Ikiru on-line
Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, also knwon as To Live, is on-line at Google Video with English subtitles and it has also already been posted at Videos with Bibi. This film, as other Japanese films made before 1953, is in the public domain according to a Japanese Court rule established in 2006. The 1952 film is starred by Takashi Shimura, most notable as the lead of fhe Seven Samurai.
Shimura is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Furthermore, his relationship with his son has become strained, as his son and daughter-in-law seem to care mainly about his pension and their future inheritance.After realizing he has gastric cancer, giving him less than a year to live, Watanabe attempts to come to terms with his impending death. He tries to find escape in the pleasures of Tokyo's nightlife, but after one night realizes this is not the answer.
Now my plan is to upload some of those at Google Video and Internet Archive - when I discover how. The next film will be Sanshiro Sugata, again with English subtitles. Some Yasujiro Ozu's films are on the way too. I hope you enjoy. BTW, the video quality should have been much better, but I have no idea what Google Video does with the videos when I upload them.
Related posts: Rashomon in Public Domain and Akira Kurosawa movie posters.
Comments
i love ikiru. absolutely. dersu uzala, madadayo and the idiot are also very great.
Posted by: pmi | March 13, 2007 3:46 AM
We at http://akirakurosawa.info/ have also thought about a project to make Kurosawa's early films available for download in good quality. (There is a thread here if you are interested: http://akirakurosawa.info/2007/02/06/download-rashomon-at-the-internet-archive/#comments)
If you'd be interested in joining forces with us, that would be great. We are currently still looking at what international copyright laws actually say about the Japanese copyright law. At the moment it seems that it isn't really quite as simple as you might imagine.
Posted by: Vili Maunula | March 13, 2007 11:54 AM
Hi Vili, I'm not sure if I can help, because I don't have much free time. In Brazil I think that this wouldn't be accepted, because the copyright fort movies here is 70 years from the subsequent year of its release. In US they are using that one that I linked but I'm not sure for other countries. It's a big messy, I know, but I'm very happy to discover some of those films and to know that at least in some places they are in public domain. :)
BTW, you are doing an excellent work. I specially enjoyed the trailers session.
Posted by: Bibi | March 15, 2007 1:05 PM
Thanks for your kind words, Bibi. :) And yes, it is indeed great that the old masterpieces are coming under public domain at least somewhere, as that will make it easier for the general public to see them.
Posted by: Vili Maunula | March 17, 2007 6:17 AM