{"id":28524,"date":"2024-05-02T02:19:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T09:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=28524"},"modified":"2024-05-02T02:19:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T09:19:41","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-shape-of-night-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=28524","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past Blu-ray Review: THE SHAPE OF NIGHT (1964)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray is currently available\nfrom Radiance Films.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you enjoy international cinema, then there\u2019s little doubt\nthat you should be following the releases of Radiance Films. Every month, they\nput out excellent but somewhat obscure titles from other parts of the globe.\nThe Shape of Night is one of those pictures. It\u2019s a heavy Japanese drama\nfocused on a young factory worker\/barmaid who gets involved with a mysterious\nfigure who changes her life forever. While the film is extremely well regarded,\nit hasn\u2019t been easy to see in English-speaking regions. That\u2019s all changing for\nthe better with the distributor\u2019s Blu-ray release of this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins with a direct and blunt streetwalker Yoshie\nNomoto (Miyuki Kuwano) picking up new client Hiroshi Fujii (Kaisuke Sonoi).\nAfter spending some time with her, the client asks if the woman would like to\ngive up prostitution, leave the city and start a new life with him.\nSurprisingly, she is resistant to his offer, although as time passes, she\nwonders if escape might be possible. The reason for her hesitation is told\nthrough flashbacks, as we see the 19-year-old Yoshie accidentally get herself\ninvolved in the sex trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One night working as a barmaid, patron Eiji Kitami (Mikijir\u00f4\nHira) starts up a conversation. He\u2019s initially very mysterious and charming,\nwinning the na\u00efve young woman over. It isn\u2019t long before they\u2019re romantically\ninvolved and Yoshie is smitten, but the initial joy vanishes when his physical\nbehavior becomes more aggressive and his lies are revealed. The reason for the\nfigure\u2019s enigmatic acts is that he\u2019s a low-level member of the yakuza with a\ngambling problem who is in serious debt with the organization. While some might\nthink she could walk away, the poor Yoshie hasn\u2019t much of a future at home and\nis immediately manipulated by her older lover. In order to make ends meet, he\ntwists her arm and insists she engage in sex acts for money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Things get worse and worse as the story progresses. Early\non, Yoshie tries to leave, only to be taken and horrifically gang-raped by\nsenior members of the yakuza. The sequence all takes place off-screen,\ninvolving figures leaving a room, putting on their shoes one after another and\nexiting the building. Viewers do see the traumatic aftermath as Eiji tries to\nhelp Yoshie to his apartment to recover. As she takes to the streets, Eiji also\nbecomes jealous of her customers and physically abusive towards her. Several\nupsetting tragedies befall the protagonist, pushing her into a numb\npsychological state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For a film made in the early 1960s, it holds up\nexceptionally well. The focus here is on character and the relationship between\nYoshie and her equal parts cruel and pathetic wannabe gangster boyfriend\/pimp\nEiji. It is all presented in a surprisingly believable manner, often through\nclose-ups and individual looks. One can see how Yoshie would fall prey to his\nadvances and the ways he changes tactics to regain control and get her to serve\nhim feels disturbingly authentic. It\u2019s also interesting to see a detailed look\ninto the world of prostitution and how it operates as Yoshie is given a crash\ncourse in what to do and how to sell herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The performances are excellent, with star Miyuki Kuwano\nreally giving a remarkable performance. We see her as an innocent 19-year-old\nand follow her transformation into a jaded and detached sex worker in her\nmid-20s. While this is a stylish film shot in part with beautiful neon colors,\nthe cast and the details provided in the story manage to maintain a feeling of\nauthenticity throughout. Nothing is as graphic as you\u2019d see in a modern movie\non the same subject, yet it\u2019s a picture that remains hard to shake. The ending,\nas Yoshie comes to a final decision on her future, is dark but memorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a very strong film and one that deserves to be seen\nby more around the world. The Radiance Films Blu-ray delivers a generally\nstrong image. Admittedly, there is some grain and it doesn\u2019t look as if any 2K\nor 4K restorations were done on the source material, but there are plenty of\nexcellent shots with great image quality (particularly exteriors of the city\nand some of the neon-lit backstreets).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are two extras that also help explain the history of\nthe film and provide context for it in Japanese cinema. The first features an\ninterview with the 80-year-old son of director Noboru Nakamura. He talks about\nhis family\u2019s history with Shochiku, the studio who produced the picture.\nOriginally, the outfit was a theater troupe before getting into the film\nbusiness – the interviewee\u2019s grandfather actually worked for this collective.\nHis father became a moviemaker at Shochiku and made several successful pictures\nthere. While he had his own project ideas, he typically took on whatever job he\nwas assigned. However, the son notes that his dad had a good idea of what\nmodern audiences would respond to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The man explains that Nakamura was also a bit of a\nworkaholic and didn\u2019t talk much about filmmaking at home, but that he does\nremember spending time at the studio and seeing this picture in a screening\nroom when it was completed. The son remembers being proud of his dad\u2019s\naccomplishment, saying it wasn\u2019t the type of story he typically told but that\nhe did it expertly and that, even today, he still gets comments about the\npicture. His memories are sweet to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, there is another visual essay by a film\nhistorian on Shochiku and where the Japanese film industry was at this period\nin history. It seems that after the country\u2019s golden era in the 1950s with\nAkira Kurosawa and other famous filmmakers, times and attitudes were changing.\nDuring the 50s, the company was known for making humanistic movies about the\nworking-class that offered solutions to the issues raised and a feeling of\nhopefulness. As new young filmmakers emerged in the early 1960s, they were\nfinding success with bleak material, offering no answers to the societal\nproblems of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While Nakamura was older than this new wave of young\nfilmmakers, it can be assumed that he managed to successfully combine the\nhumanistic storytelling he was used to with a grittier and grimier story that\nultimately delivers a finale more in keeping with modern times.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shape of Night<\/em> is an excellent film and another\ntitle that this film reviewer would never have seen had Radiance Films not\nlicensed and released it. This is a very detailed portrait of the life of a\nprostitute in the 1960s. Audiences will still be able to relate to its themes\ntoday and are certain to appreciate this \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray if they pick\nit up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray is currently available from Radiance Films. If you enjoy international cinema, then there\u2019s little doubt that you should be following the releases of Radiance Films. Every month, they put out excellent but somewhat obscure titles from other parts of the globe. The Shape of Night is one of those pictures. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[94,2928,3073,6251,10385,14108,16445,16584,18094,22181,22182,22183],"class_list":["post-28524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-94","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-drama","tag-japan","tag-miyuki-kuwano","tag-prostitution","tag-radiance-films","tag-sex-trade","tag-the-shape-of-night","tag-the-shape-of-night-blu-ray-review","tag-the-shape-of-night-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\/28524","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=28524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}