Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83860 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-06-29
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 124 minutes

From the Back Cover
The debut film from acclaimed Japanese director, Juzo Itami (Tampopo, A Taxing Woman) shows a very untraditional side to a very traditional ceremony. When Chizuko's (Nobuko Miyamoto) ornery father unexpectedly dies, the undertaking of the three-day funeral is too much to handle. Her family and especially her husband Wabisuke (Tsutomo Yamazaki), find themselves in hilarious situations as the younger generation struggles with the complex rituals of the Buddhist ceremony that are fading fast from modern Japanese life.

Customer Reviews

Great movie...bad DVD!
I'll start with the movie and save the worst for last. Funny, touching, and some wonderful acting. Nobuko Miyamoto and Tsutomo Yamazaki give great performances as do the cast of characters who parade past the chilled corpse. The camera is wonderfully active and vibrant.

So if the movie is so good what can be bad you ask? Well it would seem most DVDs by Fox/Lorber. The Funeral is presented in a full screen/pan and scan format. It is a shame that Fox/Lorber is not releasing classic movies like the Funeral, My Life as a Dog, and others in at least letterbox and Dolby Digital. Fox/Lorber did not even work on cleaning up some bad edits and scratches on their copy. This pan & scan does not pay attention to making sure all speaking actors are in frame. The audio is just 2 channel with very poor tracking. What would make Fox/Lorber think that anyone would want a DVD version that is inferior to an old VHS copy poorly used at the local rental store?

On top of the poor audio and video there is the fact that the subtitles are useless at many points. The subtitles are in a faded white which are hard to see most of the movie and impossible whenever there is a light background (ie. the ENTIRE black and white episode!). The subtitles actually get cut off of the right side of the screen at some points leaving a question as to what was meant. Amazingly those aren't enough mistakes for Fox/Lorber since they have only subtitled 2/3 of the conversations and huge gaps get left out at the beginning and ends of some scenes. All in all I give the movie 5 stars but the Fox/Lorber edition on DVD is a -3. So I averaged the two together and came up with a 1. I hate to think someone might think that such a great movie gets such a horrible grade, but I would hate for anyone to suffer such through such poor versions if they didn't necessarily have to. If you must have this movie on DVD then at least it's out there. But then again maybe if Fox/Lorber left the good movies alone someone like Criterion would pick them up? Personally I'll be avoiding the Fox/Lorber label on my DVDs from now on until I hear they are going to start doing some quality DVDs. Even with such wonderful classic movies.

Movie is great; DVD is sub-par
This is a great movie, but the DVD could be a lot better. Typically, Fox Lorber seems to have done as cheap a job as possible. It's not letterboxed, and they didn't re-do the subtitles.

Itami's first deserves better!!
This is the first movie by Japanese director Juzo Itami, depicting the Japanese perspective on a subject that most of us would like to avoid. However, with a humorous eye, he presents a universally appealing approach, showing that humankind, despite cultural differences, is the basically the same: the funeral is for the family and friends as much as for the deceased.

I purchased the DVD because it took forever to find a copy of the VHS, and didn't want to miss the chance. However, the Fox-Lorber FLV5109 release is little improvement over the VHS. The video portion is sharper. However, it is still a cut down version with the subtitles occasionally disappearing off the screen (this happens on the VHS also). The subtitles are burned into the video track so you can't turn them off. The sound to me sounds mono, whereas the VHS is stereo. This could just be my poor hearing ;).

Conclusion: The film is well worth owning. However, if you already have a VHS copy, the only reason to "upgrade" is for a slightly sharper image or having it on a more durable format. The DVD also gives a filmography for the main actors, about the only plus. If you don't own it, you can get almost the same quality on the VHS.... If money is no object, the DVD is OK; just don't expect anything beyond owning VHS quality with fast scene selection. ...