Film Credits

Screenplay by: Taeko Tomioka

Directed by: Masahiro Shinoda

Starring: Hiromi Go, Shima Iwashita, Kaori Mizushima, Misako Tanaka, Shohei Hino, Takashi Tsumura

Review

I've always enjoyed watching Japanese "historical" epics and I was looking forward with anticipation for Image/Kino's "CinemaDisc Collection" laserdisc release of Gonza the Spearman. But while watching the film, I found myself experiencing a major case of deja vu - even though I swore that I'd neither seen nor heard of the film before, I knew exactly what was going to happen next. Anyway, about an hour into the film, I finally realized that I had seen Gonza a couple years earlier on our local PBS station. Whoops, and here I was thinking I had gone psychic... As for the film itself, it's set in the samurai era of old Japan and is unlike the Japanese films most people have been exposed to. It is not a samurai tale (even though several are present in the storyline, and there is some swordplay at the finale), but rather a dramatic piece dealing with similar samurai traditional values of loyalty, respect, honor and strict social ethics. The film is deeply-involving and well-acted, and features lush photography by Kazuo Miyagawa.

The storyline revolves around Gonza Sasano (Hiromi Go), a much-respected lancer, who is assigned to officiate at an important tea ceremony. As this will improve his social standing, Gonza wishes to distinguish himself even more by making a big impression. He goes to his master's wife, Osai (Shima Iwashita), and requests the use of the secret family tea scrolls even though ethics forbid any non-family members from accessing them. But as Osai secretly wishes Gonza to marry her daughter, Okiku (Kaori Mizushima), she slyly suggests to him that by marrying Okiku he would become part of the family and could legitimately use the tea scrolls. Gonza readily agrees, even though he is already engaged to Oyuki (Misako Tanaka), and that's where the big trouble starts. Osai accidentally discovers Gonza's previous engagement plans, but she doesn't know what to do about the present situation. On the other hand, Oyuki's upset brother, Bonnojo (Shohei Hino), is already plotting against both Gonza and Osai - Gonza for jilting his sister, and Osai for rejecting his unwanted romantic advances while husband Ichinoshin (Takashi Tsumura) is on duty in far-away Edo. Bonnojo's need for revenge is fulfilled when he accuses Gonza and Osai of the worst crime of all, adultery. As it is impossible to prove their true innocence, Gonza and Osai are forced to flee for their lives in shame, fearful that Lord Ichinoshin will find them and kill them for their "indiscretions."

Although the source material isn't quite fresh, the quality of Image/Kino's transfer is extremely good. The image is bright and fairly clean, the colors are quite strong, and the only flaws we detected were a few random scratches and little blemishes. Although not a widescreen film, the image retain a slight letterboxed matte of about 1.58:1, and its importance will be instantly recognized upon viewing the film. (On a side note for you technical junkies, we suspect that the film is hard-matted since those previously-mentioned scratches do extend into the black bands whenever they appear.) As the film is made up entirely of Japanese dialogue, white subtitles appear on the print as translation, and that brings up the only complaint we have about the disc. The subtitles are of the white, "burned-in" variety that can be difficult to read on light backgrounds, and, worse, pieces of the individual letters (and words) often flicker out and become indistinct and unreadable. Since the film runs just over two hours, side three appears in CAV with three steady still frames followed by two jittery ones. The CX-encoded digital mono audio sounds fine, if a little on the heavy side. The two-disc Gonza the Spearman was appropriately pressed at Kurare (Japan) and contains 16 unlisted chapter markers.

If you're looking for something a little different in Japanese cinema, Gonza the Spearman is an excellent choice.