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Posted: |
Jun 4, 2012 - 6:37 PM
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By: |
ToneRow
(Member)
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...I am woefully ignorant of more of his work. But "Onibaba" is jaw-droppingly outstanding...
Yes, ONIBABA is a stunning opus by Shindo.
I first viewed ONIBABA around 1990 or 1991 when it was on VHS from the Connoisseur Collection. During the ensuing 20 years, I attempted to acquire further works by Shindo with scant success.
Here's other Shindo-related items I have:
HADAKA NO SHIMA (known in English as THE ISLAND) was Shindo's "break-out" film to the West. France, in particular, welcomed Shindo's independent production of THE ISLAND, which is notable for starring his actress wife Nobuko Otowa and, more importantly, containing no dialogue. The silent daily struggles of the poverty-stricken protagonists to bring fresh water onto the island for their crops had exhibited exoticism yet simultaneously "fit in" with the Nouvelle Vague's fixations on naturalistic behavior and location film work.
There was a French 45 r.p.m. EP made by Barclay with selections of Hikaru Hayashi's music score.
The film itself has been released onto region 2 DVD:
MANJI was directed by Yasuzo Masumura, but Kaneto Shindo was involved with the script to adapt the 1933 novel into this '64 film.
It has been issued onto region 1 DVD years ago:
KURONEKO, which is frequently described as Shindo's follow-up to ONIBABA (although I consider these 2 pictures to possess disparate sensibilities), was available in the past in the U.K. on PAL video and region 2 DVD but has finally arrived however belatedly onto American DVD & Blu-ray via the Criterion Collection:
All of these above titles hail from the 1960s. To paraphrase Octoberman above, I am woefully ignorant of Shindo's output from the 1970s through the 21st century. This just goes to show (as if it weren't obvious enough) how we film aficionados are at the mercy of the decision-making practices of distributors and marketers who decide for us great unwashed masses what is (and what is not) marketable in other countries and what will "sell" (or not) in multiple quantities of 10,000 units.
Should we blame ourselves for not having greater awareness of the art of Kaneto Shindo?
Or are shortcomings such as these due to home video media companies underestimating the tastes and intelligence of audiences and potential customers alike?
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Good director, shucks, so young.
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