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Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs  There's no need to be so defensive – I just thought it was odd to see him on and Arrow Video release when I'm used to seeing him provide extra features on Masters of Cinema releases like Alone Across the Pacific, Kokoro, Profound Desires of the Gods, Bedevilled, The Burmese Harp etc. and he always comes across as extremely knowledgeable and consummately professional. |
I'm not being remotely defensive - just pointing out that it really isn't unusual at all to see him featured on an English-friendly disc of a Japanese film, regardless of the label releasing it. For instance, he's all over the BFI's Ozu and Kurosawa discs as well, and is currently the main reason for favouring the Criterion
In the Realm of the Senses over the StudioCanal one.
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A visual essay from him is very different to an interview with filmmakers like Lamberto Bava, Tom Savini, Caroline Munro or Jack Hill!
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I wouldn't really call this straight-to-camera piece "a visual essay" as such - I tend to reserve that term for things that are more obviously visually pre-planned and elaborate, such as Michael Mackenzie's
Gender and Giallo piece on
Blood and Black Lace.
But yes, obviously a critic is going to have a different approach to someone who actually worked on the film, especially in a historical-overview piece like this. (The one on
Retaliation focuses more on Jo Shishido and director Yusuharu Hasebe, and there are more video clips - there wasn't much scope for them in the Nikkatsu piece given the rapid-fire delivery of facts and figures.)
Another reason that we're consciously laying the historical ground at this stage is that there will hopefully be quite a bit more where
Massacre Gun and
Retaliation came from, especially since the former seems to be going down so well ("delighted surprise" seems to be the consensus so far in the reviews that I've read).