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Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: October 29th, 2024.
Director: Toshio Matsumoto
Cast: Yôji Matsuda, Shijaku Katsura, Hideo Murota
Year: 1988
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Dogra Magra – Movie Review:
Based on the novel of the same name by author Kyusaku Yumeno, Toshio Matsumoto's 1988 adaptation of Dogra Magra, set in post-war Japan, features a man named Kure Ichiro (Yoji Matsuda) who wakes up in a mental hospital one day with absolutely no recollection of how or why he wound up there in the first place. The two doctors tending to him, Wakabayashi (Hideo Murota) and Masaki (Shijaku Katsura), tell him that as he killed his bride to be on their wedding day, it would seem that his mind is refusing to allow those memories to flood his psyche.
As the doctors begin to treat Ichiro for his issues, with each doctor using different methods of treatment to get through to him, he begins to confuse fantasy with reality, leading up to the discovery of a manuscript titled 'Dogra Magra' and an obsession with a rotting corpse.
A film that tends to ask more questions than it answers, Dogra Magra is a stylish mix of gothic mystery and arthouse surrealism beautifully shot by Tatsuo Suzuki and skillfully directed by Toshio Matsumoto (who likely remains best known for directing Funeral Parade Of Roses). Rife with striking imagery and bizarre scenarios, the movie explores its narrative from different points of view in a non-linear timeline that can get confusing if you don’t pay super close attention (or even if you do – honestly, this is one that you’ll probably want to watch more than once in order to pick up on things you may have missed on the initial viewing, though the director’s commentary included on this disc does a great job of dissecting things in that regard), but proves, ultimately, to be a very rewarding watch and a pretty unique slice of filmmaking.
Loaded with period detail and striking visuals, the production values featured in the movie are top-notch, this is a great looking film from start to finish. Some unorthodox lighting choices combined with truly eerie set design helps to set the mood properly, as the plot weaves in and out of the present day while exploring the potential of madness and memory, leaving the audience to wonder who is really alive and interacting with Ichiro, if he’s actually locked up in the hospital in the first place and what he was really responsible for in terms of the murder the doctors tell him he committed.
The performances are quite good across the board. Hideo Murota and Shijaku Katsura play their respective roles very well, coming across as wise and knowledgeable if not entirely trustworthy, while Yoji Matsuda does a great job in the lead, playing his character with skill and creating a character that we wind up wanting to know more about.
As the movie comes to its close, it turns into more of a standard thriller and pushes some of the surrealist touches to the side, but Dogra Magra still turns out to be wholly challenging, unique and unquestionably worth watching.
Dogra Magra – Blu-ray Review:
Radiance Films brings Dogra Magra to Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.85.1 widescreen on a 50GB disc taken from a digital transfer supervised by director of photography Tatsuo Suzuki and producer Shuji Shibata. Detail is, frequently, very impressive on this transfer and the image always looks crisp and film. Radiance provides an impressive picture with great contrast and strong, deep black levels that always looks like proper film and shows no obvious noise reduction, edge enhancement or overzealous digital sharpening. The image retains the natural film grain you’d want it to and offers good depth and texture throughout, showing very little print damage at all. Keep in mind, however, that the color scheme in this movie has been tinkered with a lot, by the filmmakers, that is, and so for the color reproduction on the transfer to accurately represent this, things sometimes have a yellowish hue to them.
A Japanese language option is offered up in a 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Mono track, with removable English subtitles provided. For an older mono track, the mix offers a decent amount of depth. Levels are set properly, dialogue is clean and clear, and there’s not a trace of hiss or distortion to be found. The score has very good clarity to it.
Extras include a commentary with Toshio Matsumoto in Japanese with English subtitles. This covers the impact of the source material, the perspective of specific shots and sequences and why they're relevant to the story, the significance of the title, the layered framework of the movie, some of the foreshadowing apparent in the picture, the period detail on display in the movie and why it was important to him to get that right, historical elements that work their way into the storyline, the nested structure of the plot and lots more. This is as much a reading of the movie than it is an exploration of its origins loaded with behind-the-scenes details, but it's quite interesting, nevertheless.
The disc also includes a twenty-one-minute interview with Toshio Matsumoto from 2003. He speaks here about how he came to direct this feature and how he got the studio to agree to the project, changes that were occurring in the art film arena around this time, what went into adapting the source novel into the filmed version and getting the deceased author's son to come around to the project, post-modern aspects of the film, how he feels about how the movie turned out, the unorthodox structure of the movie, how the movie compares to some of his earlier films like Funeral Parade Of Roses and more.
Dogra Magra Through The Eyes Of Tatsuo Suzuki is a thirteen-minute visual essay by Julian Ross that goes over the life and career of the film's cinematographer. It covers the similarities between Dogra Magra and Funeral Parade Of Roses, the structural conceits that the movies share, details on the novel and its author, where Matsumoto's career and cultural standing was during this period in his career, what went into the cinematography that Suzuki handled on both films, details on his life and career, other important films that Suzuki worked and the importance of his work on these productions.
Instructions On Ahodara Sutra is a sixteen-minute piece that is made up of behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage of Hiroshi Sakano, a famed Japanese street performer, instructing various participants in the production on how to properly perform the chant that is featured in the movie.
Finishing up the extras on the disc is a still gallery of some of production designer Takeo Kimura’s sketches for five key sets used in the movie, a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options.
As to the packaging, as usual, Radiance Films offers up some reversible cover sleeve art featuring original art on one side and newly commissioned artwork on the other. The clear keepcase holds not only the Blu-ray disc but also a limited-edition booklet featuring cast and crew notes, a director’s statement, an essay titled Late-Period Toshio Matsumoto And Dogra Magra by Hirofumi Sakamoto, an essay titled The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword: The Life Of Atsushi Yamatoya by Jasper Sharp, an interview with producer Shuji Shibata by Alexander Fee and Karin Yamamoto as well as notes on the presentation and some archival photos.
Dogra Magra - The Final Word:
Dogra Magra is a labyrinth on film, similar to Memento (though obviously pre-dating it by a good many years) but wholly unique and original in every way that you’d want it to be. For those who can appreciate a surrealist take on a mystery story, it’s very much worth seeking out and the Blu-ray release from Radiance Films offers up the film in an excellent presentation and with a nice selection of extras that explore the movie’s origins and deeper meaning. Recommended!
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Dogra Magra Blu-ray screen caps!
