The Incident at Blood Pass (Machibuse) (1970)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Zatoichi At Large; Samurai Assassin; Kill! Reversible Cover
Rating
Year Of Production	1970
Running Time	112:40 (Case: 118)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (52:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Hiroshi Inagaki
Studio Distributor	Madman Madman Entertainment	Starring	Toshirô Mifune Yûjirô Ishihara Ruriko Asaoka Shintarô Katsu Kinnosuke Nakamura Chûsha Ichikawa Ichirô Arishima Mika Kitagawa Yoshio Tsuchiya Jotaro Togami Chieko Nakakita Ryunosuke Yamazaki Seishiro Hisano
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Masaru Satô

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, Machibuse is the second of two films from 1970 to star both Toshiro Mifune and Shintaro Katsu, the other being Yojimbo Vs. Zatoichi, an installment in the famed Zatoichi series. Incident at Blood Pass is the better of the two in my opinion, with vastly superior direction and an interesting ensemble cast. The literal English translation of Machibuse is Ambush, and that sums up the film pretty accurately.

    A cross-section of characters happen to meet at an Inn, operated by an old man and his granddaughter. These include a nameless Ronin (Toshiro Mifune), a crooked gambler/wanderer who is trying to go straight, a cynical law-keeping officer and his captured criminal, a shifty ex-doctor (Shintaro Katsu) and an abused runaway wife. The Ronin has been given vague instructions to wait there for something to happen and he does just that, resting and enjoying their tough-as-nails sake. When he discovers that his mission is to assist a gang in stealing the Shogunate's gold, he is ordered to kill the innocent inhabitants of the inn, including a beautiful woman he rescued from an abusive husband. All is not what it seems however, and the whole scheme turns out to be a double cross aimed at shafting the gang leader. The Ronin may have to choose between his honor and the affections of a beautiful woman.

    Machibuse has a distinct western feel about it, partly due to the epic, highly memorable score by Masaru Satô. It's not particularly bloody as far as swordplay films go and there is a very lame fistfight scene included. Mifune and Katsu, however, are an awesome on-screen pair and it is their interaction alone that makes this essential viewing for fans of Samurai cinema. Sadly, this was Inagaki's last outing behind the camera.

Video

    This transfer is presented in the film's original 'tohoscope' theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. 16x9 enhancement is included.

    The level of detail is quite good, although the image does become a little grainy at times. Black levels appear solid and given it's age, this is a decent presentation.

    The film's colouring is completely natural and doesn't suffer from any bleeding or oversaturation at all. Skin tones appear accurate.

    An ample constant video bitrate of 8.4 Mb/s has been applied and I didn't note any MPEG compression artefacting. Some film artefacts can be seen but these never amount to anything more than tiny specs of dust and dirt. I noticed some distracting combing artefacts at 58:29, which may point to an interlaced video master.

    An English subtitle stream is activated by default and can be removed if necessary. The font is coloured yellow for spoken words and white for translation of titles on screen. The text is normally situated within the bottom black bar of the transfer. I noted a couple of spelling errors in the text and there is a strange fault present that repeats some lines unnecessarily.

    This disc is dual layered (DVD9 formatted), with the layer transition placed during a still, silent moment mid-scene at 52:22.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film's original Japanese language mono soundtrack is provided, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. This audio stream is incorrectly flagged as English on the disc itself.

    The dialogue is always clear and easy to discern. There are no irritating ADR or sync issues to speak of. On the whole, this soundtrack is crisp and easy on the ears, free of distortion and any nasty pops or clicks.

    The score by Masaru Satô is obviously western influenced, orchestral and epic with bursts of brass that are accompanied by interesting threads of traditional Japanese percussion. This is an inspiring score and highly memorable.

    The surround channels and subwoofer were given the night off.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (2:47)

    The trailer is not 16x9 enhanced, however it is very well subtitled.

Madman Trailers (3)

    Trailers are included for Zatoichi At Large, Samurai Assassin and Kill!

Reversible Cover Slick

    The reverse side of the slick is void of ratings logos.

    The transfer is good.

    The extras are limited to several trailers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall