104 A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness

[Finch]

Released in the UK and US/Canada: April 28/29th

The editor of a sports magazine grooms fashion model Reiko (Yoko Shiraki) to become a pro golfer, while retaining exclusive rights to her likeness. Reiko’s popularity soars after she wins her first tournament and she becomes a media sensation, but when she and her manager (Yoshio Harada, Zigeunerweisen) cause a hit-and-run accident, the victim begins to blackmail Reiko, intruding further and further into her personal life. This was Seijun Suzuki’s comeback film after being blacklisted by the film industry for ten years. Though adapted from a popular manga, the bold visuals and absurdist plot twists are vintage Suzuki.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES

High-Definition digital transfer

Original uncompressed PCM mono audio

Audio commentary by critic and author Samm Deighan (2025)

New interview with editor Kunihiko Ukai (2025)

Trailer

Newly improved English subtitle translation

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Smith

Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Jasper Sharp and an archival review of the film

Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

[beamish14]

One of the most intense and frightening films I’ve ever seen. The car crash mentioned in the plot synopsis is among the most bravura sequences that Suzuki ever directed.

[ryannichols7]

I've yet to see this, but I really like the cover art. it's colorful and enticing, but in a way that feels very different from the director's work that I've seen to date

really hope Radiance can keep up the Suzuki. I feel like he hasn't nearly gotten his due on home media, but they're very much trying to change that

[beamish14]

I've yet to see this, but I really like the cover art. it's colorful and enticing, but in a way that feels very different from the director's work that I've seen to date

really hope Radiance can keep up the Suzuki. I feel like he hasn't nearly gotten his due on home media, but they're very much trying to change that

The original Japanese poster sold it as a pink film, which it most certainly is not

[feihong]

This is an intense satire of television, advertising and the TV-inspired lifestyle––basically a satire of everything Suzuki had been doing for the 8 or so years since he was fired from Nikkatsu. Though there's very few comic moments. I'd compare the tone of the film to Taxi Driver. Both films have a peculiar way of looking at violence. Love the cover for this one, and a Samm Deighan commentary is exactly what I'd like to hear on the film.

[rapta]

I've yet to see this, but I really like the cover art. it's colorful and enticing, but in a way that feels very different from the director's work that I've seen to date

really hope Radiance can keep up the Suzuki. I feel like he hasn't nearly gotten his due on home media, but they're very much trying to change that

I feel like he has been well represented when Fran was at Arrow - Branded to Kill, Voice Without a Shadow (Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 1), The Taisho Trilogy, Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years Vol. 1 & 2, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go To Hell, Bastards! - but those Early Years sets went OOP and weren't reissued (I luckily managed to get Vol. 2 when it was still in print, missing out on the first one). Criterion have only released Tokyo Drifter obviously, and MoC at least did Youth of the Beast, so now it seems to have fallen on Radiance to fill in the gaps.

I do wonder if they'll release one or two under their World Noir sets (e.g. Take Aim at the Police Van, Everything Goes Wrong), but if we're talking individual titles I'd be mostly excited for things like Fighting Elegy, Carmen from Kawachi and Kanto Wanderer (though I wouldn't mind upgrading my DVD of The Flower and the Angry Waves either). Sad to hear that Pistol Opera isn't currently possible, and I'm going to assume Princess Raccoon is in a similar state.

PS: Supposedly Criterion have the rights to Gate of Flesh and Story of a Prostitute, so there's a chance they could look to get Carmen from Kawachi to complete the 'Flesh Trilogy'. No idea if that's actually going to happen though, Criterion being Criterion.

[beamish14]

Fingers crossed for Capone Cries a Lot

[feihong]

I wish people would go back to calling it Capone Cries Hard, which is a funnier title to me, and doesn't have that feel of being only cursorily transliterated. But I think both recent books, the Yacavone and the Carroll book now translate it as "Capone Cries a Lot." I don't know quite how to put it...it just sounds kind of infantilizing. I'm not intending to criticize you, beamish14, not at all; just this prevailing trend I don't get.

But yes, I wish more people could see Capone Cries Hard, or whatever they end up calling it. An unusual out-and-out comedy from Suzuki––though I remember reading somewhere that it was essentially Takeo Kimura's project he had written for another director, and that Kimura suggested Suzuki only when the other director couldn't do the project anymore. That could explain why it feels so different from other Suzuki movies. At the screening I went to, people were rolling in the aisles. And the view of America the film presents is really fascinating.

[beamish14]

I wish people would go back to calling it Capone Cries Hard, which is a funnier title to me, and doesn't have that feel of being only cursorily transliterated. But I think both recent books, the Yacavone and the Carroll book now translate it as "Capone Cries a Lot." I don't know quite how to put it...it just sounds kind of infantilizing. I'm not intending to criticize you, beamish14, not at all; just this prevailing trend I don't get.

But yes, I wish more people could see Capone Cries Hard, or whatever they end up calling it. An unusual out-and-out comedy from Suzuki––though I remember reading somewhere that it was essentially Takeo Kimura's project he had written for another director, and that Kimura suggested Suzuki only when the other director couldn't do the project anymore. That could explain why it feels so different from other Suzuki movies. At the screening I went to, people were rolling in the aisles. And the view of America the film presents is really fascinating.

I don’t remember many people seeing this or Tale of Sorrow at all when the Japan Society’s beautiful prints played at the Hammer Museum. I’m so glad that the materials for most of his works seem to be in great shape

[feihong]

I don’t remember many people seeing this or Tale of Sorrow at all when the Japan Society’s beautiful prints played at the Hammer Museum. I’m so glad that the materials for most of his works seem to be in great shape

It is incredible how much has been well-preserved. Even things like A Mummy's Love can turn up on bluray looking great. I kind of suspect Blue Breasts is one where there isn't a high-quality source to be had. That said, I've never seen a print, and I know it does screen theatrically.

[colinr0380]

I've yet to see this, but I really like the cover art. it's colorful and enticing, but in a way that feels very different from the director's work that I've seen to date

really hope Radiance can keep up the Suzuki. I feel like he hasn't nearly gotten his due on home media, but they're very much trying to change that

I feel like he has been well represented when Fran was at Arrow - Branded to Kill, Voice Without a Shadow (Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 1), The Taisho Trilogy, Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years Vol. 1 & 2, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go To Hell, Bastards! - but those Early Years sets went OOP and weren't reissued (I luckily managed to get Vol. 2 when it was still in print, missing out on the first one). Criterion have only released Tokyo Drifter obviously, and MoC at least did Youth of the Beast, so now it seems to have fallen on Radiance to fill in the gaps.

I do wonder if they'll release one or two under their World Noir sets (e.g. Take Aim at the Police Van, Everything Goes Wrong), but if we're talking individual titles I'd be mostly excited for things like Fighting Elegy, Carmen from Kawachi and Kanto Wanderer (though I wouldn't mind upgrading my DVD of The Flower and the Angry Waves either). Sad to hear that Pistol Opera isn't currently possible, and I'm going to assume Princess Raccoon is in a similar state.

PS: Supposedly Criterion have the rights to Gate of Flesh and Story of a Prostitute, so there's a chance they could look to get Carmen from Kawachi to complete the 'Flesh Trilogy'. No idea if that's actually going to happen though, Criterion being Criterion.

Here's the list of Seijun Suzuki available in the US and UK pre-Arrow, MoC and Raidance in the UK coming in:
Criterion
Branded To Kill (now upgraded to UHD)
Tokyo Drifter (upgraded to Blu)
Fighting Elegy (DVD)
Youth of the Beast (DVD)
Gate of Flesh (DVD)
Story of a Prostitute (DVD)
Take Aim At The Police Van! (DVD - in Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir)

Home Vision Entertainment (HvE)
They released a number of Seijun Suzuki titles (and Kinji Fukasaku for that matter) on DVD in the early 2000s under their "American Cinemtatheque Presents" imprimatur. This might be the one to keep an eye on as HvE released both Tattooed Life and Underworld Beauty which have just had recent Radiance releases - the third Suzuki title they brought out on DVD was 1963's Kanto Wanderer.

Media Blasters
They put out 2001's Pistol Opera on DVD. Did that ever come out on disc in the UK?

(and Kimstim put out the Taisho Trilogy on DVD in the US in 2006 but that is totally superceded by the Arrow Blu-ray set)

Into the earlier UK stuff with:
Yume Pictures
As rapta notes, Yume put out The Flower and the Angry Waves on DVD along with 1960's Fighting Delinquents and 2005's Princess Raccoon.

And then we get into the Arrow titles that rapta goes into detail on above, and now Radiance.

[rapta]

Media Blasters
They put out 2001's Pistol Opera on DVD. Did that ever come out on disc in the UK?

Yume released Pistol Opera and Fighting Elegy on DVD over here too. I just picked them up cheap, out of curiosity, so never did get Princess Raccoon or Fighting Delinquents.

Somehow completely forgot Criterion did a UHD of Branded to Kill...surprised they didn't release it here as well or Arrow didn't upgrade it.

[criterionsnob]

Beaver.

[logboy]

similar feelings on suzuki as i do teruo ishii, his films being very easily identifiable as his, but across an unusually visible filmography for a japanese director released in the west, you can see the range of quality across the years varies a lot. some suzuki i really liked - gate of flesh, story of a prostitute, youth of the beast - and some i didn't quite get, others just felt like the hired hand or journeyman output his own comments placed him as. perhaps his own boredom made him do some of the more wild stuff that got him into trouble.

i've seen 'a tale of sorrow and sadness' on a HK disc with terrible subtitles, and wait on this radiance release to drop in price to try it again. the radiance releases of japanese films i've liked the most are the directors who haven't been as well distributed, are ignored / forgotten entirely here, or have been crying out for releases. tai kato's work baffles me for how solid they are and how little they're talked about. there's go to be so many names like that, especially from the 50's and 60's when their studio system seemed to make very solid films week in, week out.