Cast
/
Toranosuke Ogawa

Toranosuke Ogawa

7 films on Best Blurays5 in 4K2 in HD

Toranosuke Ogawa photo

Toranosuke Ogawa (December 1, 1897 - December 29, 1967) was a Japanese actor, most well-known for his collaborations with famed director Akira Kurosawa, as well as his role in Godzilla.

Biography from TMDB

5 in 4K

UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming

Supporting role · Director: Ishirō Honda

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Germany Splendid Entertainment Blu-ray

Small role · Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Intact grain compared to Toho/BFI UHDs' DNR'd master

Audio Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray is good, derived from the 1995 Criterion LaserDisc (which would be minimally better due to its lack of filtering) see blah-ray

Small role · Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray or BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

No clear winner, Criterion SDR 4K Blu-ray has better defined grain and is cleaned-up more thoroughly. But looks grayer and flatter in daytime scenes. BFI 4K Blu-ray's HDR/DV is better in contrast but the grading can be debatable.

Best Audio:

BFI Streaming

Additional Info:

The subtitles of Criterion  and BFI are translated differently. See BR forum.

Small role · Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR

Best Audio:

Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray

BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.

Additional Info:

The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.

Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.

Small role · Director: Akira Kurosawa

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Audio:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Audio Notes:

(second audio track, not included in the menu)

Best Video:

Japan 4K Blu-ray

2 in HD

Blu-ray or HD streaming

Small role · Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2023 Toho Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2023 Toho Blu-ray is new 4K restoration. No English subs.

Best Audio:

R5 Triumph Video DVD

Small role · Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Eureka MoC Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Eureka MoC Blu-ray, see caps

MoC is sourced from an earlier scan, but still looks more detailed than the later 4K restoration released by Kadokawa in Japan, which has some black crush and DNR. French Capricci disc is sourced from the same scan as MoC but with much worse encoding and wrong levels.

Best Audio:

1991 Daiei LaserDisc

Missing a Toranosuke Ogawa film? Suggest it