A Tale Of Sorrow (1977/Cinema Epoch DVD)
Picture:
D Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B-
A
magazine company needing a new star for their cover takes a beautiful model and
trains her to be the next champion golfer in Seijun Suzuki’s A Tale Of Sorrow. After much grueling and training, her hard
work pays off and she becomes an instant overnight star, but that is when
the tragedy starts. Even with fame,
money and power it replaces the life she had before, to remain a star she gives
her life to showbiz and has no control over her life. Even with greater success she is hounded by
those who envy her and uses her for their own benefits, especially when she is
stalked by her new 'neighbor'.
This is a
film made in the late 1970s; it shows the rise and fall of a tragic young
woman. It shows how a corporation uses
stardom in a competitive world. A
beautiful model is offered the chance become a new star, tempted by fame,
fortune, money and sex she sets on the path to success. But upon succeeding even with all her
fortunes, she becomes more a slave to them instead; she becomes what others
want and is forced to do what others ask. This becomes a dangerous game when an obsessed
female fan blackmails her to become her so called 'friend', not able to even
decide or choose she soon heads down a path of ruin...
The
costuming, style and drama is very reflective of the 1970s time period and
inadvertently gives a very retro feel the entire film. This film is a reflective of the Japanese
drama of how stardom doesn't always lead to happiness. It shows how money isn't everything and can't
buy everything, and how innocence is lost as one matures. The main character even with fame and fortune
is considered tragic because her hard won fame and fortune attracted those who would
leech off her and eventually see her more as 'tool' than a person.
I was not
happy with the transfer of the image, but it turns out even the Seijun Suzuki
DVDs from Criterion (Tokyo Drifter
and Branded To Kill) have transfer
and print issues, so this is a much larger problem than anything to do with
Cinema Epoch, who must be happy to get any Suzuki film out on DVD like any
company in their right mind would.
Oddly, the Dolby Digital 2.0 sound here is better than the Criterion
films and not just because it is newer.
Instead, the Criterions are Dolby 1.0 Mono and two of their earliest
DVDs, so fans will be happy about that.
The only extras are a Michael Den Boer essay and the original theatrical
trailer.
- Ricky Chiang
