Coming in August: Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, a bittersweet family portrait by Wayne Wang set in San Francisco’s Chinese American community; Drylongso, a rediscovered 1990s treasure of dynamic DIY filmmaking by Cauleen Smith; and Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema, a quartet of poetic, political films by the pivotal Swedish auteur. Plus: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, a visually sumptuous journey through the imagination of the beloved director, now on 4K UHD.
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (#842) out Aug 8
Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power-plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance. The Special Edition Features are:
- 4K digital restoration, supervised by cinematographer Shoji Ueda, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince
- Feature-length documentary from 1990 shot on set and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
- Interviews with production manager Teruyo Nogami and assistant director Takashi Koizumi
- Documentary from 2011 by director Akira Kurosawa’s longtime translator Catherine Cadou, featuring interviews with filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, and others
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and Kurosawa’s script for a never-filmed ninth dream, introduced by Nogami
- Cover painting by Akira Kurosawa
Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (#1188) out Aug 15
Wayne Wang’s follow-up to his watershed indie Chan Is Missing is a family portrait that gracefully combines the director’s signature gentle humanism and eye for poignant detail. Offering another fresh perspective on San Francisco’s Chinese American community, Wang takes a bittersweet look at the generational pas de deux between an aging immigrant widow and her devoted daughter, torn between filial duty and her own desires. Soulfully performed by an ensemble including real-life mother and daughter Kim and Laureen Chew and Victor Wong, the Yasujiro Ozu–inspired Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart is as lovingly made as the home-cooked cuisine it celebrates. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- High-definition digital master of a new director’s cut, supervised by director Wayne Wang, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New conversation between Wang and filmmaker and film scholar Arthur Dong
- Interview from 2004 with actor Laureen Chew
- English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Brian Hu
Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema (#1189) out Aug 22
Driven by a desire to forge a socially conscious Swedish cinema—one that broke with the inward-looking psychodrama of Ingmar Bergman to give dynamic expression to the everyday experiences of working-class Swedes—writer Bo Widerberg turned to filmmaking in the early 1960s, realizing his ambition in politically committed yet poetic works that merge social-realist themes with a refined, often breathtakingly beautiful visual sensibility. Dramatizing the struggles of ordinary people fighting to chart their own destiny, these four acclaimed, popular, and pivotal films from Widerberg’s most prolific period live and breathe with a rare vitality—and helped launch a new Swedish cinema. The Special Edition Features are:
- New restorations, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
- New introduction to director Bo Widerberg by filmmaker Ruben Östlund
- New interviews with actor Tommy Berggren and cinematographer Jörgen Persson
- The Boy and the Kite (1962), a short film by Widerberg and Jan Troell, with an introduction by Troell
- Swedish television interviews with Widerberg from the 1960s
- Behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Elvira Madigan
- PLUS: An essay by film historian Peter Cowie and excerpts by Widerberg from his 1962 book Vision in Swedish Film
Drylongso (#1190) out Aug 29
A rediscovered treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie/murder mystery/romance. Alarmed by the rate at which the young Black men around her are dying, brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) attempts to preserve their existence in Polaroid snapshots, along the way forging a friendship with a woman in an abusive relationship (April Barnett) and experiencing love, heartbreak, and the everyday threat of violence. Capturing the vibrant community spirit of Oakland in the nineties, Smith crafts both a rare cinematic celebration of Black female creativity and a moving elegy for a generation of lost African American men. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Cauleen Smith, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New conversation between Smith and film scholar Michael B. Gillespie
- Short films by Smith, including Chronicles of a Lying Spirit by Kelly Gabron, Songs for Earth & Folk, Lessons in Semaphore, Egungun (Ancestor Can’t Find Me), Remote Viewing, and Suffolk, with a new introduction by Smith
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film scholar Yasmina Price
