Tattooed Life Blu-ray - Hideki Takahashi, Masako Izumi

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance is essential to our survival.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter and Calendar Updates sent to your Inbox!
2) Access to over 100,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change! / a coffee!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. I am indebted to your generosity.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Irezumi ichidai" or "Tattooed Life" or "Life of a Tattooed Man" or "One Generation of Tattoos" or "White Tiger Tattoo")

Japan 1965

Tetsuo (Hideki Takahashi, Fighting Elegy), a low-level yakuza is double-crossed by his boss and attacked. His younger brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto, This Transient Life), an aspiring artist with no connections to crime, comes to his aid and kills Tetsuo's assailant. Fearing repercussions from the yakuza they flee to Manchuria where they risk coming under suspicion of rival gangs. Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) remains loyal to the conventions of the yakuza film, but Tattooed Life contains flashes of his later creative genius, including a final act of explosive visual excess that has become one of the director's all-time classic scenes.

***

Tattooed Life begins with a parasol wielding Yakuza assassin attacking a rickshaw. It almost looks like feudal Japan until somebody pulls a gun and we're reminded that it's the 20th century. Post-shooting, the assassin delivers his bounty to his brother (to pay for his art school education) before getting ambushed in one of the few rickshaw-jacking incidents in film history, and being rescued by his art-student brother. In the aftermath, one brother is marked for death by the Yakuza, and the other brother won't go to art school with blood on his hands, so they decide the perfect way to deal with such hardships is to become fugitive construction workers in northern Japan . And why not?

Posters

Theatrical Release: November 13th, 1965

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Review: Radiance - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Radiance - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:26:34.439
Video	2.39:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 29,849,969,498 bytes Feature: 25,049,546,112 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.87 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	LPCM Audio Japanese 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -30dB
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Radiance 2.39:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 29,849,969,498 bytes Feature: 25,049,546,112 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.87 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Audio commentary by William Carroll, author of Seijun Suzuki and Postwar Cinema (2024) • Newly edited archival interview with director Seijun Suzuki (10:30) • Newly edited archival interview with art director Takeo Kimura (11:36) • Trailer (3:05) Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Tom Vick and a newly translated archival review of the film Blu-ray Release Date: September 23rd, 2024 Transparent Blu-ray Case inside slipcase Chapters 10

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Radiance Blu-ray (September 2024): Radiance have transferred Seijun Suzuki's Tattooed Life to Blu-ray. We reviewed the Home Vision DVD of Tattooed Life twenty years ago, HERE. Every visuals aspect of the 1080P is markedly improved. There is more information in the frame, colors (flesh tones) normalize and become richer, the image is cleaner with far better sharpness. The new HD presentation is consistent and quite pleasing. This looked great on my system.

NOTE: We have added 64 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Radiance use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original Japanese language. Tattooed Life has many fight scenes with hand-to-hand, weapons etc. and group conflicts. It's fairly flat but with strength in the high end. The score was by Masayoshi Ikeda (Cruel Gun Story, The Man with a Shotgun, Kanto Wanderer) supporting the period milieu and various tones of the narrative. Radiance offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Radiance Blu-ray offers a new commentary by William Carroll, author of Seijun Suzuki and Postwar Cinema. He talks about Suzuki and how, for all his reputation as a outlandish stylist - how he is very good at economic storytelling through editing, creating visual conflict through aggressive juxtaposition of compositions, directions of movement or imagery and that he can be very crafty at what he shows, or doesn't show, in editing. This is an excellent, well-prepared, commentary by an expert of the genre and filmmaker. There is also a 10-minute, newly edited archival interview with director Seijun Suzuki - he discusses his career and his philosophies of filmmaking in this interview filmed in 2006 - and a slightly longer interview with art director Takeo Kimura (Massacre Gun, Fighting Elegy, Gate of Flesh, Kanto Wanderer.) The art director talks about his creative collaborations with Seijun Suzuki - interview from 2006. There is also a trailer and the package has a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by 'Time Tomorrow' and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Tom Vick (Asian Cinema: A Field Guide) and a newly translated archival review of the film.

Seijun Suzuki's Tattooed Life is an enjoyable Nikkatsu studio effort with romance, villains, conflict and brotherly love. It has Hideki Takahashi (Fighting Elegy) who was a star in jidaigeki having extensive roles in television. Masako Izumi (Midori) started her acting career at the age of 11 and is still with us today. Kayo Matsuo (Shogun Assassin, Lone Wolf and Cub, The Vampire Doll) and Kaku Takashina (Underworld Beauty, Story of a Prostitute). There are so many Suzuki films beyond the most well known; Branded to Kill, Tokyo Drifter, Youth of the Beast, Pistol Opera and I'd love to see more of these lesser-known films reach HD status as many are still only on DVD. Just examining the director's cuts, editing, tonal shifts, approach to color and ellipses is worthwhile. He's a fascinating director. I'm very pleased with the Radiance Blu-ray of Tattooed Life - its strong a/v, expert commentary, interviews and booklet. It's only been 20-years since we reviewed the DVD. More Suzuki please!