Red Angel

We’ve been covering many of Yasuzo Masumura’s films — Giants and Toys, Irezumi, Black Test Car, The Black Report, Blind Beast — lately and that’s because Arrow Video has been putting them out on blu ray, sometimes for the first time in the U.S.Sakura Nishi has been sent to a field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan’s war with the Chinese during the Second Sino-Japanese war.It’s a losing battle filled with amputation after amputation, as well as soldiers that are emotionally and physically ruined, even going so far as to assault her when she’s one of the few people who can help them. Yet even in this hell — and with the Chinese troops coming to kill everyone — she finds herself giving herself to a man with no arms, trapped in a hospital as he can’t return to Japan and his wife and the public who can never know just how badly the war is actually faring and falling in love with head surgeon Dr. Okabe, who has found himself addicted to morphine.Even when the man who attacked her comes back injured, Nishi begs Okabe to give him precious blood, but supplies are so low that hardly anyone can be given drugs or fluids. Everyone is chopped into pieces, with Nishi often holding them down so that the bonesaw can do its horrible work. Piles of severed appendages and bodies waiting to be burned prove that this field hospital is just slowing down the inevitable, just as the battles with the Chinese will soon destroy them all.Red Angel is a brutal film. It’s a punch in the face, a kick to the stomach and a hit to the brain and the people that should see it and be moved and changed by it never will.As for you, you can grab the new Arrow Video release of Red Angel, which has new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar David Desser, a new video essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum, a newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns, a trailer and image gallery.

After humbling themselves post-WW2, Japanese war films took on a decidedly grim tone early on, casting aside the propaganda that continued in American cinema until the late ‘60s. Armed conflict was brutal, ugly and pointless; and Yasuzo Masumura’s Red Angel (1966) makes sure audiences get the point.Sakura Nishi (Ayako Wakao) is a nurse serving on the front lines during the Second Sino-Japanese War, not only dealing with ravaged bodies and severed limbs but the violently overactive libidos of soldiers who fear no consequences. After being raped on the medical ward, Nishi struggles to rise above her feelings for revenge, even pleading with Dr. Okabe (Shinsuke Ashida) to save her attacker’s life. Her mercy strikes a chord in the cynical physician and the two develop a complicated relationship that struggles to survive in the midst of near constant chaos.Red Angel is a love story of sorts. Nishi does more that stitch up wounds and plug bullet holes; she uses her endless supply of sympathy – as well as her own body – to soothe the souls of the wounded. Of course, her most important patient is Dr. Okabe himself, whose drug addiction and nihilistic attitude has manifested itself physically in an emasculating case of impotency. And despite their professed love for one another (an overly sentimental conclusion for a film so unapologetically cynical), one can’t help that think Nishi would move on to the next needy soldier once a “cure” finally took hold.Masumura’s film may have its share of emotional inconsistencies, but it’s modern take on the horrors of war – which mirrors the efforts of cult director Samuel Fuller - still packs a punch: amputations with no anesthetic, cholera epidemics, rape, suicide are all captured with painful detail. Even scenes that could have come across as crassly exploitive – like Nishi sexually satisfying an armless soldier on the ward – are islands of humanity in a world where life is cheap and morals are expendable.Arrow Video’s has done well by Masumura in the past and they’ve added yet another beautiful Blu-ray to the catalog. The special edition includes an introduction, audio commentary, visual essay, trailer, image gallery and fantastic new box artwork.

レビューが結合されていますが、ASIN: B000F6IIH6　EAN：5060103790241　のレビュー。「赤い天使」で知られる増村保造監督の大映1966年作品。英importのPAL盤。一見、戦争の悲惨さを描いているように見えるが、胸に燃えるのは、男の人を救うのは私よ！という極限状態でもぶれない使命感と、「神の右手」を持つ従軍キュア・エンジェルさくらと戦場の男たちの物語。意識して演出されている大仰で、あまりに身も蓋もないセリフ廻しは、教師と生徒、主人とメイドの物語を思わせて、つい笑ってしまいそうになってしまう。Lookはリアリズムながら、ヒロインのぶっ飛び具合に関節がはずれそうになる。常人離れした西さくら（若尾文子）の中心のなさ、と言って悪ければ滅私の行いは美談とはならず、何かしら欠落した利他の奉仕の精神は、抑制とは反対で、「やりすぎちゃうんか・・」という思いが頭から離れない。乱歩、と言えば誤解を招くが、本作は血まみれハイパー・空気読まない萌えメロドラマと思われた（「俺にはもう心が無い」「西が探します」）。若尾サンは眼前への深情けや耽溺だけしか眼に入っていない。そうならざるを得ないのが戦争なのか。つまり、手足を失う恐怖の中、怒涛のご奉仕に使命感と岡部軍医（芦田伸介）LOVEを発揮するさくらの一途さ（と妙なズレ具合）が鮮やかに対比される。命や尊厳が紙屑のように吹き飛ぶこんな世界の真っ只中で性命力が、いや生命力が逞し過ぎる。虚無や挫折の真逆のパワー。そして頼まれればNoと言わない再春天使ではあるが、惚れた男には（当時としては）強烈な自己主張をし、頼まれもしないことをし、こちらを「えっ」と言わせる。中身は実際にご覧ください。戦争は性の歓びすら奪ってしまうもの。戦争と男の性を描いた作品って珍しいのではないか。なんだか胸やけするように倒錯的だが、いや待て、大陸での戦時下（昭和14年）の戦地（そして近代戦争のあらゆる土地）の末端の兵士たちの本音、実体は多分に本作のようなものだったのか。断言できないが。増村は独特な戦争批判をしていると見てもよいし、それに因って、内地・平時ではしないことをしてしまう（せざるを得ない）者の非日常への遊離を描いたと見ても良いと思う。前半のグロい野戦病院の描写が恐ろしすぎ、痛すぎて、眼を背けたくなる生々しさに注意。しかし通奏低音である変態性が濃ゆい。画的センスや作劇は卓越している。力強い、嘘がないと言うのか、誇張はあるが虚飾がないと言うか偽善がないと言うか、そんな個人像の創出（「西が勝ちました」）とごつごつしたテクスチャーは鮮烈。こんなに濃ゆい増村監督。観たのは実は初めてだが、テレビに活動を移した後の百恵さんの「赤い～」シリーズや「ドジでのろまな亀です！」の堀ちえみさんの「スチュワーデス物語」で知る人も多いと思う。精神的SMと言えば言い過ぎだが、まさにそんな倒錯の芽が本作（これ以前にもあるのかも知れないが）にある。本作ではそんなテイスト、中庸を排したある種エキセントリックで耽溺的な人物像、少女漫画や根性ものドラマ（「アタックNO.1」とか）に似た関係ががすでに描かれていた（誉めています）。好きか、と問われれば、西のように「はい」とは言えないが凄い映画である。撮影は名手、小林節雄。物悲しい音楽は池野成。世界最大の映画DBのIMDbでは星8.0点と高評価。以下、★まで未見の方はスルーしてください。本作でさくらから春を得た男3人（と連れに指名した看護婦1名）の顛末・・。「赤い天使」は天国を見せた後、死を運ぶ天使であった・・。★赤い天使（aka, Red Angel）、1966、日本, 大映東京 / 大映劇場アスペクト比 2.35:1（大映スコープ）、95分,モノクロ、モノラル, 35mm-------------------------------------------------------------------------傷、パラがときおり見受けられるが気にならならいレベル。製作年代を考えてもやや粗め。諧調もあと1歩だがストレスはない。音声はやや引っ込み気味でセリフが聞き取りにくい部分も。リージョン2, PAL映像仕様は16:9（スコープ）、画面アスペクト比は2.35:1, 片面 2層、95min. モノクロ音声：日本語字幕：英語（On/Off可）映像特典：〇Photo gallery 19枚〇Director’s Biography 英文監督評、本作評5頁。ここで増村監督はサミュエル・フラー、ニコラス・レイ、ダグラス・サークの類似性が指摘され、1960年代Japanese Newwaveの引き金を引いた1人で、北野武や三池、塚本監督への影響も指摘されていて、海外での増村監督の評価の高さがうかがわれる。〇Director’s Filmography テレビ含む。ローマ字。英題があるものは英題も併記。6頁〇Theatrical Trailer　日本版予告編。2分程度、スコープサイズメインメニューあり、チャプターメニューあり発売：角川ヘラルドピクチャーズ、A Yume Pictures Releasing、販売：Fusion Media Sales、2006このA Yume Pictures ReleasingはUKで日本映画をいくつか販売するメーカー。

I think this film is a masterpiece. I saw it reviewed on another site I respect high up in a best war films list close to come and see which was top. I would not argue with that. I found the telling from the perspective of a front line nurse brilliant and the whole was as honest a film as say platoon. It was from the Japanese view point and did not consider the Chinese.

Intense et poignant, version avec sous-titres anglais uniquement pour ce dvd.

Questo film giapponese, altamente visionario e provocatorio, uscì a suo tempo nelle sale italiane con il titolo (abbastanza assurdo) di Nuda per un pugno di eroi. Purtroppo da allora la versione italiana ha circolato pochissimo, per cui adesso l'unico modo per vedere il film è ricorrere a un'edizione import, come questa targata UK, con sottotitoli solo in inglese.

A brilliant classic Japanese movie. A must see for Asian movie fans and collectors.