20 Assassination

[Lino]

Assassination



Assassination (or Ansatsu) marked Masahiro Shinoda's first attempt at a period film, and is widely considered to be his finest achievement. Previously gaining fame and status alongside Nagisa Oshima and Kiju Yoshida, challenging established Japanese cinema with tales of reckless youth, The Dry Lake (1960) and the seminal yakuza drama Pale Flower (1964) Shinoda graduated from Shochiku, where, like Shohei Imamura, his grounding was working as an assistant to Yasujiro Ozu.

The story of Assassination begins with the events of 1853 when "four black ships" — the foreign steamboats of Commander Matthew Perry — anchored at Edo Bay, sparking civil unrest and the major political maneuvering that saw the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. At a time when assassination had become a disturbing political tool, Shinoda's film follows Hachiro Kiyokawa (Tetsuro Tamba), an ambitious, masterless samurai whose allegiances drift dangerously between the Shogunate and the Emperor. Filmed in richly stylish black and white 'Scope by cinematographer Masao Kosugi, Shinoda's film explores the character of Kiyokawa as he singlehandedly attempts, against a backdrop of betrayal and abrupt violence, to prevent the outbreak of civil war.

With an award-winning score by Toru Takemitsu (Pitfall, The Face of Another) and a deft, twisting narrative structure, Assassination's profound nihilism has a striking contemporary resonance which fiercely displays the director's skill and individual vision. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Assassination for the first time on home video in the West.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Newly restored high definition transfer
• Optional English subtitles
• Large production stills gallery
• 24-page booklet with a new essay by Joan Mellen, and more...

[Pinback]

I just looked Assassination up in Audie Bock's excellent book Japanese Film Directors, and her entry on this film contains the following comment:

"Almost impossible to understand without a plot outline, due to involved flashback construction and large cast, but a visually and psychologically powerful film."

Sounds like a fascinating film.

Also, according to the IMDb entry for this film, it is based on a novel by Ryotaro Shiba, whose stories were also the basis for Nagisa Oshima's excellent Gohatto (1999).

[Pinback]

I'm sure MoC will be including a commentary track to illuminate the film's complexities...it sounds like few films could be more deserving than Assassination of a critical/scholarly audio commentary...

[Pinback]

The MoC website has now officially announced this release, along with details of (hopefully not all) the special features:

Furthermore, our Masters of Cinema Series, in conjunction with Eureka (UK), will release Shinoda's Assassination (1964) in late Summer 2005 as part of our A Japanese Summer season, with a new essay by Joan Mellen and a video introduction by Alex Cox.

[feihong]

I have seen this film, and it is very good. Tetsuro Tanba does very well at being compelling but just out of the reach of understanding for most of the time. Shima Iwashita has a quick cameo in which she looks just beautiful. This looks like it was shot just a little bit following Gosha's Sword of the Beast, to date the film on an Iwashita basis. It is a slightly better film than Samurai Spy (which I also enjoyed very much), but Shinoda's later films take his unique perspective to more wildly creative and compelling extremes. Assassination is wonderful though as a cerebral chambara.

[denti alligator]

Well, this one will be coming soon. Initially slated for the "Japanese Summer" group of releases, it's been delayed a little. Wonder why.

Anyway, I noticed there's been no discussion of this since June. I'm looking forward to the release, though it looks like this one's essentially a bare-bones DVD. Unless that "and more..." at the MoC website has yet to be filled in. I assume this one's been completed and is ready to go into distribution.

[Brian Oblivious]

Interesting that you revive this thread, since I just saw a print of the film on Monday. I did wish I had read a plot summary beforehand because I often found myself a bit confused regarding character motivations; I suspect it would all be clearer on a second viewing, especially since I know now not to think of any of the characters as "heroes" or "villains" in the morally amibguous world Shinoda creates. The film features a number of modern techniques, including some of the best use of freeze frame I've seen. It's also visually the darkest (most noir-ish, I'm tempted to say) Samurai film I've seen.

[Gordon]

DVD Beaver Review

[anton]

Hey, transfer doesn't look *that* good. And there is a risk CC is releasing it in six months anyways cause parallel releases is definitely a fashion, but I'm probably ordering it anyways tomorrow. Yes, me suxx0rs. Me likey, though.

[yoshimori]

I'm also not pleased with the look of the caps. I saw this film this fall at the American Cinematheque in LA and the caps at DVDBeaver look as if they have the brightness level ratcheted up. The print I saw in October was significantly richer. [Aside: I felt the MoC Black Cat was even worse in this respect (though maybe the source was in worse shape).] My 2 cents. In any case, another excellent Shinoda film.

[zedz]

That dark haze around the figures when they're backed by water looks very dupey - can someone with the actual disc confirm that this is how it looks in motion?

[Lino]

The Disc

In all honesty, Masters of Cinema's handling of Assassination doesn't rank amongst their best. Yes, we get the film in its original aspect ratio, anamorphically enhanced of course, and taken from a virtually spotless print, but it doesn't always look all that great. There's a soft, blurred quality to the edges which, whilst barely perceptible in the close-ups, makes the longer shots difficult to ascertain. During these moments we have to take a step back as it were and find our bearings, something which proves too distracting for a film with this much dramatic weight. (The screen grab below is one of the worse examples, it taking a few seconds of squinting to ascertain exactly where the dialogue is coming from.) The soundtrack, on the other hand, fares much better. The early stages offer some prominent crackle, but this soon dissipates leaving a fine presentation of the original Japanese mono. Needless to say, the English subtitles are optional. (Note also, that Assassination follows the current Masters of Cinema trend and is being released in the NTSC format and not PAL despite being a Region 2 encoded disc.)

[peerpee]

Not really sure what his beef is here. The grab the reviewer uses to illustrate his point about "blurring around the edges" isn't blurred. I've seen the film over 15 times in the last six months and I'd say this is a fine transfer.

The transfer we used was exactly the same as the Shochiku Japanese DVD (which retails for about £40 in Japan and has no English subtitles). I believe we've encoded it slightly better too.

[yoshimori]

Let's see if I can make the beef more clear. [Caveat: I haven't yet received the disc, which I ordered btw, but am basing my beef on the screencaps at DVDBeaver and now dvdtimes and the similar looking, and, imo, worse, transfer of Black Cat, which I own.]

The film print I saw seemed to have a much wider contrast range, especially in its lower half.

I haven't seen the Shochiku DVD transfer. I concede that it may have the same 'qualities' as your (minus the subtitles). But have you seen a new print like the one we got at the Cinematheque last fall. Looked like a very different experience.

[the dancing kid]

I got my copy a few days ago and finally got around to watching it tonight. I thought it actually looked better on my TV set than it does in the review captures (although I have an old 4:3 tube). The Alex Cox introduction was very good as well. Maybe he's getting better with practice, but I liked this one a lot better than the intro for 'Vengeance is Mine'.

One small complaint I do have is that there are a few typos in the subtitles. There was a backslash instead of an apostrophe at one point, and "for" was misspelled as "fro." Both were between thirty and forty minutes into the movie, but other than that it was a great disc.

[Gregory]

Having watched this, I'd have to concur with that the picture quality isn't too dazzling but I trust MoC's judgment and that they did their best given what they had to work with. For example, as Gary at DVD Beaver pointed out, boosting the contrast may have created other problems.
The subtitles did show a bit of carelessness, frankly. I noticed at least five or six errors in addition to those pointed out by dancing kid. I don't expect perfection but at some point these things become a subtle distration.

[peerpee]

These minor subtitle problems pain me. ASSASSINATION's proofing was unfortunately rushed. Since then we've changed authoring houses and my assistant producer has also left for pastures new - so there's been a lot of upheaval.

We're spending an awful lot of time and money on the subtitles and now have more thorough quality control procedures in place -- so this shouldn't happen again.

[Michael Kerpan]

Fascinating (albit very "distanced") film. Glad to have it in such a nice edition, despite the minor blemishes. ;~}

[Gregory]

Also, I agree with the dancing kid that the Alex Cox introduction was a good one (although one of my bêtes noires is when people equate anarchism with being able to live however one wants).
In addition to being interesting, it looks really good. Was it shot on film?

[peerpee]

That's interesting that you thought it looked good! - Thanks. It was shot progressively using an HD camera in 24p. Then desaturated in Final Cut Pro.

[feckless boy]

I love the score. Takemitsu's contribution to this is really invaluable. Both Shinoda and Teshigahara must have considered themselves very lucky. Their film's are almost unthinkable without Takemitsu-san's helping hand.

[Murasaki53]

Just watched this tonight and thought it was terrific. Shinoda deserves a lot of credit for the non-linear storytelling and refusal to pander to an audience that might not be familiar with the historical background.

The essay by the much maligned Joan Mellen was excellent too.

Lastly, the Alex Cox intro was also illuminating and made me wonder if Shinoda's professed shock at hearing that the Emperor wasn't a god is in some way echoed in the abrupt and somewhat anti-climactic ending of the film.

[Tommaso]

I rewatched "Assassination" last night, this time reading the essays before watching the film, which enabled me to follow the plotline now (I was completely lost at first viewing). I find it quite striking how Shinoda creates an atmosphere of constantly lurking danger, and how he draws the ambiguities in the main character. However, reading the Mellen essay, I wonder whether there is really such a moral decline and deconstruction of the Tanba character as she intimates. There are signs of madness and irresponsibility in the very end, but these rather stem from the feeling of hopelessness and the realisation of the weakness of the Emperor. In this respect, as pointed out in the booklet, a really nihilistic film. But after all, the film demonstrates how the Tanba character stays true to his goals in proper Samurai fashion. In the context of the samurai codex, the scene where he slays his young associate that he formerly saved from being killed in my view isn't a sign of moral depravity , but he sacrifices him to achieve his 'higher goal' of serving the Emperor and to not being found out by the shogunate spies. In this respect, Cox' assessment is much more to the point I think.

One sequence struck me particularly: in the very end, we first see (or rather not see) his opponent going to prepare the assassination of the Tanba character, and its filmed 'from the eyes' of the opponent. Then we get exactly the same cinematic device, but this time we look from the eyes of Tanba going into the 'peony room' in the brothel. How to interpret this? Are they morally equivalent, are they linked in 'assassinating' the old ideals of Japan? Or is it us, the audience (or rather the Japanese audience of the time), who are responsible for this downfall, this assassination of the old values, as we are placed into the position of the characters? If that is true,and he's talking about 1960s Japan rather than the 1860s, Shinoda's political stance seems to me remarkably close to that of late Mishima. It would interest me to know whether Shinoda and Mishima knew each other, and whether they had some shared political opinions or not (especially as Cox points out Shinoda's conservative leanings).

Finally, I'd say that the transfer looks very fine in my view, just a little too bright. But I think the occasional blurryness is in the cinematography rather than a fault of the transfer, and I'm glad MoC abstained from any contrast manipulations here. It looks extremely cinematic, and I've rarely seen those notoriously difficult to render Japanese roofs look so natural and artefact-free. Great work, Peerpee.

[swo17]

Per the latest MoC newsletter, this DVD is soon to be discontinued. Get it now or never.