Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
All Rights Reserved. |
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The Dragon
Painter
(1919)
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Sessue Hayakawa and Tsuru Aoki star in this romantic tale of a mad, reclusive Japanese artist who believes that his love has been captured by a dragon. Discovered by a surveyor, he is brought to the attention of a famed painter who is looking for an apprentice, but whose daughter the young artist sees as his fantasy fiancée. She becomes the nexus of a clash of hopes, desires and wills between the old and young artists.
The film was recovered in a French-language export print, and has been restored by the George Eastman Museum film archive.
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 The Milestone Cinematheque
2024 Blu-ray Disc edition
The Dragon Painter (1919), black & white, 61 minutes, not rated, with His Birthright (1918), black & white, 47 minutes, not rated, and The Man Beneath (1919), black & white, 66 minutes, not rated.
Milestone Films, distributed by Kino Lorber,
unknown catalog number, UPC 7-38329-26765-0.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional Dutch, French, German and Spanish subtitles; chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 24 September 2024.
Country of origin: USA
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This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from a 4K high-resolution scan produced by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Eye Film Instituut Nederland and George Eastman Museum of the 1988 American Film Institute restoration with additional footage from a 35mm print held by Eye Film Instituut Nederland. Additonal digital clean-up has been performed on the scan.
The film is accompanied by two optional music scores composed and performed by Mas Koga and Makia Matsumura.
Supplemental material includes two Hayakawa features; and the featurette “Reconstructing The Dragon Painter” (66 minutes).
This is our recommended home video edition of the film.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
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This
Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is also available from
MILESTONE FILMS through . . .
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 The Milestone Cinematheque
2008 DVD edition
The Dragon Painter (1919), color-toned black & white and black & white, 53 minutes, not rated, with The Wrath of the Gods (1914), color-toned black & white, 58 minutes, not rated, and Screen Snapshots, Issue No. 20 (1921), black & white, 5 minutes, not rated.
Milestone Film & Video, distributed by New Yorker Video (now distributed by Kino Lorber), MILE00108, UPC 7-84148-01084-7, ISBN 978-1-933920-078.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 5.5 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 8-bit 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 18 March 2008.
Country of origin: USA
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This DVD edition of a Hayakawa double-bill features The Dragon Painter transferred from the excellent 1988 35mm restoration by the George Eastman Museum film archive, coupled with their 35mm restoration of The Wrath of the Gods.
The features are supplemented with a Hayakawa appearance in a novelty short, the original script for The Wrath of the Gods, a stills gallery, an essay by Brian Taves, and the text of the source novel, The Dragon Painter by Mary McNeil Fenollosa. The features are accompanied by music scores by Mark Izu and Marco Lienhard.
This remains our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.
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USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is also available from
MILESTONE FILMS through . . .
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Other silent era SESSUE HAYAKAWA films available on home video.
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