Imperial Wedding Ceremony (1993) [00MW-0003]

This disc is, all by itself, a pretty good justification for the Hi-Vision LD format.

The program is subtitled "A video compilation of NHK Hi-Vision coverage, from the engagement on 19 January 1993, to the wedding parade on 9 June". It is a record of an important historical & cultural event, the wedding of the Crown Prince of Japan, Prince Naruhito, to Miss Owada Masako, & at the same time a showpiece of the type being produced at that time, when HDTV was still new, & its promoters were working to get it firmly established. One wonders whether it was edited together purely for home-video release, or if it was intended as a special broadcast.

The program begins with the formal announcement of the engagement, then proceeds to a retrospective of the lives of the Prince & his bride, followed by a view of the preparations for the ceremony, and then the events of the wedding day itself, concluding with the couple's arrival at the palace where they will now reside. The pacing can be a bit uneven ; for example, the time devoted to various souvenirs of the occasion, including special telephone cards, seems perhaps excessive compared to that allotted to interviews with ordinary people who have come from across the country for the happy event. Some of this, of course, is inevitable. The actual marriage ceremony itself, for example, is not actually seen at all, only the entrance of the couple & their attendants into the shrine set aside for the purpose, followed by their exit from it. Japanese notions of propriety would scarcely allow showing this moment, even if it were practical to insinuate a cameraman into the modest space. Nevertheless, it is well done overall, managing to balance the feeling of the State occasion against the basically human nature of the story. An especially touching moment is Masako's formal leave-taking of her family, all of them keenly aware that her marriage will place her above her own parents in social status — a highly unusual event in Japanese culture.

The picture quality varies somewhat from scene to scene, apparently depending on the various cameras & videotape recorders NHK had available. The rain on the actual wedding day results in a muted colour palette through much of the program. Camera flashes in some scenes present a special challenge, but the rapid variation in background illumination is mostly dealt with quite cleanly. In at least one scene (during the parade) slight trailing is observable from flashes or glints directed toward the camera. The widescreen format is also not always used to full advantage, as in one scene where the Emperor is speaking, centered in the field of vision, & the Empress is just on the edge of the screen. Overall, however, the Hi-Vision videography is of a high standard. In large crowd scenes, for example, individual faces can readily be picked out. The patterns of fabrics (there is a great deal of brocade & cloth-of-gold on display, as well as the usual elaborate kimono patterns), and other little details are brought out to excellent effect.

There is also a variety of source material other than live high-definition video, including (in Chapter 5) some wonderful black-&-white film of the wedding parade of the then-Crown-Prince (the present Emperor) back about 1950, along with a short snippet of colour film of the same event (possibly from an 8 mm source, presented windowboxed with a strange star-field background). We see that Akihito chose to ride in a carriage, accompanied by cavalry & gorgeously-liveried footmen (see here or here for some newsreel footage), where his son preferred the Rolls-Royce with motorcycle outriders. There are also home movies & video of the bride & groom, & standard-definition news video, probably both NTSC & PAL. A segment illustrating the arrangement of the area where the wedding ceremony itself was to take place gives the distinct impression of computer modeling.

The audio is presented in B-Mode 2-channel format, which seems like a missed opportunity. The crowd & parade scenes, especially, could have gained something from a 4-channel presentation. Audio quality, again, varies depending on the source, with wind noise & so on making appearances. The soundtrack consists mostly of speech, including quite a bit of narration by various announcers, as well as formal speeches, interviews, & the like. There is a little music, mostly from the various bands along the parade route, which mostly reproduces well.

The package is the usual Hi-Vision digi-pak with slipcover, all in a glossy forest green with red spines & embossed lettering in gold (even the disc labels are gold-embossed). An insert is provided, with a chronology of the new spouses' lives, a chapter guide, a map of the parade route, & a glossary of formal Japanese terms which the viewer might not be familiar with.

For those without a Hi-Vision setup, approximately the same content appears to have been released by Pioneer in a significantly different package, as PILW-1120. As I do not have a copy of this, I cannot speak to the differences.

Is this title a special interest because it was the first ever HD broadcast in the world?

Certainly not. Hi-Vision broadcasting by MUSE over satellite (BS channel 9) had reached eight hours a day in the Fall of 1990, & various events had been covered, such as the 1992 Olympics. But this was a major, once-in-a-generation news event, & one of special cultural importance.