{"id":27710,"date":"2023-12-21T03:21:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T11:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=27710"},"modified":"2023-12-21T03:21:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T11:21:05","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-elegant-beast-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=27710","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: ELEGANT BEAST (1962)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray from Radiance Films is\ncurrently available for purchase.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since its recent inception, Radiance Films has been putting\nout remarkable movies from across the globe. Titles that likely would remain\nrelatively unknown in North America had the distributor not picked up the\nrights and presented them to collectors. Their work on these discs has been\nstellar and I\u2019ve been thrilled to have been introduced to great little gems\nlike Le Combat Dans L\u2019ile, A Moment of Romance<\/em> and A Woman Kills<\/em>\n(among many others).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Radiance has released another great feature on\nBlu-ray. Elegant Beast<\/em> is a dark comedy and ensemble piece from Japan\nthat is set in a single location, but keeps viewers fascinated with a twisty\nstory, memorable characters and beautiful widescreen photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is set in a modest two-room apartment and involves\na very unusual family. It begins with Tokizo (Y\u00fbnosuke It\u00f4) and his wife\nYoshimo (Hisano Yamaoka) frantically trying to make their abode look bare and\nunkempt. Viewers soon learn why when talent agent and manager Ichiro (Hideo\nTakamatsu) arrives with his accountant Yukie (Ayako Wakao) to accuse their son\nMinoru (Manamitsu Kawabata) of stealing money from the agency. The parents act\nconfused, but really, they\u2019re all in on the scam (having hid items purchased\nwith money stolen by Minoru. When daughter Tomoko (Yuko Hamada) also arrives\nhome, it is revealed that she is the mistress of the talent agent\u2019s client\nShuntaro Yoshizawa (Ky\u00fb Sazanka), who is a noted writer. In fact, the family\u2019s\napartment rent is being paid by the novelist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, this is a family who specialize in manipulating\npeople for money. Despite various figures closing in, they are desperate to\navoid getting caught and falling into poverty. Over the course of the day, more\nindividuals demand repayment from the family, who all go to elaborate means to\nprotect each other. But as it turns out, all of the individuals they are\ndealing with are almost equally crooked, with one individual being more cunning\nand manipulative than even they could have ever imagined.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This picture moves at a brisk pace, with individuals scanning\nfor threats, then trying to hide themselves inside the apartment from visitors\nwhile other family members provide distraction. It\u2019s amusing to see everyone\nveer around walls at just the right time to avoid being sighted, or listen in\nand get a read on the people they\u2019ve stolen from. This is before appearing\nsuddenly and attempting to dissuade the guest from taking action and even\nconvincing them of giving out more cash. The widescreen framing and fun angles including\noverhead shots with the camera peeking through small openings as well as from\nabove is consistently exciting. This inventive photography looks very\nimpressive thanks to a solid 4K picture restoration (the still here don\u2019t do\nthe disc\u2019s image quality justice).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The main characters are all cutthroat and determined in\ntheir quest to steal, which adds plenty of tension to the proceedings. And as\nmentioned, one unexpected character eventually stands out as both the most\ncharming and sharpest mind of them all, completely taking advantage of everyone\nelse in the movie. It leads to an amusingly appropriate finale that leaves many\nof the characters in the same troubled state as they were in at the beginning\nof the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s a very clever effort and those who pick up the disc\nwill learn a great deal about the production from the bonus features. In\nregards to the zippy pacing, an interview with film critic Toshiaki Sato\nreveals that a lot of effort went into keeping the performances more\nnaturalistic than in typical films of the period. Characters don\u2019t necessarily\nspeak more rapidly, but the director would ask them to speed up their movements\naround the small apartment, adding a sense of urgency to the long takes .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also interesting facts about the type of housing\ncomplex featured in the movie and how appropriate it is to the story being\ntold. All the people who arrive at the doorstep complain about the lack of\nelevators, and this feature is a frequent feature of these tall buildings that\noffered cheaper rent and were often rented by the wealthy to house mistresses.\nThis is mentioned in the earlier discussions as well as an interesting visual\nessay featurette on post-war architecture in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s also an excellent appreciation piece from filmmaker\nToshiaki Toyoda (Blue Spring, Hanging Garden<\/em>) who describes the\ninventive widescreen camera set-ups and some of the messages in the movie,\nincluding its satirical content and how the movie influenced him as a director.\nIt is another compelling piece that offers nice insight into the movie. Additionally,\na trailer for the film is included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the Blu-ray also comes nicely packaged in a reversible\nsleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork. It also arrives with\na booklet containing an essay on the movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elegant Beast<\/em> is a fascinating feature that was,\nperhaps, a little ahead of its time. That means that it holds up very well in\nits depiction of a family obsessed with wealth using any tactic, including sex,\nnecessary in order to attain their many goals. Of course, at the end they can\u2019t\nquite pull off all of their scams, but it’s entertaining to watch all of these\ncharacters con others and get conned in the process. The Blu-ray looks\nwonderful and anyone who enjoys international cinema would be well advised to\ngive it a shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray from Radiance Films is currently available for purchase. Since its recent inception, Radiance Films has been putting out remarkable movies from across the globe. Titles that likely would remain relatively unknown in North America had the distributor not picked up the rights and presented them to collectors. Their work on these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[91,2923,2928,4660,5213,6251,6794,6795,6796,10385,16584],"class_list":["post-27710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-91","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-comedy","tag-dark-comedy","tag-drama","tag-elegant-beast","tag-elegant-beast-blu-ray-review","tag-elegant-beast-review","tag-japan","tag-radiance-films"],"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\/27710","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=27710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}