The Funeral Blu-ray

It’s death, Japanese style, in the rollicking and wistful first feature from maverick writer-director Juzo Itami. In the wake of her lascivious father’s sudden passing, a successful actor (Itami’s wife and frequent collaborator, Nobuko Miyamoto) and her husband (Tsutomu Yamazaki) leave Tokyo and return to their family house to oversee a traditional funeral. Over the course of three days of mourning that bring illicit escapades in the woods, a surprisingly materialistic priest (Yasujiro Ozu regular Chishu Ryu), and cinema’s most epic sandwich handoff, the tensions between public propriety and private hypocrisy are laid bare. Deftly weaving dark comedy with poignant family drama, The Funeral is a fearless satire of the clash between old and new in Japanese society in which nothing, not even the finality of death, is off-limits.
 
FILM INFO
 
Japan 
1984
124 minutes
Color
1.33:1
Japanese 
Spine #1125
 
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
 
High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
New interviews with actors Nobuko Miyamoto and Manpei Ikeuchi
Creative Marriages: Juzo Itami & Nobuko Miyamoto, a short program produced by the Criterion Channel
Commercials for Ichiroku Tart by director Juzo Itami
Trailers
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by author Pico Iyer, along with excerpts from Itami’s 1985 book “The Funeral” Diary and from a 2007 remembrance of Itami by actor Tsutomu Yamazaki