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Originally Posted by Michael Brooke  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.
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). |
Sorry if you weren't being defensive, just read that way to me.
I also didn't mean it was unusual for Mr Rayns to be featured on an English release, just one put out by Arrow Video!