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

ADDITION: Radiance Blu-ray (April 2024): Radiance have transferred Noboru Nakamura's The Shape of Night to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with  max'ed out bitrate. Like many Japanese films of this era - it is quite thick. There are true colors, pleasing contrast and a consistent heavy look. Use of colors are effective and the 1080P image quality, with a rare few speckles, is excellent. It looked rich and textured on my system.

NOTE: We have added 70 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. The Shape of Night has a few aggressive moments but the film's use of audio is quite impressive with subtleties advancing atmosphere - streets, bars, a transistor radio etc. The score was by Masanobu Higure (who composed for quite a few Yakuza films like Japan Organized Crime Boss). The music is a nice mix of traditional Japanese - evoking 'hōgaku' - and some orchestral. It supports the film beautifully in the uncompressed transfer. Radiance offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Radiance Blu-ray offers a new 1/4 hour interview with, Yoshio Nakamura the son of director Noboru Nakamura reminiscing about his dad who debuted as director in 1941 with Life and Rhythm, and received recognition with his 1951 film Home Sweet Home. Major Changes is a 13-minute visual essay by Tom Mes (Japanese Film and the Challenge of Video) about the artistic upheavals at 'old fashioned' Shochiku studios (founded in 1895 as a kabuki production company and later began producing films in 1920) profound artistic changes during the 1960s - as, example, rival Nikkatsu moving to youth-orientated films. Radiance include a 6-minute Easter Egg (hidden supplement) of Yoshio Nakamura's Baseball Memories. Kinda cute. The package has a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by 'Time Tomorrow' and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Chuck Stephens. It is presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of UK certificates and markings.  

I had never seen a film by Noboru Nakamura before watching The Shape of Night - even though two; Twin Sisters of Kyoto and Portrait of Chieko, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Shape of Night is magnificent. I would compare my very positive reaction to another 60's Japanese film on Radiance Blu-ray released this year; Yoshishige Yoshida's A Story Written With Water, which also blew me away. Miyuki Kuwano (non-starring roles in Hideo Gosha's 1964 Three Outlaw Samurai, Yasujirô Ozu's 1960 Late Autumn and Kurosawa's 1965 Red Beard) was so impressive in the role of Yoshie Nomoto trapped in a life of Tokyo prostitution. There are strong echoes of Mikio Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and, yes, I occasionally thought of Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love with the color, editing etc. It's very satisfying to see the director and this film getting more cinephile exposure with The Shape of Night screened at the Venice Film Festival a few years ago. Giant kudos to Radiance for bringing this exceptional work to Blu-ray. I openly admit to enjoying this way out of proportion. I hope you do as well. Strongly recommended!

Gary Tooze