An Actor's Revenge Revenge of a Kabuki Actor Ichikawa

( aka "An Actor's Revenge' or 'Yukinojo henge" or 'Revenge of a Kabuki Actor' or 'The Revenge of Ukeno-Jo' or 'The Revenge of Yuki-No-Jo' )

directed by Kon Ichikawa
Japan 1963

'An Actor's Revenge,' Kon Ichikawa's 1963 film is an obvious divergence from anything he had done previously. A deeply artistic film steeped in rich cultural tradition and imagery. It was one of those films that I felt was better than it actually appeared, if that makes any sense. The immense amount of work and detail put into it are obvious. The shots fully exercising the full scope of the lens and many memorable and beautiful moments caught with splashed color on dense backgrounds. 'An Actor's Revenge' did capture me for a spell and I am certain that as I watch it again that will only deepen. It was unlike most other films I have seen with subtle moments reminding me of the Korean film 'Chunhyang' with its theatrical roots and narrative.

Gary W. Tooze

Poster

Release Date: January 13th, 1963

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DVD Comparison:

BFI Region 2 - PAL vs. Animeigo - Region 1 - NTSC

(BFI Region 2 - PAL LEFT vs. Animeigo - Region 1 - NTSC RIGHT)

DVD Box Cover
Distribution	BFI Region 2 - PAL	Animeigo - Region 1- NTSC
Runtime	1:48:32 (4% PAL Speedup)	1:53:04
Video	2.35:1.0 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.2 mb/s PAL 1024x576 25.00 f/s	2.35:1.0 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.67 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
Bitrate: BFI
Bitrate: Criterion
Audio	Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)	Original or restored - Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English (non-removable)	English (Full, Limited or captions only) - yellow or green, None
Features	Release Information: BFI Aspect Ratios: - 2.35:1 DVD Encoding: Region 2 PAL Layers: Dual Extras 12 Chapters Static screen Ichikawa biography Weblink to BFI website DVD Release Date: January 27th, 2003 Transparent Keep Case Chapters: 12	Release Information: Animeigo Aspect Ratios: - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • trailer • program notes • image gallery • DVD credits DVD Release Date: October 14th, 2008 Keep Case Chapters: 30

Comments:

ADDITION: Animeigo - NTSC - October 08': Short story is that the BFI looks brightness boosted but has more detail than the Animeigo. To me the single-layered Animeigo looks vertically stretched a bit too and shows more isolated damage - but it is really only on a frame-by-frame basis. The NTSC edition shows a shade more information in the frame and is marginally wider although has a slim black border circumventing the frame slightly limiting horizontal resolution.

Animeigo are big on offering subtitle options (see our comparison of their DVD of Imamura's Ballad of Narayama) and you get a choice of dialogue, captions or both with a separation of colors (yellow and green) - see sample below.

Animeigo also give an option of original or restored audio and the restored did seem to improve over the older BFI transfer.

Extras, although mostly static, lean to Animeigo.

The BFI is almost double the price of the Animeigo which, despite its flaws, seems to have had some real effort put into the DVD production although dual-layering would have helped the presentation. Still I'll repeat that I wish this was Criterion.

***

ON THE BFI: Although not perfect image quality, it s quite strong at times. A little hazy although anamorphic. If I was to grade the image out of 10 I would give it 7.0 . Not bad, but room for improvement. There was strobbing evident in a few scenes (bright kimonos) and even in italicized sub-titles ( which are non removable English by the way ). The Extras aren't worth discussing... a few static screen on Ichikawa's life and a web link to the BFI site. The sound was good with no hiss or crackling but frankly I was expecting more considering the high interest in this release. Still, I guess beggars can't be choosers especially in the artistic DVD sense, so I thank BFI for putting this out, but again wish it was Criterion.