The Beast To Die — The Beast To Die(Blu Ray)

The Beast To Die is a darkly hued, nihilistic, at times troubling & damn tense early 80’s Japanese crime thriller. It regards a troubled war photographer going on a steadily escalating crime spree, which sees him teaming up with an unpredictable ex-waiter. Here from Radiance Films, both in the UK and stateside, is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a moody yet crisp 4k scan, several new interviews, and a new critical appreciation. 

The Beast To Die (aka Yajû Shisubeshi , The Beast Must Die) is from the year 1980. It was directed by Yamagata born Tôru Murakawa. Between the early 70’s and mid-2010s, he had seventy-three credits to his name, with forty-eight TV credits and twenty-five features. He feature films took in the likes of  Roman Porno, Melancholy Flesh Business: Sensuous Zone(1972). Action revenge film The Hidden Trail of the Beasts( 1981), female-fronted action adventure Lucky 13( 1986), and Yakuza meets US crime gang  The Hidden Trail of the Beasts(2016).

The film focuses on Kunihiko Date (Yûsaku Matsuda), a war photographer who has recently returned to the streets of Tokyo. Fairly soon, he's killed a police inspector on a pouring rain evening, then he uses the gun he stole from the cop to gun down the accomplice of a late-night casino, stealing all the money from the table.

After this sudden outburst, he decides to pare back/ plan more of his criminal activities- he starts planning a bank robbery, and guns down a stranger on the street with a silencer-fitted gun.

One evening, when meeting his work colleagues for dinner, he encounters fuzzy-haired waiter Sanada (Takeshi Kaga)- who is clearly unbalanced as he snaps/ hits out at the diners, then apologises- before ripping off his shirt & tie before storming out.

It seems that there is little or nothing to stop the pair's ultimate plan to rob a bank, with only Reiko (Asami Kobayashi)- a women he meets at a classical concert, and curious, bearded Detective Kashiwag(Michihiro Yamanishi) having a possible chance to put the brakes on.

The film is clearly inspired/influenced by elements of both Taxi Driver and The French Connection, though elements of manipulation and cool calculation are woven in too. It utilises a jazz fusion score, which moves between moody trumpet work, and more bright vibe bond flourishes used to great counterbalancing to moments of slow-mo violence.

The highlight here is Matsuda, who has quite an arc, moving from a dead-eyed sociopath, through to a quote-spouting manipulator, on to a man truly unfurling. The rest of the cast our good too- though Kaga as the unbalanced ex waiter is most memorable.

The film features a great unhinged bank robbery, an ultra-tense train scene, and an oddly dreamy resolution captured in grainy CCTV footage.

For the most part, I enjoyed what The Beast To Die had to offer. It does run a bit too long at nearing the two-hour mark, and it could have been easily resolved by removing the way too many scenes of Matsuda sitting in his cave-like apartment.

 

Moving onto this recent Blu Ray release, we get a 4k scan- this is well defined, yet also still moody/atmospheric. The only slight quibble I’d have is towards the end of the film, when real war footage is dropped in, the jump in quality is rather noticeable, but that I guess is one of the downsides of HD scans.

On the extras side, we find three new things. Interview with director Toru Murakawa (20.25) he talks about the film being the most impactful of his lifetime. He discusses how he became involved in the project, and how lead Matsuda was a different type of actor operating at another level.  He talks about how he sees himself as a director of entertaining, not thought-provoking films. We find out Matsuda had his molars removed for the film, so he could create his own characters. He talks about a scene cut from later in the film, where train passengers were killed.  There’s an interview with screenwriter Shoichi Maruyama (22.49). And lastly, an interview with novelist and screenwriter Jordan Harper (12.29), he starts off by declaring that Japan and America make the most effective noir films. He talks about how America haunts the film to hand. He chats about the film's great set pieces, which feature sloppy, but believable, and never glamorised violence.  He discusses lead Matsuda- touching on other notable roles- declaring this is the actor's most chilling role. So, a decent selection of extras.

The release is finished off with a twenty-eight-page booklet-this takes in an eight-page piece by Japanese film expert Tom Mes on lead actor-Yûsaku Matsuda, which originally appeared in the early 2000s on Midnight Eye. There’s a piece about the film by Tatsuya Masuto, along with a good selection of stills/ poster artwork, and full film credits.

The Beast To Die is a worthy slice of nihilistic, at times taut neo noir, with Matsuda really selling the unfolding of the lead character. This new radiance release serves up a nice 4k scan and rewarding extras.