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Japanese maverick director Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast) helms a bitingly satirical espionage thriller set in the heart of the Japanese auto industry in his 1962 landmark Black Test Car, which launched a series of similarly themed “Black” films.

In a bitter, take-no-prisoners corporate war between the Tiger Motorcar Company and their competitors, the Yamato Company, undercover spies have infiltrated both sides. As Tiger prepares to launch its newest “Pioneer” car and a prototype bursts into flames, Toru (Hideo Takamatsu, The Last Emperor) heads a secretive task force to root out Yamato’s spy, and find out what they can about the competitor's familiar-looking new model.

Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, Black Test Car is paired here with the English-language video premiere of its follow-up The Black Report, also directed by Masumura.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation of Black Test Car and The Black Report
• Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio on both films
• Optional newly translated English subtitles on both films
• Newly recorded critical appreciation by Jonathan Rosenbaum
• Theatrical trailers for both films
• Image galleries for both films
• Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet with new writing on the films by Mark Downing Roberts

DarkImbecile wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 3:10 pm
[*]Newly recorded critical appreciation by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Not my favorite (haven't seen The Black Report before though), but any Masumura on blu is long overdue. I hope this sells well so we can get more titles. Hopefully we'll see some come out on the Academy line as well. It's a shame the extras are minimal but I'm glad they got Rosenbaum to record something new as he's a big Masumura booster and the whole reason I discovered his filmography.

Would have loved a box set with all of his available 60s output, but getting at least one title on blu is certainly welcome. Guess it'll be to late to make a buck of the dvd, but bodes well for some of the other fantoma titles to follow. For me this is one of those Japanese 60s films (Black Lizard, Goku Body Snatcher From Hell,...) that despite any flaws, I find highly entertaining from their strangeness alone because they diverge so much from Western film conventions of the period. I get much more excited by seeing more of these resurrected/restored than from an announcement of a new film from Lynch or Tarantino.

Love Black Test Car, and I have long hoped someone would bring some of the follow-ups that were mentioned in the Fantoma liner notes out in English, so this is fantastic news to get at least one more.

Ah, getting nostalgic for Fantoma. Add me to the list of people who'd love to see more Masumura on disc. At the very, very least, Giants and Toys needs to be back in circulation.

Hopefully we can also get a blu of Red Angel.

Grand Wazoo wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 12:34 am Hopefully we can also get a blu of Red Angel.

As much as I am a fan of Black Test Car and Giants and Toys, a blu of Red Angel is my number one choice as well.

Some of Ichikawa's black comedies would be nice too... (inexplicably neglected).

headacheboy wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 2:51 am

Grand Wazoo wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 12:34 am Hopefully we can also get a blu of Red Angel.

As much as I am a fan of Black Test Car and Giants and Toys, a blu of Red Angel is my number one choice as well.

Don't forget Blind Beast!

swo17 wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 3:05 am

headacheboy wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 2:51 am

Grand Wazoo wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 12:34 am Hopefully we can also get a blu of Red Angel.

As much as I am a fan of Black Test Car and Giants and Toys, a blu of Red Angel is my number one choice as well.

Don't forget Blind Beast!

I did forget that, but yes, add that to the list and Afraid To Die needs to be added. I think those were all five of the Masamura Fantomas!

headacheboy wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:01 pmI did forget that, but yes, add that to the list and Afraid To Die needs to be added. I think those were all five of the Masamura Fantomas!

Afraid To Die is one of the handful of films starring Yukio Mishima too.

headacheboy wrote: Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:01 pm

swo17 wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 3:05 am

headacheboy wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 2:51 am

As much as I am a fan of Black Test Car and Giants and Toys, a blu of Red Angel is my number one choice as well.

Don't forget Blind Beast!

I did forget that, but yes, add that to the list and Afraid To Die needs to be added. I think those were all five of the Masamura Fantomas!

They did Manji as well.

I remember renting the DVD (when rental stores existed) of Giants and Toys as a teen, introducing to the dizzying world of Yasuzo Masamura. If you think films by Nagisa Oshima like Boy or The Sun's Burial can feel cynical or grim, they often feel light in comparison to the bleak, satirical world video of Masamura. For all the numerous Masamura films I've seen from films he did for ATG in the 70s, his Hanzo the Razor film, and numerous masterpieces of the 60s, I for some reason hadn't seen these two.

The Black Report fis a fairly standard procedural film for the first hour on how to build a murder case and was sort of let down by how unspectacular and sort of toothless it felt. This was until the last half-hour of the film which is probably among the most nihilistic of his entire output. The running theme of his best contemporary set works of this era is the power and desire for money and here a man's death is made to be so cheap as all his friends, family, and lover are willing to lie about the circumstances surrounding his death solely for a bit of financial gain. And when they begin to feel guilt, it's not even entirely out of altruism, but out of the fact they got cheated out of finances themselves. The film doesn't even allow any sort of redemption to be a sort of saving grace and goes completely through with the best sort of unsatisfying ending where there feels to be no chance to beat the system.

Unlike The Black Report which has a shakey first hour, The Black Test Car is a masterpiece. Masamura's 'scope cinematography of these cramped interiors isolate all these salarymen turned thugs into these empty, soulless places. It's sort of a reworking of Giants and Toys, but instead of using humor to display the self-destructive nature of advancing in Japan's rapidly expanding corporate economy, it depicts it with a sense of cruelty. There's also an underlying element of lingering militarism being used in corporate espionage as all the superiors of the competing automobile company are connected to Japan's former territory in Manchuria, a sort of taste of the underlying brutality of the people involved in these worlds. I re-watched Juzo Itami's Minbo the night before, a very different movie, but it was interesting comparing the trope of cinematic yakuza versus the gruff salarymen of this film as their tactics for extortion, blackmail, and manipulation were so similar. It implies the fascistic tendencies of these meek salarymen as their inhumanity evolves when they build divisions among their own factions to funnel out the weak and to sacrifice their interpersonal relations for potential advancements in their job.

The last half year for Arrow Video have been spectacular and I'm happy to see between this, Warning from Space, and the Gamera box set, they've begun tapping into the Kadokawa library. I hope this sells well enough to see more Yasuzo Masamura in the future.

Picked this up in the Arrow sale and thoroughly enjoyed both these films. While the disc is crying out for a commentary, the lack of ‘heroes’, the social satire of flawed institutions, the bleak almost Shakespearean plots, the brooding scores and most of all the composition of frames and their editing, made them highly watchable and the disc has jumped to one of my favourites from Arrow.

The booklet mentions 11 flims in Daiei’s ‘Black’ series, can anyone tell me the complete list or point me to an online resource?

Any plans from Arrow to release more…or just more 50’s/60’s Japanese thrillers generally.

Giants and Toys is coming so any chance of more Masumura as well, a box set like the Diamond Guys, (a series I wish they did more of), or Suzuki the early years would be great.

HugoDeVries wrote: Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:25 am Giants and Toys is coming so any chance of more Masumura as well

In addition to ‘Giants And Toys’, ‘Irezumi’ is coming too.

I finally watched Black Test Car. I found it interesting in terms of content, but not nearly so engaging as Giants and Toys. The acting seemed much "flatter" overall. It wasn't so much that the characters weren't "likeable" as that they weren't particularly well developed. And the messaging (which I found no content-based objection to) seemed rather "on the nose". Compared to Imamura's (year-older) Pigs and Battleships, this had far less emotional and aesthetic impact on me.

I coincidentally watched Black Test Car and The Black Report last night as well, but didn't write anything because The Elegant Dandy Fop already expressed the bulk of my thoughts above. The latter film is a slog, but I really enjoyed Black Test Car, and personally thought that not developing these characters and thrusting us into a thick vat of corruption where people were using one another divorced from any acknowledged language of morals was an intentional choice, leaving the players indistinguishable as they dehumanized themselves from deserving distinct identities. Pigs and Battleships has empathy within its satire, and Imamura is interested in empowerment through juxtaposition, showing how specific personalities survive and are influenced by these systems. Masumura has no interest in emotional engagement here, and repeatedly cuts away from any opportunity to reveal layers of a character in favor of the dizzying energy of rancid capitalist deviance. This is one of the least humanistic films I've ever seen, not because it has the most contempt for characterization, but in the completely disregard for humanity's significance under the rubble examined.

TWBB -- I think you sum up why I (with my disposition) find Black Test Car "sociologically fascinating" but cinematically only so-so. I feel that Giants and Toys is just as sharp-edged in most ways -- but had "something extra" that caused it to connect. I plan to re-watch this soon (after tackling Black Report -- for good or ill - since I am a retired government attorney it might be of some conceptual interest).

I understand, and to your film of comparison I too find Pigs and Battleships much more intriguing for reasons you identify. My point is that Masumura blatantly has no interest in delivering the kind of film it sounds like you were looking for, which I don't think is a fault of the film itself.

Having said all of that, these were my first Masumuras (to my knowledge). I have Giants and Toys waiting for me at the lib right now, and am planning to dig into his 60s output for our next decades project, so I'm hardly an expert on the auteur and look forward to visiting some of the board's favorites in the immediate future!

I never blame a film for not being the kind of film I'd personally prefer (unless it is based on a pre-existing source that I feel was horrendously mis-handled).

From what I understand, a lot of the most interesting Masumura films are not available (at least in subbed form). I KNOW some experts on him -- but I have little expertise myself.

Michael Kerpan wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 5:17 pm From what I understand, a lot of the most interesting Masumura films are not available (at least in subbed form).

Can you recall the titles? They may be subbed on back channels

My copy arrived quite recently. This was a total blind buy for me at first but after reading your comments now I am convinced I did the right thing in purchasing this.

Alas, TWBB, I can't recall offhand.

L.A. It is definitely worth supporting releases like this -- if we ever want to see more Japanese classic films released....

I only know him from this and the Fantoma DVDs--Red Angel and Blind Beast are essential viewing though a bit more...extreme than what you've seen so far TWBB