PR: Shinsuke Ogawa's Red Persimmons Out on DVD

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Release Date: March 24, 2012, 8:45 am
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From legendary Japanese director Shinsuke Ogawa (A Summer in Narita, Peasants of the Second Fortress, The Building of the Iwayama Tower) and his disciple, feminist filmmaker Peng Xiolian (Shanghai Story, A Woman of Substance). Red Persimmons is a visually elegant paean to the cultivation and harvesting of the sweet red fruit in the tiny Japanese village of Kaminoyama. The film's larger subject, however, is the disappearance of Japan's traditional culture, the end of a centuries-old way of life. Begun by Ogawa in the late 1980s.

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For Immediate Release

FIRST RELEASE ON HOME VIDEO DVD!
Shinsuke Ogawa's

Red Persimmons

"Fascinating! Exquisitely beautiful." -TVGuide.com "A dreamy meditation on the end of a way of life." -The New York Post "An authentic depiction of a beautiful part of Japanese life." -Film Forward "Red Persimmons is ultimately about human gestures, the ritual movements that not only contain centuries of tradition but also reflect restless human inventiveness." -The New York Times "A moving, wistful look at the effulgent, eternal cycle of life and death." -Film Journal International "Part living relic, part social study, Red Persimmons regards its endearing subjects with respect and humility."-Time Out



Icarus Films Home Video is pleased to announce the DVD release of Red Persimmons, from legendary Japanese director Shinsuke Ogawa (A Summer in Narita, Peasants of the Second Fortress, The Building of the Iwayama Tower) and his disciple, feminist filmmaker Peng Xiolian (Shanghai Story, A Woman of Substance). Red Persimmons is a visually elegant paean to the cultivation and harvesting of the sweet red fruit in the tiny Japanese village of Kaminoyama. The film's larger subject, however, is the disappearance of Japan's traditional culture, the end of a centuries-old way of life. Begun by Ogawa in the late 1980s, Red Persimmons was completed after his death by Peng, who remained true to the delicate, wry sensibility inherent in the original footage. Apart from its fascinating record of a vanishing way of life and its colorful anecdotes about human inventiveness, Red Persimmons is a film of stunning visual beauty.

The DVD also includes a bonus film, A Visit to Ogawa Productions, from famous Japanese director Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, In the Realm of the Senses), a film that provides a rare look at Japan in the 1960s to the 1970s - a time of great political, economic and social upheaval. Against this background, the Japanese film world produced a number of radical works that faced the issues of the age straight on, led by two crucially important "New Wave" filmmakers - Shinsuke Ogawa and Nagisa Oshima. In A Visit to Ogawa Productions, Oshima goes to visit his friend and former colleague to look at the nature of his collective's work and method, and to discuss its social and cinematic philosophy.

Red Persimmons
1 Disc / 90 min. / 4:3 / 2001
Color / Japanese with English subtitles

Bonus Film:
A VISIT TO OGAWA PRODUCTIONS
62 min. / 4:3 / 2001
Color / Japanese with English subtitles
UPC # 8-54565-001404 / $29.98

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News Editor March 24, 2012, 8:45 am