Original UK poster for the film Good Morning (1959)
Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB) rating is 7.9 out of 10 Rotten Tomatoes rating is 82% fresh
Reviewed in Episode 4 (24th January 2011) of The UK Blu-Ray Review podcast

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There’s just time for me to briefly mention two other releases from last week that I really enjoyed, somewhat to my surprise as they’re Japanese films that date from the late 1950’s.

Equinox Flower and Good Morning released in Blu-ray/DVD combo-packs by the British Fim Institute (BFI) this week give the lie to the belief that foreign cultures are intrinsically different or have radically divergent values, concerns and worries from our own society.

Good Morning was my personal favourite of the two titles, although Equinox Flower received slightly higher ratings in the 8 and 80% range on both imdb and Rotten Tomatoes.

Set in a Westernised Japanese suburb it’s a film mainly about conversation, and the importance of the seemingly trivial. The suburb is populated by a wide array of characters who are archetypes still recognisable today: the gossipy housewives who suspect one of their number may have stolen their subscriptions to pay for a new washing machine – wouldn’t be out of place on Coronation Street today; two young kids who decide that adult talk is full of inanities and go on a speech strike when their parents won’t buy them a new TV - could just as easily be kids wanting a new iPad or iPhone in the Western world of the noughties; And the men-folk going for a beer to escape the prattling of their wives wouldn’t be out of place in any British town in 2011.

Good Morning is a film, presented on Blu-Ray in 4:3 ratio colour in a superb transfer, that is full of great humanity and gentle humour. It is presented with a 16-page booklet about the film and a second disc containing a DVD copy of the main Blu-Ray feature as well as another of Japanese Director Yasujiro’s Ozu’s films I Was Born, but…, although it should be pointed out that this is of very poor quality, being heavily scratched, and presented in black and white only on the DVD.
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Copyright © 2011. Ian Smith (Irascian Ltd), London. UK. Refer to our web site at UKBluRayReview.com for more information.