Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Volumes 1 & 2

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domino harvey
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Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Volumes 1 & 2

#1 Post by domino harvey » Fri Oct 02, 2015 11:39 am

Image

Release Date: 25th January 2016
Format: Blu-Ray + DVD
Starring: Hideaki Nitani, Yujiro Ishihara, Akira Kobayashi
Directed by: Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, Buichi Saito

Synopsis:
Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, inaugurated a star system in the late 1950s, finding talent and contracting to their Diamond Line for a series of wild genre pictures. This collection celebrates these “Diamond Guys” with three classic films from directors Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill), Toshio Masuda (Rusty Knife) and Buichi Saito (Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril).

An old hand at tough guy action roles, Hideaki Nitani (Tokyo Drifter, Massacre Gun) stars in Suzuki’s Voice Without a Shadow. Asako, a former telephone operator once heard the voice of a murder suspect which has continued to haunt her. Years later her husband invites his boss, Hamazaki, over for dinner and she realises his voice is suspiciously like that of the killer. Before she can investigate further, Hamazaki is found dead and her husband becomes the prime suspect…

Next, 50s subculture icon Yujiro Ishihara (Crazed Fruit) stars in Masuda’s Red Pier as “Jiro the Lefty”, a killer with a natural talent. Shortly after arriving in Kobe, he witnesses a man die in a crane accident which turns out to be a cover-up for a murder. Jiro soon finds himself on the run, tailed by a determined cop…

Finally, in Saito’s The Rambling Guitarist, mega star Akira Koabyashi (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) stars as wandering street musician Shinji, who falls in with mob boss Akitsu after saving one of his henchmen in a bar fight. Tasked by Akitsu with evicting an offshore fishery, Shinji finds himself in the middle of a very unusual domestic dispute…

Presented on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time in the West, these thrilling genre films feature Nikkatsu’s leading talent at their best.

CONTENTS
  • Limited Edition Blu-ray collection (3000 copies)
  • High Definition digital transfers of all three films, from original film elements by Nikkatsu Corporation
  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
  • Original uncompressed mono audio
  • Newly translated English subtitles
  • Specially recorded video discussions with Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp on Diamond Guys Hideaki Nitani and Yujiro Ishihara
  • Original trailers for all three films and trailer preview for Diamond Guys Vol. 2
  • Extensive promotional image galleries for all three films
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
  • Booklet featuring new essays on all three films and director profiles by Stuart Galbraith, Tom Mes and Mark Schilling
Image

Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, inaugurated a star system in the late 1950s, finding talent and contracting them to a series of wild genre pictures. This collection celebrates these “Diamond Guys” with three classic films from directors Buichi Saito (Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril), Ko Nakahira (Crazed Fruit), and Haruyasu Noguchi, who is a new discovery for the West.

In Saito’s Tokyo Mighty Guy, mega star Akira Kobayashi stars as Jiro in the rambunctious tale of a chef who opens a restaurant in the busy Ginza district. His culinary skills and dashing good looks bring in the women as well as unwanted trouble, while an explosive political scandal builds around his girlfriend’s business…

Next, Jo Shishido (Massacre Gun, Retaliation), one of the most popular Diamond Guys in the West, stars in Danger Pays, a crime caper from Ko Nakahira about counterfeiting. When one billion yen goes AWOL, “Joe the Ace” (Shishido) spies an opportunity to get rich quick, but things soon go wrong as it turns out he isn’t the only one who’ll stop at nothing to get his hands on the missing cash…

Finally, Shishido stars once again in Noguchi’s screwball classic Murder Unincorporated. When the mysterious “Joe of Spades” executes one of the bosses of a powerful syndicate, his colleagues, fearing for their own lives, call on the services of assassin agency Murder Unincorporated to take care of the problem. This unique entry showcases some of the most peculiar killing tactics to ever hit Japanese cinema!

Presented on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time in the West, these thrilling genre films feature some of Nikkatsu’s leading talent at the top of their game.

CONTENTS
  • Limited Edition Blu-ray collection (3000 copies)
  • High Definition digital transfers of all three films in this collection, from original film elements by Nikkatsu Corporation
  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
  • Original uncompressed mono audio
  • Newly translated English subtitles
  • Specially recorded video discussions with Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp on Diamond Guys Jo Shishido and Akira Kobayashi
  • Original trailers for all three films
  • Extensive promotional image galleries for all films
  • Reversible sleeve featuring brand new artwork by Graham Humphreys
  • Booklet featuring new writing on all the films and director profiles by Stuart Galbraith IV, Tom Mes and Mark Schilling

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colinr0380
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#2 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Oct 02, 2015 1:19 pm

Fantastic! I wasn't expecting this. I have just looked up these titles in Mark Schilling's book No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema and was particularly interested to find this comment on Red Pier in the chapter giving a biography of Yujiro Ishihara:
Mark Schilling wrote:[Following Rusty Knife, Ishihara's] next film with Toshio Matsua, Red Quay (Akai Hatoba, 1958), further extended his romantic loner image. Set in Kobe, an international port city, the film was a reworking of Pépé le Moko that set the pattern for Nikkatsu's borderless action films for years to come. Yujiro plays a hitman who comes to Kobe to hide out with his hostess girlfriend after a job. There he falls for a girl (Mie Kitahara) who knows nothing of his occupation. He also becomes the target of an enemy gang - and a local detective who knows he is responsible for the Tokyo hit. Once again, Yujiro outfights and outwits everything but his lonely heart.
Schilling also goes into the definition of 'Borderless Action' films in the glossary to the book:
Mark Schilling wrote:Borderless action (mukokuseki akushon):
Nikkatsu action films set in "internationalised" spaces, from Yokohama docks to the wilds of Hokkaido, and featuring protagonists and stories that owe much to Hollywood and European models. The purest examples of borderless action were the Eastern Westerns starring Akira Kobayashi, in which he dressed and acted the part of a Western hero, even though the films were set in contemporary Japan.

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Finch
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#3 Post by Finch » Fri Oct 02, 2015 1:45 pm

I'm in for this as well. Hope it'll sell well enough to make Vol 2 a certainty.

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MichaelB
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#4 Post by MichaelB » Fri Oct 02, 2015 3:10 pm

I'm very happy to confirm that Vol 2 is a certainty.

It's Vol 3 and later that's dependent on sales.

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feihong
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#5 Post by feihong » Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:45 pm

Happy to have a new Suzuki movie to see. Apparently Voice Without a Shadow is also based upon a Seicho Matsumoto thriller, so the film has compounded interest viewed as one of the many film adaptations of Matsumoto's writing, along with Castle of Sand, The Demon, Stakeout, Zero Focus, and several others. I appreciate seeing these other Nikkatsu action movies, but hopefully there are more Suzukis to come. They are always absorbing, and a Kanto Wanderer blu ray is a deep dream for me.

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feihong
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#6 Post by feihong » Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:47 pm

I love the painting for the cover, also! And seeing another Ishihara movie will also be very interesting.

rwaits
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#7 Post by rwaits » Fri Oct 02, 2015 7:09 pm

Very exciting news. Arrow is taking all my money at this point.

I'm curious - what is the thinking behind all these limited edition releases? Simply a means of driving sales in the collector's market, or a contractual stipulation a la Twilight Time etc.?

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rapta
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#8 Post by rapta » Fri Oct 02, 2015 7:40 pm

MichaelB wrote:I'm very happy to confirm that Vol 2 is a certainty.

It's Vol 3 and later that's dependent on sales.
Thought this might be the case (though it hints heavily in the specs: "Original trailers for all three films and trailer preview for Diamond Guys Vol. 2")! Is it likely there will be another Suzuki title in the second volume?

Might be worth pointing out there's a typo on the front artwork by the way - unless a 'Guitatist' is a skill in Japan that I'm not aware of... ;)

Anyway, I'm likely going to get this and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls at some point...but as with previous Yakuza titles, this will take priority.

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Banasa
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#9 Post by Banasa » Tue Jan 19, 2016 1:12 am


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feihong
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#10 Post by feihong » Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:55 am

Interesting that they're marketing Kobayashi as the bigger name than Ishihara on the cover. Kobayashi's front and center in the painting. I guess Kobayashi is more recognizable these days, with Retaliation and the Suzuki films somewhat available? I was under the impression that Ishihara was a much more beloved star at the time many of these films were coming out. I guess their careers don't really overlap that much, but I thought Ishihara was the bigger box-office star of the two.

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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#11 Post by MichaelB » Wed Jan 20, 2016 10:54 am

Kobayashi would be a known quantity to Arrow customers, thanks to earlier releases, so I suspect that if there's a rationale at all, it will be along those lines.

How popular someone was in Japan half a century ago is irrelevant as far as the current English-speaking marketplace is concerned.

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feihong
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#12 Post by feihong » Wed Jan 20, 2016 2:45 pm

Of course that's true, but from a commercial standpoint none of these actors are some widely-known quantity in the English-speaking marketplace. You can't really avoid the historical nature of the package of films––no one will believe they were recent movies. And the downplaying of the most major star of the 3 still seems off to me.

Ishihara has a kind of a James Dean-like quality to him, breathless and young. He's a sort of a unique movie star, with his own special energy. That verve and character really transformed his films into something more than they would be otherwise. Kobayashi was like that only in much smaller measure, and he was a very stiff actor a lot of the time. When you see them together in Rusty Knife, it's obvious who the more dominant personality was. Admittedly, it's Ishihara's movie; but the fact that they made the movie around Ishihara's personality was a testament to how big a star he was. Ishihara was a sensation; Kobayashi, I believe, a heartthrob of a more standard variety, playing cookie-cutter roles he was given, some of them better played than others. It's like putting Rock Hudson on the cover of a collection of James Dean/Rock Hudson/Tab Hunter movies. I mean, you can do it, but it makes it look like Ishihara was just another Diamond Guy, instead of what he really was, the template from which Nikkatsu made the "Diamond Line" stars.

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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#13 Post by Perkins Cobb » Wed Jan 20, 2016 3:42 pm

Anyone notice that the Beaver review includes the titles for Volume 2? Tokyo Mighty Guy, Danger Paws, and Murder Unincorporated, which I couldn't find on Nikkatsu's sales site (or anywhere else) under that title. Any ideas what that is?

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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#14 Post by rockysds » Wed Jan 20, 2016 3:46 pm


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kindaikun
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#15 Post by kindaikun » Wed Jan 20, 2016 6:41 pm

Perkins Cobb wrote:Anyone notice that the Beaver review includes the titles for Volume 2? Tokyo Mighty Guy, Danger Paws, and Murder Unincorporated, which I couldn't find on Nikkatsu's sales site (or anywhere else) under that title. Any ideas what that is?
I've posted links for all three in the main Arrow Films thread.

edit:
東京の暴れん坊 [The Tokyo Mighty Guy]
大日本殺し屋伝 [MURDER UN-INCORPORATED]
危いことなら銭になる [DANGER PAWS]

Plus:
Tokyo Mighty Guy clip
Danger Paws Trailer

Still don't think much of the English titles but I'm looking forward to the films!

Orlac
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#16 Post by Orlac » Fri Jan 22, 2016 8:25 am

Splices are often visible on Japanese transfers, dating back to the early DVDs. Is this something that technically would be masked in projection?

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feihong
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#17 Post by feihong » Fri Jan 22, 2016 2:03 pm

Arrow sent me a message saying this one had shipped!

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#18 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:36 pm

Has anyone seen any of these films yet? I'm interested in making a blind-buy, but can't seem to find any reviews of the films themselves to go on.

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rapta
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#19 Post by rapta » Tue Jan 26, 2016 12:36 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:Has anyone seen any of these films yet? I'm interested in making a blind-buy, but can't seem to find any reviews of the films themselves to go on.
Heads-up:
Banasa wrote:DVDBeaver

longstone
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#20 Post by longstone » Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:52 am

The set arrived this week , so far I only had time to watch "Voice Without a Shadow " and take a peek at the extras ,
well, I really enjoyed the Suzuki what a treat , thanks Arrow , it seemed different in style to the later work I've seen but still had lots of interesting "experimental" moments, dreams , flashbacks, hand held camera etc. also a very enjoyable crime thriller plot. I can't wait to give it another viewing and see the other two films in the set .
The trailers for volume two really do show a different style of film , they seem to be screwball comedies blended with thriller plots ?
Also the Jasper Sharp discussions on two of the Diamond Guys was very interesting .
On a technical note( bearing in mind I have very little knowledge of these things) I did notice the splice marks flick by but these are explained in the booklet and certainly didn't spoil my viewing.

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feihong
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#21 Post by feihong » Thu Feb 25, 2016 7:29 am

Okay, I have watched all three films tonight, and I feel great. The package is definitely worth it. It's all fun, the first two films in the set are great, crackling thrillers, and the presentation of the films is just great. I hope this series continues for many volumes to come!

No secret I am an unabashed Suzuki fan, and I'm admittedly a Suzuki fan to the detriment of my feelings on a lot of other Japanese directors you might view as competition for modern–day attentions, like Kinji Fukasaku. Not all of them, though––some of the more auteur-light directors of the Nikkatsu stable have made films that really appeal to me. I have liked the films I've seen by Koreyoshi Kurahara and Toshio Masuda quite a lot, and the Hasebe Stray Cat Rock films I dearly love, even if I don't like anything else I've seen from Hasebe even a little bit. So there's my bias, take what I have to say with a grain of salt, perhaps.

The Suzuki picture, Voice without a Shadow (I had previously seen the title translated as Voice in the Shadows, which makes a whole lot more sense than this later translation), is one from before the flowering of the more flamboyant "Suzuki Style." It's one of the best of Suzuki's earlier noirs that I've seen. I'd rate it up there with Underworld Beauty, above more pedestrian works like Take Aim at the Police Van and Passport to Darkness. The picture has a little bit of the sense of a Cornell Woolrich story, where the irrational is waiting just around the corner, making you more and more paranoid. The acting is first–rate, and Nitani gives the most understated performance I've seen out of him as a taciturn newshound. The torch he secretly carries for the telephone operator who is the lead in the early part of the film is handled with real subtlety, and Jo Shishido pokes his head in for a bit in an exceptional bit role as an utter sleazebag. There are a few nice touches that only Suzuki might think of, including a murder photographed through the cracked shards of a mirror. Sound is very well delivered in the film––the telephone operator, who hears the voice of a murderer through her phone line, seems extra-sensitive to the effects of sound in general. Once she begins to feel that the killer is close by, every sound she hears seems to hurt her. The film works very well as a mystery-thriller, and its grounded sense of itself no doubt comes in part from its being an adaptation of a Seichii Matsumoto story. Also, the film has one of the more exquisite scores of any Nikkatsu film I've seen.

I liked Rusty Knife quite a lot when I saw it in the Eclipse set, and the Toshio Masuda film in this volume, Red Pier, is another very much like it. It's another romantic crime drama, once again starring Nikkatsu's valuable couple from Crazed Fruit, Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara (They also appear as the stars of the messier film I am Waiting, from the Eclipse set). The cliched story––yakuza sees a crime, keeps mum, hides it while he romances a girl who is looking into the crime for personal reasons, etc.––is easily surmounted by Ishihara, who lunges through the picture with his trademark vitality. The seaside village that is the setting is simply ravishing to look at, and the location is used quite cannily, incorporating a local festival into the plot of the film rather seamlessly. The cinematography is quite good, especially the many night scenes. The film threatens to go in some pretty rough directions––one of the chief problems with a lot of these Nikkatsu B-pictures, especially the earlier ones, is the way in which the film throws up a compelling situation, but then changes direction to pursue a different tack halfway through. This is especially true of the otherwise interesting I am Waiting, another pairing of Ishihara and Kitahara that is two halves of two good movies, grafted together weirdly at the mid-point. Red Pier looks like it's going to change directions for a bit in the middle, but the movie ends up righting its course. In the end it's pretty much as good as Rusty Knife was, with a lot of the same pathos Ishihara is able to project in all these movies. Ishihara in his all–white suit at the end, ducking through foliage and through houses to avoid a police dragnet at the end is a defining image of cool that ends up in so many later movies out of Japan and Hong Kong. For its era, the film also boasts the iconic cool of Ishihara bumming around a port town, cigarette perpetually dangling halfway off his lip. The jazzy, slightly unpredictable energy of Ishihara leaps off the screen here, just as it does even in films as late as I Hate But Love. Masuda's exceptional framing and his atmospheric staging are superb, but Ishihara's cheeky, brazen vigor is the thing that gives the picture its rippling life.

The last one, The Rambling Guitarist, is the only one in color, and I'm afraid it's a bland dud of a movie. It stars the young and very inexperienced Akira Kobayashi, who gives some bizarre grimaces at odd times throughout the film, and who generally carries himself with an unappealing awkwardness. The older Kobayashi held himself more stiffly, I think to stave off the awkwardness of some of these facial expressions, but he wasn't a very credible actor until much later, when his middle-aged bulk lent itself to more believable gangsters in a lot of pictures. Here Kobayashi fails to convince as a wandering musician, as an ex-cop, and as the all–around splendid guy he's supposed to be throughout the picture. Actually, Kobayashi's character initially comes off as a really unsympathetic shit, but it's okay, because the people he meets are generally pretty lousy, too. Kobayashi drifts into town, gets in a bar fight, and immediately gets recruited into a local gang as a hired thug. Eventually he ends up at odds with some fishermen who are also not the loveliest of people, and he comes to realize his boss is the worst of all. Then Jo Shishido turns up as a slightly psychopathic gunman who remembers Kobayashi from before, and...didn't he used to be a cop? Kobayashi really lacks the worldliness to pull off this role (though fans seemed to eat it up at the time; I believe there are several sequels), and director Saito offers no help, delivering a film with a limp visual flatness. The camerawork and editing are both so sedate it's hard to get invested in what's going on. The actual crime narrative is so oblique, so much just an element of the background, it's hard to tell what crime stuff is actually going on. You can really feel the filmmakers trying to keep Kobayashi's character at a safe distance from all the skullduggery––because he needs to be innocent enough by the end that he can just walk away, washing his hands of everything and striding off into the sequels. The result, though, is that the criminal undertakings in the film are close to incoherent, and we generally end up getting them explained to us verbally by some character after they've happened. There's a section in the middle where Kobayashi and Shishido and others end up in staying on a boat for several days on end, which is never satisfactorily explained. And the scripting and direction make it so that we're told most of the important information in the story rather than having it play out in front of us.

There are other dismays, as well. The film is shot in the kind of early Nikkatsu color that tells you you're unquestionably watching a color production, but also that no one felt the need to make it seem like that was done on purpose. A lot of early Nikkatsu color films have this look on DVD, with a predominantly blue/yellow palette, and a lot of generally drab, greying nature shots. Early Suzuki films also have this pallor, including A Hell of a Guy and Fighting Delinquents. The film does improve noticeably whenever Jo Shishido drops in, though all in all, this is a much more conservative film in its ideas than either the Suzuki or the Masuda film in this set. Guitarist actually ends with the daughter of the crime boss telling the rambling guitarist she'll try to be a better daughter next time he comes to town, prompting me to feel some momentary nausea I can't attribute to any other source than this dialogue alone. The hero, in spite of being a wandering mendicant, is this upright, nearly full–bore conservative figure of order, a two-fisted Tora-san, and the plot goes into contortions to justify his every violent action. Conversely, Shishido's gunman is portrayed as a craven psycho until the time comes for him to think of Kobayashi as a good guy, and then he switches immediately to being a "man of honor," and basically taking the rap for all the skullduggery that goes down during the picture. The switcheroo is awkward––Shishido was a psycho, is redeemed for no reason at the end, and takes the fall for all the murders with a smile on his face; the requirements of the character, the need to make him despicable at first, then abruptly likable at the end, feels forced and uncomfortable. Shishido does all he can with the part, and actually comes off as the most interesting person in the movie. Shishido obviously was able to come through in a pinch for Nikkatsu on many films, though I always found his performance in Velvet Hustler kind of wan and boring. The previews on the disc for the next volume's films heavily feature Shishido, doing a ton of comedy. I'm interested in the Nakahira film, Danger Paws, but it looks like this next volume will give us a full bucketload of Nikkatsu comedy, right to the face. I don't know how well I'll be able to handle that, but I'm still very curious. Hopefully later volumes will include more by Masuda and by Suzuki––I saw Eight Hours of Fear at the Suzuki retrospective, and it turned out to be a really good movie, in spite of all anyone's ever said about the film. Very solid, entertaining filmmaking, and Nitani showed up for a small part and a musical sequence. I think it would be worth including as a Diamond Guy film someways down the line.

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rapta
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#22 Post by rapta » Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:46 am


Orlac
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#23 Post by Orlac » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:21 am

Orlac wrote:Splices are often visible on Japanese transfers, dating back to the early DVDs. Is this something that technically would be masked in projection?
Just thought I'd repeat the question as it does intrigue me. Some Japanese BD transfers are clearly overly zoomed in to hide them (see Tale of Zatoichi), and the Celestial Shaw Brothers transfers either zoomed or cut the frames, the latter messing up contiunity and pace. Yet I don't recall this being an issue on non Japanese/Shaw Brothers transfers of movies.

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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#24 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 18, 2016 9:06 am

It's an issue with which I've been wrestling myself with regard to The Human Condition, which comes from the same era and whose master has very similar splices.

The problem is, getting rid of them either involves unrealistic expense (painstakingly painting them out digitally) or zooming in so that, as you say, the entire frame is cropped on all four sides. Looking at the Criterion edition of The Human Condition, it seems that that they took the latter option, and of course it was one that was open to Arrow too.

But after a great deal of discussion with James White and David Mackenzie, I decided that it would be better to show the whole frame, visible splices and all. I might feel differently if it was a faster-paced film, but the fact is that there aren't that many cuts per scene in The Human Condition, and so it seemed to me that very occasional distraction was preferable to cropping the entire image.

Orlac
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Re: Nikkatsu Diamond Guys

#25 Post by Orlac » Fri Mar 18, 2016 1:51 pm

I wonder if the top and bottom should be slightly tighter, rather than an overal zoom?

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