Underworld Beauty: Limited Edition – Radiance Films (Blu-ray)
Theatrical Release Dates: Japan, 1958 (Underworld Beauty), Japan, 1959 (Love Letter)
Director: Seijun Suzuki (Both Films)
Cast: Michitarô Mizushima, Mari Shiraki, Shinsuke Ashida, Tôru Abe, Hideaki Nitani, Setsuko Amamiya, Tomio Aoki, Shôki Fukae (Underworld Beauty), Kyôsuke Machida, Frank Nagai, Hisako Tsukuba, Keisuke Yukioka (Love Letter)
Release Date: January 27th, 2025 (UK), January 28th, 2025 (USA)
Approximate Running Times: 87 Minutes 9 Seconds (Underworld Beauty), 39 Minutes 28 Seconds (Underworld Beauty)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Both Films)
Rating: 15 (UK), NR (USA)
Sound: LPCM Mono Japanese (Both Films)
Subtitles: English (Both Films)
Region Coding: Region A,B
Retail Price: £14.99 (UK), $39.95 (USA)
"Retrieving the diamonds he stashed before his arrest, thief Miyamoto hopes to help his old partner Mihara, crippled during the heist. Their former boss, crime lord Oyane, offers to mediate with a foreign buyer, but secretly wants the stones for himself. The deal goes awry when gunmen appear on the scene. Mihara swallows the diamonds but dies in the chase, leaving a valuable corpse in the police morgue. Miyamoto forms an uneasy alliance with Mihara's wildcat sister Akiko to keep the gems away from gangsters, cops and even Akiko's greedy boyfriend." - synopsis provided by the distributor
Video: 4.25/5 (Underworld Beauty), 3.5/5 (Love Letter)
Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "Underworld Beauty was transferred in 4K by the Nikkatsu Corporation and supplied to Radiance Films as a High-Definition digital file."
Underworld Beauty comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 38.4 GB
Feature: 23.6 GB (Underworld Beauty), 10.8 GB (Love Letter)
The source looks great; there is still some minor debris. Image clarity and compression are solid, black levels and contrast are strong, and the image retains an organic look. Love Letter's source is not in as good of shape; it has more noticeable debris.
Audio: 4/5 (Underworld Beauty), 3.5/5 (Love Letter)
Underworld Beauty comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in Japanese with removable English subtitles. The source is in great shape; it's a noticeable improvement over this film’s previous home video releases. Dialog comes through clearly; everything sounds balanced, and range-wise, ambient sounds are well represented.
Love Letter comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in Japanese with removable English subtitles. Though there is background hiss throughout, dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced.
Extras:
Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer for Underworld Beauty (3 minutes 15 seconds, LPCM mono Japanese with removable English subtitles), an interview with critic Mizuki Kodama (14 minutes 44 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), a theatrical trailer for Love Letter (2 minutes 54 seconds, LPCM mono Japanese with removable English subtitles), a short film directed by Seijun Suzuki titled Love Letter (39 minutes 28 seconds, 2.35:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono Japanese with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary with Seijun Suzuki biographer William Carroll for Love Letter, reversible cover art, removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings and a 20-page booklet (limited to 3000 copies) cast & crew information for Underworld Beauty, an essay titled The Moth That Flies Too Close to the Flame written by Claudia Siefen-Leitich, an archival review of Underworld Beauty written by Seizo Okada, and information about the transfer.
Summary:
Underworld Beauty: Seijun Suzuki worked at a furious pace, making forty-two films in a mere span of eleven years while working for the Nikkatsu Corporation. During these years, he primarily worked in the yakuza genre. Seijun Suzuki would, for the first time with his seventh film, Underworld Beauty, shoot a film in widescreen.
Underworld Beauty opens with a title card that proceeds the main title that boldly announces "Seijun Suzuki’s Seventh Film", Quentin Tarantino would open Kill Bill in a similar way. In Underworld Beauty, Seijun Suzuki would showcase his western cinema influences with his use of film noir shadows and doo-wop-sounding music.
The narrative revolves around Miyamoto, a man who has just spent three years in prison. He is still in possession of the diamonds that he stole from a heist that led to his going to prison. Miyamoto tries to sell the diamonds and use the money to help a woman who was injured during the heist. From there, a series of double crosses and other betrayals unfold.
Underworld Beauty may not be as flamboyant or chaotic as Seijun Suzuki’s later films, but he still manages to come up with innovative and imaginative shots throughout. Wataro Nakao’s lush black-and-white photography is filled with all the film noir hallmarks, like playing with shadow and light. Every inch of every frame is filled with an amazing amount of style.
The acting is subdued for the most part, including Michitaro Mizushima's performance as Miyamoto, which at times is too one-dimensional as he spends most of the time brooding. Mari Shiraki's performance as Akiko is a more developed one as she transforms from the grieving sister into a femme fatale.
That said, Underworld Beauty's screenplay is its weakest asset, as it follows the conventions of the film noir genre, playing things by the numbers. The score is one of the most bizarre that I have heard so far from a Suzuki film, and at times it feels oddly out of place when used in the film's noir settings. Also, the happy ending feels tacked on and out of place. Although Underworld Beauty may not contain all the flashy camera work his later work is renowned for, Suzuki, through his inventiveness, manages to show hints of things to come.
Love Letter: A nightclub performer who had a two-day romantic encounter with a forest ranger has kept their relationship alive by writing to each other for the last two years. She becomes concerned when his letters are less frequent; not wanting to lose him, she makes an unannounced trip to see him. Once reunited, will they rekindle their love, or has something happened that will keep them apart?
Love Letter is not the type of film that one thinks of when discussing Seijun Suzuki; he’s a filmmaker known mostly for his crime films. Love Letter is a romantic melodrama in which two lovers who have been apart try to come together after a secret about one of them is revealed. Without giving anything away about Love Letters twist, I will say that the way in which the narrative unfolds leading towards this reveal is perfectly executed.
Though there are some secondary characters, there are only two performances that matter: Hisako Tsukuba (The Golden Bat) in the role of the nightclub performer and Kyôsuke Machida (Outlaw: Gangster VIP) in the role of the forest ranger. Their performances play well off of each other and they have strong onscreen chemistry. That said, the rest of the performances are best described as serviceable.
Despite its short running time of just under 40 minutes, Love Letter has a considerable amount of depth. Nowhere is this clearer than when it comes to the use of flashbacks. Love Letter is beautifully photographed, the bulk of its narrative takes place in snow covered landscapes. Another one of its strengths is its snow-covered landscapes, which reinforce the theme of isolation. Ultimately, Love Letter is a bittersweet melodrama where tragedy leads to new beginnings.
Underworld Beauty gets an excellent release from Radiance Films that comes with a strong audio/presentation, a bonus short film, and a trio of insightful extras, highly recommended.
Written by Michael Den Boer