Tokyo Story - newly restored BD w English subs in July in Japan

Newly restored BD of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) is due July 6, 2013 in Japan.
(DVD edition will be released too but I don't think it's important.)



Here's the info I took from Ozu 110th website and Shochiku's product page.

BD specs

Disc format: BD50G
AR: 4:3
Running time: 135 mins
Audio: Japanese LPCM Mono
Subtitles: Japanese / English
Region code: unknown

Extras

• Trailers (7 mins)
• Audio commentary recorded in 1984, with:
  • Chishû Ryû (actor)
  • Takashi Kawamata (Assistant cinematographer)
  • Buichi Saitô (Assistant director)
  • Yoshio Shirai (film critic)

Note: I guess (or rather, believe) English subtitles are NOT available for the commentary.

Goodies exclusive to initial 5,000 copies

• Slipcase
• A book of complete script with photos from the film

Restoration

In 2011, the film was given a digital restoration with 4K scanning.
NHK aired it in April 2011 on their HD channel.
More brush-ups were given to this broadcast master
for the presentation in Berlinale Classics of the Berlin Film Festival in 2013.

This newest master was supervised by Takashi Kawamata, who was as an assistant cinematographer of the film.
Audio was supervised by Yasuyoshi Tanaka who served as assistant to Ozu in 3 films.
Kazuhiro Shimizu, who has done all the restoration of Shochiku films in the past, is in charge of this restoration too.

Personal thoughts

From what I read on the net, it seems previous DVD of Tokyo Story in the USA (from Criterion) and BD/DVD in the UK (from BFI) are rather disappointing in terms of picture/audio quality.

I hope Criterion will release new BD utilizing this new master,
with audio commentary subtitled in English.

(Same goes for Eureka's Masters of Cinema in the UK,
but as BFI already released BD of the film,
perhaps it's difficult for them to get the right.)