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Serpent AKA Orochi
R0 - Japan - Digital Meme Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (5th October 2015). |
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The Film
 “Talking Silents 3” features two films starring actor Tsumasaburo Bando: “Serpent” (1925) and “Backward Flow” (1924) “Serpent” AKA “Orochi” (1925) (73:50) Taking place in a small feudal town in the early 1700’s, a birthday celebration is being held at the Eizan Calligraphy school for master Eizan (played by Misao Seki). At the school, local samurai drink and celebrate heavily in which among them is Heizaburo Kuritomi (played by Tsumasaburo Bando), a skilled samurai who is smitten with master Eizan’s beautiful daughter Namie (played by Utako Tamaki). But among the men celebrating is Shinhachiro Namioka (played by Momotaro Yamamura), a samurai from a powerful aristocratic family, who is having difficulty mingling with the others due to social difference. Namioka tries to drink with Kuritomi, but when Kuritomi shyly refuses, it leads Namioka to believe he is being disrespected and challenged. What was fun celebration becomes a brawl between drunken men, with dozens of samurai trying to break up the fight. Master Eizan eventually stops the men, in which Kuritomi is blamed for acting inappropriately. Although he tries to explain what happened and that Namioka was the instigator, all the other men side with Namioka as he is the socially more powerful figure. Kuritomi is suspended for 30 days from the school, looked at in shame by others, especially by Namie. Kuritomi’s small mishap leads to a domino effect of tragic misunderstandings. When he overhears some men making rumors about Namie, he pulls out his sword forcing them into a fight unless they apologize, but then is called a madman by the onlookers. When he approaches Namie to try to explain himself and his actions, she screams for help which makes him look like a rapist taking advantage of her. The events lead Kuritomi to leave town, becoming a ronin (a masterless samurai). A full year later, Kuritomi is in much worse shape looking homeless, unclean, unshaven, and unhealthy, being almost a miracle that he survived so long in such a shameful state. He then suddenly sees a beautiful woman named Ochio (played by Shizuko Mori), which reminds him of Namie. He sets his heart out to have her, but social circumstances make things nearly impossible. Will Kuritomi ever regain his stance as a noble samurai, or will his living hell be dragged even further down? The story of “Serpent” is one that does not play with ups and downs of the standard drama or tragedy. Instead, it is almost entirely a downward spiral of misunderstandings, mistakes, and bad decisions that sad to say has very little in terms of happiness being fulfilled. The character of Kuritomi could be called the unluckiest guy in the world: He is not a man of badness or evil, but lands himself in jail multiple times. Besides bad luck, he is a man with a terrible temper, although it is not set clear whether he was a man with a violent tendency prior to the events of the film, or if the cruel circumstances made him get a violent temper as a way to cope with his internal anger toward Namioka. Star Tsumasaburo Bando portrays the character with incredible facial expressions resembling kabuki and also at times like a Carl Theodor Dreyer film or a Sergei Eisenstein film, with extreme closeups during pivotal moments in his conscience. Bando was a huge star in the Japanese silent film world, who debuted in silent cinema in 1922, and immediately signed with the newly formed Makino Film Productions in 1923. By 1925 he was a superstar by acting in almost 60 films in the 2 year period between his Makino Film Productions debut to the time he made “Serpent”. Although “Serpent” was made with much of the staff from Makino Film Productions, it was actually one of the first films produced under Bando’s newly formed independent film company “Bantsuma Productions”. Director Buntaro Futagawa worked with Bando on 6 other films including the 1924 film “Backward Flow” (included in this set), and in this film uses some interesting techniques, such as the aforementioned extreme close up shots, and also a marvelous crane and tracking one-shot-one-take near the end in which Bando battles a horde of men. The collaboration also includes writer Rokuhei Susukita who joined Makino Film Productions in the same year as Bando and wrote both "Serpent" and "Backward Flow", as well as almost 90 other scripts for the company. “Backward Flow” AKA “Gyakuryu” (1924) (28:04) Mikisaburo (played by Tsumasaburo Bando) is a samurai that is in love with the beautiful Misao (played by Tomoko Makino, the 4th daughter of Makino Film Productions founder Shozo Makino), but this is not a traditional straightforward love story that is to be perceived. Tragedy strikes when the high ranking samurai Genzaburo (played by Benisaburo Kataoka) and his men rush their horses along the road without care for people in the way, pushing people and animals off the path, including hitting Mikisaburo’s mother (played by Masue Bessho) who was returning home from a temple. Mikisaburo sees Namie being courted by none other than Genzaburo, which breaks his heart in half. To add insult to injury (or should I say “to death”), Mikisaburo’s sister (played by Reiko Shimizu) returns home in shame, saying she fell in love with a man and lost her innocence, only to find out that he was just playing her, and that man happened to be Genzaburo. The string events make Mikisaburo enraged, determining him to get revenge on the man who ruined his family. Unfortunately, the full length 6 reel version of “Backward Flow” is lost, and the only surviving version is a 16mm digest version, running just under 30 minutes. Luckily, it does have a beginning, middle, and end to make a coherent story for the audience, but there are some troubling aspects to deal with, such as the digest version of the film is entirely in the perspective of the Mikisaburo character and his road to vengeance. Not necessarily a bad thing, but taking into consideration of any vengeance tale, the villain must be equally as interesting as the protagonist. Consider that the “villain” of Genzaburo did not intentionally kill Mikisaburo’s mother, he was a rich playboy and had a fling, and that he had no intention of breaking Mikisaburo’s heart as he had no idea Mikisaburo had feelings for Namie at all. In the perspective of the “villain”, he is not a villain at all. Nothing was done intentionally to hurt Mikisaburo directly. Whether in the full length version of the film there is more “villainous intention” shown or not is a mystery. As a simplistic vengeance story, it fulfills its duty with a bloody end, but knowing it is a fragment, it leaves the audience wanting a fuller story. Directed by Buntaro Futagawa, written by Rokuhei Susukita and starring Tsumasaburo Bando, the film was made by Toatojin Productions, which basically was a sister company to Makino Film Productions. There are some interesting uses of tinting in the film, with night scenes being screened with a blue filter and the anger scenes reflected with a red tint. Although it doesn’t happen often, it does give an additional flavor to the film. Note: The DVD is region 0 NTSC, playable in any DVD player worldwide.
Video
Digital Meme presents both films in their original non-anamorphic 1.33:1 theatrical ratio in the NTSC standard. Both prints were sourced from theatrical film prints stored at the Matsuda Film Productions archive, the largest private film archive preserving silent films in Japan. Both films are preceded by the Matsuda Film Productions logo and text information about Matsuda and their commitment to preserving silent films for postwar audiences. “Serpent” is sourced from a 35mm print and looks exceptionally good considering the age. There are the usual scratches, tramline marks and specs, but not especially hard to watch. Black levels and white look balanced, and shadows are well defined. There are some instances of stability issues in which the film loops up with the top frame appearing at the bottom, but it is only a few minor occurrences. The film runs at 24 frames per second, but it seems like it runs too fast. The opening brawl, the swordplay scenes, the walking scenes all look too fast. Was the undercranking intentional or was the film supposed to be run at 20 or 18fps? “Backward Flow” is sourced from a 16mm print of the shorter digest version, and the quality is quite good. Although it starts a little jittery, it stabilizes and shows quite good detail for a 16mm source. Again, black and white levels look good and there are the usual damage marks found on films of the period. But it is entirely watchable, with very little to complain about.
Audio
“Serpent” has 2 soundtrack options: Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono (Narration by Shunsui Matsuda) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono (Narration by Midori Sawato) The Shunsui Matsuda benshi narration track is a vintage recording, while the Midori Sawato recording is newly created for the DVD. The Matsui track has some fidelity compared to the newly recorded soundtrack by Sawato, with both narrators giving a unique differing spin on the film. “Backward Flow” has only 1 option: Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono (Narration by Midori Sawato) As with “Serpent”, the soundtrack by Sawato is newly recorded and has no problems with the soundtrack, being clear and easy to listen to. Both films have Japanese intertitles with multiple subtitle tracks for the films: Optional English and Japanese subtitles for the narration by Suisei Matsui. Optional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean subtitles for the narration by Midori Sawato. The white colored subtitles caption the narration and the intertitles.
Extras
"Tsumasaburo Bando Revealed: Commentary by film historian Tadao Sato" featurette (15:30) Film critic Tadao Sato gives a comments on both films, about Tsumasaburo Bando and his rise to stardom and his acting style, and the state of the “jidaigeki” samurai film popularity. Also discussed is the impact of Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbanks on Japanese swordplay films, as his stuntwork and technique played a big role in influencing Japanese samurai films. Also interesting is his comments on the title “Serpent”, even though there isn’t a serpent in the film at all, but was a title change done to appease the censors. 1.33:1, in Japanese with optional Chinese, English, and Korean subtitles. "A Word From the Benshi - Midori Sawato" featurette (2:21) Narrator Midori Sawato gives a short introduction to Benshi narration and short comments on the 2 films and how she portrayed such nihilism and character transformation in the films. 1.33:1, in Japanese with optional English subtitles. Informative as they are, the extras like the other “Talking Silents” sets are quite short. Comments by Sato about Bando’s life, the start-up of his production company, and the director of the films could have been more in depth as I would have liked to hear more. The same with Sawato’s introduction.
Packaging
Packaged in a single-disc Amaray keep case, the packaging is bilingual in English and Japanese. Inside is a leaflet with cast & crew listings and biographies on Bando and the benshi narrators.
Overall
It is absolutely wonderful that Digital Meme has released these rare silent films starring the biggest star at the time in the "Talking Silents 3" set. "Talking Silents 4" also features 2 films starring Tsumasaburo Bando, "Koina no Ginpei: Migratory Snowbird" (1931) and "Kosuzume Pass" (1923). The DVD can be purchased on Amazon Japan or through Digital Meme’s website directly. This DVD is a 2007 release. Digital Meme has not had any new DVD releases recently, as the company has stated that the difficult DVD market has prevented them from releasing more sets in the home video marketplace. But they have also stated that they have new plans for 2016, which is very exciting news for silent Japanese film fans.
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