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Four Days Of Snow And Blood AKA Ni-ni-roku AKA 226
R0 - Hong Kong - Panorama Entertainment Review written by and copyright: David Cormack & Noor Razzak (22nd September 2006). |
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The Film
 One of the key reasons why "The Godfather" (1972) is so memorable is the absolute corruption of Michael Corleone. At the beginning of the film he is this All-American great guy. He is a war hero, he has a steady girlfriend, basically he's the shining light of an otherwise black sheep filled family; by the end of the first film though he has become a lying, corrupt killer, hell bent on succeeding his father and becoming 'the Don'. Gosha Hideo's "Four Days of Snow and Blood" attempts the same transformation with one of the army generals involved Ando (Tomokazu Miura), sadly, this film lacks anything that made "The Godfather" great. "Four Days of Snow and Blood" details the attempted coup in Japan in 1936 following the invasion of Manchuria and the economic despair that the invasion brought with it. Hideo tells of the 18 or so 'leaders' of the coup and tries to show us the ethical and moral debates that ensued amongst the group following the assassinations of key Government members. What we get is an incredibly un-dramatic, boring representation of something which should have been quite interesting. The action shots are all done off screen, the 'dramatic high points' are wrecked with terrible acting and a dreadful soundtrack but the worst aspect of this film is the terrible flashback scenes the viewer is forced to sit through. These flashbacks attempt to show the 'revolutionaries' in a homely environment. Frolicking with their wives on the beach, walking through the rain arm in arm under an umbrella, learning they are about to become fathers etc. Picture if you will, a dramatic bugle call, the bugle goes on, and on, and on. Cut to each member of the leadership; zoom slowly in on their face as they try to look pensive. Then, start playing the most trite banal music and make us sit through an insufferably long flashback. Then do it for each bloody member of the team. Fill out 10 minutes like this, then repeat 3 or 4 times throughout the 2 hours it takes to fill in four days worth of history. None of the characters are memorable, or even really named. I can recall two names Ando and Nonaka (Kenichi Hagiwara), and I watched the film 10 minutes ago. Ando starts off at the pre-coup meeting as being against the initial idea but oh! By the end of the film he's a full blooded "Do you Hear the People Sing?!" revolutionary and by Jove he's going to finish what he's started. Conversely it's the others who are starting to waver. Even the sumptuous colours which tends to go hand in hand with Eastern Films (think "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) and "Hero" (2002), both films with beautiful cinematography) is present for all of about 3 seconds when we get the cherry blossom shot right near the beginning. I have read one review of this film which called it a "wretched dog of a film", this is probably the most apt description I've heard, where the director had a story that could so easily have been developed into a fairly good dramatic action movie, and he chose to make tripe.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this transfer is non-anamorphic and appears flat and unimpressive. To begin with it appears like the transfer was created from either a Beta master that has been payed one too many times. The print includes damage such as dirt and grit that run through several scenes, there is also an ample amount of sparkle (little white spots), I spotted some heavy compression artefacts, edge-enhancement and the film had prominent grain throughout adding insult to this already injured transfer. To make matters even worse the color is faded (unsure whether this was intentional) but to me it looked like a print that has been neglected. Blacks are occasionally murky especially in scenes that take place at night and overall lacks definition. This transfer isn't the worst I've seen, in fact it's nearly watchable (nearly) I guess the transfer's quality suits this 'wretched' film.
Audio
The film includes only a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, which I can only assume is the film's original theatrical mix. The dialogue is clean and I didn't spot too many problems other than the fact this track sound tinny, especially when the score kicks in. The track sounds hollow and depth is limited. But considering this film is dialogue heavy I can afford it a passing grade, but only just. Optional subtitles are included in Chinese and English, I found a few spelling errors in the English subtitle track and I was annoyed that almost all the time the subtitles disappeared off the screen too quickly and I had to continually rewind the scene.
Extras
Panorama have included next to nothing by way of extras for this DVD release, what we do get is a director's biography which runs for 4 text pages and is in either Chinese or English. Also included are 2 pages of the director's filmography also in Chinese and English. A small insert is included, a collectible handbill with in-depth production notes, the notes are all in Chinese so I'm not sure exactly what it says. I suppose these paltry extras are a godsend considering it would be hard to revisit this film through it's supplements.
Overall
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