Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The Water Magician
[Taki no shiraito]
(1933)
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This late Japanese silent feature film, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, stars Takako Irie, Tokihiko Okada and Ichiro Sugai.
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 Digital Meme
2007 DVD edition
Taki no shiraito (1933), black & white, 100 minutes, not rated, with Tôkyô kôshinkyoku (1929), black & white, 24 minutes, not rated.
Digital Meme, DMSF1006, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.4 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate; Japanese language intertitles, optional English, Chinese and Korean language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; ¥5,229.
Release date: 24 October 2007.
Country of origin: Japan •
Ratings (1-10): video: 3 / audio: 5 / additional content: 5 / overall: 4.
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print that is moderately worn and coarse in image detail, with some picture jitters throughout the film. Viewers must endure some footage that is contrasty to the point that facial features are almost blasted-out to white and an overall lack of image detail. The source print is for the most part complete but it is fairly obvious when there are gaps in the narrative and when a still photograph is used toward the end of the film that this is due to missing footage.
The film is accompanied by a soundtrack of traditional Japanese music and other preexisting recordings, with two different benshi narration: one is the modern narration by female benshi Midori Sawato and the second by male benshi Shunsui Matsuda was presumably originally prepared for the release of the 16mm print used for this edition. Each of the benshi narrations feature optional English subtitles of the benshi commentary that must be selected independently for the correct translation. The narration is valuable for the continuity of story when it bridges the gaps of missing footage in the print.
Supplemental material includes an introduction to the Digital Meme DVD series of Japanese silent films with a historical overview of the benshi tradition by Midori Sawata (2 minutes), and a video afterword on the work of Kenji Mizoguchi and the evolving style of Japanese films by historian Tadao Sato presented in Japanese with English subtitles (14 minutes).
For now, this is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available through . . .
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 Loving the Classics
202? DVD edition
The Water Magician (1933), black & white, 110 minutes, not rated.
Loving the Classics,
no catalog number, no UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; Japanese language intertitles, optional? English language subtitles; chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $14.99.
Release date: 202?
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD-R edition has likely been mastered from a 16mm reduction print.
The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.
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This
Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .
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Other JAPANESE FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
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