Kihachiro Kawamoto Film Collection 4K Restoration Blu-ray

A selection of national-treasure-caliber works by Kihachiro Kawamoto, one of Japan's great masters of animation, comes to Blu-ray in beautiful 4K restorations.

The films were restored from original thirty-five-millimeter negatives, with the exception of Hanaori, which used sixteen-millimeter film. IMAGICA Entertainment Media Services created the restorations under the supervision of cinematographer Minoru Tamura, who photographed many of Kawamoto's works, together with staff and people associated with the films. The original negatives yield exceptionally fine detail and rich color. Sound was digitized from each film's sound negative or cine tape, restored and mastered by internationally acclaimed sound engineer Seigen Ono, and presented in uncompressed 96 kHz/24-bit linear PCM.

The collection contains Hanaori, Breaking of Branches, from 1968, fourteen minutes; Oni, The Demon, from 1972, eight minutes; Tabi, The Journey, from 1973, twelve minutes; Shijin no Shogai, A Poet's Life, from 1974, nineteen minutes, based on the work by Kobo Abe; Dojoji, from 1976, nineteen minutes; and Kataku, House of Flames, from 1979, nineteen minutes.

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi voices the young monk in Breaking of Branches. Shizuo Kanze, the eighth Tetsunojo, narrates House of Flames.

The Blu-ray contains ninety-one minutes of films and twenty-nine minutes of bonus footage. Extras are the ten-minute documentary Animation Filmmaker Kihachiro Kawamoto's World, first broadcast in August 2020, and a nineteen-minute version of A Poet's Life with English and French captions created by Kawamoto at the time of production for overseas screenings. A commentary leaflet is enclosed. The main collection offers Japanese mono audio with Japanese and English subtitles. Contents and specifications may change without notice.