{"id":27949,"date":"2024-02-06T21:03:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T05:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=27949"},"modified":"2024-02-06T21:03:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T05:03:14","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-sting-of-death-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=27949","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE STING OF DEATH (1990)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Trying to work through marital problems can be a painful\nexperience, especially when dealing with issues like infidelity. Based on a\n1985 book of the same name by Toshio Shimao, the period drama The Sting of\nDeath<\/em> takes its difficult theme to new levels of despair. It\u2019s a rough\nwatch and says as much about Japanese society during this era as it does about\nmarriage. The feature won many accolades during its initial release. In fact,\nit took home the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes that year and was nominated for the\nGolden Palm award. This well-respected effort hasn\u2019t been seen by a great many\npeople in this part of the world, but Radiance Films are attempting to\nintroduce more to the story with their new Blu-ray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miho (Keiko Matsuzaka) and her struggling writer husband\nToshio (Ittoku Kishibe) live a modest life in a small home with two infants.\nThe story begins with Miho confronting Toshio for cheating on her with another\nwoman that he knows through his work. To say she is displeased would be an\nextreme understatement. The wife veers between tears, verbal insults and\nquestions about his illicit relationship. Toshio attempts to dodge the\nquestions and simply asks for forgiveness, but she ultimately ignores his request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the following weeks, the quiet tension between them\ndoesn\u2019t let up. She threatens suicide, then suggests she will murder his lover\nKumiko (Midori Kiuchi) before acting out in strange ways. Toshio fails to\nanswer queries about their struggling relationship and why he cheated,\nfrustrating her further. But eventually he does become guilt-ridden and\npromises to do anything she tells him in order to regain her trust. In fact,\nmany different approaches are taken by the couple (including moving away from the\ncity), but over the course of events things only seem to get worse between\nthem. Miko eventually acts psychologically unhinged. Everything comes to a head\nwhen Kumiko unexpectedly appears to drop off a message from herself and\ncoworkers to Toshio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story really hones in on this couple, with the world\naround them becoming little more than a backdrop. Viewers are forced to spend\nthe entire running time with them though an incredibly awkward and painful\nsituation. There are plenty of long shots of the two in closed quarters in\nsilence or having stilted conversations that eventually work their way around\nto Miho\u2019s distrust of her husband. While the tone is relatively low-key, the\ndiscomfort and anger bubbling under the surface is palpable throughout and\noccasionally reaches a boil with the wife physically lashing out at her spouse\nor others within her grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While audiences might side with one character or another, from this viewer\u2019s perspective both leads are flawed. Obviously, the husband initially has checked out of the relationship and has treated his wife horrifically. Despite having psychological issues, Miho is strong early on in many respects, putting Toshio through the ringer and making him suffer for his misdeed. But as time passes it just looks like two people tormenting each other out of revenge rather than trying to make any sort of progress. Over the course of the story, one begins to see why the marriage may have been cold and loveless from the beginning and it\u2019s fascinating to see them both exist in agony rather than admit that the relationship is beyond repair.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the end, one feels truly sorry for the sweet children,\nwho are the real victims. They have to stand around and watch the two most\nimportant people in their lives deal cruelly with one another and ultimately\nbreak beyond repair. The best-case scenario is that those kids will no doubt be\nspending a great deal of time in therapy, if all that they have witnessed\ndoesn\u2019t ultimately push them down a similar life path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The print looks decent. It does have some grain and isn\u2019t in\nperfect shape, but no doubt at present this is as good as the movie can look.\nThis is essentially a small and intimate household drama and its appearance\nactually makes one think that the movie is older and closer to the era it\u2019s set\nin, which is actually a benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are two informative extras included on the Blu-ray.\nThe first is with film scholar Hideki Maeda, who talks about the production and\nhow the movie managed to differentiate itself from early Japanese cinema. He\nsuggests that the picture was part of a new trend that dealt with specific\nindividuals in stories and noted a wide overview with many characters. The\ncritic notes that the movie takes traditional values of the county and shows\nthem breaking through its characters, who suffer greatly trying to follow\nsocial conventions instead of dealing with their problem in a modern way.\nDuring the discussion he also analyzes the use of long takes and how those\ndeafening silences and sharp looks really make viewers feel uncomfortable. It\ncertainly helps western audiences get a clearer sense of some of the specific\nissues that the story is dealing with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also a nearly hour-long French documentary on the Japanese film renaissance of the 1990s. To be completely truthful, The Sting of Death<\/em> isn\u2019t significantly featured. Instead, it details how many of the Japanese filmmakers who came into prominence got their start and how these titles started breaking away from old-fashioned stories and conventions. In the process, their movies began reaching wider, international audiences. Among the many participants, there are interviews with Takashi Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins<\/em>) and a long segment on Studio Ghibli that includes a discussion with a genial and modest Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away<\/em>, and this year\u2019s The Boy and the Hero<\/em>). These are great talks in which the moviemakers discuss their inspirations, what they have attempted to do in their films and even ways in which they believe they could still improve their storytelling. It\u2019s a very interesting piece. The disc also includes a trailer for the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sting of Death<\/em> is a dark drama that torments its\ncharacters and occasionally the viewer, but the movie is exceptionally acted\nand keeps viewers glued to their seat. You\u2019ll certainly wonder if there\u2019s any\nkind of positive resolution for the central characters, and the extreme ends\nthey go to express their frustration and\/or distrust. It\u2019s an impressive work\nthat lingers in the mind long after the story ends. Those who pick up the disc\nwill also get some interesting bonus features that give some context for the\nmovie and may inspire one to seek out more Japanese titles from the era. For\nperiod drama fans, it\u2019s worth checking out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying to work through marital problems can be a painful experience, especially when dealing with issues like infidelity. Based on a 1985 book of the same name by Toshio Shimao, the period drama The Sting of Death takes its difficult theme to new levels of despair. It\u2019s a rough watch and says as much about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[123,741,2928,2933,3073,6251,9871,10385,16584,22301,22302],"class_list":["post-27949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-123","tag-adaptation","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-drama","tag-international","tag-japan","tag-radiance-films","tag-the-sting-of-death","tag-the-sting-of-death-blu-ray-review"],"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\/27949","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=27949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}