Follow Me (The Public Eye) - Japanese BD

In this article I refer the film with the title "Follow Me", because

1. it's much familiar to me than "The Public Eye".
2. it's the title on the BD package I write about

In Nov. 2010, Japan's King Records released the DVD of the movie



In Sep. 2012, they released the BD edition, which is the main topic of this article.

BD

The Package

The initial pressings come with a few goodies:

• Slipcase
• 16-page booklet
• 3 pieces of 35mm film strip (5 frames each)

The booklet is a miniature reproduction of Japanese theatrical souvenir book of 2010 re-release (more on this later). As such, mostly it's Japanese text, which serves well for Japanese fans, but probably useless for others.

Basic disc specs

Disc format: Single-Sided, Single-Layered
Region code: A
Running time: 94 mins
Video: CinemaScope (16:9 enhanced) / MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: English / Japanese; both dts-HD Master Audio Mono
Subtitles: Japanese / Japanese for dubbs / None
Extras: Original trailer (4:3 letterboxed, English audio)

Navigation

When you insert the disc, after usual copyright warning (in Japanese)
and some company logos, the movie starts right away.
Audio and/or subtitles may default to Japanese at this point.
You may have to go to the main menu (or popup menu if you prefer) to change them.

The main menu is accompanied by the theme song.
The image in ellipse area is animated.

Unfortunately menus are basically in Japanese only.

From left to right, they are:

• Play
• Chapters
• Set up
• Original trailer

Also, chapter index doesn't have associated images, which must be difficult for non-Japanese.

The text roughly says:

1. The Anxiety of Mr. Charles Sidley, an accountant
2. Opening credits
3. Enter the Great? Detective
4. How they met and fell in love
5. An Eye for an Eye
6. Cristoforou's Report
7. A Spying Housemaid
8. Belinda confesses
9. Walking around in London
10. Confrontation and reunion
11. Let's not quarrel
12. The Public Eye
13. The Second Proposal
14. End credits

The setup menu has language options.

From the top to the bottom, they are:

• Audio
  
  • Original English Mono dts-HD Master Audio
  • Japanese dubbs Mono dts-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles
  
  • Japanese
  • Japanese for dubbs
  • None

Video

The 2010 DVD used the "new HD master" which I believe from the new print for the theatrical re-release earlier that year. Probably the BD was made from the same master.

The picture looks very clean and there's no blemishes. Overall I have no major complaint.

However, although I had never seen the film before this BD, I'm under impression that colors should be a little stronger, and image should be a bit sharper, like, for example, the UK BD of "The Italian Job" (1969).



You may think these films are too different to compare.
But both are British films from roughly the same period, and some scenes appear to have similar setting and color scheme.

Here are some screenshots from both BDs:

Follow Me	The Italian Job

I'm not sure if these screenshots demonstrate the differences I saw on 60 inch screen,
but in terms of color vibrancy, sharpness and crispness, "The Italian Job" is better than "Follow Me".
I suspect if "Follow Me" is given the same treatment in UK, it might look like "The Italian Job".

Of course I may be wrong here, and this Japanese BD may represent "Follow Me" as it should look. And this is really nitpicking to begin with.
(Maybe "The Italian Job" looks exceptionally good for a 1969 film?)

Audio

English audio track is also clean. I have no complaint here too.

Extras

The only extra is an original trailer which doesn't look and sound very good, but serviceable.

Overall impression

I think this is a good product. The lack of extras is understandable.
The problem is, as always with Japanese BD/DVD, its high price.
If you can't wait for your domestic release and are willing to pay such price. this is recommendable.

Reception of the film in Japan

"Follow Me" seems to be very well received in Japan.

In 2010 it was re-released as part of "Film Festival at 10 AM" - a series of re-releases of 50 classic films with new prints in various theaters in many cities.
"Follow Me" was especially successful at box office.
Also, it was voted #4 by the audience. That's quite remarkable when you consider what films it competed:

• 12 Angry Men
• 2001: a Space Odyssey
• A Room with a View
• Amadeus
• The Apartment
• Babette's Feast
• Ben-Hur
• The Bridge On the River Kwai
• Bullitt
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Casablanca
• Duel
• East of Eden
• Les Enfants du Paradis
• Fantastic Voyage
• Il Ferroviere
• Field of Dreams
• The Godfather
• The Great Dictator
• The Great Escape
• Kramer vs. Kramer
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Limelight
• Love in the Afternoon
• The Name of the Rose
• North By Northwest
• La Nuit Americaine
• Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• Papillon
• Plein Soleil
• Rain Man
• Rear Window
• The Right Stuff
• Roman Holiday
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Singin' in the Rain
• Some Like It Hot
• Somewhere in Time
• Stand By Me
• The Sting
• There's No Business Like Show Business
• The Third Man
• Un Homme et une Femme
• The Way We Were
• West Side Story
• The Wild Bunch
• Witness

Some related products in UK:


and USA:



[Jun. 13, 2015: Modified product links according to the changes made by Amazon.com]