(aka '47 Samurai" or "Chushingura" or "Loyal 47 of the Genroku Era" or "The 47 Ronin" or "The Loyal 47 Ronin ')

directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Japan 1941

 

Most film aficionados outgrow discussions of the "greatest films of all time." Not me. For more than a decade I've had three favorites. Stan Brakhage's Arabics, a series of abstract silent films of perpetually shifting colors and shapes and spaces, is one; another is Roberto Rossellini's mystical, expansive personal documentary India. And the third is Kenji Mizoguchi's two-part, four-hour Genroku Chushingura (usually translated as "The Loyal 47 Ronin of the Genroku Era"), being shown in Chicago for the first time in several years this weekend at the Film Center.

Great narrative films, whether from Hollywood or France or Japan, are often searing because their visual style articulates the story's emotions, interpreting and intensifying the drama. The same may be said of Mizoguchi's 1941-'42 film, but individual characters' emotions are seldom as important as they are in other films. Mizoguchi uses few close-ups, and the camera never seems to encourage identification with a character's inner life. Instead Mizoguchi creates music in space through slow, deliberate, magisterial long takes.

The film is based on a famous historical incident, one that inspired numerous 18th- and 19th-century Japanese plays and at least 20 films and so is well-known to Japanese audiences; told elliptically here, it could prove confusing at first. In 1701, a century after the Tokugawa shogunate ended the samurai wars, the samurai and their codes of honor began to decline in the face of a growing mercantile culture and its laws. At this time two lords at the shogun's castle in Tokyo (then called Edo) were designated to receive envoys from Kyoto. Kira had failed to instruct the younger and less experienced Asano in proper court etiquette, probably because Asano hadn't offered him the customary bribe. On the third day of the envoy's visit, Asano overheard Kira insult his knowledge of protocol, and it is with this incident that the film begins. out of

 
Excerpt from Fred Camper's review at the Chicago Reader located HERE

VHS Covers

Theatrical Release: December 8th, 1941 - Japan

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DVD Review: Image Entertainment (oop) - Region 1 - NTSC

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Distribution Image Entertainment - Region 1- NTSC
Runtime 3:41:47 
Video 1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 4.77 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:

Audio Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) 
Subtitles English, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: Image Entertainment

Aspect Ratio:
Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1

Edition Details:

• none

DVD Release Date: June 29th, 1999
Snapper Case
Chapters: 19

 

 

Comments:

This DVD is one of the most sought after in the world and is fetching prices upward of $170 US from Amazon's Marketplace. It is certainly not for the DVD image quality, but essentially is the one (English subtitled) film of the great Kenji Mizoguchi presently available on DVD in NTSC ("The Life of Oharu" and "The Lady From Musashino" have been available from Artificial Eye (Region 2 - PAL) since 2004. It is quite an old (1999) Image Entertainment release, but has removable English subtitles. It is in very poor condition with damage and flickering contrast throughout the entire 3 1/2 hours.

It is divided into two parts (1 + 2) and has nice menus considering the age of the DVD transfer. Original audio the data fills a whopping 7.78 Gig of the dual layered disc. I'm unsure if splitting this over two DVDs would have helped the image, but I suppose it is quite possible. Perhaps the biggest crime of this DVD package are the lack of extra features (as in none).

In our previous review Acquarello has stated:

"The source print is from Janus (Home Vision Cinema/Criterion label), and as a rare, neglected, and largely suppressed Japanese propaganda film (it was not available in the US until the 1970's, and even then, through inferior prints), this transfer is quite remarkable, and is probably the best that will ever surface, barring a major restoration."

Gary W. Tooze

 




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