British based boutique label Radiance Films have made a
concerted effort to bring the works of Japanese film director Tai Katô to blu-ray
disc for western consumers for the very first time outside of Japan. A former assistant director to Akira Kurosawa
during the making of his 1950 masterpiece Rashomon before making the
yakuza and postwar dramas Tokijiro Lone Yakuza in 1966 and the prison film
Eighteen Years in Prison the following year. Though his film directing career began in
1951, Katô didn’t mount his first official yakuza film entry into his canon
until 1965 with the forthcoming Radiance Films release Blood of Revenge. Making its worldwide debut on the blu-ray
disc format in high definition featuring a short film from 1943 by Katô,
limited edition booklet and slipcover, the film like the other two Radiance
acquisitions represent some of the most formally brilliant technical filmmaking
as well as impassioned performances of the director’s filmography in this
surefire stone-cold masterwork.
It is 1907 Osaka pre-WWII predating the proliferation of the
Taishō era of western modernization when during the ceremonial presentation of
the Kiyatatsu syndicate construction business a lone assassin from the Hoshino
gang tries to take the senior boss Kiyatatsu out with a loaded gun. As it fails, triggering a wave of retaliatory
violence with Hoshino members destroying construction sites and even killing a
Kiyatatsu member, senior lieutenant Kikuchi (Koji Tsurata) tries to keep the
peace when his boss dies and he winds up succeeding him.
Taking his hothead drunkard son under his
wing as the official director of the Kiyatatsu company, helping to set the kid
straight while also coming to the protective aid of a prostitute trying to
escape her brutal companion’s clutches, Kikuchi seems to keep things stable for
awhile. Until another, more intense form
of sabotage is hurled by the Hoshino gang against Kiyatatsu’s, Kikuchi
maintains a code of honor and peace despite his yakuza roots and he is forced
to choose between being nonviolent and turning to his old ways to try and
eliminate the Hoshino threat once and for all.
Highly stylized in tight precise Toeiscope 35mm widescreen
by Sex & Fury cinematographer Motoya Washio featuring breathtaking
luminescent vistas of sunsets, dynamic framing featuring characters drifting in
and out of frame mid-shot in an almost Fukusaku-esque approach, the film is
flat out ravishing and very sharp to look at.
Prolific composer Shunsuke Kikuchi’s music known for his work sampled in
the Kill Bill films and Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell serves up a
rousing yet also somewhat understated score careful about creating ambience
with some sequences taking place in near total silence.
As a Japanese period piece aspects of it
forecast what would or wouldn’t evolve into Seijun Suzuki’s Taishō Trilogy including
but not limited to Zigeunerweisen, though let it be known this is not a
surrealistic interpretive drama but a straight laced ‘chivalrous’ yakuza yarn
featuring a brilliant and nuanced performance by Koji Tsurata who is at heart a
dangerous killer but only when cornered as his eyes and calm face almost always
convey benevolence and chivalry. Take
for instance a scene where he slaps the boss’ son Haruo (Masahiko Tsugawa) around
for being impertinent. After doing so,
he calms the youth down and apologizes for resorting to violence and the boy is
humbled before rising to the occasion of reformation. While featuring a strong supporting ensemble
cast, the film rests almost entirely on Tsurata’s shoulders and there’s an air
of safety he brings to the character. He
might be a yakuza but he’ll reach out a helping hand to a friend or even a foe
in need.
Between their Daiei Gothic boxes
and their new UK exclusive Nagisa Oshima box, they’re scouring the annals of
Japan’s film archives in search of only the very best their film industry has
to offer. Between their recent acquisitions
of numerous Tokuzo Tanaka films including The Betrayal and their attention
devoted to Tai Katô’s work, Radiance Films could very well be the new world
leader in publishing Japanese movies at a pace that’s been hard to keep up
with, not that anyone is complaining.
--Andrew Kotwicki