Product Details

• Directors: Satyajit Ray
• Format: Black & White, Full Screen, Subtitled, Special Edition, NTSC
• Subtitles: English, Korean
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 3
• Studio: PDEntertainment South Korea
• Run Time: 323 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0018Z2IJ2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,491 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Import from South Korea , All Regions NTSC ****Bengali Sound with English or Korean subtitles****Satyajit Ray's Box Set includes: Pather Panchali [1955] , Aparajito [1956] ,Apur Sansar. The World Of Apu [1959]

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Reason to Love Film December 30, 2008

By Ronald Chase Sf Film

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I saw the first film in the trilogy in my early twenties, and I've returned to the films again and again, never tiring of their truths and beauties. The story of how much Ray had to go through to finish the first film is a drama in itself--after mortgaging his house, exhausting his savings, the local government came to his rescue. His many fine films were never popular with large audiences and if you are not into masterpieces, or world cinema, this isn't for you. What makes this film so great? The story of a young Indian writer is taken through three stages--his childhood in a small village, his adolescence when the family moves to the city, and his adventures as a young writer independent from his family. It's the film's uncanny grip on humanity, the perfect casting, the moments of beauty and joy caught in ordinary life, and its visual integrity that make it so rare. Everyone has their own favorite images. Mine are the children discovering a train for the first time,the wedding party where the groom is discovered to be mad, the boy riding on his father's shoulders, the pages of the hero's novel showering down a hillside. Those images just touch the surface. In a recent showing to high school students, the third film, The World of Apu,left them in real tears--many were astounded that a film could leave them so moved. The films stand by themselves, but if you have the time, they are best seen in sequence. If you only have time with one, I would recommend The World of Apu because of its faster pace. The films move slowly, especially the first, Pather Pachali, so you'll need some patience.
There is no better portrait of rural Indian life to be found.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent CD Edition September 2, 2009

By Hegelian

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

After years of watching the APU trilogy on bad prints or wretched VHS tapes with undecipherable subtitles, this incarnation is a tremendous improvement. (Moreover, do not be concerned that these discs are not the right "region" for playing in the U.S.) As for the films themselves, they are magnificent creations worthy to take their place alongside the best films of Renoir, Carne and Visconti. Each film in the series is better than the last and each is replete with the truth and humanity of the greatest art. Here are some of the most emotionally charged and touching moments in the history of film. The window they provide on mid-20th century India is also invaluable.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Films You've Never Seen July 30, 1998

By A Customer

Format:VHS Tape

Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy - "Pather Panchali" (1955), "Aparajito" (1957), and "The World of Apu" (1959)- are so emotionally resonant and beautifully made that the much-abused term "masterpiece" fails to connote their achievement. They are, to put it simply, three of the greatest films ever made. The three films portray the life of a young man who emerges from rural poverty in Bengal to go to university in Calcutta and finally into marriage and family life. Although this sounds rather tedious, Ray invests this seemingly ordinary life with a poetic power and lucidity which enables the viewer to witness Apu's growth not as some labored progression of plotted scenes but as a living process. Comedy and tragedy blend so fluidly that they appear as part of life's natural rhythms and yet, by some miracle, Ray avoids the dullness of most other directors' attempts to convey "real life" on the screen. Ray's art depicts a real! ity that transcends reality. I believe he accomplishes this by avoiding the pitfall of many independent directors who believe it's simply enough to present life "as it is", devoid of special effects or big stars, to give their films integrity. Ray knows better - his depictions of rural life, city life, university life are jumping-off points from which he explores these different milieux and how they affect his characters. He never falls back into the attitude that simply depicting hardship and struggle is enough; he probes deeper into how these experiences shape an individual's character at the several stages of his life.... Moreover, unlike other filmmakers, Ray isn't trying to strip Apu's character down to his basic psychological states (like Bergman would) nor he is setting him up as a figure from which we can draw easily digested moralisitic lessons. He respects his characters and their combinations of strengths and weaknesses - for their humanity, that is -- ! too much to treat them clinically or didactically. It's Ra! y's integrity towards his characters that makes these three films so transcendent. The Apu Trilogy is humanistic in the highest sense of the word for Ray makes us see the beauty of our human complexities and contradictions. And there are so many beautiful moments in each of these films that, while drawing on influences ranging from pre-war French cinema to Italian neo-realism, Ray practically invents a form of poetic cinema all by himself.

For many years these films were either impossible to get on VHS or sold in very poor quality dubs. I must applaud Sony Picture's decision to release these films re-mastered, using the finest quality prints available and re-doing the sub-titling to make them easier to read. Fifty dollars may appear too great a risk on three films you've probably never heard of but getting all three together and seeing them consecutively is the only way to appeciate their scope. END Read more ›

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars India through Ray's rich lyric realism February 2, 2002

By Doug Anderson VINE™ VOICE

Format:VHS Tape

Pather Panchali(1952): From the opening titles in Bengali to the first scenes of young Durga stealing guavas from an orchard and skipping away this film transports one completely into the world of an Indian family living in the country. When the young Apu is born and begins to grow he and his big sister Durga share all kinds of childish adventures. Durga and Apu are very entertaining and Ray captures childhood better than any other director. The adults are also well drawn. Stoic mother and dreaming want-to-be writer father living on the brink of poverty gives the film an attractive balance between adult and childs concerns. Made in the realist style in beautiful black and white , a mesemerising two hour film.
Aparjito(1956): This takes up right where the last one left off. The family moves to the city and there some of the most beautiful scenes are of the citizens and holy men going about their daily ablutions on the stone steps leading down to the Ganges. Apu growns up quickly(and the young actor is missed, replaced by an awkward adolescent with sprouting moustache)and this middle film follows Apu through his years at school in Calcutta. One of the best scenes is when the still young Apu is asked to read out loud in class and he does so in the most musical and poetic voice to the amazement of all his teachers and so eventually wins a scholarship. The first film all took place in the rural country. This one contrasts the industrial city and its sophisticated inhabitants and the rural countryside and its simpler inhabitants and focuses on the growing division within Apu himself.
The World of Apu(1959): Apu is a young man(and the original actor who played the little boy returns to play him as a young man). Rays filmic style has also become more sophisticated.... The highlight of this last of the three films is the bride Ananda. She is utterly beautiful and quite easily puts Apu's post-student dissarray into order. Their scenes together are some of the most memorable of the trilogy, they relate in such a naive/sophisticated way. The formality of the arranged marriage and opulent ceremony with traditonal costumes contrasts markedly with the stark hovel where they begin their lives together and underlines the state of India herself, caught between observing its traditons and finding a modern identity. This couple finds a perfect balance.

I have purposely avoided giving some key details which are better left unknown so that the element of surpsise will not be ruined while you experience the films for the first time. I watched all three films in a row and was left in a spell by them. These films show the very best use to which the cinema can be put. I'm very glad they did not dub the voices and used subtitles because the sound of Bengali being spoken is as alluring as the Ravi Shankar music. Read more ›