{"id":20950,"date":"2020-07-29T16:59:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T23:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20950"},"modified":"2020-07-29T16:59:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T23:59:14","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-mad-fox-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20950","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE MAD FOX (1962)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray is currently available from Arrow Academy (www.arrowvideo.com<\/a> \u2013 <\/strong>www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/<\/strong><\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While Arrow Video is constantly putting out impressive Blu-rays\nof out-of-print genre fare, their arthouse division, Arrow Academy, is no less remarkable.\nThey have gone to great lengths locating and remastering films from around the\nworld. Recently, they debuted the surreal a Blu-ray of the Japanese fantasy The\nMad Fox<\/em> (1962) aka Love, Thy Name Be Sorrow<\/em>, a feature that was\nnominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Amazingly, this impressive\nBlu-ray marks the first time it has been made available in this part of the\nworld. Created by award-winning director Tomu Uchida (Tsuchi<\/em>, A Fugitive\nfrom the Past<\/em>), it marks an interesting transition between traditional\nstorytelling and more experimental techniques that would flourish over the\nfollowing decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lengthy narration opens the film, detailing how falling in\nlove can lead to nothing by sadness. During the reign of Emperor Suzaku (930-946\nA.D.), Mt. Fuji begins erupting regularly and the public note a strange white light\nor rainbow drifting in the sky. It\u2019s a bad omen and the emperor\u2019s astrologist,\nYasumori, is tasked with interpreting these natural phenomena. He refers to an\nincredibly rare text known as The Golden Crow, which explains the secrets of\nYin and Yang. Yasumori has two adopted disciples who will take over his position\nonce he passes away. The first, Yasuna, is honorable, kind and in love with his\nmaster\u2019s adopted daughter. The second figure, the power-mad Doman, plots with Yasumori\u2019s\nwife to take control as the new royal astrologer. Horrible events follow involving\nmurder and violent retribution. Yasuna is driven mad by loss and before life\ntakes even more fantastic and unfortunate turns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Initially, the movie feels like a fairly traditional cinematic\ndrama involving a sinister power play and a tortured hero seeking vengeance while\ndealing with personal loss. However, things change fairly quickly. Truth be\ntold, it\u2019s unexpectedly violent early on as the villainous characters torture\nthe protagonists. The acts are all presented in a very icy and blunt manner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the halfway point forward, as Yasuna\u2019s madness takes hold,\nevents take a decidedly more surreal turn like something out of a fairy tale. The\nbackdrops look less like traditional palaces and become more akin to a colorful\ntheater stage. As for the plot, we learn that shapeshifting wolves roam the\nland that these beings sometimes move in the company of humans (the performers wear\nwolf masks after transforming back to their animal form). Of course, the story\nof the wolves is no less unfortunate, as they undergo pain and suffering at the\nhands of humans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It takes some time to get on the movie\u2019s wavelength and adapt\nto the cultural quirks and the sudden appearance of supernatural elements. Yet\neven if it requires a bit of time to understand the film\u2019s unique subtleties,\none eventually will come to conclusions about the concepts being addressed. And\neven if one simply shuts the brain off, this is a trippy, gorgeously shot feature\nwith impressive widescreen photography. It\u2019s a movie that includes an incredibly\nbold color palette, numerous high angle images, animated characters and large sets\non various soundstages that swing and swivel past a stationary camera. This is\nquite unlike anything else made during its era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for meanings, if some of the translated dialogue is to be\ntaken quite literally, falling for someone brings out the worst in people and\ncan even lead to horrible acts and death. The final line literally states that\none should never fall in love, because it can only lead to emptiness. However,\nfrom this viewer\u2019s perspective the filmmaker likely realize that this is\nimpossible advice to follow, and that perhaps viewers should simply come to\nrealization that tragedy and loss are an inevitable part of life and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It sounds a little bleak, but the movie plays more like a\nsumptuously shot intellectual exercise than a soul-crushing emotional journey. And\nthe spinning yellow flower field sets and carefully constructed shacks are all\nincredible to look at, even if what is going on within them is downbeat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Visually, this is a fascinating and completely unique movie\nthat should appeal to fans of world cinema or with an eye for photography. It also\ncomes with a new restoration. While the image quality isn\u2019t crystal clear,\nthere won\u2019t be any complaints about picture quality. It doesn\u2019t exactly look\nlike a brand-new movie, but the picture and framing still pops in several\nsequences and makes a great impression. Given the various experimental effects that\nwere used to create the final product and print, it\u2019s highly unlikely that the movie\ncould look any better than it does here. The Blu-ray also includes a trailer\nand an image gallery with photos from the production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest bonus here is the commentary track by a Japanese\ncinema expert. He provides a great deal of background information about the filmmaker\nand cast, while also helping to explain how the movie contrasts with others\nduring this cinematic period. He remarks that the film is decidedly less like\nearlier works from Uchida, moving away from most popular themes (samurai flicks\nwere big at this time) and instead focusing on a bolder and more personal approach\nto filmmaking. Admittedly, it can be a little dry when the speaker lists off all\nof the cast and crew members and details their various credits, but there is\nsome valuable and illuminating information contained within the track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, it is truly wonderful that Arrow are continuing\nto rescue unique and unseen material like The Mad Fox<\/em>. Those curious\nabout Japanese cinema history will see this title mix old-fashioned and new movie\ntechniques in order to create a completely new movie experience. Like the title\nsuggests, this film may be a bit insane, but is a slickly produced and\ncompelling ride. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Blu-ray is currently available from Arrow Academy (www.arrowvideo.com \u2013 www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/). While Arrow Video is constantly putting out impressive Blu-rays of out-of-print genre fare, their arthouse division, Arrow Academy, is no less remarkable. They have gone to great lengths locating and remastering films from around the world. Recently, they debuted the surreal a Blu-ray of the Japanese fantasy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[92,2923,2928,3073,4483,10386,12857,12858,12859,21469,23071],"class_list":["post-20950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-1962-love-thy-name-be-sorrow","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-classic","tag-japanese","tag-mad-fox-blu-ray-review","tag-mad-fox-movie-revew","tag-mad-fox-review","tag-the-mad-fox","tag-tomu-uchida"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}