6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A bus making its precarious way across a winding mountain road picks up some unwelcome passengers.
Starring: Nobuo Kaneko, Harue Tone, Sumiko Minami, Hisako Hara, Kenjiro UemuraForeign | 100% |
Crime | 9% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Japanese: LPCM Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This film is available as part of Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies
.
Arrow is continuing to give Japanese cinema fans a field day with new sets devoted to the genre offerings of Seijun Suzuki. Almost a year ago
now,
Arrow released Seijun Suzuki's The Taisho
Trilogy, a trio of frankly often near hallucinatory efforts that initially had their theatrical exhibitions in the 1980s and 1990s. Arrow has
now
reached further back into what might be thought of as the formative years of Suzuki, offering both Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 1 - Seijun Rising: The
Youth
Movies (which Arrow has unfortunately been unable to provide a screener for as of the writing of this review) and Seijun Suzuki: The
Early
Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies. This second volume obviously includes the sobriquet “Crime and Action
Movies”, and as fans of Suzuki will know, at least some of his now considerable reputation was built upon yakuza outings, but as the rest
of
that subtitle announces, probably all five films in this set could be seen as crossing borders, i.e., incorporating the kind of crazy quilt combo platter
of
idioms and approaches that became a Nikkatsu hallmark, namely the so-called “borderless action” film.
Eight Hours of Terror is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. Arrow's insert booklet only contains the following pretty generic verbiage about all five films in this set:
The films in this collection were remastered in high definition by Nikkatsu and delivered to Arrow Films. Additional restoration and grading work was completed at R3store Studios in London. Each film is presented in its original aspect ratio with its original mono audio.This is the only (near) Academy Ratio outing in this set, and while it doesn't quite offer the same consistent qualities of Smashing the 0-Line (which is in 2.35:1), it's considerably better looking than the one other black and white film in this set, The Sleeping Beast Within. There are occasional evident signs of age related wear and tear in terms of things like small scratches and actually pretty large reel change markers, but the biggest issue facing this transfer is variable contrast. Some of the presentation looks spot on, with deep blacks and nicely modulated gray scale, but other moments have pretty milky looking blacks and a kind of hazy miasma overlaying the imagery. Grain resolves naturally throughout and helps to make this commendably organic looking.
Eight Hours of Terror features an LPCM Mono track in the original Japanese. There are occasional slight age related issues that can be heard here, including very brief scuffs and the like, but there's a surprising homogeneity to the track considering the variety of studio and location work (it does look like some post looping must have been done). Everything sounds slightly boxy, and some of the more strident music cues have slight distortion, but there's nothing overly problematic.
Disc Two of this set contains Eight Hours of Terror, Tokyo Knights and The Man With a Shotgun along with the following supplements:
- Man With a Shotgun (1961) Trailer (1080p; 4:16)
- Tokyo Knights (1961) Trailer (1080p; 3:51)
- Eight Hours of Terror (1957) Gallery (1080p; 00:24)
- Man With a Shotgun (1961) Gallery (1080p; 00:21)
- Tokyo Knights (1961) Gallery (1080p; 00:21)
Perhaps just a little cheekily, Tony Rayns offers another cinematic comparison to 8 Hours of Terror, namely the relatively recent sensation Train to Busan. The enclosed, threatened space aspect is certainly comparable, as is the political subtext, but of course there are virtually no zombies in 8 Hours of Terror, an element I can imagine Suzuki actually probably would have considered somewhat later in his career. This is a solidly crafted and at times extremely suspenseful "programmer" that provides ample evidence of the talent Suzuki was already bringing to his job at Nikkatsu as early as 1957. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
散弾銃の男 / Sandanju no otoko
1961
探偵事務所23 くたばれ悪党ども / Kutabare akutô-domo - Tantei jimusho 23
1963
密航0ライン / Mikkô zero rain
1960
東京騎士隊 / Tokyo naito
1961
野獣の青春 / Yajû no seishun
1963
天注定 / Tian zhu ding
2013
初恋 / Hatsukoi
2019
악인전 / Akinjeon
2019
Minagoroshi no kenjû
1967
1999
1968
Hai Phuong
2019
ドーベルマン刑事 / Doberuman deka
1977
Milano trema: la polizia vuole giustizia
1973
峠を渡る若い風 / Tôge o wataru wakai kaze
1961
ハイティーンやくざ / Hai tiin yakuza
1962
1999
Ore ni sawaru to abunaize
1966
Plemya
2014
La proie
2011