one disc with two side. Besides, everybody loves the disc artwork! Right?

[acroyear]

This is exactly the kind of release the BN sale was made for. Most of us won't be seeing it for a long while if it doesn't come out within that time frame!

On the down side, if it doesn't come out in time for November's sale, there's no guarantee that BN will be around by July 2014.

Now that I think about it...I wonder if that's why they pushed it to 11/26 - that's the Tuesday before turkey day and the sale is usually over that monday. bastards.

Unless it is decided to release this set early for B&N customers like The Devil's Backbone this past July, even without the advance it was half-off as a pre-order.

[manicsounds]

I wonder if the Zatoichi films will be flip discs or contain more than 1 film per disc?

Is there any such thing as a flipper with dvd on one side and blu on the other?

Yes there are. There were some discs like The US disc of "The Ghost Writer" or Louie Season 1. But I doubt Criterion will do this, and especially in that cast which would easily scratch one side of the disc.

[Taketori Washizu]

Zatoichi 26 from 1989 not included?

I guess I won't hold my breath for the tv series been ever made available here.

[dwk]

I imagine that #26 and the television show are still tied up with Media Blasters (who did release the first season of the television show.) I noticed that #26 is streaming on Hulu, so it'd be nice if whoever owns it would get off their ass and get it out on Blu-ray shortly after the set is released.

[Taketori Washizu]

I did noticed 26 was on Hulu. After I plow through the entire series I will go back and watch that one again.

Thanks for the heads-up on the first season of the series being already available through Media Blasters, didn't know that.

[Ashirg]

Good luck finding it for a good price. Some of the volumes are selling for big $$ on Amazon.

[dwk]

Unfortunately, Media Blasters released the Zatoichi show as six two-disc sets instead of a complete season box set and it was not a big seller. Eventually they released these six volumes in two six-disc sets. They also released the first season of the Lone Wolf and Cub television show in the same format.

[Altair]

It's a massive set, completely bonkers in many ways, but also completely brilliant. Yet packaging all the films together (and thus generating a large price) might, I imagine, deter more casual fans from buying it, even when on sale. Criterion is sure counting on a lot of support for Japanese samurai films (actually, there probably is a lot).

[Orlac]

I really hope Zatoichi Meets One Armed Swordsman doesn't have the horribly compressed audio of the R1 dvd.

[criterion10]

Are the Zatoichi films only available on Hulu for viewing right now? This set is massive and certainly impressive, but this isn't something that I feel comfortable blind buying.

[knives]

Many of these were released on DVDs in the past you might be able to rent.

[dwk]

18 of them are free on Hulu

[Ashirg]

Only #14 - Zatoichi's Pilgrimage was never released in region 1.

[Lowry_Sam]

18 of them are free on Hulu

They are SD versions though, I'd check them out sooner rather than later. They've actually been free for a year or so now, but I wouldn't be surprised if that changes if/when they upgrade them to HD (and maybe switch to the box set cover art).

As for flippers, I can not envision Criterion releasing dual format or dual-sided discs at all. Hybrid SACD's are the only combo discs that I've never had problems with (and that is because both layers are read from the same side) & they (unfortunately) did not catch on, Dualdiscs (CD/DVD) were an even bigger nightmare than flippers (dvd/dvd), which I'm sure Criterion is aware of. I would also imagine the cost of processing these types of discs to be higher than for multi-layer, single-format discs & not worth the extra cost for potential customer service nightmares.

[colinr0380]

Many of these were released on DVDs in the past you might be able to rent.

Yes, I was going to say that too (I'm counting my blessings now that I had only picked up the first film The Tale of Zatoichi from that previous HVe line, as it makes the decision to upgrade all in one go much easier!)

[knives]

Yeah, I've only got vs. Yojimbo and that's in storage so begging this as a B-day gift is easy as pie to rationalize.

[Mr Sausage]

I have three of them (one has a thrilling battle on a bridge done in one long shot all in silhouette) that I got for free maybe ten years ago, so I won't feel bad buying this set. Very entertaining series of films, easy to feel affectionate about. I'll get this for sure.

[manicsounds]

but this isn't something that I feel comfortable blind buying.

[movielocke]

well I had my spreadsheet do the math and the feature series clocks in at 36 hours 37 minutes.

Here's a breakdown of the 25 films, along with Director, Year and TRT info

Also, this is how I figure they'll break up the films.

01 Tale of Zatoichi, The Kenji Misumi 96 1962
02 Tale of Zatoichi Continues, The Kazuo Mori 72 1962
03 New Tale of Zatoichi Tokuzô Tanaka 91 1963

04 Zatoichi the Fugitive Tokuzô Tanaka 86 1963
05 Zatoichi on the Road Kimiyoshi Yasuda 87 1963
06 Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold Kazuo Ikehiro 82 1964

07 Zatoichi's Flashing Sword Kazuo Ikehiro 82 1964
08 Fight, Zatoichi, Fight Kenji Misumi 87 1964
09 Adventures of Zatoichi Kimiyoshi Yasuda 86 1964

10 Zatoichi's Revenge Akira Inoue 83 1965
11 Zatoichi and the Doomed Man Kazuo Mori 77 1965
12 Zatoichi and the Chess Expert Kenji Misumi 87 1965

13 Zatoichi's Vengeance Tokuzô Tanaka 82 1966
14 Zatoichi's Pilgrimage Kazuo Ikehiro 82 1966
15 Zatoichi's Cane Sword Kimiyoshi Yasuda 93 1967

16 Zatoichi the Outlaw Satsuo Yamamoto 96 1967
17 Zatoichi Challenged Kenji Misumi 86 1967
18 Zatoichi and the Fugitives Kimiyoshi Yasuda 82 1968

19 Samaritan Zatoichi Kenji Misumi 82 1968
20 Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo Kihachi Okamoto 115 1970

21 Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival Kenji Misumi 96 1970
22 Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordman Kimiyoshi Yasuda 94 1971
23 Zatoichi at Large Kazuo Mori 90 1972

24 Zatoichi in Desperation Shintaro Katsu 95 1972
25 Zatoichi's Conspiracy Kimiyoshi Yasuda 88 1973

That leaves all but one disc at 4.5 hours and the final disc as the shortest, making it the ideal disc to include the documentary special feature. In this breakdown, the second to last bluray disc is the longest at 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Run times of bluray discs in above formulation:

Disc 1 04:19
Disc 2 04:15
Disc 3 04:15
Disc 4 04:07
Disc 5 04:17
Disc 6 04:24
Disc 7 03:17
Disc 8 04:40
Disc 9 03:03