Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 30, 2018

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.

Reviews of the five films included in this set can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Eight Hours of Terror Blu-ray review

The Sleeping Beast Within Blu-ray review

Smashing the 0-Line Blu-ray review

Tokyo Knights Blu-ray review

The Man with a Shotgun Blu-ray review

Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is another somewhat oddly packaged release from Arrow, with two films on one disc and three films on a second disc. Therefore, supplementary material on any given disc may not be about a particular film. Supplementary material for each disc is detailed below, and the appropriate supplements for whatever disc each film is on is also listed in the above linked reviews.

Disc One of this set contains The Sleeping Beast Within and Smashing the 0-Line along with the following supplements:

• Jasper Sharp Commentary - Smashing the 0-Line


• Tony Rayns on the Crime and Action Movies (1080p; 49:23) is another great piece featuring the knowledeable Rayns, who discusses each of the five films in this set in some detail.


• Trailers

  The Sleeping Beast Within (1960) Trailer (1080p; 3:25)

  Smashing the 0-Line (1960) Trailer (1080p; 2:54)

• Still Galleries

  The Sleeping Beast Within (1960) Gallery (1080p; 3:30)

  Smashing the 0-Line (1960) Gallery (1080p; 4:20)

Disc Two of this set contains Eight Hours of Terror, Tokyo Knights and The Man With a Shotgun along with the following supplements:

• Trailers

  Man With a Shotgun (1961) Trailer (1080p; 4:16)

  Tokyo Knights (1961) Trailer (1080p; 3:51)

• Still Galleries

  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)

As usual, Arrow has packaged this set handsomely, encasing the two keepcases in a sturdy chipboard box which also includes a nicely appointed insert booklet.

Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As Tony Rayns mentions in an appealing supplement on this set, all five of these films are probably going to be new viewing experiences for even many diehard Suzuki fans, since they've never really had any home video presence anywhere before this Arrow set. As should be expected, there is somewhat variant quality in both the films themselves and their technical presentations, but taken as a whole this is really fun set of films, and with certain caveats for individual outings taken into consideration, Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies come Recommended.