Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

House of Bamboo Blu-ray Movie Review

Gay Paree has nothing on Tokyo.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 22, 2015

There’s an almost delirious intensity to the films of Samuel Fuller that some folks love and others never quite seem to get. Fuller’s tough, no nonsense narrative style has often been compared to pulp fiction of yore, and there’s a no frills ethos to much of the auteur’s work that is unmistakably his, in works as disparate in content if not in style and tone as Pickup on South Street, China Gate, The Naked Kiss, The Big Red One and even (dare I say it) Shark!. While Fuller is remembered now as something of an outsider, an iconoclast who never was quite able to matriculate easily into the vagaries of a traditional Hollywood career, it’s perhaps notable to recognize that for a while at least he was offered stability of a sort by none other than Daryl F. Zanuck, another tough as nails type who probably appreciated Fuller’s take no prisoners attitude better than some other studio honchos might have. It was during Fuller’s tenure at 20th Century Fox that House of Bamboo was released, and if one can sense a certain subtextual disconnect between a big budget studio effort trying to capitalize on an exotic setting and Fuller’s scrappier instincts, there’s a lot of fascinating material at hand in the film, not the least of which is its rather piquant homoeroticism, something that may or may not have zinged right by the heads of censors and machismo infused guys like Zanuck himself.

Fuller’s command of the CinemaScope frame is apparent from virtually the first moment of House of Bamboo, as an imposing view of Mt. Fuji provides a resplendent backdrop to—a train robbery, of all things. It’s post war Japan, and a certain criminal element is running rampant, though it’s not initially clear who they are or in fact what they’re up to. A segue to the death of a guy who was evidently one of the co- conspirators finally leads to the gist of the story, when a taciturn guy named Eddie Spanier (Robert Stack) shows up in Tokyo for aims that are, like the larger criminal enterprises that will soon be detailed, not initially clear.

Eddie is obviously on some kind of mission, though, one that involves both a pretty widow named Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi) and, ultimately, an American expat named Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan) who controls a whole gang of “enforcers” who are caught up in the local pachinko gambling parlor trade. Eddie meets and actually initially terrorizes Mariko, who it turns out was the wife of the guy seen dying in the first sequence, a guy Eddie was buddies with during World War II. At first Mariko thinks Eddie is part of the gang who murdered her husband, but he tells her he’s actually there to find out what happened, and that it would be best if she kept her mouth shut about her marriage, just in case prying eyes (and/or ears) were able to link her to the victim. Seemingly as part of the strategy to uncover what happened to his buddy, Eddie starts visiting pachinko parlors and insisting on offering “protection” himself, something that backfires when he’s accosted by Sandy’s gang and in fact Sandy himself.

Things start to get a bit convoluted from both a plot and character standpoint once Sandy decides to recruit Eddie for the gang, something that sets Sandy’s current chief acolyte Griff (Cameron Mitchell) on edge. There’s a subtle but still noticeable “love triangle” of sorts between Sandy, Griff and Eddie, one that is willfully misdirected but is unmistakable to the observant eye. It’s probably not too much of a spoiler to reveal that Eddie turns out not to be a louse but a good guy working undercover to help bring down Sandy and his gang, something that brings him into contact with the local police force, including Inspector Kitz (Sessue Hayakawa, whose next film The Bridge on the River Kwai would net him his sole Academy Award nomination). The plot mechanics are actually fairly rote throughout House of Bamboo, but the fascinating subtext and exotic setting make this a colorful if at times florid entertainment.

One of the most fascinating things about House of Bamboo is how it manages to offer a number of rather beautifully understated performances despite that aforementioned florid sensibility. Stack, one of the least declamatory actors of his era, coasts through the film, but brings a certain stolid assurance to the role of Eddie. Mitchell seeths as Griff, the “jilted lover” in the triangle whom Sandy incorrectly suspects of duplicity. But the film largely belongs to Robert Ryan, an actor who, somewhat like Stack in fact, was not prone to overly showy performances, but who manages to craft a really unforgettable character here built out of a certain minimalistic approach that serves the film’s underlying tenor of uneasiness surprisingly well.

Fuller paces things exceedingly well (even if the opening section of the film perhaps glosses over a bit too much material too quickly), and he works with cinematographer Joseph McDonald, one of the titans of CinemaScope, to make post-war Tokyo virtually another character in the film. The dialectic between the seedy, even smarmy, activities of the characters and the at times ravishingly beautiful cityscapes and countryside play like a travelogue filtered through the sensibility of someone who prefers the cold, clear gaze of truth rather than the blandishments of rose colored glasses.

House of Bamboo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

House of Bamboo is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.55:1. Reportedly culled from a new 4K scan, the presentation here is crisp and precise looking, albeit with a few slightly soft looking "baked in" anomalies that might be due to then still nascent technologies involving lenses utilized for early CinemaScope productions (a quick perusal of the screenshots accompanying this review show a slight but noticeable variance in sharpness throughout various portions of certain frames). There's been quite a bit of discussion concerning "blue push" on a number of Fox releases, but the palette here looks generally accurate, with clear, clean whites (see screenshots 8 and 13 for some examples) and good reproductions across a gamut of hues. There is a prevalence of blue throughout the film, as was also the case in The Best of Everything, but part of that at least is due to production design or indeed the natural phenomena on display. Grain resolves naturally and always looks organic, and there are no issues with image instability. Restorative efforts have delivered elements free of any distractions like scratches.

House of Bamboo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

House of Bamboo's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix offers a good spread for Leigh Harline's rather lush (and occasionally ethnically tinged) score, as well as good placement of ambient environmental effects and even some decently directional dialogue, but it tends to be a fairly front heavy mix a lot of the time. Fidelity is excellent and there's reasonable dynamic range for this rather talky enterprise, courtesy of a couple of fight scenes and the requisite shootout which caps the film. There are no problems with distortions, dropouts or other age related issues.

House of Bamboo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.


• Audio Commentaries:

  Alain Silver and James Ursini

  Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman

• Fox Movietone Newsreel: Group in Japan (480p; 1:07) shows Shirley Yamaguchi arriving in Japan. (No soundtrack.)


• Fox Movietone Newsreel: Consul Visits Set (480p; 2:06) has more candid footage of Yamaguchi as well as others in the cast. (No soundtrack.)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 2:19)

House of Bamboo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fuller fans will no doubt lap up House of Bamboo with alacrity, while those who haven't quite understood what all the fuss about Fuller is/was about may be scratching their heads at some of the weirdnesses of this film. One way or the other House of Bamboo is a fascinating example of a willful filmmaker skirting all sorts of contentious issues with a bit of a wink (and maybe a smirk), while also offering a rather luscious view of a surprisingly scenic post war Tokyo. Performances are excellent, especially Robert Ryan who manages to command the screen with little more than a cocked eyebrow (no pun intended). Technical merits are excellent and House of Bamboo comes Recommended.