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| Tokyo Drifter |
The Films
Criterion closes out an exceptional 2011 by upgrading two
early titles that sorely needed it — Seijun Suzuki’s deconstructive, gloriously
disorienting crime films Tokyo Drifter
and Branded to Kill. Replacing the
lackluster 1999 DVD editions are two beautiful Blu-rays, and in a year where
Criterion has given impressive high-def makeovers to lots of early titles (The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, Diabolique
and Orpheus among them) these two
might just be the best.
The composition and cutting in both Tokyo Drifter and Branded to
Kill is perpetually astonishing and can be kind of dumbfounding — and not
because their respective plots are mostly rendered as mere afterthoughts.
Rather, it’s difficult not to be in constant thrall to the imagery and in wonderment
of Suzuki’s bald-faced audacity. Every shot is in the moment, often with little
concern for what came before or what is to come. It’s pure cinema at its most
assaultive.
The eye-popping Tokyo
Drifter features the efforts of former hit man Tetsu (Tetsuya
Watari) to go straight with his retired boss. Naturally, it isn’t long before
the underhanded schemes of a rival gang force him back into a life of violence,
but Tetsu is no reluctant hero. Repeatedly singing his self-appointed theme
song about his new life as a drifter, he evades numerous attempts on his life
while leaving a trail of bodies behind him.
Amid the pop-art garishness of the
color scheme, even the film’s black-and-white prologue pops with blown-out
whites and oversaturated blacks. Suzuki often casts a room’s color in one
predominant shade in a method that seems an even more excessive anticipation of
Peter Greenaway’s work in The Cook, the
Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. But whereas Greenaway’s formalism is
accompanied by symbolic corollaries, Suzuki just seems to be going nuts. And oh
how delightfully cockeyed is the result.
The jagged editing gets even more
extreme in the following year’s Branded
to Kill, the film that put the final nail in the coffin of Suzuki’s
strained relationship with studio Nikkatsu. Shot in expressive black-and-white,
the film stars Joe Shishido as Goro Hanada, the third-ranked assassin in the
Japanese underworld. He has no shortage of employment, but his profession
belies his inherent impotence. He needs to sniff the aroma of boiling rice to
get it up, and his fragile mental state is shattered when an errant butterfly
causes him to botch an important job.
The film kicks into a gear even more
delirious from this point on, as Hanada must deal with a dreamy femme fatale
(Annu Mari) who initiated the hit and the mysterious presence of the number one
killer (Koji Nanbara), who shows himself unafraid to engage in a series of
escalating mind games.
The extreme aesthetic of both Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill — concretely realized despite the films’ apparent
chaos — make for a pair of utterly engrossing crime films.
The
Blu-ray Discs
Both films are presented in 1080p high
definition in their original 2.35:1 aspect ratios. Comparing these gorgeous
widescreen frames to the non-anamorphic, severely muddled images of the
original DVDs shows one just how far Criterion has come in the past decade. Tokyo Drifter features bold colors that
pop off the screen in nearly every instance. While the image is never razor
sharp, the slight softness seems inherent to the source and is likely
intentional. Branded to Kill offers
up an incredibly film-like image, with healthy, detail-rich grain levels. Both
transfers are free of any major damage.
The uncompressed monaural audio tracks
are adequate and clean, with certain effects coming off a little harsh.
Special
Features
Both releases are a little thin in the
extras department, although both discs feature new interviews with Suzuki, now
88, and assistant director Masami Kuzuu. Both discs also port over previously
available interview excerpts with Suzuki from 1997. The Branded to Kill disc also gets a new interview with Shishido.
Trailers are included with both, as are booklets with an essay by Howard
Hampton for Tokyo Drifter and the
inimitable Tony Rayns for Branded to Kill.
The
Bottom Line
Essential upgrades. Even if the
supplements are a little slight, the image quality is superb.
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