Tokyo Fist Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Tokyo Fist Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 12, 2014

Winner of Best New Actor Award at the Kinema Junpo Awards, Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tokyo Fist" (1995) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers for the film; music video; and new video interview with the Japanese director. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Tsuda and his girl

The main protagonist in Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tokyo Fist is a young insurance salesman who lives in a small but stylish apartment in the heart of the Japanese capital together with his fiancé, Hizuru (Kahori Fujii, Ju-on: The Curse 2). Tsuda’s (Tsukamoto) life is stressful, but he isn’t complaining because he realizes that he is lucky to have a job.

One day, on the way back from work Tsuda meets Kojima (Koji Tsukamoto, the director’s brother, When the Last Sword is Drawn), an old friend who fights in the city’s underground clubs to make ends meet. The two talk and later on Tsuda introduces Kojima to Hizuru. Kojima immediately senses that Hizuru has a wild side and decides to seduce her. The two meet again and when Tsuda discovers that his fiancé has started cheating on him he goes berserk.

Tokyo Fist is not the most graphic of Tsukamoto’s films, but it is arguably the Japanese director’s most disturbing one. The main reason why is the fact that the film essentially treats violence the same way most conventional films treat lovemaking - suggesting that beauty and pleasure are integral parts of it.

Pain also gets a lot of attention in Tokyo Fist, though there does not appear to be any fascination with it. As far as Tsukamoto is concerned, it is basically part of Japanese reality. In other words, Japanese men and women are forced to embrace it because they can’t escape it. Tsukamoto also speculates that once they become exposed to pain some of them become seriously addicted to it. (Another very curious and very dark film with a similar message is Marina de Van’s In My Skin).

After Hizuru leaves Tsuda he becomes addicted to pain, though what fuels his addiction is clearly his desire to win back his fiancee. Like most serious addicts he frequently finds himself in some rather compromising situations in order to get his fix, which is why the film occasionally looks and feels somewhat disjointed. But once the viewer realizes what motivates him, the chaos begins to make perfect sense.

Like the majority of Tsukamoto’s films, Tokyo Fist has a very unique look. There are plenty of unusual cuts and zooms, overshots, and close-ups. Colors, light and shadow are also used in a variety of different ways to enhance the film’s moody atmosphere. Though not as prominent as it is in The Iron Man and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, the Japanese director’s love for metal is easily felt in this film as well.

The acting is a bit over the top, but considering the film’s subject more often than not it actually feels appropriate. Once his fiance leaves him, Tsukamoto becomes like a wounded animal – unpredictable and even dangerous. Fujii, a very beautiful and very elegant actress, is especially good during the second half, where she begins hurting her former lover in a variety of different ways. The director’s brother, however, frequently looks stiff in front of the camera.

The film’s industrial/electronic soundtrack was created by solo artist Chu Ishikawa, who also scored Tsukamoto’s classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, and A Snake of June.

Tokyo Fist Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Shinya Tsukamoto's Tokyo Fist arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films.

Like Bullet Ballet, Tokyo Fist transitions to Blu-ray with a brand new high-definition transfer supervised by its creator. Generally speaking, the film looks very good in high-definition. During select sequences clarity and contrast levels fluctuate, but definition remains pleasing. A blue filter is also used to enhance the moody atmosphere, but all of the fluctuations that appear during these sequences are clearly intended. Elsewhere light is also intentionally underexposed to make portions of the film look quite edgy. There are no traces of excessive denoising correction. The encoding is good, but my feeling is that there are areas of the film some optimizations could have been done. Still, the final result is very good, which is why I am convinced that fans of the film and director Tsukamoto's work will be very pleased the technical presentation of Tokyo Fist. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Tokyo Fist Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Third Window Films have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The lossless track is very strong. Chu Ishikawa's industrial soundtrack clearly benefits the most from the lossless upgrade, but there parts of the film where random sounds and noises are also extremely easy to identify now. Considering the fact that the film was shot with a small budget, the overall dynamic intensity is also surprisingly good, The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow. The English translation is excellent.

Tokyo Fist Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Japanese Trailer - original Japanese trailer for Tokyo Fist. Music only, with English text. (1 min).

• Music Video - Isolation and Move On from Tokyo Fist. Courtesy of Kaijyu Theater Co., Ltd and Makotoya. (5 min).

• Tokyo Fist UK Trailer - original UK trailer for Tokyo Fist. In Japanese, with imposed English subtitles. (3 min).

• Interview - in this long and very informative video interview, director Shinya Tsukamoto discusses the production history of Tokyo Fist, the film's unique themes and messages, and his directing methods. The interview is broken into three parts. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles.
  
  1. About Tokyo Fist (19 min).
  2. About Tokyo Fist & Bullet Ballet (4 min).
  3. General Thoughts (5 min).

Tokyo Fist Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have to say that Tokyo Fist is easily Shinya Tsukamoto's most disturbing film. It is not as graphic as some of the Japanese director's earlier films, but there is something about its attitude towards violence and pain that makes everything look a lot more real than it is. The film looks very good on Blu-ray. Let's hope that soon we will also see a new restoration of the beautiful A Snake of June. RECOMMENDED.