Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Dogra Magra Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 27, 2024

There's a perhaps slightly comical supplement on this disc where it's suggested that co-scenarist and director Toshio Matsumoto read the source novel on which this film is based and decided it could make a movie that would be a veritable "combo platter" of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Last Year at Marienbad. A subheading for a supplementary interview with Matsumoto adds to that kind of amazing "double feature" and states that this project pretty much amounted to "filming the unfilmable". That would certainly be a "heady" casserole in any case, but when one adds in perhaps nefarious psychiatrists a la Frances perhaps adds a somewhat "Freudian" edge to that use of "heady". Attempts to adapt Yumeno Kyūsaku's original novel had evidently all been deemed impossible due to the book's labyrinthine and fragmented narrative, one which reflected the perhaps unbalanced mental state of its supposed protagonist, a character who may or may not be named Kure Ichiro (Yôji Matsuda), and who awakens one day to find himself ensconced in a mental institution, without any memory of how exactly he got there.

If the three films linked to above aren't enough of a bizarre referent trifecta, it might also be suggested that in a very real way Dogra Magra echoes the structural artifices of Rashomon, in that various "alternative facts" are presented in terms of who exactly Kure is and what may have brought him to his current situation. Dogra Magra is an unabashedly dreamlike (or perhaps nightmarish) viewing experience, and it's deliberately disjunctive not just in terms of its prismatic narrative, but also its very presentational style(s). There are a number of eccentric touches Matsumoto brings to the enterprise as the tale shifts through various eras and perspectives, and everything from puppetry to actual animation enters the visual fray as things progress.

The "meaning" of the film is probably up for debate, as Matsumoto evidently was not shy about confirming. Radiance hasn't always provided a ton of supplements on their releases, but this one comes with both a good visual essay by Julina Ross and a perhaps especially helpful commentary (in Japanese with English subtitles) by Toshio Matsumoto that may help to explain some of the film's more obfuscatory aspects.

Dogra Magra Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dogra Magra is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Radiance's insert booklet provides the following minimal information on the transfer:

Dogra Magra was transferred in high definition by producer Shuji Shibata and supplied to Radiance Films as a high definition digital file.

There's an appealingly organic appearance to this presentation, with an at times admittedly thick grain field which nonetheless resolves without any major issues. The palette has been so aggressively toyed with at times that it's hard to analyze in terms of how "natural" it looks, though I will say things often struck me as a bit too sickly yellow-green in any number of scenes, especially those in the institution. Detail levels are typically excellent throughout, and some of the period costumes and sets offer commendable fine detail levels on patterns and textures. There is some minor age related wear and tear that can be spotted, mostly in the form of very small and transitory speckling and white flecks.

Dogra Magra Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dogra Magra features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio in the original Japanese. The sound design of the film is at times as patently hallucinatory as any of the visuals, and there's some nice layering in several scenes that can combine kind of bizarre "scoring" (or at least quasi-musical elements, like the chant mentioned in the supplemental section, below), as well as at times kind of "out there" sound effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Dogra Magra Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director's Commentary is in Japanese with English subtitles.


• Toshio Matsumoto (HD; 21:23) is an archival interview with the director form 2003. Subtitled in English.


• Dogra Magra Through the Eyes of Tatsuo Suzuki (HD; 13:27) is an interesting visual essay by Julian Ross, with an emphasis on the film's cinematographer.


• Instructions on Ahodara Sutra (HD; 16:19) features behind the scenes rehearsal footage of "legendary street performer" Hiroshi Sakano mentoring the crew of the film on how to authentically perform the popular Japanese chant utilized in the film. Subtitled in English.


• Gallery (HD) features sketches by production designer Takeo Kimura.


• Trailer (HD; 2:03)

Additionally, Radiance offers an unusually well appointed insert booklet, with some interesting writing by Hirofumi Sakamoto, Jasper Sharp and Alexander Fee and Karin Yamamoto, along with an archival "director's statement" from Toshio Matsumoto. Radiance's standard Obi strip is also included, and the keepcase sleeve is reversible.

Dogra Magra Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Films about supposed amnesiacs have always kind of intrigued me, as I've alluded to in my reviews of films like Mirage, but Dogra Magra is especially intriguing since it doesn't provide any ultimately "easy answers" as to what exactly is going on with Kure. This is an admittedly very odd and at times seemingly willfully impenetrable story, but perhaps for those very reasons, it's unusually visceral and kind of charmingly (if disturbingly) confounding. Technical merits are generally solid, even if I found the color timing to be a bit weird at times, and the supplements are very informative and interesting. Recommended.