Rashomon returns to the screen in digitally restored 4K form

A packed audience at the 32nd edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival were treated this week to Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, in a digitally restored version of the 1950 classic in 4K resolution.Screened in the Japanese Classics programme of the Tokyo film festival being held from October 28 to November 5, Rashomon is a major highlight of the festival almost seven decades after it was first shown in Japan. The restoration of Kurosawa's masterpiece owes it to a collaboration between Japan and the United States. The restoration of Rashomon was the result of an international collaboration involving several institutions and companies in Japan and the United States.Behind the restoration is a long story comprising an acquisition, a search and recovery and an international collaboration involving more than half-a-dozen institutions and companies. Among the institutions in the forefront were film distributor Kadokawa Corporation and National Film Centre in Japan, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and The Film Foundation in the United States.It all began nearly two decaces ago when the Kadokawa Corporation acquired the Daiei Film Company, a major Japanese film studio. In the acquisition, which happened in 2002, Kadokawa Corporation absorbed the rights of all films produced by Daiei, the studio behind the works of celebrated Japanese filmmakers like Kurosawa.National Treasure"Our company immediately checked into the situation of the old films, whether they had deteriorated," says Masakazu Itsukage, a senior manager at the Kadokawa Corporation in Tokyo. "There were about 1,600 prints and we began the project to clean and digitise them," he adds. Among the collaborators in the restoration were the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of the United States, American director Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation and the National Film Centre in Japan.One of the first films to be restored was Shin Heike Monogatari , a 1955 classic by Kenji Mizoguchi, one of the finest Japanese directors of last century. Soon, a project to restore Rashomon was proposed to the Kadokawa Corporation by American director Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation and Japan's National Film Centre of Japan, which later became the National Film Archive of Japan.The collaboration grew to include the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, which housed the National Film Centre of Japan. "The original negative of Rashomon had been lost," says Itsukage. "The master positives of the movie were intact. And the Japan Film Centre had the print made from the original negative," he adds.The Kadokawa Corporation engineers went to the home of Kurosawa's cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, and found cuts from the original negative. "We referred to these materials for restoration," says Itsukage.Painful ProcessThe restoration took six months in two laboratories in the United States, separately for images and sound. The images were restored in Lowry Digital, a film restoration company in California. The sound restoration work took place in DJ Audio Mechanics. The Rashomon print in the possession of Japan Film Centre was scanned in 4K resolution and then converted into 2K files. Japanese Classics programmer Rie Arikawa with Masaku Itsukage of the Kadokawa Corporation, which holds the rights of Rashomon.The premiere of the restored Rashomon took place in September 2008 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre of the Academy of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. "The Tokyo International Film Festival had a special screening of the film a month later," says Itsukage. There was also a special event at the Tokyo film festival featuring the technology of restoration, before heading for festivals abroad.Cinematic TributeThe screening of the restored Rashomon at the Tokyo film festival is part of the festival's tribute to legendary Japanese actor Machiko Kyo, who played the lead role in Rashomon besides several other renowned Japanese movies. Machiko Kiyo passed away in May this year after a long career spanning 70 years."Machiko Kyo is the actor who represents Japanese Cinema. She appeared in many Japanese movies at several festivals abroad," says Rie Arikawa, the Tokyo festival's Japanese Classics programmer. "She was nicknamed the Grand Prix actress."Machiko Kiyo, who plays the wife of the samurai in Rashomon, also acts in Japanese classics, Teinosuke Kunugasa's Gate of Hell, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1954, and Street of Shame by Kenji Mizoguchi, all part of the Tokyo film festival this year. "There were voices coming from many countries in praise of Machiko Kiyo and we decided to have the Japanese Classics section dedicated to her," says Arikawa.Restoration of Japanese classics is continuing in the country though sadly most of the works before the Second World War do not exist. "Most of those works were probably lost," says Itsukage. "Maybe ten percent remain."

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Rashomon returns to the screen in digitally restored 4K form

By Faizal Khan Nov 3, 2019 10:42:55 AM IST (Updated)

Rashomon is a major highlight of the Tokyo Film Festival almost seven decades after it was first shown in Japan.

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Rashomon returns to the screen in digitally restored 4K form

By Faizal Khan Nov 3, 2019 10:42:55 AM IST (Updated)

Rashomon is a major highlight of the Tokyo Film Festival almost seven decades after it was first shown in Japan.

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