Guest fabhui Posted May 22, 2005 Share Posted May 22, 2005 Do Criteriion have plans to release the 14th movie in the series and why was it not originally released with the rest of the series? If Criterion aren't going to put it out does anyone know where I can get hold of a excellent quality, widescreen and subtitled version from? Thanks for any info and help in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted May 22, 2005 Share Posted May 22, 2005 Criterion? Do you mean Home Vision? They aren't going to be releasing it. Someone else owns the rights to it, but I have no idea who. It's weird that a company would just have the rights to that one movie, but not the others. Even weirder was how Zatoichi The Outlaw, from the middle of the series, was not part of the batch licensed by Home Vision. Perhaps it has to do with whoever owns the rights in Japan? Maybe Home Vision would have had to pay a different person way too much money for the licensing rights to put out that particular title? I know it's out as a bootleg here. I got my copy through the ebay seller "martial fan". What I'm wondering is if it's been released in Japan since most of the films were recently put out over there as singles and sets. KFS Edit: Here's the answer to my question about the Japan release: Zatoichi's Pilgrimage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venoms5 Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 Try www.fareastflix.com. All the Japanese titles there are personally subtitled by the owner as some of the sellers on ebay dupe his boots as soon as they are posted on his site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cycycy Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 I have a dvd quality copy of Zatoichi 14 with english subtitles, it's been made out of the unsubbed japanese release. You can contact me here : sasori41@yahoo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fabhui Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 Criterion? Do you mean Home Vision Yeah sorry I did, dunno where Criterion came from:o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted May 23, 2005 Share Posted May 23, 2005 Yeah sorry I did, dunno where Criterion came from You're forgiven! Actually, Home Vision does own Criterion, so you were close. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest brassmonkey001 Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 KFS - is that one subbed? I couldn't see anywhere that said one way or t'other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 Most Japanese DVDs aren't English subbed. The only ones I've gotten that have been subbed were Kill Bill Vol.1 and Shall We Dance. Those Zatoichis definitely aren't subbed. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AnimEigo Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 Zatoichi 14 from what I understand has been licensed in the US, for some time now. I have heard a rumor on what company owns it but I do not have any hard proof on that. I just know it is not Home Vision, AnimEigo, or Media Blasters (they released the last one with Katsu Shitaro). There are fansubbed copies out there. Though be careful about ordering Pilgramage from the UK. It is mislabeled and you will most likely get Zatoichi at Large. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KClosson Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 According to digitalbits.com Miramax has the rights to it. Take it for whatever it is worth: www.thedigitalbits.com/my...4.html#mup KC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted May 25, 2005 Share Posted May 25, 2005 That's odd. I'd have thought they would have purchased the rights to the first one if they were planning on a remake. I don't even think that company Chambara Entertainment which originally put out the VHS of the films ever got to around to putting Pilgrimage out. There were a bunch they didn't get to before going under and the rights going to Home Vision. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest samuraifun Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 maritalfan has remastered 16x9 subbed dvd on ebay for 11.99. lowest price on the net. do search on ZATOICHI UMI O WATARU. the guy is very reliable and fast and doesn't gouge the fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WuxiaFan Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Try www.fareastflix.com. All the Japanese titles there are personally subtitled by the owner as some of the sellers on ebay dupe his boots as soon as they are posted on his site. Maybe this is old news, but hey not for me! Zatoichi 14 was the only Zatoichi film I did not own. I learned about fareastflix.com from KFC and discovered that they had the Japanese disc and added subtitles to it. I bought their "Custom DVD" (as they call it), and I must say, I am very happy with it! The transfer is beautiful and clear, with vibrant and crisp colors. There's no grain or scratches. The subtitles are fairly well written, but comparted to HVE, AnimEigo, and Tokyo Shock, they don't seem to be as good. However, they are in nice white, block letters, so they are easy to read. But that is a minor flaw to deal with in order to to have all 26 Zatoichi films! Other comments about the disc: There is no audio set up menu. That is, you cannot play the movie without the subtitles. No much in the way of extras either. Only a photo gallery and trailer. Overall, I am very happy to have finally completed my Zatoichi film collection. I would highly recommend this particular title from fareastflix.com! As far as for the film itself, YES, I really liked it! IMO, I thought was somewhat different than the previous 13 or the 4-5 after it. I was not expecting Ichi to just be waiting for battle in the finale. Usually, something provokes him to take of business, IMO. Also, I really liked his love interest. Ichi let himself get closer to her than he does in most of his films. So, it was more bittersweet at the end as he moves on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member QueenBlast Posted April 7, 2009 Member Share Posted April 7, 2009 It all has to do with source material and film rights. HVE is part of a company that owns or is owned by Janus Films. Janus was the ones who originally bought the rights to the Zatoichi series for theatrical distribution and then television, but had trouble getting the rights to the later films, many which wound up being owned by Toho. It seems that the original Zatoichi studio Daiei went chapter 8 around the time #14 came out and the distribution rights wound up being sold to other studios. After Toho bought one or two of the Zatoichi films they worked out a deal with Katsu to bring his production company to their studio where he continued the Zatoichi series and also made the Razor and Baby Cart series. So therefore Janus delt with one copyright holder to buy the rights to the initial 13 Zatoichi films and then had to deal with other copyright holders for #14 and up. They managed to get #15, #17, #18 and #19 before giving up. You must remember that Janus was not thinking in terms of buying the entire series or having them in chronological order. Back then they did not even think of assigning the movies numbers. Years later when it came time to put the movies on DVD HVE had access only to the movies that Janus had rights to and nothing else. They hoped to buy the rights to the rest but were beaten to the Toho owned films by AnimEigo and #26 by Tokyo Shock. Once there was no way for HVE to get the entire series then there was no incentive for them to bust a sweat to get the rights to #14. AnimEigo bought the Toho rights as part of a package with the rights to the Baby Cart and Razor series. They are only interested in releasing the Toho movies they already have. Tokyo Shock only dealt with Katsu's company who owned the rights to the television series and the independently produced #26. The rights to #14 are still out there but are going to be very expensive to buy sans package. I do not think that many DVD companies have the budget to do that on one movie. As for the rumors that Mirimax bought the movie rigts and is holding the film in one of their vaults to either stay there forever or turn up at a later date edited and dubbed is only a rumor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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