Mika Ninagawa's 'Sakuran' with Anna Tsuchiya R2 Japan DVD August 3rd 2007.

Sounds interesting and certainly looks pretty. If I have the necessary pocket change I'll pick it up.

Schilling is exaggerating, as usual. I saw it at Udine: it's a very pretty film which becomes quite boring after a while, and the ending is simply bad.

To be honest I'm not that certain japanese DVD's are so much better. I was very disappointed with their transfers for "Spirited Away" and especially "Howl's Moving Castle".

Maybe that's just Ghibli though, but the video quality of the UK R2 release of Howl 'owns' the Japanese version by a very wide margin.

I am definitely buying this. It's gotten great reviews, looked fantastic in the trailers, and I adore Anna Tsuchiya.

I gotta say though, Logboy, I can never understand the phrasing of your posts. Your wording is very random. It's like stream of thought writing. Rambling and incoherent. But thanks for the news and I love you anyway.

I'm glad crazybee mentioned it and not me. Reading this post was like reading the script to the last 15 minutes of The Matrix Reloaded.

Anyway, yeah, I'll probably end up buying the EP that Shiina Ringo put out a few years ago just so I can get the 1st song that comes up in the trailer (Gamble I think is the name).

The film looks nice, but not exactly my cup of tea. The colorful visual scheme looks a bit too obvious in my opinion. I'll agree though that Japanese R3 DVDs usually are much better (if not twice as expensive).

The Ghibli releases are another debate entirely.

gamble is also on her recent collab with saito neko.
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TOCT-26211

and yeah, i'm really looking forward to see this film.

crazybee - that's me, random collections of thoughts. much more preferable to trying to hone some kind of barrier between writer and reader... though i suspect if randomness takes over a little too much, that happens anyway.

I don't typically have too much trouble reading your stuff, but this one was downright cryptic. I was waiting for Tom Hanks and his faux-mullet to jump in and tell me what it all meant! I kid, I kid.

Ardvark,

Ghibli's domestic DVD release of "Spirited Away" was a widely-publicised travesty that resulted in some customers forming like Voltron to sue the DVD company. I can't say anything about their "Howl" DVD as being let down once in the cinema was enough for me, but Ghibli's releases are usually top-notch quality and almost worth paying the exorbitant but standard retail price for. Almost.

To all you Tsuchiya Anna fans out there who are thinking of picking this up: the special features for the 2-disc set are longer than the film itself - 150 mins vs. 111 for the flick. There's footage from the Berlin and Hong Kong film fests, a British TV interview with director Ninagawa and a special show from German telly, plus a copious amount of other guff... me, I prefer women with real eyebrows.