{"id":29609,"date":"2024-09-26T15:35:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T22:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=29609"},"modified":"2024-09-26T15:35:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T22:35:02","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-tattooed-life-1965","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=29609","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: TATTOOED LIFE (1965)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This feature is currently available as a \u201cLimited\nEdition\u201d Blu-ray from Radiance Films.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While most North American cinephiles know the work of\nJapanese filmmakers Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki and Ishiro Honda, in recent\nyears several more directors have been gaining prominence. This is because many\nweren\u2019t well known here, as their work was unavailable in this part of the\nworld. Thankfully, this has slowly changed over the past few decades, with home\nvideo, DVD and Blu-ray releasing more and more titles. Radiance Films has been\na big part of resurgence, and are now releasing a work from Seijun Suzuki, who\nhas greatly risen in the view of critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe it or not, Suzuki was actually considered a B-movie\nstudio filmmaker, but his creative and unique takes on familiar subjects have\nmade a lasting impact. Retrospectives in recent years have been cementing his\nlegacy. One of his notable features is Tattooed Life<\/em>, a period Yakuza\nmovie famous for its lighting and camera work during the climax. However, the\nwhole feature is fascinating as well. It just so happens that the ending is so\nvisually iconic that it tends to be what most viewers immediately recall. This new\nBlu-ray contains a high- definition transfer of the picture provided to the\nstudio by the distributor, Nikkatsu Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot involves a Yakuza hitman named Tetsu (Hideki\nTakahashi). Despite being a criminal, he has a strong moral code and spends\nmuch of his time protecting his younger brother and artist Kenji (Kotobuki\nHananomoto). When the inexperienced sibling ends up interfering in his\nbrother\u2019s killing of a mob boss, the pair go on the run to Manchuria. Before\nthey can get there, they find themselves hiding out as laborers on a\nconstruction site. The work is miserable and as this is happening, younger\nYakuza members are vying for power and influence on the transportation project.\nSoon, the two are embroiled once again in deadly confrontations with Yakuza\nmembers. Tetsu, who has been trying to lay low, is forced to go on a rampage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the story is fairly traditional, the picture does a\nnice job of focusing on the siblings and their relationship. There are also\nsome interesting presentations of the Yakuza and the way they operate. A\nsubplot involves older and more honor-bound members of the organization being\nbrutally ousted from their roles by power-hungry and unscrupulous younger\ngangsters lacking any principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film is very creatively shot and framed. There are plenty of wide shots in which characters enter and the action shifts to the other side of the frame. And yes, when the true horror of the situation arrives and violence breaks out, the more realistic backdrops suddenly take on a strange and unreal look. The lighting literally turns red as Tetsu becomes filled with rage. His attack on a Yakuza stronghold features inventive camera angles (like a shot from below two warriors through a glass floor), as well as bold colors appearing on walls as backdrops. It\u2019s incredibly stylized and impressive to witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a really strong movie with strangely relatable characters that also shows the filmmaker experimenting creatively. The camera angles are interesting, and then arrive at something completely unique and imaginative by the last act. One can definitely see how this picture has captivated film fans, as it introduces some of the flair that director Suzuki would become known for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, the picture quality is excellent too. For a movie that hasn\u2019t been easily available for some time, it\u2019s impossible to compare it to other titles. However, it\u2019s certain that a great deal of care was taken with the transfer. The picture looks stronger than expected, with a natural filmic look that contains plenty of detailed backdrops. Naturally, the finale of the picture has always wowed and that\u2019s certainly the case with this image as the strong colors really pop off the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The disc also contains a number of excellent extras. The\nfilm historian commentary track contains excellent analysis of the picture. The\nspeaker gives plenty of details about the participants, but spends more time\ntalking about the framing, shooting style and editing of the movie. It\u2019s\ninformative, as he argues that while most end up paying more attention to the\nexaggerated flourishes and fast-cutting during the climax, early parts are\nquite different. There are a lot of contrasting elements in the first two acts.\nThe critic notes it\u2019s all intentional, does an excellent job of setting up\ncharacters, while ultimately also making the finale especially distinctive. The\ntrack even points out some of the creative editing that I hadn\u2019t noticed upon\nfirst viewing.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a great archival interview from 2006 with Suzuki\nhimself who talks about his career. He admits that he was hired as a\n\u201cprogrammer\u201d for Nikkatsu and thus wasn\u2019t necessarily given the highest quality\nprojects to work on, but states that he did all could to make them distinctive\nand special. Suzuki notes that he doesn\u2019t enjoy \u201crealism\u201d in his movies, so he\nwould start to take a more exaggerated approach to material and introduce more\nstylized and fantastic elements that appealed to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Surprisingly, this upset Nikkatsu, who ended up firing the\ndirector for his artistic flourishes that they believed wouldn\u2019t appeal to the\ngeneral public. The director mentions that this was hard, but notes that it\ndidn\u2019t really end up causing as much of a problem for him as initially thought.\nApparently, the big studio-controlled filmmaking system at the time was\nfailing, and the director was able to transition to independent features\nwithout much issue (Nikkatsu wasn\u2019t providing him with much of a budget to work\nwith anyway). The studio also forbade his films to be shown at cinema groups\nfor a time, which ended up causing a large protest with movie fans who demanded\nthe studio hear them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, Suzuki seems very happy with his career. As he\nnotes, a lot of his titles weren\u2019t big hits upon their release, but that he\nlikes them and remains surprised that so many found his movies and come to\nadmire his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also an interview with Suzuki\u2019s art director Takeo\nKimura, who tells the story of his career. He worked making sets for theater\nshows, and after losing his job found his way into movies. Kimura notes that he\nand Suzuki got along wonderfully and had a great working relationship. He\ngreatly enjoyed creating the unique sets that soon became noted by critics and\nfans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a lengthy trailer for the picture appears on the\ndisc. There is also an insert booklet containing an archival review of the\nmovie and a new write-up. The case has a reversible sleeve with newly\ncommissioned and original artwork as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who admire Japanese and Yakuza cinema, Tattooed\nLife<\/em> does represent a turning point in the career of its director and the\ngenre itself, adding now elements to the formula. It\u2019s an important movie from\na filmmaker who is becoming just as renowned as some of his more famous\ncontemporaries. The disc is super and provides a strong movie with informative\nbackground information. It\u2019s well worth picking up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This feature is currently available as a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray from Radiance Films. While most North American cinephiles know the work of Japanese filmmakers Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki and Ishiro Honda, in recent years several more directors have been gaining prominence. This is because many weren\u2019t well known here, as their work was unavailable in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,2933,2939,3073,4910,6251,9145,10385,16584,17913,19433,19607,19608,19609,19610,24579],"class_list":["post-29609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-95","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-2","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-hideki-takahashi","tag-japan","tag-radiance-films","tag-seijun","tag-suzuki","tag-tattooed-life","tag-tattooed-life-blu-ray","tag-tattooed-life-blu-ray-review","tag-tattooed-life-film-review","tag-yakuza"],"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\/29609","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=29609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}