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Bushido Man - Seven Deadly Battles [Blu-ray]
(Takanori Tsujimoto, 2013)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Universal Video: Shout! Factory
Disc: Region: 'A' (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:27:37.752 Disc Size: 22,732,609,717 bytes Feature Size: 20,163,557,376 bytes Video Bitrate: 20.57 Mbps Chapters: 12 Case: Standard Blu-ray case inside cardboard slipcase Release date: June 10th, 2014
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: LPCM Audio Japanese 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit DUBs:
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3772 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3772
kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: English, none
Extras: • Making Bushido Man: From the Fantasia Film Festival (11:17)
Bitrate:
Description: Eat and Fight. Upon returning from a pilgrimage across Japan, the warrior Toramaru arrives with tales of seven epic battles against Japan’s most legendary fighters. As Toramaru’s philosophy dictates that he ’know the enemy by eating his food, ’ each masterfully-choreographed fight is preceded by a helping of his prey’s favorite dish. Designated successor to Master Gensai and leading proponent of the all-round martial-arts discipline, The Cosmic Way, Toramaru tells the tales of The Seven Deadly Battles as Master Gensai eagerly listens to the lavish and violent details of Toramaru’s adventures! ***
Upon returning from a pilgrimage across Japan, the warrior Toramaru arrives with tales of seven epic battles against Japan’s most legendary fighters. As Toramaru’s philosophy dictates that he “know the enemy by eating his food,” each masterfully-choreographed fight is preceded by a helping of his prey’s favorite dish.
The Film:
As it opens, martial-artist Toramaru (Mitsuki Koga) is returning to his
master Gensai (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi) reporting that he has, as
instructed, gone out in the world to challenge a half-dozen martial-arts
masters: Yuan Jian (Kensuke Sonomura), the Kobe kung-fu master; Mokunen
(Naohiro Kawamoto), the stick-fighter, in Kyoto; Rinryu (Masaki Suzumura),
who wields nunchucks in Okinawa; blind Hokkaido samurai Muso (Kazuki
Tsujimoto); yakuza knife artist Eiji Mimoto (Masanori Mimoto); and
gun-toting Billy Shimabukuro (Kentaro Shimazu), who (like Eiji) hails
from Osaka. As he relates these confrontations, he connects them to the
food he and his opponents ate to prepare, as this detail naturally
reflects their fighting styles. In Bushido Man Tsujimoto tones down the violence in favor of martial arts. The concept is like an amusing variation of the Shaw Brothers film Heroes of the East. The protagonist (Mitsuki Koga) pilgrims around Japan looking for masters of martial arts to challenge. In each fight he has to adapt a new fighting style or weapon. The opponents are kung fu master, stick fighter, nunchaku expert, blind samurai, knife specialist, revolver man, and a woman with special weapon. In preparation the hero always heads to a restaurant first. “Learn about your opponent through his diet”. Excerpt from SketchesofCinema located HERE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Bushido Man comes to Blu-ray from Shout! Factory. The film looks to have been shot in HD. And it can show a few more of the deficiencies of that format that we may be used to for the more higher-end HD shot efforts. It seems to look soft at time in-motion and doesn't handle brightness well. This is single-layered with a modest bitrate. I don't mean to be overly critical of the presentation. It can frequently look impressive in close-ups and some of the outdoor landscape scenes are very crisp. It is in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio and I saw no noise. Even for HD this looked to have some visual weaknesses - inherent in the original production.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :Shout! Factory offer a linear PCM 2.0 channel track at 2304 kbps in original Japanese. It had some depth in the aggressive segments but, obviously, no surround separation. There are two, untested, optional English DUBs - one in 5.1. There are optional English subtitles on the region 'A' Blu-ray disc.
Extras : The only extra is n 11-minute Making Bushido Man: From the Fantasia Film Festival. It is fairly off-the-cuff from a trip arriving at the airport in Montréal to a casual three-man quasi-interview.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze May 22nd, 2014
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
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