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The Sword of Doom: The Criterion Collection
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Criterion Collection Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (13th January 2015). |
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The Film
 Back in 2005 The Criterion Collection released this film on DVD and before viewing it I had never seen a film by Kihachi Okamoto. Aside from the brief synopsis on the case I didn’t know anything about this film. What I could see from first impressions was that it was about a rouge samurai, it was violent and gritty and it stars Toshirô Mifune, these three aspects attracted me to this film in some way or another. But what I got was far more than just a straight swordplay flick, it also had a spiritual message imbedded amongst the action. But before I get into the themes of this film let’s take a brief look at its torrid history first. "The Sword of Doom" started life as a newspaper serial in 1913 by author Kaizan Nakazato, the popular story continued for over 30 years, the death of Nakazato in 1944 would see the work unfinished. From the serials came together the extremely lengthy novel "Dai-bosatsu tôge" which proved a popular publication and had since been adapted into a stage play and five different film adaptations since 1935. Because of the book’s length the story could simply not fit within the confines of a single film so it was broken up either into two parts or a trilogy. In the 1960’s Kihachi Okamoto was set to re-adapt the classic novel for what would be the fifth film incarnation, this time as a swordplay trilogy, which unfortunately never materialized only the first chapter was completed. While it’s a shame that the later chapters were never filmed what we have here is a classic samurai genre film nonetheless. "The Sword of Doom" tells the story of Ryunosuke (Tatsuya Nakadai) an evil-hearted samurai with an unusual fighting style that draws his opponents in. He fights without remorse, mercy or compassion. Ryunosuke has been matched to fight Bunnojo Utsuki (Ichirô Nakatani) at his fencing school. Utsuki is no match for the highly skilled Ryunosuke so his wife Ohama (Michiyo Aratama) meets with Ryunosuke under the guise of being Utsuki’s sister (to save face perhaps) and begs for him to let Utsuki win the fight and in return offers her chastity to him for doing so. Having taken her chastity, Utsuki learns of his wife’s infidelity and divorces her. The match is no longer a friendly exhibition fight but is seen as a duel, during which Utsuki uses an illegal move to attack Ryunosuke who delivers a fatal blow to his opponents head. Disputed by Utsuki’s friends they confront Ryunosuke, who slaughters them all, and takes on Utsuki’s widowed wife on as his own as she has nowhere else to go. Over time Ryunosuke changes his name and joins another school, meanwhile Utsuki’s brother Hyoma (Yûzô Kayama) is given his blessing from Ryunosuke’s old master to find him and kill him. Having pursued Ryunosuke to his new school Hyoma arranges a meeting with master Shimada (Toshirô Mifune) and reveals to him his newest student’s true identity, that he is in fact Ryunosuke an evil force that has to be destroyed. Shimada trains Hyoma in secret to prepare for his battle with Ryunosuke that will avenge the death of his brother. I think that the incompletion of this film series has led to many different interpretations of the character and story presented. There are those familiar with the original source material (the book) and those that are not. I had not previously read the novel, nor did I know anything about this film’s history before watching it so there was a great deal of research to undertake before committing a word to this review and the Geoffrey O’Brien essay included in the liner notes was a good start but further digging on the internet really helped me gain a good grasp of the much beloved material. There are two popular interpretations of this film, and most notably the character Ryunosuke. The first presumes that he is a truly evil monster driven by hate, the more his blade is stained with blood the deeper into madness he delves, Just by studying Tatsuya Nakadai's haunting portrayal of Ryunosuke will add credibility to this theory. Looking into those seemingly empty black eyes as he strikes down his victims gives us an insight into the character, he truly enjoys the kill. The other popular interpretation is that he is an angel providing relief for those that wish to die. If you look closely at all the victims of Ryunosuke’s blade they all either asked for death or deserved it. The old man on the mountain prayed to Buddha for death and Ryunosuke delivered the blow. Utsuki’s illegal move in their match was a deliberate attempt to kill Ryunosuke and his kill was a defensive one, Ohama tried to kill Ryunosuke in his sleep and she got what she deserved, and so on. So is he a monster or his he an angel? To be perfectly honest I don’t think it’s that simple to define, the film certainly doesn’t have a clear cut explanation, perhaps additional insight would have been learned had the film trilogy been completed? I tried to approach this by looking at the film as a single stand alone story and not as a part of an incomplete trilogy and my conclusion is that it’s really open-ended enough for the viewer to decide for themselves. One thing is for sure Ryunosuke descent into madness is a result of his lust for the kill, it seems clear that he cherishes the kill but his fighting style never allows himself to attack but to draw his opponent in, perhaps it was his own fighting discipline that drew him closer and closer to insanity? The performances are nothing short of brilliant, while the entire cast here gives memorable performances it is Nakadai’s unsettling turn as Ryunosuke that is the true star of this film, watching him onscreen is both a delight and terror to behold. The black and white photography by Hiroshi Murai is both beautiful and haunting and combined with Masaru Satô's score adds to the atmosphere Okamoto was trying to create and heightens the overall feel of the piece, one shot in particular that remains in my mind is the wide shot of Ryunosuke standing solitary amongst the bodies of Utsuki’s friends he’s just slaughtered. There is a kind of nightmarish elegance to the film that compliments Ryunosuke’s turbulent state of mind.
Video
Presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and mastered in high definition 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The Criterion Collection previously released this film on DVD back in 2005 and they conducted a full restoration for that presentation. The likelihood this is the same transfer is quite high, just now presented in HD. The result is fairly good. The black and white photography the film looks quite natural with fine film grain throughout. This grain preserves the original image, it's always great that Criterion makes the effort to preserve the films rather than scrub them clean of any grain, however in saying that contrast isn't always consistent and I noticed in some scenes sharpness was boosted. This is mildly annoying but not a total deal breaker. For the most part, the image looks good with decent black levels, whites also look good. Shadow detail is near perfect and there was hardly ay dirt or scratches. Overall the film's detail looks better in HD, faces especially. This is a considerable upgrade over the older DVD release.
Audio
The disc includes only a single audio track by way of it’s original Japanese LPCM 1.0 mono. For the first time we get an uncompressed audio track, however still being in mono there isn't much by way of depth and complexity aside from the occasional sword battle. For the most part the film is very dialogue heavy and for that this track is perfect, the sound is crystal clear. The score is transferred beautifully and is never overbearing any of the dialogue. Optional subtitles are available in English only.
Extras
The previous 2005 DVD release of this film included no extras, only a booklet, in my original review (here) I commented that at least an audio commentary could have been included. Well I suppose someone at The Criterion Collection was listening, because this Blu-ray reissue included an audio commentary as well as the film's original theatrical trailer. The same liner notes from the previous release adorn the booklet insert. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is an all new feature length audio commentary with film scholar Stephen Prince, author of Classical Film Violence. Prince provides a terrific track full of information about this film and its director. He goes into fantastic detail about Okamoto's film's and his influences, he comments on the film's production process and on the desire for Okamoto to make a trilogy. He discusses the performances from the incredible cast and offers valuable insight into Japanese samurai films and on the life, process and legacy of the filmmaker. Certainly worth listening to. The film's original theatrical trailer (1080p) is also included on this disc and runs for 2 minutes 26 seconds. A booklet featuring liner notes includes an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien the essay is very informative and covers the film’s history and it’s importance as a Japanese swordplay classic.
Packaging
Packaged in The Criterion Collection thicker clear blu-ray case, this film is listed as spine #280.
Overall
"The Sword of Doom" is a beautifully crafted tale of a vengeful samurai that eventually falls into madness, Okamoto has created a film with powerfully memorable performances and hauntingly beautiful photography, I highly recommend this film.
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