Fighting Delinquents - Seijun Suzuki

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

(aka "Fighting Delinquents" or "Kutabare gurentai" or "Go to Hell, Roughnecks!")

Japan 1960

When a drunk-driving gangster accidentally kills the owner of a billboard company with his car, the old man's daughter and his staff (all orphaned young men) balk at the modest compensation offered up by his lawyer. Sadao (singer Koji Wada)confronts the man and ends up with his picture in the paper for smashing up the man's office. The picture catches the eye of an attorney who has been searching for the lost heir to the Matsudaira clan of Awaji island (which, coincidentally, the Yakuza man has plans to develop into the "Monaco of Japan"). Sadao and his orphaned buddies show attempt to prevent his aged grandmother from being shaken down by the gangster, his goons, and his lawyers. Sadao also wants to find his unknown mother who turns out to be closer than he realizes. Seemingly a for-hire project, Suzuki's film is an uneasy mix of comedy, musical numbers (and cultural events), and social commentary on the post-war Westernization of Japan. The comedy is stilted and the characters and the actors dull but Suzuki keeps things moving and demonstrates his eye for color in his first color production (which was also his eighteenth film). Not the best Suzuki film to start with but it will be of interest to Suzuki fans because it does not seem to have been made available anywhere else in an English-friendly edition.

Eric Cotenas

Poster

Theatrical Release: 23 November 1960 (Japan)

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DVD Review: Yume Pictures (The Suzuki Collection) - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Yume Pictures Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:19:45 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	2.12:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.11 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 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: Yume Pictures Aspect Ratio: Widescreen letterboxed - 2.12:1 Edition Details: • Suzuki Collection Trailers for THE FLOWERS AND THE ANGRY WIVES, PRINCESS RACCOON, PISTOL OPERA, TOKYO DRIFTER, and FIGHTING ELEGY • Masumura Collection Trailers for BLIND BEAST, RED ANGEL, and MANJI DVD Release Date: 26 March 2007 Amaray Chapters 12

Comments

Yume Pictures' non-anamorphic, single-layer DVD is interlaced but doesn't seem to be an NTSC-PAL conversion (plenty of ghosting but no image stuttering). Black levels on the image are lighter than the encoded mattes and there is aliasing evident in several shots. The scope image appears to be a tad squeezed (there are overscan mattes on the left and right sides).

English subtitles are well-translated (most of the opening credits are also translated) and trailers for other Suzuki films in the collection as well as trailers for the Masumura collection round out the disc extras. The reverse side of the cover (visible through the inside clear case) features some extremely informative liner notes by Tony Rayns. This appears to be the only DVD release of the film available at the time.

- Eric Cotenas

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