New American DVDs of Japanese Cinema Classics

Home Vision has announced that they will release 17 of the classic Zatoichi the Blind Samurai films in America with the first 5 movies coming out this year. The first two titles will street on May 14th, with the other three following in October and the rest in 2003. Each disc will include restored video in its original aspect ratio, remixed sound, a collectable poster and a stills gallery at $19.95 per disc.

Wellspring Entertainment will be releasing a “Masterworks Edition” of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. The DVD will initially be available as part of a limited edition 3 disc Kurosawa DVD boxed set only available through Amazon.com that will include Ran, Madadayo and a documentary on Kurosawa. The special DVD set will be limited to only 5,000 serially numbered copies and include several bonus premiums. The Ran Masterworks Edition DVD will be available individually next year.

Source: The Digital Bits