Tokyo Knights Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		2.5

Tokyo Knights Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 30, 2018

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.

Even the venerable Tony Rayns pretty much dismissed Tokyo Knights as the “forgettable” entry in this set of Suzuki films, which is not to say that it’s not kind of weirdly endearing at times. Playing at times almost like a live action shōnen outing, Tokyo Knights follows the exploits of the rather remarkably gifted Jatsubara Koji (Wada Koji), a kid who (among other skills) plays one hell of a boogie woogie piano, fences with the skill of an Asian Errol Flynn and (just for good measure) does a commendable interpretive dance when needed. Koji is enrolled a tony private school (hence that shōnen-esque feeling) run by nuns, though a lot of the supposed drama in the film is culled from his relationship with his recently widowed mother and some underhanded business dealings surrounding the business estate left to her and to Koji.

Tokyo Knights was at the forefront of what was then a developing subgenre fostered by Nikkatsu which might be compared at least in passing to “juvenile delinquent” dramas in the United States as exemplified by Rebel Without a Cause, perhaps mixed with some of the general sentiments of what were then (more or less) concurrent Cliff Richard releases in the United Kingdom, like Expresso Bongo, The Young Ones or Summer Holiday. What may undercut some of Tokyo Knights’ impact, and indeed its “authenticity” (not that that is ever really an element here), is its wide array of tonalities. The film careens rather wildly between overamped melodrama and pretty ineffective stabs at shtick laden humor, with occasional asides to let Koji pound the heck out whatever ivories may be nearby.

Tokyo Knights Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tokyo Knights 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.

Tokyo Knights' appearance doesn't quite match the vividness of the other color release included in this set, The Man with a Shotgun. The palette looks slightly anemic throughout the presentation, and several sequences tend to skew toward the blue side of things, something that can make the supposedly jet black hair of some characters look kind of like an oily purple, as well as giving some of the reds a slightly violet hue. This film doesn't really offer the visual blandishments of The Man With a Shotgun, but some of the nightclub material actually pops quite nicely, at least relatively speaking. Overall, the final sequences of the film, many of which take place outdoors, have the warmest overall look, though even here densities can fluctuate as they tend to do throughout the entire running time of the picture. As with most of the other outings in this set, grain looks natural and resolves without any issues.

Tokyo Knights Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tokyo Knights features a generally nice sounding LPCM Mono track in the original Japanese. While dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this presentation, the film has quite a bit of music in it, and some of that (especially some of the nightclub material) can sound just slightly muffled at times, with masked higher frequencies. That passing issue aside, fidelity is fine and there is no damage to report.

Tokyo Knights Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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)

Note: The supplement score above is for the set as a whole.

Tokyo Knights Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Tokyo Knights never really ever adds up to much, it's similarly brisk and wisely doesn't take itself very seriously (even in its overheated dramatic elements). Arrow has provided a disc with generally solid technical merits for fans interested in checking out this lesser known Suzuki outing.