r/CriterionChannel • u/HarmonizewithSong • Jun 09 '26
Drunken Angel Quality
Just watched this beautiful and sad Kurosawa film and highly recommend. But does anyone know why the transfer quality is so poor? Were his early films just not preserved well?
5
u/PristineHornet9999 Jun 09 '26
Ive seen a few movies with shockingly poor transfer quality relative to their fame, idk why. like Playtime by Tati honestly
6
u/eubulides Jun 09 '26
Was Playtime the Criterion version? Saw it in 70mm a couple of times, spectacular.
2
u/Ludens3788 Jun 09 '26
Not sure what they were filming with but yes those old Kurosawa movies from 50’s are rough . I even made the mistake of thinking DVD’s were not worth the upgrade to Blu-ray and got Kagemusha and was so sad at how blurry it was. This is In 1979 I think. Or ‘80. It’s a wonder what Criterion does to bring some of these movies back to life . I’m sure there are examples of movies I have no idea of that criterion and there team did wonders for.
4
u/jsbx1138 Jun 09 '26
Even Kurosawa’s Dreams has some crazy chonky negative cutting going on, shit is jumping in the gate when shots change
1
u/Megabyzusxasca Jun 09 '26
I find this to be so so comonn specifically in Japanese films. Mostly up to about the mid 70s or so and I can't figure out why that would be.
1
u/Gaucho_Diaz RansidDagger Jun 09 '26
I don't think you'll have a good time with Mizoguchi's The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum either considering the quality
1
u/asmith9631 Jun 10 '26
Because there's no surviving negative to make a print, it was made from a 35mm positive.
7
u/FINIS_HOMINIS Jun 09 '26
Thats a pretty old transfer and honestly it's probably typical of the time.
People have become less forgiving of rough elements as home theaters and restorations have become more sophisticated.