The Sting Of Death — The Sting Of Death(Blu Ray)
Sting Of Death is glum, at points arty, at points pitch black comedy touched drama regarding a husband who has cheated on his wife he’s had two young children with. The 1990’s Japanese film is set in the 1950 shortly after the war has finished. It’s an extremely well-shot film- with fairly sparse dialogue, and a largely lulling pace. We get some wonderful imagery, touches of grim pathos, and moments of wondering what’s real & what’s not. Here we have a recent Blu-Ray release of the film from Radiance Films- with a new scan of the film, a few extras, and an inlay booklet.
The Sting of Death ( aka Shi no toge) is from the year 1990. It was directed/ co-written by Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture-born Kôhei Oguri. Between 1981 and 2015 he has a total of six feature films to his name. These go from Muddy River (1981) which is a post-war set drama, regarding a boy from a noodle store-owning family who befriends a neighbouring boy living in poverty. Sleeping Man (1996) drama regarding a man who is in a coma, and his neighbours are looking after him. Bio drama Foujita(2015) which tells of Japanese artist Foujita time in Paris during the 1920s.
After the white text on black background credits, we meet our two leads husband and wife Toshio (Ittoku Kishibe) & Miho (Keiko Matsuzaka). They are having dialogue back & forth in a small nighttime room- she is pondering suicide, as he has been having an affair for some years that has recently come out- saying she has nothing to live for. The use of shifting camera angles here is subtly inspired- as we move between each character - the shifts make it feel like they are each placed at different points in the room, but in reality, they are staying in the same place.
As the film unfolds writer Toshio tries to carry on with his work, as well as looking after their two children- one little girl, and one little boy. But Miho is constantly suspicious he will return to his lover- even though we see him(once again during a nighttime visit) coldly/ finally cut off the affair.
In between Miho mental decline- we switch to a large body of water where several large metal pipes sit on shore, and at one point Toshio drags a boat of one of the said pipes- which the family all later sit in on a waterless riverbed.
At points during the emotional back and forths, we get very darkly humorous touches- for example, the pair battling to commit suicide each trying to hang the other. The whole film runs at just under the two-hour mark, and I’d say at points it did rather try my patience- yet just when I was on the edge of losing interest, it offered up some wonderful imagery, pained/ trouble performance, or the general need to find out quite how it all resolves.
This new Blu-Ray is region A/B. The scan here features newly translated English subtitles- these are clear & easy to read throughout. On the extra side we get one new thing on the disc- it’s an appreciation of the film by film scholar Hideki Maeda(20.25) this is in Japanese with English subs. He starts off by talking about the book the film was based on, which was very ahead of its time in its portrayal of family relationships in Japanese families. We find out the book was one of director Kôhei Oguri's favourite books, and he’d read it many times over his lifetime. He discusses how the director approached the adaptation from page to screen. He talks about how the film is about the primal power of life. He discusses the use of shots in the first scene, and how this starts things off as it means to be- not in a normal run-of-the-mill drama form. He also discusses shot work throughout the film, a few other things, and his thoughts in general on the film. It’s a worthwhile featurette, with Maeda making some worthwhile observations.
The only other extra aside from the film's trailer is Japanese Cinema: New Territories( 56.48) which is a 2011 French documentary- it has English subs. It features interviews with the film's director Kôhei Oguri, as well as other key Japanese directors such as Takashi Miike & Hayao Miyazaki. The finished release comes with a twenty-four-page inlay booklet featuring a newly translated interview with the film's director, full credits and a good selection of stills.
The Sting Of Death is a fairly unique take on martial affair-led drama- with its arty tone, elements of humour, and dream-like imagery. It’s a film I’d say you'll need to be patient with, but on the whole, I’d say it’s worth the time/ effort if you like glum & arty dramas.