Story.

If you haven't seen The Burmese Harp, let this news encourage you to do so.

The Burmese Harp (1956; remade in color by the director in 1985) debuted on R1 DVD from Criterion last year, so it's easier for North Americans to see now. And yes, I second Christian's recommendation.

I've also seen Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain (also Criterion), a bleaker and (so I thought) less humane film, but still well worth seeing.

Gosh, I had no idea about the color remake. Thanks, Steven. Is the color version on the Criterion release?

Hmm. And Burmese Harp has never made the Top 100. Yet another reason for folks to watch it before the update begins.

I'm almost certain I nominated it a couple of years ago, when I saw the VHS. I was floored.

EDIT: Yeah, my film journal from 2003 shows that I saw it then. Gosh -- almost FIVE years ago! Time flies.

Ron Reed explains that the film was eliminated from the voting in 2004:

The following 108 nominees received either no votes or one vote in the first round of our selection process. As a result, they are no longer eligible for the 2004 Top 100 List, unless selected by one of the three final round juries.

Sad.

I could have sworn I voted for it in at least one version of the top 100.

No, Christian, the Criterion edition is single disc and doesn't feature the remake. I've never seen the latter.

I don't know why it took me years to unwrap my sealed DVD of Tokyo Olympiad, but having seen so little of this year's Olympics, I thought last night was a good time to sample the film.

It's extraordinary! I would've thought that the techniques and footage that were so heralded decades ago would seem dated today, that I'd have to put myself in a different mindset to appreciate what Ichikawa accomplished. We've had decades of sports footage on TV since this film was released -- George Michael's Sports Machine, then 24 hours a day of ESPN, ESPN 2, etc. We've seen Sam Peckinpah take slow-motion action footage as far as it could go, until it was reinvented and built upon by Asian filmmakers like John Woo, only to peter out somewhat in recent years, IMHO.

Could slow-motion footage and close-up images of competitive athletics still hold any power in 2008?

YES. Emphatically so! The film is mostly silent, and its beauty is something to behold.

This morning, after watching (most of, but not quite all of) the film last night, I heard a sermon about the importance of the human body to the Christian understanding. My pastor referred to Michael Phelps, but I was thinking about those runners in the 1964 Olympics that I'd watched last night -- how amazing they look in this film, such physically spectacular specimens -- all pictured without the near idolotrous, lingering camera angles of muscle magazines and contemporary athlete profiles. These are men and women in deep concentration, at the biggest moment of their lives, giving their all to the thing that they've pursued for so many years. It's quite beautiful to watch, and very affirming in a way that the preening coverage of sports figures today rarely is.

Maybe this is the upside of an earlier, less egocentric age, but I think it's probably more of a tribute to Ichikawa. The DVD comes with a fat jacket with background information, and the usual load of supplements. Based on what I've seen, I'm going to be spending a lot more time with this package. I highly recommend it.