From
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movi...rai/index.html

How 'Seven Samurai' was saved
POSTED: 3:50 p.m. EDT, September 22, 2006

By Todd Leopold
CNN
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(CNN) -- The process of restoring a classic film -- indeed a film considered one of the greatest in movie history -- conjures up the old joke about how to feed a hungry lion.

The answer: very carefully.

Such was the challenge to the folks at the Criterion Collection when they embarked on a project to reissue Akira Kurosawa's 1954 work "Seven Samurai." The film had been the second the company had ever released on DVD, in 1998, in an edition that duplicated a version the company had put out in the now-defunct laserdisc format.

But technology had greatly improved in the ensuing decade, and when the opportunity came to clean up a release that Criterion executive producer Kim Hendrickson describes as "substandard" by the company's lights, they dove in.

"It was a huge opportunity to tackle a great film," she said.

Not that it was easy.

"Samurai" is one of Kurosawa's masterpieces, a 207-minute epic of 16th-century Japan. Villagers, terrorized by bandits, asks an old samurai if he'll defend their town. He finds six other samurai -- as well as an apprentice -- and the group does battle with the bandits.

The simple plot doesn't do justice to the movie, which includes an energetic and almost feral performance by Toshiro Mifune and concludes with a messy, gloriously shot and edited confrontation in the rain.

"Complicated tracking shots compete with equally elaborate and fast-paced editing to create a film whose constant prevailing tempo is that of war punctuated by ever shorter intervals of peace," wrote film historian David Cook in "A History of Narrative Film," describing "Samurai" as "a stunning achievement."

The film inspired "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), along with a number of other American (and spaghetti) Westerns.

"This is a special film," said Lee Kline, the technical director on the "Samurai" reissue, which came out at the beginning of September.

But special or not, it had been more than a half-century since "Samurai" was made, and the original negative -- the source material for printing the finished product on celluloid -- was missing.

To begin the process, Criterion located an early negative and an early positive and determined the positive was the closest to the original. So the company made a new negative, using "Wetgate processing," a chemical system that fills in flaws in the original material.

That was just for starters. The technical team had to cope with the fact that the positive had shrunk, meaning that light could get in around the edges of the frame; that scenes contained black frames or missing frames, making transitions jarring; even that the original mono soundtrack had to be restored. (Click here for before-and-after versions of frame details.)

Some issues were dealt with through technology; others took painstaking research, as with a search to find existing versions of the film's shots without the black frames.

In some cases, the Criterion crew had to ask itself what the filmmaker intended. (Kurosawa died in 1998.) One scene shows a very obvious hair at the top of the frame, a hair that probably existed in Kurosawa's camera -- and has been seen in the film since its release.

"They opted not to reshoot, and we had to honor that," Kline said. The crew is constantly asking itself, he said, "When we fix something, are we doing something we shouldn't do?"

The result -- which took two years and thousands of hours -- has earned raves from cinephiles. "This is my vote for release of the year," wrote reviewer Pat Wahlquist on HomeTheaterForum.comexternal link.

Kline said he is pleased as well, though he always wishes he had more time.

"For the most part, you wish you had a few more weeks," he said. "People are used to pristine. But if we did that, we'd never get it out."

interesting article. pretty neat some of the bigger media outlets are covering this type of stuff.

Hey, pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

I know! I did a double take when I saw the informative way they went about it too

You're welcome

Thanks for the great article.

I just blind-bought the new set, last week, and watched it the other day. I loved it. I'm very glad that I bought it.

Kline said he is pleased as well, though he always wishes he had more time.

"For the most part, you wish you had a few more weeks," he said. "People are used to pristine. But if we did that, we'd never get it out."

That's such a fantastic thing to say. Great article.

Nice article. Thanks. Looks like an upgrade is in order.

Actually, while it might be spine#2, it was the very first dvd they released since spine#1 (Grand Illusion) was delayed due the the discovery of better prints.

Wouldn't that make this film Eight Samurai?

Old Samurai + 6 samurai, + Apprentice = 8.

No, since the apprentice is among the 6 other samurai, not in addition to them.

On a side note: I wonder why they only featured 6 of the 7 samurai on the cover of the orignal DVD release.

Well you see the Samurai Mary was cut out at the last second, but they kept dialog referring to her in.

Actually Seven Samurai was delayed too -- it was supposed to be part of their first wave of DVD releases in February '98 (all of which were delayed), got pushed back to April, and finally came out on August 5th, by which time a number of other titles had already been released. I believe The 400 Blows was their first release (March 24th), followed by Amarcord and The Killer on the 31st.

I blind bought this new release as well. I've had a hard time getting into Kurosawa films before but while it did take me two days to get through Seven Samurai I loved every minute of it!

I'm looking forward to seeing Yojimbo next and though it's not a Kurosawa film Sword of Doom looks interesting to me as well. Japanese Cinema has gotten a hold of me!

I remember when CNN did real news.

Those aren't my words but Ted Turner's.

I'm sorry, but that's pretty stupid. There's absolutely no way that Kurosawa wanted the hair in the film. It being there means that there was something else in the shot that he didn't think he could recreate, so he settled for the one with the hair in it, but I can't believe that it's a deliberate thing that he wanted in the shot, all other things being equal.

This won't stop me from buying it, but why would he possibly want the hair in there?

I don't think they were saying Kurosawa wanted the hair there--just that he, for whatever reason, chose not to reshoot. So they respected that decision and left the film as it was.

I upgraded to the latest version and must say I'm really happy with this release, they did a good job. After watching the extra's I really want to get The Hidden Fortress.....but can't find it.

Indeed. I can't help but think that this "news" story is just part of a PR campaign. Sure it is a PR campaign that aligns with the interests of many DVD and film afficianados, but it is still almost certainly PR.

For those who have not encountered this kind of PR before, you can read up on it here: The Suit is Back!