Akira Kurosawa - The Idiot

I have 3 versions of this film. A region 2 release from Masters of Cinema, a region 4 release from Madman and a region 3 release from Shochiku.

The Master of Cinema was released in 2005 and is a double layer disc. The booklet with it states:

"All efforts have been made to use the best currently available source material. Shochiku provided us with an HD master from the best surviving film elements. Unfortunately, the negatives of Japanese films from this era were often overused for the process of striking new prints. Where negatives do still exist, they are often in poor shape.

Various audio and visual problems including noise, interference, synchronization, and dirt have been addressed to increase viewing pleasure. nevertheless, some defects were impossible to remove."

The Idiot was a Shochiku production so you would have hoped they had the best available sources. There is no indication (in English) on the DVD of the year it was released. However it is a single layer disc and has a small black border on both sides. Shochiku also produced Scandal (1951) and Rhapsody in August (1991) and both are listed on their website as available on DVD.

Having watched the first 10 minutes of all 3 versions recently, I have to conclude that the Masters of Cinema is the best of the 3. The Madman is not far behind. The Shochiku has significant amounts of dirt on the print which is very disappointing given it is their production. The sub-titles appear to be very similar on all three.

The Masters of Cinema is also the winner for packaging and extras.

I Googled upon the Shochiku for sale in the Adult video section of CD Universe of all places. Don't know how it ended up classified amongst the porn!

From the Alex Cox documentary on the Masters of Cinema release I have learned that when Kurosawa returned to Shochiku to make Rhapsody in August, he personally searched the Shochiku vaults for the missing 100 minutes they cut from the original film. Needless to say he didn't find it. We live in hope it will be found one day.

Master of Cinema 01