{"id":29902,"date":"2024-10-30T01:05:36","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=29902"},"modified":"2024-10-30T01:05:36","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:05:36","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-dogra-magra-1988","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=29902","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: DOGRA MAGRA (1988)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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There are a lot of wildly divergent brain-twisting movies\nout there, from Eraserhead, El Topo, House, Inland Empire<\/em> to Enemy<\/em>\nand many more. If you\u2019re patient and look hard enough you might find meaning\nwithin them, but they don\u2019t necessarily hinge on a typical narrative storyline.\nInstead, it\u2019s the tone and atmosphere that drive these pictures. And, more\noften than not, they seem to inspire feelings of dread or sadness. The Japanese\nfeature Dogra Magra<\/em> certainly fits this bill, and in some respects is\neven more surreal that the titles listed above.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is based on a Japanese cult novel of the same name\nfrom 1935 that was, for many years, considered unfilmable. In 1988, noted\narthouse filmmaker Toshio Matsumoto (Funeral Parade of Roses<\/em>) convinced\nthe son of the author that he could adapt the book successfully. The results\nwere, much like the original novel, confounding but also fascinating, in the\nprocess earning the picture a cult following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radiance Films is now presenting the film to North American\naudiences on Blu-ray with a sharp transfer that was presented to the\ndistributor by producer Shuji Shibata. Now audiences can try and make sense of\nit all in their own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tale begins with amnesiac Kure Ichiro (Y\u00f4ji Matsuda) waking up in a psychiatric institute. After trying to find his way out, he is confronted by the staff. In particular, the two doctors Professor Masaki (Shijaku Katsura) and Professor Wakakbayashi (Hideo Murota). The confused Kure spends time with each, who both attempt to help their patient find his memories and learn why he has been institutionalized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is a difficult trip, as the two doctors use vastly different methods of treatment. Kure has many surreal visions, but makes progress, only to have the rug repeatedly pulled out from under him. He soon discovers that he might have murdered someone (just like a past relative) and spirals further, experiencing hallucinations. Eventually, Kure is told one of his doctors has been dead for weeks, leaving him wondering if his caregivers aren\u2019t mad themselves, trying to drive him insane, or if everything is happening exclusively in his psyche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie offers a suggestion or two by the close, but\nnothing is abundantly clear. It\u2019s like watching a labyrinth nightmare unfold\nthat has no answers and forces you to try and come to your own conclusions. Of\ncourse, this might be a frustrating experience for some, but if you are willing\nto go along for the ride, it offers stunning images and surreal moments that\nwill leave your head spinning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these bizarre and occasionally violent bits include a repeated image of a fetus in the water, a story within the narrative that is told using puppets, as well as a single conversation taking place at two separate but completely different locations. And when the character really struggles to keep his mind in check, the lighting stands out, including a moment when an entire office turns red and materials fly through the air, seemingly chasing Kure as he tries to escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned, the picture is gorgeously shot and the period production design is equally impressive. The transfer is quite good as well. I watched the Blu-ray on my Sony 4K player that upconverted the image and found it to be a pleasing experience on my screen. There is some natural film grain present but nothing distracting, and many of the visually dynamic moments, like the red-tinged office meltdown and puppet show look wonderful. The climax also features a bold and striking color scheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Blu-ray also comes with a few bonuses that may help\ndiscern not only what\u2019s going on but how the movie got made. There is a\ncommentary track with director Toshio Matsumoto as well as an archival\ninterview from 2003. Matsumoto recalls reading the book and, after finding that\nit spun his brain into knots, became obsessed with it. He attempted to get it\nmade for years, but found no studios willing to fund the project. After putting\nit aside, he ultimately met the son of the writer. They talked more about the\nstory and the filmmaker began, once again, to try and get it into production.\nPeriod pictures set in the same era of this story had become popular, so this\ntime the director was able to secure a small but reasonable budget to start\nshooting.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He talks about what could be occurring in the tale, although\nadmits that, just as in the novel, nothing is entirely certain. Essentially, he\nleaves it to you to make up your own mind about what is going on. During much\nof the commentary, he\u2019s stating what is being depicted and that it could mean\nthis, or something else. While it is anything but definitive, it does add\noptions to interpretations and is fun to listen to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also a featurette on the work of the\ncinematographer, who created some of the incredible imagery on display in the\nmovie. The picture also features a Japanese chant that is part of a significant\nsequence in the film. An archival extra shows \u201clegendary street performer\u201d\nHiroshi Sakano working on the tune and how to perform it properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the disc includes sketches of some of the\nsets, as well as a trailer for the movie. Naturally, the disc also comes with a\nbooklet with more writing on the movie and what is going on, and a director\u2019s\nstatement about the picture too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While I can come up with a personal theory of what might be\nhappening in this film, I have no way of knowing for sure if I am correct. But\nof course, I believe that is the point of the story and feature\u2026 to get us lost\nin the ramblings of a scrambled mind searching for some meaning or reliable\nexplanation of the world around him. It is a brain-teaser and that was always\nthe intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dogra Magra<\/em> is a fascinatingly odd movie and those\nwith a taste for the surreal will definitely appreciate the film and the\ncleaned-up picture courtesy of Radiance Films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray from Radiance Films is currently available to purchase. There are a lot of wildly divergent brain-twisting movies out there, from Eraserhead, El Topo, House, Inland Empire to Enemy and many more. If you\u2019re patient and look hard enough you might find meaning within them, but they don\u2019t necessarily hinge on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[121,2933,2952,3294,3295,3412,6010,6011,6012,6013,10385,10386,14523,16465,16584,23134],"class_list":["post-29902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-121","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blasts-from-the-past-dogra-magra-review","tag-book","tag-book-adaptation","tag-brain-teaser","tag-dogra-magra","tag-dogra-magra-blu-ray-review","tag-dogra-magra-film-review","tag-dogra-magra-review","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-mystery","tag-psychological-thriller","tag-radiance-films","tag-toshio-matsumoto"],"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\/29902","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=29902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}