From DVDTimes News
Eureka Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of Hanzo the Razor (3 DVD Special Edition Box Set) on 25th June 2007 priced at £24.99. Uncut for the first time ever in the UK, this cult 1970s Japanese pinku trilogy boasts crazy swordplay and sexploitation set to a 1970s funk soundtrack.
Shintarô Katsu (best known as the blind swordsman in the original Zatôichi) stars as Hanzo – a rebellious yet obsessively moral samurai police officer who slashes his way through the backbone of crime, uncovers corruption at higher levels, and tortures relentlessly using his own unique techniques. Shocking audiences even today, the hardest man in Edo regularly unleashes his special weapon in the form of his oversized penis, which he uses to 'interrogate' female suspects into pleasured compliance. Despite the knuckle-biting, graphic violence there is an underlying social commentary, testifying to the noble honour of the samurai and emphasising Hanzo's status as the people's champion.
In Sword of Justice, Hanzo overturns his own gutless superiors; in The Snare, he breaks into a temple used by local magistrates for the sadistic torture of young girls; in Who's Got the Gold?, the shogunate treasury is being looted by its own officials.
From the creator of the Lone Wolf and Cub series the Hanzo the Razor trilogy is presented here for the first time in the UK complete and uncut.
Each film has been restored and is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Japanese mono audio and new and improved English subtitles. Extras are limited to the original trailers.
They probably used the same masters HVE used when they released the r1, so unless HVE crammed each film onto DVD-5, I doubt there will be much difference in the transfers.
EvaUnit02 wrote:Eureka should provide awesome transfers, if their Masters of Cinema line is any indication.
Not necessarily. Their Sasori transfers were not exactly impressive. 701 was NTSC to PAL conversion, and Jailhouse 41 was taken from the old crap US dvd. They couldn've used Toei remaster or Studio Canal's native PAL remaster but no. They went for the worst transfer available (apparently with burnt in subs).
As far as I remember the R1 Hanzos are excellent. The first film has one or two audio drop outs though. Each dvd come with a 4 page booklet (can you even call that a booklet?) that feature's the original poster on page one (very nice - I even got the original japanese theater poster for part 2 for myself later)
The R1's are dvd-5 indeed but it shouldn't be a huge problem since these are barebones discs and each film clock under 90 min.
grim_tales wrote:That sounds cool
Would I enjoy this if I like the LWAC movies?
For a chambara fan like myself the series is a must but they never come close to the greatness of LW&C. The first part especially is a bit tame. Still a good movie and I need to watch it again, it's been a couple of years since I last saw it.
The second part is excellent. Better than the first in every area. The third film is usually considered a bit disappointing but I found it quite good and my second favourite in the series. Admittably there's little new but I don't see why that would be a bad thing.
For a chambara fan like myself the series is a must but they never come close to the greatness of LW&C.
I do like a bit of Chambara, has anything else come close to LW&C, saying that the comics are bloody excellent, lovely small tales
Also liked the Zatoichi series, especially Zatoichi Meets The One Armed Swordsman. I wish they did a boxset of all his movies from 1962-1989, which I believe is 26 movies including Darkness is his Ally. Shintaro Katsu last one which he wrote, directed and started in
For a chambara fan like myself the series is a must but they never come close to the greatness of LW&C.
I do like a bit of Chambara, has anything else come close to LW&C, saying that the comics are bloody excellent, lovely small tales
The only film I've seen that even challenges LW&C is Teruo Ishii's Porno Jidaigeki - Bohachi Bushido. Of course it's not as great but it's got extremely colourful visuals, Tetsuro Tamba as the ultimate antihero (think of Dirty Harry meets Ogami Itto), ninjas, first grade swordplay and a jaw dropping epic ending. Interestingly it's based on manga by Kazuo Koike, just like LW&C.
Shogun's Shadow (starring Ken Ogata and Shinichi Chiba) would be another really good one but that's maybe more of an adventure film.
Demon Spies (more of a ninja film) and Shadow Hunters 1&2 are all good but no masterpieces.
Ooo I might need to check those out, any good release over here, or are they from Japan only? Just done a quick search and it looks like to be the case
Kazuo Koike I think is awesome, brilliant storyteller and artist, I want to see more of his work.
An excellent ninja movie I have seen is Owl's Castle and Red Shadow, both completely different from each other. Owl Castle is a nice, long, epic story, showing Ninja as they really are, and Red Shadow - Prob best as a switch of brain movie type of way
slasher13 wrote:Ooo I might need to check those out, any good release over here, or are they from Japan only? Just done a quick search and it looks like to be the case
Bohachi Bushido is R2J only (see review and caps in the exploitation thread). Shadow Hunters 1&2, Demon Spies and Shogun's Shadow are all out on R1 (Animeigo and Addness)
A/V
Eureka has done a bang-up-job with this release. Presenting all three pictures in progressive NTSC and with anamorphic aspect ratios preserving each of the film’s 2.35:1 TohoScope ratios, the Hanzo the Razor trilogy is a lovingly presented series for the fans out there. I’m continually blown away by the sheer effort that Toho put into their restoration of these genre classics, and it further proves just how sacred these types of films are and how important they’ve become in defining a generation.
Colours are great across all three, with nice skin tones and vibrant exteriors, while black levels and contrast remain consistently pleasing. In terms of detail these films look great, with some wonderful close up moments, while wider shots also cope well, despite having an inherent softness at times. Of the three features Who’s Got the Gold comes off as being the softest, presumably due to some stylistic choices (especially the opening segment) but the difference is quite negligible and they each appear to be presented as best as they possibly can. The only niggles that really cost these transfers higher marks is a spot of high-frequency edge enhancement, some minor aliasing and a hint of low-level noise, which seems to mainly affect the opening moments of the first and third films, but thankfully becomes a lot more subdued afterward.
Audio consists of Japanese mono. There’s very little else you can ask for but the original tracks, and here we have them. As to be expected they’re not aggressive in any way, but they’re certainly punchy enough, with the various funk-tastic scores enjoying prominence, as well as a few fight sequences. Dialogue remains clear and there are no distortions, with even very little in the way of background noise such as hiss and pops.
Optional English subtitles are included and the quality is excellent throughout. They come in a bold white font, which is well timed and offers as close a translation as possible. Worth noting is that the names of Onibi and Mamushi have been literally translated so that western audiences have an idea of the meaning behind them. As such Onibi can be seen as “Devil-Fire”, while Mamushi becomes “Viper”.
Sounds good, prolly not up to Hung's ultra anal standards though.
EvaUnit02 wrote:Sounds good, prolly not up to Hung's ultra anal standards though.
Uhm, where did that come from? I didn't even know I'm having such high standards.
dvdtimes wrote:I’m continually blown away by the sheer effort that Toho put into their restoration of these genre classics
Toho? Maybe he means Toei. I mean these are Toho films but it's Toei who's been doing some much talked about restoration. Toho's restoration I haven't heard much anything. Or maybe the reviewer knows more about Toho films than I do which is very much possible.
This set sounds great, so glad the A/V is on par with the r1 version, def getting this now. Hope the price is good, Eureka have done another bang up job
