6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The life of Japanese artist and poet Yumeji Takehisa.
Starring: Kenji Sawada, Yoshio Harada, Tomoko Mariya, Masumi Miyazaki, Chikako MiyagiForeign | 100% |
Drama | 56% |
Surreal | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Japanese: LPCM 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Have you ever had a dream where something significant within it changed, and yet the dream and its internal logic seemed to continue unabated? I’ve had dreams were either I or someone else in the dream changed into someone else, and yet it was always clear who was whom and what was going on (again within the generally incomprehensible context of some of my dreams). I’m sure many of you have had a similar experience, maybe where a location in a dream suddenly morphs into someplace else, with no real concern resulting as far as the dreamer’s understanding goes. If you’re one of those rare people who have never had anything like these experiences, I need only suggest you spend a few minutes with Seijun Suzuki’s The Taishō Trilogy to get at least a hint of the feeling that ensues when a dream bizarrely transforms and yet just as bizarrely remains an organic whole unto itself. Suzuki had forged a long if not especially notable career churning out B movies for Nikkatsu, though his nascent auteur tendencies made him a bit of a persona non grata, ultimately leading to his firing (more or less, anyway) after Branded to Kill pushed the conservative studio bigwigs too far. A lawsuit and then ten years of more or less exile followed for Suzuki, but when he returned with The Taishō Trilogy, it was with those previously dismissed surreal tendencies not only intact, but arguably reinforced by his trek in the cinematic wilderness. The Taishō Trilogy takes its name from the Taishō Period in Japanese history, an era which stretched roughly from 1912 to 1926, though all three films in this set, Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagero-za (1981) and Yumeji (1991), are so intentionally mythic or at least folkloristic that they often seemed to be divorced from any specific timeframe — much as with many dreams. Also as with the type of dreams referenced above, all three films waft in and out of general narrative coherence, with striking shifts in perspective and odd visual and verbal non sequiturs that may speak directly to the subconscious but which (perhaps unavoidably) present certain obstacles to the rational mind.
All three of the films in Seijun Suzuki's The Taishō Trilogy are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with AVC encoded 1080p transfers. Despite the verbiage reproduced from the insert booklet (below), Zigeunerweisen is in 1:34, Kagero-za is in 1.33:1 and Yumeji is in 1.66:1. While not quite as informative as some Arrow comments about their transfers, the insert booklet for the trilogy contains the following:
The films in The Taishō Trilogy have been restored by Free Stone Productions in Japan using the original film and audio elements. Zeigeunerweisen and Kageroza are presented in their original aspect ratios of 1.37:1. Yumeji is presented in it original aspect ratio of 1.66:1. The films contain their original mono soundtracks.Because all three of these transfer share certain characteristics, I'm going to make some general comments about all of them before moving on to each individual film. While all three boast elements that are either in excellent shape or have been digitally restored to appear so, I personally wished for just a bit more energy in the palette, will all three looking slightly anemic and in some cases skewed toward brown. Grain is very well resolved on all three features and the overall look of the transfers is commendably organic and stable.
All three films in The Taishō Trilogy sport fine sounding LPCM 2.0 mono tracks in the original Japanese. The films all have rather interesting sound designs, with natural ambient environmental effects merging with sometimes detached feeling dialogue, and with sometimes unusual score choices added into the proceedings as well. All three tracks are unavoidably narrow sounding, but offer fine fidelity and no problems. Occasional "damage" creeps in with regard to things like the archival recording used in Zigeunerweisen.
For me personally, Yumeji was the least compelling of the three films in the Suzuki set, perhaps due to some wobbliness on the part of Kenji Sawada, but frankly probably just as much due to Suzuki's odd choice to depict a kind of sexual obsessive in a weirdly dissociative way. This film does offer some of the most astounding visions of the entire trilogy, and for those who are willing not to be bothered by narrative inconsistencies, those visions may be enough to ensure a riveting viewing experience. With caveats noted, Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1980
1981
煉獄エロイカ
1970
エロス+虐殺
1969
Uta / 哥
1972
1973
1966
Narayama-bushi kô
1983
2018
無常 / Mujō
1970
悪太郎 / Akutarô
1963
Mandara / 曼陀羅
1971
踏みはずした春 / Fumihazushita haru
1958
Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol
1964
Le testament d'Orphée
1960
Nattvardsgästerna
1963
L'éden et après
1970
心中天網島 / Shinjû: Ten no Amijima
1969
Såsom i en spegel
1961
Viskningar och rop
1972