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Youth of the Beast



Right on the heels of the riotous Go to Hell, Bastards: Detective Bureau 2 3, Seijun Suzuki unleashed what would come to be seen as his true breakthrough, the film that would cement "the Suzuki sensibility": Youth of the Beast [Yajû no seishun]. A kaleidoscopic fantasia that contains "youth" and "beast" onlly insofar as 1963 pop/youth culture was that violently upstart thing, not unlike the yakuza?

And so Youth of the Beast is a yakuza tale with a premise like Akira Kurosawa's Yôjinbô, but denuded of an easy definition of which side is which. It stars Suzuki's iconic '60s regular Jô Shishido, with his dare-you-to-call-them-out artificial cheek implants like new acting blasphemy. There are drug-addled whores, gunfights in a new colour apocalypse, and at least one alien landscape — the sudden mind-searing eruption of a sulphur yellow desert like an action-figure playset with overspill of unbridled lust.

Suzuki's infectious go-for-broke energy is assisted by a telephoto lens that serves at once phallus and yoni in the masterful, Minnelli-worthy 'Scope framing. His film would go on to inspire John Woo's forthcoming remake titled Day of the Beast; Nikkatsu have in recent times deemed this one of their treasures. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Youth of the Beast in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition based on their new HD master.

DUAL FORMAT RELEASE INCLUDING BLU-RAY AND DVD VERSIONS OF THE FILM

• New high-definition 1080p presentation of the film on the Blu-ray, and progressive encode on the DVD.
• New and improved optional English subtitles
• New video interview with critic and scholar Tony Rayns
• Original theatrical trailer
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring a new essay by Frederick Veith, and rare archival imagery

This is what I'm talking about! I feel Masters of Cinema has been in a bit of a dry spell in the last year, but this is going to be great. One of the most manic of Suzuki's 60s features with an amazingly loud, almost Naked City-ish soundtrack.

Like Arrow's Branded to Kill, would love to see a second film included in the same package as well.

Like Detective Bureau 2-3

DVDBeaver compares it to the Criterion DVD.

The pace of this film is intoxicating, I think I blinked twice during the whole thing.

Are the black levels correct on this?

Yes.

Thanks!

What's Eureka/MOC's track record on correct black levels for their Japanese BDs?

Consistently good today, not so much in the past. Profound Desires of the Gods, Vengeance is Mine and Burmese Harp are all wrong, whilst I'm undecided on The Insect Woman/Nishi Ginza Station, Ugetsu monogatari/Oyu-sama and Sansho Dayu/Gion bayashi. Worth experimenting. The rest are all fine.

Gion Bayashi is fine. It's a little bright perhaps, but nothing like an improper black levels. I think it's the same for Oyu sama & Ugetsu (weirdly, it seems I haven't saved the screen caps I've done at the time).
As for The Burmese Harp, I think the real issue is on the Criterion DVD which is contrast boosted as hell. I prefer the look of the MoC BD which certainly lacks so time of black depth but I recall the Criterion DVD being more often oddly-timed (due to the boost) than the MoC BD.

EddieLarkin wrote:Consistently good today, not so much in the past. Profound Desires of the Gods, Vengeance is Mine and Burmese Harp are all wrong, whilst I'm undecided on The Insect Woman/Nishi Ginza Station, Ugetsu monogatari/Oyu-sama and Sansho Dayu/Gion bayashi. Worth experimenting. The rest are all fine.

thanks!

I double checked The Burmese Harp because you mentioned this before. It is definitely wrong. Even if you change the levels it doesn't come out as contrasty as the Criterion, if that's what you're worried about. The MoC disc is one of the worst I've seen and it looks infinitely better with the levels changed.

As for the Mizoguchi films I'm really not sure. With Ugestu, I will say during the scene with Genjuro at the mansion there is some really really funky compression noise all over the dark spaces, that of course disappears when the levels are changed. But the rest looks fine and I wouldn't bother making a change myself.

I'm going to be in Tokyo next week and I would really like to order this disc from Amazon.co.jp (region B import) to watch in our hotel room... does anyone know whether the HD content (i.e. 1080p feature) would be compatible on what I can only assume would be a region A-locked Blu-Ray player made for the Japanese market?

No, a Region B locked disc would not play on a Region A locked player.

I thought Japan was Region A though?

They are but he's talking about the MOC disc (i think) and it's region B.

Yeah, he's asking if the Region B MoC disc will play in a Region A Japan player. The answer is no.

.... but the DVD that comes with the Blu-ray should be in region 2 (Isn't R2 the Japanese standard in DVD). So if the DVD image is enough, it should play.

But the DVD would be R2 PAL, Japan is R2 NTSC.

htdm wrote:But the DVD would be R2 PAL, Japan is R2 NTSC.

MoC’s DVD will be R2 NTSC. Unless the film originated at PAL speed (for instance, ‘Colossal Youth’), their policy for many years (certainly well before ‘Youth of the Beast’) is to encode as NTSC - it’s just as compatible with European systems, and doesn’t run into pitch-shift issues.