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Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's excellent story of revenge and reconciliation set in post-civil war chad gets a welcome UK DVD release in January, courtesy of Soda Pictures.
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Second Mizoguchi double from Masters of Cinema in February

9 December 2007

Chikamatsu monogatari
Uwasa no onna

Following on from their Mizoguchi double-bill of Sansho Dayu and Gion Bayashi (review coming any day now, honest!), Eureka have announced a second two-film release by the revered Japanese director for February 2008.

Chikamatsu monogatari (A Tale from Chikamatsu, 1954) tells a hauntingly tragic story of a merchant's wife Osan (Kyoko Kagawa of Tokyo Story, Sansho Dayu and more recently Wandafuru Raifu) and her husband's employee Mohei (Kazuo Hasegawa of Yukinojo henge/An Actor's Revenge), who through a series of innocent events are falsely accused of having an affair in a time when adultery could be punished by crucifixion. Facing an almost certain death sentence, the two go on the run and find themselves drawn closer to each other and inexorably towards the crime they of which they were accused. Mizoguchi's sensitive portrayal of a constricted world in which true love and social obligation are at odds lead director Akira Kurosawa to describe the film as "a great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi."

Released the same year, Uwasa no onna (The Woman in the Rumour) offers a contrasting of mores and attitudes concerning love and relationships. Set in a modern-day Kyoto geisha house, the woman in the rumour of the title is Hatsuko (Mizoguchi regular Kinuyo Tanaka, in her last role for the director with whom she was often romantically linked), the house madame and owner. When she ends up pursuing the same man as her daughter, Yukiko (Yoshiko Kuga), both women are forced to confront their attitudes to each other and the family business.

This 2-disc set will be released by Eureka under the Masters of Cinema label on 25th February 2008 at the RRP of £24.99. The following special features have been confirmed:

  • New restoration of both films;
  • New and improved English subtitles;
  • Video discussions about both Chikamatsu monogatari and Uwasa no onna by acclaimed Japanese film expert, critic, festival organiser and filmmaker Tony Rayns;
  • Original theatrical trailers;
  • 56 page booklet featuring writing by Keiko I. MacDonald (author of Mizoguchi) and Mark Le Fanu (author of Mizoguchi and Japan), as well as extracts from Chikamatsu Monzaemon's The Almanac of Love and Ihara Saikaku's What the Seasons Bought to the Almanac-Maker, texts adapted by Mizoguchi in Chikamatsu monogatari.

This volume will be followed by two more Mizoguchi doubles later in 2008: Akasen chitai (1956 and Mizoguchi's final film) with Yokihi (1955), and the magnificent Ugetsu monogatari (1953) 1ith Oyu-sama (1951). Full details will follow when they are confirmed.