Blu-ray Review - Massacre Gun (1967)

Genre:
Crime, World Cinema
Distributor:
Arrow Video
BD Release Date:
6th April 2015 (UK)
Director:
Yasuharu Hasebe
Cast:
Jô Shishido, Tatsuya Fuji, Ryôji Hayama, Takashi Kanda,
Buy:Massacre Gun [Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD]
Massacre Gun is a Japanese Yakuza crime thriller and stars the actor most associated with the genre - to western audiences at least - Jô Shishido. Shishido is also noted for being one of the first actors known to have plastic surgery but it was to enlarge his cheeks back in the ‘50s. Massacre Gun is similar in style to Seijun Suzuki’s films but lacks the distinctive pop-art surrealism that is on show in his films.

The story of Massacre Gun is fairly standard crime film stuff; it’s about a turf war between rival gangs after Kuroda (Jô Shishido) is forced to kill his lover. He teams up with his brothers who have also been wronged by the mob to escalate their retaliation. It’s surprisingly violent for a Japanese film from the ‘60s- after all, this was the year of Bonnie &Clyde.

The director of Massacre Gun is Yasuharu Hasebe who was an assistant to Suzuki early on his career. He would later become notorious for extremely problematic “pink films”, which often had violent rape scenes. Despite his later forays into this kind of “filmmaking” Massacre Gun is a extremely stylist film which a groovy 60s jazz score and an air of noir melancholy that is only in some of the darker ends of American noir.

The climax is a shoot out on a deserted highway that would have Tarantino jizzing so hard his eyes would pop out of their sockets. It’s a more straightforward film than Suzuki’s work due to it’s narrative precision that is almost like Sam Fuller in style, very blunt no nonsense filmmaking at it’s finest. Kazue Nagatsuka is responsible for the cinematograpy who photographed a lot of Suzuki’s film so the overall look is reminiscent just without the surreal angles, lighting and production design.

Arrow Video is always reliable when it comes to special features and this is no exception. The two main features are an interview with Jô Shishido and lengthy interview with historian Tony Rayns who does a lengthy history of the studio behind the film Nikkatsu. Rayns will be doing a similar piece but the upcoming release of Retaliation but a focus on the work of Yasuharu Hasebe.

★★★★
Ian Schultz

Blu-ray Masters Of Cinema Review - Youth Of The Beast (1963,Yajû no seishun)

Seijun Suzuki's cult-following film Youth Of The Beast To Join Eureka's Master Of Cinema Family

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of YOUTH OF THE BEAST [Yajû no seishun], the breakthrough film from Suzuki, the director of such '60s New Wave Japanese classics as Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. Starring Jô Shishido, the iconic star of countless Suzuki and Nikkatsu Films pictures throughout the 1960s, this is the first release of the cult film, and will be released on Blu-ray in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition on 27 October 2014.

Right on the heels of the riotous Go to Hell, Bastards: Detective Bureau 2 3, Seijun Suzuki unleashed what would come to be seen as his true breakthrough, the film that would cement "the Suzuki sensibility": Youth of the Beast [Yajû no seishun]. A kaleidoscopic fantasia that contains "youth" and "beast" only insofar as 1963 pop/youth culture was that violently upstart thing, — not unlike the yakuza?

And so Youth of the Beast is a yakuza tale with a premise like Akira Kurosawa's Yôjinbô, but denuded of an easy definition of which side is which. It stars Suzuki's iconic '60s regular Jô Shishido, with his dare-you-to-call-them-out artificial cheek implants like new acting blasphemy. There are drug-addled whores, gunfights in a new colour apocalypse, and at least one alien landscape: the sudden mind-searing eruption of a sulphur yellow desert like an action-figure playset with overspill of unbridled lust...

Suzuki's infectious go-for-broke energy is assisted by a telephoto lens that serves at once as phallus and yoni in the masterful, Minnelli-worthy 'Scope framing. His film would go on to inspire John Woo's forthcoming remake titled Day of the Beast; Nikkatsu have in recent times deemed this movie one of their treasures. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Youth of the Beast in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition based on their new HD master.



Youth Of The Beast will arrive in glorious 1080HD on blu-ray with improved optional English subtitles,as the release is in dual format so even the DVD has had an upgrade too. The whole package comes with a 36 page booklet featuring a new essay by Frederick Veith, and rare archival imagery making this release an essential release for fans of Japanese crime genre get your copy from 27th October 2014.

Pre-0rder/Order Youth Of The Beast [Masters of Cinema] Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) (1963)

Blu-ray Review - Branded To Kill (1967)