Sakuran (DVD) (2-Disc Deluxe Edition) (Taiwan Version) DVD Region 3

Sakuran tells the story of a tenacious young girl who is sold to the Tamagikuya brothel by her mother and reluctantly rises up the ranks to become known as one of the greatest oirans in the district of Yoshiwara. As soon as the Tamagikuya owns her, they give her the name Kiyoha and put her under the wing of the current oiran, Shiho. Shiho pokes fun at the rather tomboyish young girl and as soon as the opportunity presents itself, Kiyoha makes a run for it, but she is eventually chased down at the local shrine by one of Tamagikuya's male attendants, Seiji. There she witnesses cherry blossom leaves - her one overriding memory from the outside world - that have been blown into the district by the wind, and laments to Seiji that there are no sakura trees within the walls of Yoshiwara. In response Seiji points out that the withered old tree that stands on the shrine grounds is in fact a sakura tree, and he vows that if the tree ever blossoms he will take her away from the district. Kiyoha's reply is to stubbornly claim she will escape on her own when such an event occurs.

Hated by the other young girls at the Tamagikuya because she refuses to obey the rules, Kiyoha eventually begins to learn the "tricks of the trade" after being carefully manipulated by Shohi, who soon leaves the brothel after a rich merchant takes her for his wife. By her late teens Kiyoha is put to work as a prostitute and quickly garners the affections of the townsmen who all go giddy in her presence. This in turn upsets Shohi's oiran successor, Takao - who is in a doomed relationship with a poor artist - and a rivalry is established. Eventually Kiyoha falls in love with a kind unassuming young man named Shouji, but he's not quite the man he makes himself to be and their relationship affects Kiyoha's performance with other clients. This is just one obstacle amongst many on Kiyoshi's path to becoming oiran of the Tamagikuya.

The first thing that strikes you when sitting down to watch Mika Ninagawa's directorial debut is that she's clearly completely unconcerned with painting a realistic portrait of the pleasure quarters of old and the courtesans, entertainers, and customers that frequented them. Instead Ninagawa has chosen to not so much remain faithful to Sakuran's comic book roots, but amplify the visuals in an impressionistic explosion of pop art. A popular photographer who has worked for world famous magazines like Vogue and Esquire, Ninagawa has successfully managed to bring her distinctive style into the medium of moving pictures, as every frame of Sakuran is an opulent display of art and colour. Vivid red colour schemes have commonly been prevalent in her photography work and they're almost omnipresent in Sakuran, with the pleasure quarter of Yoshiwara transformed into a crimson landscape by searing red lanterns. Inside the Tamagikuya are bright displays of every bold colour you can think of: reds, greens, yellows, violets, and just about every surface in the building have some form of gorgeous artwork adorning them. Likewise the courtesans' kimonos and hairstyles are excessively extravagant, looking like a whole team of art designers have worked on each one. It's all a far cry from how these brothels and courtesans would have looked in the real world, but perhaps Ninagawa is onto something here - after all today's filmgoers have become a hell of a lot more accustomed to bold displays of colour in both their environment and art. So, maybe the only way you can truly convey just how glamourous these pleasure quarters and courtesans would have appeared to the average customer is to really ramp up the style. Either way, it works - and purely on style alone Sakuran definitely engages throughout its 110 minute runtime.

It's a good job as well, because Ninagawa is working from a script that is every bit as bland as the visuals are colourful. Sakuran gives us very little insight into the world of the oiran, instead it just plugs away at the same old tired story of someone with innate talent in a chosen field rebelliously rising through the ranks and refusing to conform along the way. This has been told so many times within the film and television industries of Japan that it has gone beyond cliché, it's become rote! Sakuran goes right through all the usual checkpoints. Cruel but ultimately kind mentor? Check! Older woman in a doomed relationship who takes out her frustrations on the more beautiful and talented lead? Check! Handsome man who courts and seduces female lead but ultimately turns out to be a snake? Check! Handsome man who is kind hearted and been helping female lead from the sidelines throughout her life? Check! There is a genuine lack of inspiration here, and the problem wouldn't have been compounded so much if the characters at least had some life in them, but they're every bit as vapid as the plot.

The men are given a rawer deal than the women. The two love interests, Soujiro and Seiji, are both dichotomous individuals. Soujiro pretends to be a kind hearted, naïve young man to the courtesans at night, but ultimately has little interest in the women beyond soliciting their services. Seiji acts as a brotherly figure to Kiyoha, always there to dispense advice and moral support when she needs him, yet he is working as a male attendant in the brothel. This is far from an ethical career, and it is he who is constantly foiling Kiyoha's escape plans. Despite these contradictions, Ninagawa never explores the darker side of these two characters. In Soujiro's case that's not so important, but Seiji is a role that's crying out for something to make him stand out. It doesn't help that the men cast in these roles, Hiroki Narimiya and Masanobu Ando, are likeable but rather prosaic actors; both roles need someone who can bring a bit of life to them. Masatoshi Nagase and Kippei Shiina are two better character actors, but they're left floundering in the under-developed roles of the tortured artist boyfriend of oiran Takao, Mitsunobu, and Kiyoha's rich samurai suitor, Kuronosuke. The women have a little more life in them, but they're all cardboard clichés. The standout example is oiran Takao, whose resentment of Kiyoha is fuelled by the fact she fell for a poor nonchalant artist who could never afford to buy her out of the brothel. Yoshino Kimura plays her quite broadly and appears to be enjoying herself. Even Kiyoha herself is little more than a precocious madam whose aggression towards her fellow courtesans is matched by her disdain for her upper-class clientele.

I got the impression whilst watching Sakuran that Ninagawa has been influenced to a certain degree by directors like Seijun Suzuki, Kon Ichikawa, and by opening the film with a rapid fire montage sequence showing future events, I'd add Takashi Miike to the list. However, Ninagawa doesn't approach the material with the same level of depth or subtext as these directors would. About the only recurring symbolic item we do get are the frequent shots of fantail goldfish (another trademark from her photography career), which in case you can't figure out their meaning, is blatantly explained to the viewer when Shohi lectures Kiyoha after knocking a goldfish out of its bowl that: "Put a goldfish in a river and you get a carp. They only stay beautiful in their bowl!". Perhaps Ninagawa's most inspired decision beyond the aesthetics of the film was in casting Anna Tsuchiya in the role of Kiyoha, because aside from the physical resemblance Tsuchiya has to the original comic book character design of Kiyoha, her own life mirrors that of her role. Tsuchiya was scouted for a career as a model from a young age and has now risen to the top of the music and film industry to boot. Plus, the fact that at the tender age of 23 she's already got a failed marriage and child behind her would suggest a high level of rebellion against these heavily produced and manufactured industries. What a shame then that these obvious parallels between the courtesans of the Edo era with the idols of modern day Japan are not explored more completely.

Ultimately, watching Sakuran is like owning a beautiful sleek sports car with a 1.6l engine. Sure it makes a strong visual statement and provides a comfortable, enjoyable ride; but you're always aware that it doesn't have enough horsepower to truly exhilarate.

DVD
This 2-disc Special Edition release of Sakuran comes encased in an attractive fold out digipack and cast & crew information booklet (along with a paper chapter stops insert and an Asmik Ace DVD catalogue).

Video
Presented anamorphically at roughly 1.82:1, Sakuran appears to have been shot with high exposure and the film processed to boost the colours. I believe they may have achieved this by clipping the grayscale, resulting in a high contrast look that has limited the shadow detail a little. Still, despite the extremely bold colour scheme Asmik Ace's DVD transfer looks absolutely sumptuous at times. The reproduction of the colours is pretty excellent, they're bold and vivid with hardly any bleeding that I could notice. The encoding is very strong, but understandably given the intensity of the colours, there is some chroma noise present - particularly in the searing reds – but it's never noticeable enough to distract. The print used is pristine, with only the opening scene demonstrating any noticeable spots and flecks, and the image is sharp and free of any noticeable Edge Enhancements. Contrast and brightness seem just about right for a film shot and processed in the manner previously mentioned; the image does look high contrast but shadow detail remains pretty good.

Audio
A choice of Japanese DD5.1 and DD2.0 surround is present. For the purposes of this review I sat through both sound tracks and can report they both provide a more than adequate audio presentation of this loud, vibrant film. The DD5.1 track is aggressively loud, bringing the rock tracks that seep into the soundtrack later into the film vividly to life. The audio dynamics are generally excellent, each element of the sound always sounds nicely separated and localised in the mix. Dialogue too is completely clean and audible, while the pounding bass remains smooth and tight. In comparison the DD2.0 is obviously much quieter and the sound is a touch more hollow, but otherwise this is an excellent DD2.0 track that also demonstrates strong dynamics, smooth audible dialogue and strong bass.

Optional English subtitles are included, with no spelling or grammatical errors that I can recall.

Overall
With Sakuran, Mika Ninagawa has flamboyantly burst onto the Japanese film scene in an extremely expressive and assured display of style and colour; what a shame then that the vapid, generic story and characters stop her debut film from truly excelling. Nevertheless, with style like this there remains much to enjoy from Sakuran's excesses. Asmik Ace have delivered an excellent DVD set, providing first rate audio/video presentation with hours of extra material – unfortunately without any English subtitles.

by Matt Shingleton - DVD Times