Tokyo Drifter (Tōkyō nagaremono) (Madman) (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Mob	Main Menu Audio & Animation Gallery-Stills (5) Trailer-Death Trance; Branded To Kill; Shadowless Sword
Rating
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	79:07
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Seijun Suzuki
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Tetsuya Watari Chieko Matsubara Hideaki Nitani Ryuji Kita Tsuyoshi Yoshida Hideaki Esumi Tamio Kawaji Eiji Go
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Hajime Kaburagi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.30:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Tokyo Drifter follows young Tetsu, of the Kurata mob-family. The Kurata clan is undergoing a transitional phase at the time, as much of the old gang has been disbanded and their leader wants to try living life straight for a while. Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari), Kurata's right hand man, is following in his leader's footsteps, but is finding the path arduous at best. It seems Kurata (Ryuji Kita) still has large debts, in fact his building is about to be foreclosed by the rival Yoshii gang, threatening to re-ignite old gang feuds. Despite his relatively small debt of 8 Million, the property assets he is holding could be worth over twenty million - so it's no wonder the heavies want to settle the debt pronto.

    Tetsu becomes a bit overwhelmed by the goings-on in Tokyo and heads north, but he soon finds his name has travelled pretty well. Every would-be gangster he passes wants to recruit him, and he has Yoshii's violent henchman, The Viper (Tamio Kawaji), on his tail constantly. Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, his former mentor becomes convinced Tetsu is a threat, giving orders for him to be rubbed out. This betrayal forces Tetsu to return to Tokyo, climaxing in a fantastic final shootout.

    I'm fascinated by films that were shunned abhorrently on initial release, only to be embraced as classics in later years. Michael Powell's Peeping Tom springs to mind as another that was misunderstood an deemed to have 'gone too far'. Tokyo Drifter (Tokyo nagaremono) was similarly way ahead of its time, with a bombastic soundtrack score and bright, psychedelic colouring, director Seijun Suzuki received such a backlash to his work that he shunned the film industry for a decade. Suzuki had an acute eye for framing and perspective, as is evidenced here beautifully. Activity and colour fills some frames to the point of bursting, while other shots linger on motionless objects without apparent reason. Depth, colour and perspective are exquisite, particularly towards the film's finale, almost as though the director accelerated these tools in order to heighten the viewer's senses. This is a fascinating, visual feast.

    Suzuki's following film, Branded to Kill is a personal favourite of mine, and I feel it is the superior of these two, both in style and storytelling. Tokyo Drifter star Tetsuya Watari has the visage of a chubby Jet Li, which amuses me a bit. Having said that, I feel even an average Seijun Suziki film should be mandatory viewing, particularly if you're familiar with his other work.

Video

    The image has been framed in an aspect ratio of 2.30:1, 16x9 enhanced. The film was shot in the studio's own 35mm Nikkatsuscope, which should translate as 2.35:1. Not only is this image heavily windowboxed on all sides, it seems slightly compressed horizontally, which would account for the minor discrepancy in aspect ratio. The stretching (or distortion) to the image is quite noticeable, particularly when actor's faces occupy the screen. I also noted a slow camera pan at 63:10 that highlights the degree of image distortion in the transfer.

    Our transfer maintains a true PAL runtime, so there are no ugly NTSC conversion artefacts to be concerned about. The transfer is a little on the soft side, lacking the fine detail we'd expect of a more recent production. Having said that, I was pleased with the transfer, given the film's age. I noticed a few jagged edges now and then, usually on foreground objects.

    The film opens with a few minutes of black & white footage, which soon changes to colour for the remainder of the film. Blacks are of an adequate depth, with appreciable shadow detail to be found in darker scenes. Colours are pastel-like at best, which may be indicative of the director's tastes more than flaws in the transfer. Some scenes utilise bright coloured lighting, which is represented here quite well.

    A mild degree of MPEG compression artefacting can be seen now and then, usually in the form of grain, such as on the pale wall at 34:06. Film artefacts are few, mostly the odd spec of dirt here or there, but nothing overly obtrusive. I noted a persistent hair in the bottom right of the frame at 39:35.

    The English subtitles are optional and are comprised of a yellow font that is easy to read. White subtitles are used for locations and translation of on-screen text. The subs are usually placed in the bottom black bar of the transfer. I noticed a couple of lines of dialogue that are not translated for some reason. There are no spelling errors that I could see.

    The film has been authored on a simple single-layered disc (DVD5 format).

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There's only one soundtrack included and that is the film's original Japanese language, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (448Kb/s).

    Given the film's age, this is not too bad. The dialogue comes across a little distorted at times, usually when actors raise their voices. The foley sync is slightly out, very noticeable when punches and slaps are thrown. The film's ADR holds up well, all but for one dodgy line from a dancer at 57:50.

    I noted a few pops and crackles here and there, but the audio is in an otherwise good condition. Gun shots have a nice depth and music is much brighter than I was expecting.

    The film's theme song is sung by star Tetsuya Watari. The film's original music is credited to Hajime Kaburagi and mixes brassy jazz with percussive eastern flavours. It's a little kitschy and firmly rooted in its era, but when married with the visuals it becomes great fun.

    The subwoofer and surround channels aren't utilised, obviously.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Gallery- Stills (5)

    Five monochrome images taken from the film. Quite stylish, actually.

Trailers (3)

    Trailers are included for other Eastern Eye titles; Death Trance (2:29), Branded To Kill (0:44) and Shadowless Sword. All are 16x9 enhanced, with English subtitles included, and the last features very nice 5.1 audio.

    Judging by screen shots I have viewed, ours seems comparable to the Region 2 release by Yume Pictures (even down to the stretched image). The transfers seem identical, however, the Region 2 is an unsightly NTSC conversion.

    The local product will suffice I think, until Criterion decide to offer a remastered version of their title. Likewise, if you already own the Criterion this release doesn't necessarily represent an upgrade.

    The transfer shows its age, but could be considerably improved upon in my opinion.

    The extras are lightweight.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall