Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai | Blu-ray (Criterion)
RELEASE DATE: November 17, 2020
On November 17, 2020, Criterion is releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Jim Jarmusch’s 1999 cult actioner, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, starring Forest Whitaker (Bloodsport).
Read the official details below:
Jim Jarmusch combines his love for the ice-cool crime dramas of Jean-Pierre Melville and Seijun Suzuki with the philosophical dimensions of samurai mythology for an eccentrically postmodern take on the hit-man thriller.
In one of his defining roles, Forest Whitaker brings a commanding serenity to his portrayal of a Zen contract killer working for a bumbling mob outfit, a modern man who adheres steadfastly to the ideals of the Japanese warrior code even as chaos and violence spiral around him.
Featuring moody cinematography by the great Robby Müller, a mesmerizing score by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and a host of colorful character actors (including a memorably stone-faced Henry Silva), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai plays like a pop-culture-sampling cinematic mixtape built around a one-of-a-kind tragic hero.
Special Features and Specs:
- NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Alternate isolated stereo music track
- New Q&A with Jarmusch, in which he responds to questions sent in by fans
- New conversation between actors Forest Whitaker and Isaach De Bankolé, moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie
- New interview with casting director Ellen Lewis
- New interview with Shifu Shi Yan Ming, founder of the USA Shaolin Temple
- New video essay on RZA’s original score for the film
- The Odyssey: A Journey into the Life of a Samurai, a 2000 program on the making of the film
- Deleted scenes and outtakes
- Archival interview
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Greg Tate and quotations from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, by the early-eighteenth-century monk Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Pre-order Ghost Dog from Amazon.com today!
Typical Criterion, such hipster posers, ignorant of genre.. Jarmusch has in-fact created at-least one masterpiece – Dead Man. But what a misfire this is. He simply doesn’t understand the genre, hes too art-school to understand it. But I guess the Criterion audience, with their berets on and cigarettes in mouth need to be seen with pretentious DVDs in the basket of their bicycles. Ring ring.
I’ve only seen this once and that was on a VHS rental back when it was released in 1999! Back then I was still taking my first steps in Asian cinema, and I remember not really knowing what to make of ‘Ghost Dog’. Maybe I was expecting Sonny Chiba to jump out and take on Whitaker or something.
The special feature that sticks out like a sore thumb is the interview with the founder of the USA Shaolin Temple. Not really sure what the connection is to the themes explored in ‘Ghost Dog’, and would seem to belong more on a movie starring the King of Karate, Bruce Lee.