6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A newspaper reporter's search for his girlfriend's missing father lead him into heart of the criminal underworld of Yokohama's Chinatown.
Starring: Hiroyuki Nagato, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Shinsuke Ashida, Kinzô Shin, Kôjirô KusanagiForeign | 100% |
Mystery | 2% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Japanese: LPCM Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
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.
The Sleeping Beast Within is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. 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.I kind of wish we had a little bit more information on the provenance of the various transfers in this set, since a cursory examination of the screenshots included with this review should hopefully show fairly clearly that there's a significant drop off in quality with The Sleeping Beast Within when compared to the rest of the films in this set. While there is fine grain evident, especially when backgrounds are lighter, the entire presentation here looks scrubbed and waxy, to the point that things look positively blurry quite a bit of the time. As has been well documented in supplementary materials included in this set, none of these films has really had a home video presence even in their native Japan before this release, but aspects of the appearance of this particular film do in fact look more like video than film. Those issues aside, contrast is generally pleasing here, and I will say that the film looks considerably better (if far from perfect) in motion than some of these screenshots might suggest.
Fortunately there's nothing similar going on with The Sleeping Beast Within's LPCM Mono track (in the original Japanese). While there's the same generally boxy sound that the other films in this set also have, there's no real damage. Some of the music and occasional urban noises can sound a bit brash and brittle, but dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout.
Disc One of this set contains The Sleeping Beast Within and Smashing the 0-Line along with the following supplements:
- The Sleeping Beast Within (1960) Trailer (1080p; 3:25)
- Smashing the 0-Line (1960) Trailer (1080p; 2:54)
- The Sleeping Beast Within (1960) Gallery (1080p; 3:30)
- Smashing the 0-Line (1960) Gallery (1080p; 4:20)
It's a bit disappointing that the video presentation here is lackluster, because The Sleeping Beast Within is really a rather interesting "little" film. While Tony Rayns makes the case that the title may refer to Keiko's father, who has given in to the "dark side" (so to speak), I think it could also be reasonably interpreted to mean the perhaps fanciful paranoia the film indulges in that the "pristine" island nation of Japan was being invaded by no goodniks resolutely intent on getting everyone hooked on the big H.
(Still not reliable for this title)
密航0ライン / Mikkô zero rain
1960
東京騎士隊 / Tokyo naito
1961
8時間の恐怖 / Hachijikan no kyôfu
1957
悪太郎 / Akutarô
1963
踏みはずした春 / Fumihazushita haru
1958
散弾銃の男 / Sandanju no otoko
1961
悪太郎伝 悪い星の下でも / Akutarô-den: Warui hoshi no shita demo
1965
1980
2013
2005
夢みるように眠りたい / Yumemiru yōni nemuritai
1986
死亡塔 / Si wang ta / Tower of Death
1981
Je Serai Seule Après Minuit
1931
Château de rêve
1933
Les quatre soeurs
2018
Tian can bian / Tin cam bin / 天蠶变
1983
The Crying Woman | Indicator Series | Standard Edition
1933
Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes
1962
1998
2012