The Great White Tower (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3

The story concerns a top surgeon named Goro Zaizen (Tamiya Jiro), who specialises in pancreatic cancer at the Naniwa University and is currently an assistant professor under the wing of First Surgical Dept. Professor Azuma (Eijiro Tono). Azuma is due to retire in a month or so time and he needs to begin preparations for someone to succeed him in his position. The most obvious choice is Zaizen, but he's concerned about the surgeon's wildly inflated ego and the need to further his own status at the expense of running high risk amongst his patients. Azuma decides that he'll take the matter further. Meeting with First Internal Medicine Professor Ugai (Eitaro Ozawa), they discuss other options and decide that it might be best to involve other medical associations across Japan and thus stage a national election process that will involve sixteen specially selected candidates. When Zaizen gets wind of this he tries to usurp proceedings and gain the upper hand, resorting to any means necessary in order to secure his place as Professor. Meanwhile his former classmate Satomi (Takahiro Tamura) is concerned that Zaizen is neglecting his patients. When a patient of Zaizen's become sick directly after surgery Satomi recommends that Zaizen re-diagnoses him as there could be an underlying problem he missed. Stubbornness gets the better of Zaizen, who considers his every decision to be 100% right.

The Great White Tower is a slow and stirring medical drama/satire about democracy, inflated egos and gunning for status in the competitive field of medicine. It's a collected examination carried out with precise intent as it explores the seedy underside of human determination and the acts that a single man, or to a greater extent an established council, will resort to in order to maintain a perfect reputation. A multi-faceted piece of work, director Yamamoto painstakingly sees to it that every ounce of his characters are bled dry in highlighting various nefarious schemes, from eliciting acts of bribery to vote rigging and back-stabbing, without a single thought of integrity from anyone, save for the film's main anchor Satomi who is the only voice of concern and the only soul we have any reason to get behind. He deals with Japan as a changing society, where old school factions face imperative disbanding to make way for fresh young blood who will dictate future decades of research development and cutting edge techniques. With all of this Yamamoto makes his statements clear and he no doubt touches nerves: it's ultimately a cynical portrayal of a society gone mad, and it never ceases up for a single moment. It's depressing, shrugging the cold shoulder and leaving nothing in the way of hope; a vicious attack on corporate greed and consumption, where scruples are thrown out the window and money does all the talking. But Yamamoto's film isn't just a product of its time; forty years on there's a tremendous amount of relevance still to be had, and that's quite a scary thought. No wonder, then, that every so often it gets reinvented for a new generation.

And it's all done with such grand conviction, featuring an ensemble who play no small part in realising the severity of the situation. While the cast is excellent across the board, core to the films success is Tamiya Jiro and Takahiro Tamura who deliver two outstanding performances as practitioners who are complete polar opposites of one another. Goro Zaizen and Satomi Shuji are clear representations of the morals and corruption that make up our society: Zaizen is ruthless and egotistical, driven by blind ambition which is enough to see him overlook the more important aspects of his job, while Satomi is simply integrity and honesty in its purest form. And indeed Yamamoto takes these characters and sets up a cruel game.

All of this is fine to an extent. With no redeeming outcome other than having the ability to stick it to the man and tell us how politics, the justice system and certain medical ethics suck in equal measure, The Great White Tower has very little else to say. That in itself may seem adequate enough and indeed it makes it point, but it takes a laboured two and half hours to do so. It certainly tests the patience of the viewer, particularly when director Yamamoto spends copious amounts of time on no less than fifteen participants who debate the rights and wrongs of the entire selection process, not to mention the final thirty minutes which takes place entirely in a court room. He occasionally injects some more subtle commentaries into the fold, such as family status and marrying into specific classes, much to the angst of Azuma's daughter Saeko (Shiho Fujimura) in this case, in addition to showing the carefree nature of Zaizen's infidelity, while never focusing a great deal on his home life, which is most odd considering Zaizen's mistress (Mayumi Ogawa) Keiko gets an awful lot of screen time. But Yamamoto directs the film in a controlled manner, relying most of the time on steady central frame shots, which neatly capture the intimate conversations littered throughout, whilst conveying the film's ominous tone with Sei Ikeno's occasionally over the top "dun dun dun" score. Elsewhere he doesn't hold back; there are several instances in which he shows us real operations taking place, expertly cutting them between scenes involving the actors at work and displaying them in all their yucky detail, which in turn adds that much needed sense of authenticity. A dark sense of irony also underlines the picture; considering that the film deals primarily with cancer research, it's interesting to note that half the doctors in attendance smoke like chimneys! Oh, how times change.

DVD
The Great White Tower is part of Hong Kong distributor IVL's Kadokawa collection, which are available on R3 DVD.

Audio/Visual
Presented in an anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.35:1 The Great White Tower is one of IVL's better looking Kadokawa presentations. The actual print seems to be in fabulous condition; it's amazingly clean and free from scratches and other marks, which makes it a bit of a shame that the actual authoring isn't quite so tip top. The image does appear to be a little softer than I'd expect it to be, no doubt brought on by high contrast and sadly being a non-progressive transfer. Otherwise greyscale is good and there's still a fair amount of detail to pick up on.

As for sound, again it's quite impressive. The Japanese mono audio has a solid range of clarity; dialogue is presented without any major defects, save for a slight hiss here and there. It's very clean, with nothing in the way of pops or tinny-ness. Likewise the foreboding score is effective, never drowning out action, but enhancing given scenes with gusto.

Subtitles
Optional English subtitles are included and aside from some obvious spelling errors and the occasional awkward sentence structure they're perfectly acceptable, being well timed and presented with a nice sized font.

As for extras we're treated only to the original theatrical trailer, which is also given anamorphic treatment.

Overall
The Great White Tower is admittedly overlong, but it's a well realised study on the subject matter at hand. Fuelled by some wonderful performances and an astute directing style, it's no wonder as to why it became such a revered and highly influential motion picture.

by Kevin Gilvear - DVD Times