The Films (4/5 - Average)

    An observation I have been quietly making in discussions over the last year or so amongst friends and fellow film fans is that a label like Criterion might take a filmmaker like Seijun Suzuki's best known works like Branded to Kill, Youth of the Beast, and Tokyo Drifter, and expose it to their audience, and then call it a day. If they feel generous, then release a DVD-only Eclipse box set of that particular auteurs work.

    However, since Arrow Video has arrived on the scene and expanded it's operations on both sides of the Atlantic, I have found their approach far more interesting, and exciting. While Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter have long been released by Criterion, they have seen that as no reason why Suzuki's filmography cannot be further explored in the west. Arrow have released in-depth and massive box set releases of Suzuki’s other films.

    Many of these films never having seen western releases prior to these. These have included Suzuki's Toshio Trilogy, his Youth films included in Early Films Vol. 1 and Voices Without A Shadow a particularly interesting gangster film from Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 1. Now we get to a genre deemed by Japanese film writers as the "Borderless Action" films for Vol. 2 of their Seijun Suzuki Early Films Vol. 2 collection.  As a personal aside I hope at this rate of release they eventually get to 1977's A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness, which is a personal favorite.

    Early Years Vol. 2 contains 5 films Eight Hours of Terror (1957), The Sleeping Beast Within, Smashing the 0-Line (both 1960), Tokyo Knights (1961) and The Man With a Shotgun (1961). The first film in the set Eight Hours of Terror is the 5th film that Suzuki directed, and tells the story of a group of bus passengers in rural Japan, who find themselves held hostage by a pair of bank robbers during their intended escape from a recent robbery.  The film is pretty suspenseful for the most part especially once it gets going. It also has an interesting social subtext. The film takes place about a decade plus after the conclusion of World War II, and we have a mix of characters taken from different backgrounds, who before and during the hostage crisis discuss their various situations and it makes for a very interesting document of Japan at the time.

    The second film chronologically in the set is The Sleeping Beast Within. This film is very interesting. It involves a father disappearing soon after he returns home after a 2 year trip to Hong Kong. He had just reunited with his daughter, who immediately begins trying to find him with a series of clues he had left behind.  Initially, the film plays out like a Hitchcockian thriller, but selling it as such would be selling it short. The film doesn't exactly have deep characters, and yet it feels more indebted to its character approach then it would initially seem on first viewing.   Needless to say it's a quite interesting film, and one of the best in this box set.

    The third film in the set is Smashing the 0-Line from 1960. This follows the themes of drug-smuggling that were prevalent in the prior film (The missing Father was a member of a drug smuggling ring (not really a spoiler). It sees 2 reporters from different newspapers get involved in the criminal underworld, and as they peel away the layers find more and disturbing things.  The last 2 films in the set are the only 2 in color Tokyo Knights and The Man with a Shotgun. Tokyo Knights follows a young man, who is forced to come back home from an American school to take over his Father's construction business. The film falls squarely in the genre of crime genre, but it has both musical and comedic flourishes, and shows off some of the nice use of color that Suzuki would be known for later in his career. Man with a Shotgun plays off of western genre types as a lone man with a shotgun enters a rural mountain town, and gets involved with it's various issues.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    Arrow presents all 5 of the Seijun Suzuki Vol. 2 films in 2:35:1 minus Eight Hours of Terror which is 1:33:1 all 5 films have modest HD transfers, but all have are well detailed and textured and look fine for the most part. The black and white films have suitable contrast and detail throughout. The color ones have very nice color reproduction and detail. There is some minor damage throughout, but nothing overly distracting.

   Audio is handled with a series of Japanese PCM mono tracks. All the tracks sound quite solid and provide score and dialogue in a clear and audible fashion with no obvious issues.

Extras (2/5)

    There isn't too much present here, but what is available is quite solid. We get a 50 minute documentary on Crime and Action films. A commentary by Jasper Sharp on Smashing the 0-Line.  There is also a booklet of liner notes and reversible covers.

Overall

   I'll just say that any Suzuki to Blu-ray is fine by me, and Arrow Video keeps putting them out, and quite quickly, I may add. The Blu-ray's for Early Years Vol. 2 look and sound quite excellent and have a small but substantial extras slate. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.