I've been seeing this title come up again again as a Kurosawa favorite, but I've never gotten around to seeing it yet. I'm willing to "blind buy" the Criterion release and add it to my personal Kurosawa collection. Still, I'd like some opinions from anybody else who has seen the film. How is it? Is it worth the extra money to own it? Are there good Special Features? Is this a film I can see again and again and still get the intended emotional impact?
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I watched the movie in the local library just yesterday as I, too, did not want to spend 40 or what bucks for it. You can read a lot about the movie itself in the user comments. I myself found it very good during the first 100minutes and was floored by the ending. Haven't seen an ending with such an impact for a long time (well, since I saw the last kurosawa movie :).
Anyway, what you get for the extra money is a not really great image quality (all those pseudo-restoration guys should go to school at hong kong legends or celestial pictures to learn how to properly restore a film print), a pretty thick booklet with an essay from stephen prince, some notes on subtitle translation, two (yes, two) different english subtitles (i just picked one and stuck with it and, though i'm not native english, i can say it is very well done), a trailer and i believe that's it - oh, well, the sleeve-design is quite nicely done. would certainly look cool in your shelf.
basically i would say the DVD is not really worth the money. problem is, to my knowledge there is no other version around (stay away from mei ah's hong kong version - that goes for pretty much every film but apparently especially for kurosawa) and the FILM may be worth it.
I guess you already own pretty much all available other movies from him, otherwise I would suggest to quench your thirst on some other kurosawa and wait for this one to be repriced or something (if that ever happens).
Thanks for the advice jjordi, but at this point price to me doesn't matter. Yes the cover art looks pretty cool and I trust Criterion releases. Besides, I don't mind if the film is "artsy" as long as it's well made and keeps me wanting more. Like for example, I think a modern type of artsy-moody picture might be "Leon, the Professional" which I adore. I'm going to get Throne of Blood just to have the film and I really don't mind the price at all, especially if it's a Kurosawa piece.
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Sure, then go for it. It's definitely the best version around.
I saw Ran just a few days ago and I have to say I liked Throne of Blood better. It's much smaller in scale and atmosphere but I felt it was more tightly structured and better executed, storywise I mean. And most importantly, the ending rocks. That was a bit of a letdown in Ran (for me).
I've also seen Ran and while it's a very well made film, I'm not sure it's something I'd want to see more than a few times. I think Kagemusha has a lot of similarities to Ran in mood and overall feeling.
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