Japanese title: Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san (真夜中の弥次さん喜多さん)
The movie's official website: http://yajikita.com/
DVD info on the official website: http://yajikita.com/dvd.html
Release date: Oct. 7, 2005
Region code: 2
Publisher: Asmik
There are 2 (or maybe 3) versions of DVD of this movie released in Japan.
The 2-disc Limited Edition in plastic "lunch box" (cat.# ACBD-10301)
Contents of the 1-disc edition is identical the 1st disc of the 2-disc edition.
Initially, the publisher claimed when the limited plastic box run out, they will be replaced with paper box. So customers "should hurry to get the plastic box."
However, it seems plastic box didn't sell well as it can be easily found in many online stores even now, often with good discount.
I got my copy of "lunch box" edition from one of such stores, and that's what I'm going to discuss here.
[ADDED Nov. 03, 2012: Blu-ray Disc Special Edition was released on Sep. 5, 2012:
It appears all of the extras of 2-disc DVD have been ported over to the BD edition.
English subtitles are also available (likely for the main feature only, I guess).
The packaging is standard BD case only.
]
The Packaging:
First, let's take a look at the "lunch box" itself and what's inside.
When you open the box, you see rice and an umeboshi (pickled plum).
That's a printed sheet, of course.
There are 2 more sheets like that (drug pills and mushroom - if you saw the movie you know what they mean):
The reverse side of those sheets:
Under those sheets you'll find 2 separate keepcases:
Back of the cases:
The disc labels:
There's also a trifold leaflet,
which has chapter index, cast & crew list, writer/director Kankurô Kudô bio:
Disc 1: The Movie
Single-sided, Dual-layered
Running time: 124 mins
Video: 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen
Audio:
- Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 SR
- Japanese DTS 5.1 SR
- Japanese
- English
- Off
Supplements:
- Audio commentary by Kankurô Kudô et al. (more on this later)
- Trailers & TV spots
Audio commentary is conducted in an interesting style that I haven't seen in other DVDs.
It's divided into 5 parts. Writer/director Kankurô Kudô is the host throughout,
and for each part different actors join him.
This gives a "rush" feeling to the commentary because the actors know they have limited time to speak. As a result, there are virtually no silence and dull moment.
Conveniently, there's a separate menu for audio commentary.
Disc 2: Special features
(Note that NO English subtitles are available on Disc 2)
- Making-of:
This section has 4 separate featurettes, which focus on the shooting (37 mins), music (18 mins), VFX/CGI (6 mins), and costumes (4 mins) respectively.
- Deleted scenes (15 mins):
9 segments, including the complete version of "the movie within the movie".
- Storyboards (6 mins):
2 versions of the storyboards, one by Kankurô Kudô and another by Kiyoshi Okuyama, are presented with the actual scenes from the movie at once.
- Still gallery of artwork, costumes, props, etc.
- Speeches in theatres:
1. Preview event upon completion (5 mins)
2. Opening day at Cinema Rise (Shibuya, Tokyo) (8 mins)
3. Opening day at Joy Cinema (Shinjuku, Tokyo) (4 mins)
- Kankurô Kudô's talk show: 3 sessions (13 mins each).
- Zazen Boys "Tanuki" music video Yaji-Kita version (3 mins).
- A video entitled Kankurô Kudô and Kotobuki Shiriagari go Tôkaidô (34 mins):
This is basically a video journal of 2-day road trip on Tôkaidô by Kankurô Kudô and Kotobuki Shiriagari, the writer/director and the author of the original manga/novel respectively.
I find it so boring.
- A short video movie written & directed by Kotobuki Shiriagari entitled "Riyaru Boueitai" (roughly "The Defense Team of Reality") (13 mins).
This is an intentionally silly parody of sentai and other tokusatsu TV shows.
The premise is, while Kitahachi went to Ise looking for "reality" for him, the remaining members of the team must protect people from illusions such as "you can be an MLB player if you try hard".
I don't find it very funny, but seeing Susumu Kurobe (from the original "Ultraman") as the chief of the team in silly outfit is a little treat.
Shichinosuke Nakamura also appears as Kitahach briefly.
R1 US version:
Soundtrack CD:
The manga by Kotobuki Shiriagari::
The novel by Kotobuki Shiriagari::
The movie is also based on Shiriagari's manga "Yaji-Kita in Deep" but as of this writing the 1st volume of the series seems to be OOP.
Official book on the movie:
There are many other products related to the movie.
I may add them to my Amazon Assosiate Store.
[Jun. 13, 2015: Modified product links according to the changes made by Amazon.com]
