Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Japan, United States
1990
120 minutes
Color
1.85:1
Japanese
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
SPINE #842
4K UHD+Blu-ray
BLU-RAY
DVD
AUGUST 8, 2023
Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power-plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 4K digital restoration, supervised by cinematographer Shoji Ueda, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince
- Feature-length documentary from 1990 shot on set and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
- Interviews with production manager Teruyo Nogami and assistant director Takashi Koizumi
- Documentary from 2011 by director Akira Kurosawa’s longtime translator Catherine Cadou, featuring interviews with filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, and others
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and Kurosawa’s script for a never-filmed ninth dream, introduced by Nogami
Cover painting by Akira Kurosawa
Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart
United States
1985
84 minutes
Color
1.78:1
English, Cantonese
Directed by Wayne Wang
SPINE #1188
BLU-RAY
DVD
AUGUST 15, 2023
Wayne Wang’s follow-up to his watershed indie Chan Is Missing is a family portrait that gracefully combines the director’s signature gentle humanism and eye for poignant detail. Offering another fresh perspective on San Francisco’s Chinese American community, Wang takes a bittersweet look at the generational pas de deux between an aging immigrant widow and her devoted daughter, torn between filial duty and her own desires. Soulfully performed by an ensemble including real-life mother and daughter Kim and Laureen Chew and Victor Wong, the Yasujiro Ozu–inspired Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart is as lovingly made as the home-cooked cuisine it celebrates.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- High-definition digital master of a new director’s cut, supervised by director Wayne Wang, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New conversation between Wang and filmmaker and film scholar Arthur Dong
- Interview from 2004 with actor Laureen Chew
- English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Brian Hu
New cover by Josh Cochran
Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema
Sweden
1963-1969
Swedish
Directed by Bo Widerberg
SPINE #1189
The Baby Carriage
1963
95 minutes
Black & White
1.33:1
Raven’s End
1963
100 minutes
Black & White
1.37:1
Elvira Madigan
1967
90 minutes
Color
1.66:1
Ådalen 31
1969
114 minutes
Color
2.39:1
BLU-RAY
AUGUST 22, 2023
Driven by a desire to forge a socially conscious Swedish cinema—one that broke with the inward-looking psychodrama of Ingmar Bergman to give dynamic expression to the everyday experiences of working-class Swedes—writer Bo Widerberg turned to filmmaking in the early 1960s, realizing his ambition in politically committed yet poetic works that merge social-realist themes with a refined, often breathtakingly beautiful visual sensibility. Dramatizing the struggles of ordinary people fighting to chart their own destiny, these four acclaimed, popular, and pivotal films from Widerberg’s most prolific period live and breathe with a rare vitality—and helped launch a new Swedish cinema.
FOUR-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New restorations, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
- New introduction to director Bo Widerberg by filmmaker Ruben Östlund
- New interviews with actor Tommy Berggren and cinematographer Jörgen Persson
- The Boy and the Kite (1962), a short film by Widerberg and Jan Troell, with an introduction by Troell
- Swedish television interviews with Widerberg from the 1960s
- Behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Elvira Madigan
- PLUS: An essay by film historian Peter Cowie and excerpts by Widerberg from his 1962 book Vision in Swedish Film
New cover by Eric Skillman
Drylongso
United States
1998
81 minutes
Color
1.33:1
English
Directed by Cauleen Smith
SPINE #1190
Blu-ray
DVD
AUGUST 29, 2023
A rediscovered treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/romance. Alarmed by the rate at which the young Black men around her are dying, brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) attempts to preserve their existence in Polaroid snapshots, along the way forging a friendship with a woman in an abusive relationship (April Barnett) and experiencing love, heartbreak, and the everyday threat of violence. Capturing the vibrant community spirit of Oakland in the nineties, Smith crafts both a rare cinematic celebration of Black female creativity and a moving elegy for a generation of lost African American men.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Cauleen Smith, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New conversation between Smith and film scholar Michael B. Gillespie
- Short films by Smith, including Chronicles of a Lying Spirit by Kelly Gabron, Songs for Earth & Folk, Lessons in Semaphore, Egungun (Ancestor Can’t Find Me), Remote Viewing, and Suffolk, with a new introduction by Smith
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film scholar Yasmina Price
New cover by Krista Franklin
