I noticed the same thing. I had never seen this film before, and was also aware of the 1.37:1 aspect ratio (full-screen) before viewing. Like you said right at the begining, during the opening credits it was obvious something was off. Most of the English subtitles seemed centered but there are a few instances where two or more names were cut off. When a subtitled credit was to the left of the screen 2 to 3 letters where missing from the begining of the names, the same thing when a credit was to the right of the screen (the last 2 to 3 letters were chopped off). It was as if the picture had been blown-up in size. The movie itself seemed very clear and it appeared to be a newly restored print. In fact if it hadn't been for the few instances of the chopped off names (subtitles) at the begining, I would have never suspected that there was a problem. I was very impressed with this film but can only wonder how much nicer it would have been if the "whole" picture would have been visible! Is it possible that TCM had their equipment set for a larger aspect ratio? In the TCM's March "Now Playing" guide Dodes'ka-den is marked as being in "letterbox format" (although, "Yojimbo" is not).
I just looked at my DVR recording again and two glaring examples of this problem
appeared something like this:
sed on the novel by
RO YAMAMOTO
and
Screenplay by
AKIRA KUROSAV
(half of the W in KUROSAWA was chopped)
Thankfully none of the subtitles during the actual film were affected.
Does anyone have a possible theory as to what may of happened? The fact that it was the English subtitles that were chopped off can only mean that it was a technical error on the part of TCM, not the print they aired.
On a more positive note, how awesome of TCM to air 26 of Kurosawa's films to celebrate the 100th ann. of the master's birth! And almost all of them where restored prints! I sure increased my Kurosawa collection last month!
-Gary (fluffhead)
"ASA NISI MASA"
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