Samurai Rebellion (1967/The Criterion Collection/DVD-Video)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C- Film: A
One of
Masaki Kobayashi’s acclaimed contributions to the samurai genre, Samurai Rebellion could be considered
the companion film to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven
(1992, reviewed on HD-DVD elsewhere on this site) in the oft-cited
comparison between the westerns and samurai films. Starring Toshiro Mifune as an aged version of
the same master swordsman role that he made his career on, what is striking
about this film is how calm it is. Without a single fight scene throughout the
entire first ¾ of the film, Kobayashi spends this time letting his characters
figure out what is worth fighting for, and more importantly for the viewer,
what isn’t.
Yet whatever
expectations you might have going into a film titled Samurai Rebellion, you really don’t miss the onslaught of stylized
violence that is most samurai films. The
majority of this film reflects the quiet inner strength and restraint of its
main characters, and for that alone I am willing to say that it is one of the
great films to come out of post-WWII Japan.
The
anamorphic enhanced 2.35 X 1 monochromatic/black & white image has been
digitally restored, along with the audio, into what is supposedly HD quality,
though that claim doesn’t quite hold up.
Even the original film stock seems to dip in quality at a few points,
perhaps due to budget restraints during shooting. The audio is Dolby Digital Mono 1.0 but at
least you can hear Toshiro Mifune’s dialogue, which, according to the director,
seems to have been a cinematic achievement in its own right.
The
special features on the disc are scant, consisting of a theatrical trailer and
a disappointingly short excerpt from an interview with the director. The latter seems to have been cut from a
longer program and edited down to only the questions dealing with this film and
its star, but personally I would have been more than happy to see the entire
interview. If nothing else, it would
have given the disc a bit more meat, which it is sorely lacking.
- Matthew Carrick
