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Directed by Yasuzo Masumura (Giants and Toys, Blind Beast), Red Angel takes an unflinching look at the horror and futility of war through the eyes of a dedicated and selfless young military nurse.

When Sakura Nishi is dispatched in 1939 to a ramshackle field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan’s war with China, she and her colleagues find themselves fighting a losing battle tending to the war-wounded and emotionally shellshocked soldiers while assisting head surgeon Dr Okabe conduct an unending series of amputations. As the Chinese troops close in, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Okabe who, impotent to stall the mounting piles of cadavers, has retreated into his own private hell of morphine addiction.

Adapted from the novel by Yorichika Arima, Masumura’s harrowing portrait of women and war is considered the finest of his collaborations with Ayako Wakao (A Wife Confesses, Irezumi) and features startling monochrome scope cinematography by Setsuo Kobayashi (Fires on the Plain, An Actor’s Revenge).

SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar David Desser
• Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns
• Not All Angels Have Wings, a new visual essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum
• Original Trailer
• Image Gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Irene González-López

The features sound fantastic (Desser, Rayns, Rosenbaum!) and I think the cover is great (still to see the film for the first time but I loved Irezumi!).

This is one of the better Masumuras I watched this past summer, a film that is dressed in depression but somehow maintains vibrant hypervigilance in combing the dessert for spiritual glimpses of fleeting meaningful interactions, and affirming the hope coming from our human hearts, within all the soot- even if that darkness overwhelms optimistic efforts. My writeup from the 60s thread:

therewillbeblus wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 1:38 am Red Angel: Another surreal blending of chaotic social interactions, this time transitioning from a facade of romance into the depths of wartime medical front lines, or as our protagonist calls it, hell on earth. Masumura allows some genuine humanity to bleed into the amoral madness, but even that is compromised and falls within the contextual bargain where hopelessness is a currency one uses to measure their life, including when to end it or turn the channel for a while with opioids. There's a bit of a saintly undertone to this, yet one so grounded in corporeal woes that if anything Masumura is reflecting on the impotence of saints in a dilapidated milieu such as ours. It's like M*A*S*H* during the apocalypse without jokes, a diseased land where Hobbesian reptilian behavior usurps all attempts at issuing virtue.

Finch wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 5:16 pm The features sound fantastic (Desser, Rayns, Rosenbaum!) and I think the cover is great (still to see the film for the first time but I loved Irezumi!).

Irene González-López provided an excellent commentary on Giants and Toys so I'm looking forward to her essay as well. I also love the cover.

This is one of my favorites of his so I'm glad to get such a nice release for it.

Guaranteed once they finish up releasing Masamura films, they'll release these all in a box set. Still, looking forward to this (and recently got Giants and Toys and Irezumi to catch up on those; still need to get Blind Beast).

It is wonderful that Masumura is getting all of this long overdue attention. Out of those Masumura films previously released on DVD in the UK and US during the 2000s this just leaves his first film, 1957's Kisses (or The Kiss) which was released in the UK by Yume Pictures, and Afraid To Die (which features Yukio Mishima in his gangster film starring role) and Manji (or Swastika) that were both released in the US by Fantoma. So if Arrow continues to release more by Masumura these three titles would appear to be the most likely, although it would be exciting if things went into previously unexplored territory after that. I'd personally quite like to see his 1978 adaptation of Double Suicide Of Sonezaki, since it is based on the same material as the 1969 Masahiro Shinoda film, or 1964's Black Super-Express, or 1961's A Wife Confesses, etc.

Finch wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 5:16 pm The features sound fantastic (Desser, Rayns, Rosenbaum!) and I think the cover is great (still to see the film for the first time but I loved Irezumi!).

Tony Stella's artwork for all of Arrow's Masumura releases has been fantastic.

headacheboy wrote: Mon Nov 01, 2021 11:24 pm

Finch wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 5:16 pm The features sound fantastic (Desser, Rayns, Rosenbaum!) and I think the cover is great (still to see the film for the first time but I loved Irezumi!).

Tony Stella's artwork for all of Arrow's Masumura releases has been fantastic.

Tony Stella's artwork for Arrow's Masumura releases is undeniably stunning. His talent adds an extra layer of appeal to these films, making them even more captivating and collectible. Bravo!Free Fire name