Samurai Fiction [SE 2-Disc Set]: Technical Notes

PICTURE: Anamorphic Widescreen. This film has some really great black and white photography with some striking flashes of color. For instance, when someone is struck, felled by a sword blow, the shot will be filtered in red. I'm pretty sure the film was shot in color and then mastered black and white, so it isnt true black and white but converted black and white. . You can tell that the film is part of the digitized age. This transfer is very good, crisp, clean. The contrast is nice and deep. The transfer is very smooth, no technical quibbles, really. Occasionally the sharpness could use a little push, but overall the definition is quite good.

SOUND: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Surround Japanese with optional English subtitles. Sound is quite good, nice mix with adequate bass, good fx, and bright dialogue. The soundtrack gets the most impressive use in the mix. And, I have to say, it was one of the things that I just didn't like. The soundtrack is, as I said, very modern, domintated by very filtered guitar strummings of neo-rock and blues licks, along with lots of synthesizer instruments. Yeah, I know the intent was to balanece these old school visuals with a new wave music backdrop. I just thought the music sucked.

EXTRAS: Chapter Selections--- Trailers for Versus, Pistol Opera, Bounce Ko Gals, The Keitya Amemiya Collection--- Making of Samurai Fiction featurette (18:21). Good feature, each member of the cast and the director are interviewed, on set, and there is plenty of behind the scenes stuff. It is a very promo oriented doc, ending with clips from the films music video (the actor who plays Kazamatsuri is a Japanese rock star and also scored the film) and an ad to buy the films photo book.

CONCLUSION: Althugh I'm a little lukewarm on it, if you are a fan of Japanese cinema, both modern and new, I'd say the film is worth checking out. The DVD is a very decent presentation. Definitely offers a nice alternative to the $40 Japanese import.