Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts

6 March 2015

GFF 2015 - Man From Reno (2014)

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Genre:
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Screened:
Glagow Film Festival
Rating: 15
Director:
Dave Boyle
Cast:
Ayako Fujitani, Pepe Serna, Kazuki Kitamura,

One night, after hitting an unidentified Japanese man with his car, Sherriff Del Moral (Pepe Serna) stumbles on a mysterious case that leads him to San Francisco. There, author Aki Akahori (Ayako Fujitani) has fled Tokyo and after enjoying a brief fling with a mysterious stranger, is thrust into the very same case. Dave Boyle’s Man from Reno keeps threatening to be a dark (at least consistently serious) film pulling on film noir inspirations and pulp paperback detective stories, but it never quite gets there.

The humour is off, sometimes far too dry, others far too silly, considering the story, but then, there’s another issue. The story, in attempts to achieve the kind of ludicrous twisting narrative of the noir thriller, loses itself too many times. It delves in deeper and deeper but doesn’t manage to drag us with any great zeal. Though, one of the most interesting things about Man from Reno is its array of zany multinational characters who, though sometimes jarring, are often enjoyable. Unfortunately its array of strange characters are left in a pile somewhere out of sight, its story hopelessly convoluted and confused by too many characters and not enough intrigue. There is some success in Kazuki Kitamura’s portrayal of a handsome stranger and Serna’s wily old cop, but even when those two characters eventually meet, it’s unfortunately underwhelming.

The humour along with the mix of genre templates is surprisingly uninvolving. The darker streaks work best when married with a significant amount of mystery, but the humour inevitably sinks the boat. Del Moral’s investigation really pulls you in, but is thrown overboard by a middling and distracted story of author melodrama. This is a mixed pot that’s trying far too hard to achieve a type of story usually marked by shameless nonchalance.

Moments of gorgeous noir cinematography are few and far between in the glorified melodrama of Man from Reno. Viewers will be split by which side of the plot they enjoy more, but as a whole this isnt quite there.

★★★
Scott Clark

29 August 2014

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

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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)