52 The Shape of Night

[Finch]

Radiance direct order

A young woman from the countryside (Miyuki Kuwano of Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth) falls in love with a handsome hoodlum (Mikijiro Hira, Sword of the Beast), who pushes her into a life of prostitution. When his sleazy superiors catch sight of her, she finds herself trapped inside the gaudy maze of city nightlife. Directed by Noburo Nakamura, a veteran of the Shochiku studio’s signature Golden Age family dramas, The Shape of Night was made as a reaction to the radical film styles of the Japanese New Wave. With its lush cinematography full of saturated colours, a lyrical tone and its story of love leading to inescapable tragedy, it has been compared to the films of Douglas Sirk, while also acting as a precursor to the work of Wong Kar-wai.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

High-Definition digital transfer
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Visual essay on the artistic upheavals at Shochiku studios during the 1960s by Tom Mes
Trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Chuck Stephens
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
More to be confirmed!

Also available in USA/Canada from our partners MVD, Diabolik, Orbit, Grindhouse and others

Cert: TBC
Format: Blu-ray
Region: AB
RAD052BDLE
EAN: 5060974680986
Release date: 29/04/24

Press:

★★★★★ ”a lyrical, nearly Wong Kar-wai-like counterpart to ardent work by Oshima or Imamura” – Film Comment

“kept me continually gripped and often surprised” – David Bordwell

The camera angles and movements, the colour scheme and editing all work brilliantly to illustrate her constant sacrifice and lead us to emotionally internalise the gaudy city as a dazzling parade that always leads her back to her situation. Stylistically the film anticipates the Wong Kar-wai of In the Mood for Love and echoes Douglas Sirk at his most stirring. – Nick James, Sight and Sound

[Finch]

Radiance released a trailer

[reaky]

THE SHAPE OF NIGHT is a gorgeous film that Wong Kar-wai must have seen, and all credit to Radiance for bringing it to blu. But Chuck Stephens’ essay in the booklet is curiously dismissive, dappled with phrases like “hooker melodrama”, “hooker-meller”, “prostitution potboiler”, “streetwalker saga” and “formulaic genre-flick”. He seems aggrieved that it isn’t a film by Suzuki or Oshima. An odd essay to pop in your limited edition.