Michael Kerpan wrote:
The producer who was shepherding the Ozu series through BFI left -- I'm not aware of whether she went off to a better job or whether something else happened (and, even if I did know, I probably couldn't say). In any event, it appears that there was no one else there who picked up the task of seeing the series through to its end (or maybe some higher level person said "enough is enough").
Some of the remaining films (Record of a Tenement Gentleman, Flavor of Green Tea over Rice, Tokyo Inn) are very fine films. It's sad if they become orphans.
“Enough Is Enough”!
That might be the last piece of the puzzle that we need to understand the reason that the series got terminated.
Based on postings in this thread, here’s what
might have happened:
- Key players: “higher level person” (the boss), the series producer, and two Michaels.
- Supporting cast: one essay assignment and one very big pond named Atlantic.
- Other known fact(s): the first print of the blu-ray disc of
An Autumn Afternoon erroneously used a small-size video file that led to the image not having much improvement over the DVD.
We can
guess that the boss was probably very upset already after the problem with the first print of
An Autumn Afternoon blu-ray disc.
So,
what if the boss had suggested to the series producer to get an essay contribution from MichaelB who punted the assignment, which might have bounced off the office door of the boss and landed back on the desk of the series producer who, having been made aware of the existence of another Michael who is very knowledgeable with all Ozu matters, zipped the assignment across the pond and it landed on MichaelK’s desk who then worked on it feverishly and upon completion of it, zipped it back across the pond to the series producer who then happily and gratefully took it to the booklet producing department. The DVD set was released on time and everyone was happy… until the boss took a copy of the booklet home, read the essay and enjoyed it tremendously and then noticed that the essay was credited to MichaelK and not MichaelB, and upon thinking that an error was made … again … and then declared “Enough is Enough”!!! So ended the series.