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Released by: Artsmagic
Released on: 7/31/2004
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Cast: Makoto Fujita, Sonny Chiba, Hiraki Murakami, Kazuko Kato
Year: 1987
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The Movie:
Spun off from a popular Japanese television series called Hissatsu (also known as Sure Fire Death), Sure Death: Revenge is an odd collaboration from director Kinji Fukasaku (of Battle Royale and The Yakuza Papers) and stars Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter), and Hiroyuki 'Henry' Sanada (The Twilight Samurai). It's also the fourth film in the series, and because of this, viewers may have a hard time getting into the story as if you haven't seen the earlier entries in the series, you may not know as much as you'd like to about the characters and back story the film is set against.
Set in feudal times, the film follows a police officer named Mondo Nakamura (Makoto Fujita of Hunter In The Dark) who, due to some unusual circumstances, finds himself imprisoned with an assassin and his target, the local magistrate. Violence erupts and the assassin and the magistrate end up dead, with Nakamura blamed for not being able to save the magistrate's life in time - for this he receives a pay cut. The new, younger magistrate treats the local officers to a dinner and gives each of them a gold piece, in a sense buying their loyalty from the start, except for Nakamura who is unimpressed with the man's bravado.
Nakamura returns home only to find that his village is about to come under attack by a gang of colorfully costumed bandits, which results in the death of one of the village elders who sacrifices his life to save a local child. Through some detective work, Nakamura links the bandit's attack to the new magistrate and soon finds himself cooperating in a plot to hire and work alongside an assassin named Bunshichi (Sonny Chiba) to avenge the elder's death and uncover the agenda from the 'higher ups.'
While the film has its highpoints (namely a lot of well executed swordplay and some great on screen chemistry from Chiba and Fujita), unfortunately it jumps around a little bit too much for its own good and at times it seems like it almost wants to be a comedy, rather than a serious samurai film. When it bounces back and forth between the two genres it ends up not doing either of them justice, and this isn't helped by the overly garish almost superheroic costumes that the characters wear throughout the movie. Adding to this sense of strangeness is the way that the soundtrack jumps from Flamenco guitar to Japanese pop to more traditional Japanese instrumental music and back again.
Disjointed moments aside, Sure Death: Revenge does have enough going for it that Fukasaku or Chiba fans will want to check it out. It is definitely no the best starting point for someone to get into their work but for marginally more seasoned fans, if nothing else it should prove to be an entertaining little film even if it isn't earth-shatteringly great.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Sure Death: Revenge is given a nice 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation that tops the region 1 release of the film (which for some reason had the credits in widescreen but the actual film in fullframe… go figure). While at times the image is slightly soft, for the most part the colors look nice and there isn't much in the way of print damage causing any problems either. Some edge enhancement does appear and is quite noticeable in one or two spots but overall the movie looks quite good on this presentation.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is in its native Japanese and comes with easy to read English subtitles that are free of any obvious typos or errors. The bizarro musical selections used throughout the film come through nice and clear but never overshadow the dialogue - the same can be said for the sound effects. There could have been a little but more bass in the mix but other than that, this disc sounds just fine.
There are some text biographies for the stars and the director, and a small gallery of promotional artwork for this and a few other Artsmagic releases. The biographies are quite comprehensive and pack a lot of information into their text.
The Final Word:
Sure Death: Revenge is not the best Fukasaku film, it's not the best Chiba film, and it's not the best Fukasaku/Chiba collaborative effort. That being said, it's an entertaining period samurai film and Artsmagic gives it a nice widescreen presentation on this DVD.