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

ADDITION: Radiance Films Blu-ray (November 2023): Radiance Films have three films in their World Noir Vol. 1 Blu-ray package. They are, the Japanese, 1957, Koreyoshi Kurahara film, I Am Waiting (Ore wa matteru ze,) the French 1959 crime-drama Witness in the City (Un témoin dans la ville) and the brilliant Italian, crime procedural, The Facts of Murder (Un maledetto imbroglio) directed and starring Pietro Germi. They are cited as being a "New 4K restoration of The Facts of Murder carried out by L’Immagine Ritrovata at the Cineteca di Bologna, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the world.
2K restoration of Witness in the City, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. High Definition digital transfer of I Am Waiting, on Blu-ray for the first time in the world."

We reviewed I Am Waiting on Criterion 'pictureboxed' DVD, HERE, as part of 'Eclipse 17' 2009's Nikkatsu Noir. One of the most coveted of that sub-label's series. We reviewed Witness in the City on Blu-ray as part of Kino's French Noir Collection from 2022, HERE. We have compared screen captures of both below.

The films are housed on their own dual-layered Blu-ray disc and each have max'ed out bitrates. I Am Waiting is a beneficial upgrade of resolution over Criterion's 'pictureboxed' SD transfer. There is more information in the frame, immensely superior contrast and a highly pleasing uptick in detail. Surface scratches still exist but are minimal. Overall - wonderful. Witness in the City also improves - even though the previous and this new one are both in 1080P. The Radiance Films transfer has superior contrast (the Kino seemed muddy) with brighter whites and deeper black levels. Another appreciated upgrade. The Facts of Murder had a 4K restoration and looks the best of the three films - although there may be some very low frequency edge enhancement - the image has a gloss and not abundant grain but there is frequent depth. Bottom line - it looked super on my system even with minor digitization. Perhaps even better than it did theatrically (eyebrows raised.) Ritrovated? I'm not complaining at this time. 

NOTE: We have added 166 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Radiance Films use linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) in the original language; respectively Japanese, French and Italian. There is violence in all three films - mostly fist-a-cuffs in I Am Waiting and more extensive gun shots fired in the other two. It comes across authentically flat with a shade of effective depth. I Am Waiting has a score by Masaru Satô (The H-Man, The Yellow Handkerchief, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Throne of Blood, The Lower Depths, Hidden Fortress, I Live in Fear etc.) sounding a shade less buoyant than the other two films but dialogue was audible. We also get Ore wa matteru ze performed by Yûjirô Ishihara. On Witness in the City the score was by Barney Wilen (his first film composition but he worked as a tenor sax musician on Elevator to the Gallows.) It's pleasingly jazzy, often performed by his Quintet including the Témoin Dans La Ville theme. The film's music is fairly subtle but helps establish dark moods felt through the presentation. The powerful score on The Facts of Murder was by Carlo Rustichelli (The Gang, Night Ripper, The Long Hair of Death, The Whip and the Body, Seduced and Abandoned, Divorce - Italian Style, The Secret War of Harry Frigg, 1974's Ten Little Indians) is augmented by Alida Chelli's "Sinnò Me Moro" which is quite impacting. All in all - excellent lossless audio - a great match for the impressive HD presentations. Radiance Films offer optional English subtitles on their three Region 'B'-locked Blu-rays.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray offers a new commentary on I Am Waiting by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp (author of the Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema and Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema.) He discusses Nikkatsu studio, the film being the directorial debut Koreyoshi Kurahara, and how he would rise to become one of the most successful filmmakers of his generation, although much of his output is not known in the West. Jasper talks about the postwar Japanese popularity of I Am Waiting's leading man, Yûjirô Ishihara (he was known as the Japanese Elvis Presley), and how he was married to his co-star Mie Kitahara (playing Saeko / Reiko in I Am Waiting.) He observes the high contrast cinematography at the beginning the film representing the protagonist's isolation and many other points of the production, its characters, references to American Noir and much more. It's a revealing commentary. Yujiro's Travel Diary is a 40-minute documentary on star Yujiro Ishihara during location shooting in Europe circa 1959. He died at only 52-years of age. In a newly recorded 13-minute Visual Essay, produced by Radiance, by Mark Schilling who looks at the monumental impact that Yujiro Ishihara had on Japanese Pop Culture. On the Witness in the City Blu-ray there is a 17-minute introduction by critic Tony Rayns and the film's relationship to others of the period, director Édouard Molinaroand and actor Lino Ventura. We get a dozen-minute interview with Philippe Durant, biographer of Lino Ventura, who speaks about the film and the iconic actor. Also on this disc is critic and author Ginette Vincendeau who provides an overview of noir in France during the 1950s in a 23-minute video piece entitled French noir. On The Facts of Murder Blu-ray is a new 3/4 hour interview with Pietro Germi expert Mario Sesti (author of Pietro Germi: The Latin Loner.) He talks about The Facts of Murder and its place in the director/actor oeuvre. The Man With the Cigar in His Mouth is a 40-minute documentary by Sesti made in 1997 about Pietro Germi featuring interviews with his colleagues and collaborators including Mario Monicelli, Claudia Cardinale, Stefania Sandrelli, Giuseppe Tornatore among others. What's Black and Yellow All Over? All Shades of Italian Film Noir is a new 20-minute visual essay by Paul A. J. Lewis. He looks at the presence of noir trends in Italian cinema and the evolution of the genre. The package offers reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork and a limited edition 80-page perfect bound booklet featuring new writing on the films by critics and experts including Barry Forshaw on noir represented outside the US, William Carroll on post-war occupation period in Japanese cinema, Hayley Scanlon on Japanese noir, Pasquale Iannone on the hybrid nature of Italian cinema, and Sam Wigley on 50s world noir from other countries. The hard case has a removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings.

These are three excellent noir-related world cinema films. In order to compete with popular American and French "Dark Cinema" popularity Nikkatsu initiated their own wave of Japanese noir. Koreyoshi Kurahara's (also see Eclipse 28 - The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara) "I Am Waiting" was one of the Studio's early successes and the lauded director's feature debut. One late night we get invited to a Yokohama waterfront bar-cum-diner directly beside the tracks. We meet a mysterious and distraught damsel -suicidal over concerns that she has accidentally killed a man who was trying to rape her. Meeting her one late, lonely night, is an ex-boxer who once killed a man outside the ring in a bar fight, and own the diner. Both need a new start but hurdles keep blocking them... including a self-admission that he is falling in love with her. Filled with Noir conventions, I Am Waiting is a pure dark-drama treat. Witness in the City was based on a novel by the legendary Thomas Narcejac (Diabolique, Vertigo, Eyes Without a Face.) Seeking vengeance on his wife's former lover and assassin, a man, Ancelin (Lino Ventura,) sets in motion a string of killings - first as revenge and then desperately trying to cover his tracks. Almost exclusively shot in late night Paris, Witness in the City has café owners, prostitutes and, importantly, cab drivers directly or indirectly involved in the tense noir-level crime drama and its dramatic conclusion. The third and final film, The Facts of Murder is based on Carlo Emilio Gadda's 1957 book That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana. Many, including, Pier Paolo Pasolini, considered the source to be the great modern Italian novel. In a large apartment house in central Rome, two crimes are separately committed - a burglary and, a few days later, a murder. How they are connected initiates an old fashioned police procedural helmed by Ciccio Ingravallo (director / actor Pietro Germi) involving a group of suspicious characters with a variety of personal motives. Germi's The Facts of Murder is a complex and socially revealing crime-drama that fits comfortably in the noir mold. A brilliantly realized film. The Radiance Films Blu-ray package gets our highest marks - magnificent world cinema, with undeniable connections to Noir, and advanced a/v quality over existing digital editions plus excellent supplements from a commentary to an 80-page book. This is will certainly gets many votes in our Year End Poll. Our highest recommendation. Gold standard stuff here, folks. 

Gary Tooze