One of the landmark TV miniseries, James Clavell’s Shogun, first broadcast in 1980, was an event for which mass audiences stayed home much as they had for Roots three years earlier. The nine-hour film in which the Japanese actors speak Japanese without subtitles except when translating for captured English navy Pilot/Major Blackthorne (Richard Chamberlain), is credited with the rise in popularity of Japanese restaurants, particularly sushi houses, in the U.S.

A terrific tale of the brutal realities of love and war set against the backdrop of life in feudal Japan of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, it won three Golden Globes and three Emmys and is regarded as one of the highlights of Chamberlain’s career. The actor, whose big screen accomplishments have been disappointing, was for a time the undisputed king of the miniseries. His greatest roles were in the long-running series Dr. Kildare, this and the Thorn Birds. He is matched here by the legendary Toshiro Mifune (Rashomon, The Seven Samurai) as the title character and the exquisite Yoko Shimada as the love interest. Long available on DVD in both the original broadcast version and a truncated 159 minute cut, the original has been painstakingly upgraded in high definition and improved sound for Blu-ray by CBS Films and Paramount.

Scorpion Releasing has made a pair of long-sought films available on DVD for the first time in the U.S.

The 1983 Australian film, Careful, He Might Hear You boasts fine performances from Wendy Hughes and Robin Nevin as feuding sisters fighting over their late sister’s young son, the superb child actor Nicholas Gledhill in depression era Sydney.

Even better is the 1988 British film, A Summer Story based on John Galsworthy’s The Apple Tree. Set in the turn-of-last-century English countryside, the film features a heartbreakingly beautiful performance by Imogen Stubbs as a naive young farm girl who falls in loves with a temporarily stranded London lawyer excellently played by James Wilby. A tale of love, loss and regret, you’ll need to keep the Kleenex handy for this one.

Kino Lorber continues its release of major United Artists films never before on Blu-ray. This week brings two Audrey Hepburn films from the early 1960s.

Hepburn plays an American Indian raised as a white girl by her adoptive mother (Lillian Gish), her true heritage kept secret from her, her adoptive brothers (Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, Doug McClure) and the Indian hating frontier community in which they live in John Huston’s The Unforgiven. All hell breaks loose when a figure from the past appears. A highly atmospheric western, the film, alas, is very much of its time and doesn’t really hold up.

Much better is William Wyler’s film of Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, a remake of Wyler’s earlier 1936 interpretation, These Three.

Whereas the first reworked the lesbian angle into a heterosexual love triangle, the remake tackles the issue head-on or at least as head-on as the Motion Picture Code at the time would allow.

Hepburn and especially Shirley Maclaine are excellent as the teachers at a girl’s school who lose everything because of a child’s vicious lies. James Garner has one of his best early screen roles as the man who loves Hepburn. Miriam Hopkins who played MacLaine’s role in the 1936 version with Merle Oberon and Joel McCrea, plays MacLaine’s supercilious aunt here. Fay Bainter, in her first film in eight years, dominates every scene she’s in as the grandmother of the brat, earning a much deserved Oscar nomination for her performance.

Both films look better than ever on Blu-ray.

Also making its stunning Blu-ray debut, Jacques Tourneur’s splendid 1947 film noir, Out of the Past has been released by the Warner Archive.

Robert Mitchum has one of his best roles as the retired private detective drawn back into a world of danger by femme fatale Jane Greer, also at her best. Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Webb, Steve Brodie and former child star Dickie Moore all turn in fine supporting work.

Disney has really messed up with the Blu-ray release of Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Released in December, 1971 at 117 minutes to accommodate Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas show, the film was restored to its intended 139 minute length in 1996. That version, with five missing songs and several extended scenes put back in, was released on standard DVD in 2009 with a splendid making-of documentary in which star Angela Lansbury and composers Robert and Richard Sherman talk about the richness of the restored version. That documentary is included in the Blu-ray release, but the film we are given is the original 117 minute theatrical cut. The five songs and an extended version of a sixth are presented as “extras”, which only points out how deficient the film we’ve just watched really is.

Those wishing to upgrade to the Blu-ray are advised to replace the accompanying second disc of the film on standard DVD with their copy of the 2009 release in their possession.

Disney has also released Hercules and Tarzan on Blu-ray with accompanying standard DVDs.

Films from stories taken from the Old Testament of the Bible, with the notable exception of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, have generally been unworthy of their source material. None, however, have been as bad as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. This ludicrous piece of garbage is not only poorly written, acted and directed, it makes absolutely no sense.

God doesn’t talk to Noah. In fact, God is not even in the movie. The Supreme Being is referred to as “The Creator”. The idea to build the Ark comes to Noah in a dream. Noah’s world is not a beautiful place. It is a barren landscape decimated by the descendants of Cain. In order to build the Ark Noah must plant a magic bean given him by Methuzalah which sprouts a rain forest in seconds. From the trees in the rain forest comes the wood to build the ark which is then built by Noah and his family with help of one-eyed CGI monsters that are supposed to be the remnants of fallen angels. The flood comes not from falling rain but from water sprouting out of the ground. The obviously CGI animals enter the ark as does Noah’s family and some unwanted bad guys. Noah kills the bad guys and threatens to kill his son’s baby if it is born female. In the end he can’t force himself to kill his twin grand-daughters but instead tells his son, the son’s wife and his infant grand-daughters to go and multiply. Is Noah promoting incest? Who knows, who cares, the whole thing is ridiculous from beginning to end. Aronofsky, who specializes is dark films, was not the right choice for such an undertaking. It’s a complete and utter waste of time.

This week’s new releases include the Blu-ray upgrades of two of the most successful foreign film releases in U.S. history, Y Tu Mama Tambien andLike Water for Chocolate.