7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Shokichi Amamiya is a difficult 69-year-old man, married to Kikue. He dies suddenly of a heart attack, and it falls to his daughter Chizuko and son-in-law Wabisuke Inoue to organize the funeral at their house.
Starring: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Kin Sugai, Hideji ÔtakiForeign | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Japanese: LPCM Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
If you're of a certain age, chances are you've had to deal with some kind of death in your family, perhaps even of one or both of your parents. In the case of parental demise in particular, it's one of those "life (and/or death, as the case may be) transitions" that is never easy, but has to be worked through, for better or worse. With such a fraught emotional environment at the core of The Funeral, which does in fact involve a woman and her family having to plan the "goodbye party" for her deceased father, it's kind of remarkable how sweet and often laugh out loud funny the film is. A march toward modernity often means a hasty exit from long held traditions, and one part of both the comedy and undeniable emotional pull of this film is just such a dialectic, with focal couple Chizuko (Nobuko Miyamoto) and Wabisuke (Tsutomu Yamazaki) are very much late 20th century types, working in Japan's television industry cranking out commercials as the story opens, who may be spectacularly ill prepared for anything "traditional". When Chizuko's supposedly martinet father Shinkichi Amamiya (Hideji Otaki) dies suddenly, the same day a "big city" doctor has proclaimed him to be as healthy as a horse, Chizuko and Wabisuke are suddenly thrust into a situation that requires both planning and the ability to deal with a number of extended family members.
The Funeral is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Criterion's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:
The Funeral is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This high definition digital restoration was undertaken by Itami Productions at Imagica Entertainment Media Serices, Inc.< in Toklyo.It's kind of interesting that a film of this vintage was shot in Academy Ratio (more or less, anyway), but that may be a subliminal tip of the hat to the dialectic between modernity and tradition that the film's story itself repeatedly addresses. This is by and large a very nice looking transfer that preserves abundant fine detail, especially in close-ups (look at the nice textures on the knitting in screenshot 7 for one example). The palette is naturalistic most of the time, with only slight tips toward brown or yellow, moments which tend to be most noticeable in interior locations. A lot of the outdoor material pops beautifully with a really warm and resplendent palette. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation.
The Funeral features LPCM Mono audio in the original Japanese. There's frankly not a lot of complexity to the sound design in the film, but occasional use of elements like Bach's Air on a G String resonate very well, and dialogue as well as some occasional voiceover is always rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.
Having already buried both of my parents, and fairly recently helping my wife with planning for her father's funeral, a lot of The Funeral struck rather close to "home" for me personally, even with the cultural differences at play in the film. But it's that universality that may make The Funeral more than just a highly enjoyable curiosity. Criterion provides its typically commendable technical merits along with some very enjoyable supplements. Recommended.
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