UNDERWORLD BEAUTY (1958)
Label: Radiance Films
Region Code: A, B
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes 10 Seconds
Audio: Japanese PCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Cast: Michitaro Mizushima, Mari Shiraki, Shinsuke Ashida
Underworld Beauty (1958) is a Japanese noir directed by Seijun Suzuki (Branded To Kill) early on in his career. in it gangster-thief Miyamoto (Michitaro Mizushima, Japan Organized Crime Boss) has just been released from prison after a three year stint after a diamond heist gone wrong. As soon as he is released he heads down into the sewer tunnels to retrieve a stash of diamonds he hid prior to his arrest, and takes them to his former crime boss Oyane (Shinsuke Ashida, Stray Dog) asking him to broker a deal to sell the jewels to a foreign buyer as payback for never mentioning his name during his arrest and imprisonment. He's trying to sell the jewels not to enrich himself but to give the profist to his old partner Mihara (Tôru Abe, Blind Woman's Curse) who was crippled during the heist after being shot, and who he feels honor-bound to help.
However, crime boss Oyane secretly wants the stones for himself, and the deal goes awry when gunmen appear on the scene of the sale of the diamonds to the foreign buyer, and what ends up happening is that Mihara swallows the diamonds but dies during the chase, after falling off the roof. ow his corpse in in police custody and the cops are unaware that jewels are concealed inside the corpse. What ends up happening is that Miyamoto teams-up with Mihara's wayward sister Akiko (Mari Shiraki, The Naked Woman and the Gun) to somehow get the jewels and evade the double-crossing gangsters, but Akikio's greedy sculptor boyfriend Arita (Hiroshi Kondō, Sister Street Fighter) throws a wrench into the works.
This moody Japanese noir look fantastic, shadowy noir lensing, an odd but interesting jazz score, with the widescreen CinemaScope shot composition makes for quite a striking flicks with cool shots of a mannequin littered art studio and smoke-filled nightclubs, a trip down into the sewer certainly bringing to mind The Third Man. It's just a great looking flick, and the briskly paced story is fairly straight forward, but still quite engaging, if not quite a exciting or edgy as later crime films that Seijun Suzuki would go on to be known for, but is still an engaging noir crime thriller worth checking out.
Audio/Video: Underworld Beauty (1958) arrives iba region A,B Blu-ray from Radiance Films in 1080p HD widescreen, framed in 2.39:1, sourced from a 4K scan provided by Nikkatsu Corporation. The monochromatic image looks quite nice, grain is unmolested and nicely resolved, the source is in terrific shape, grayscale and shadow detail are pleasing throughout and black levels are deep and nuanced, no complaints here other that a few stray speckles.
Audio comes by way of Japanese PCM 2.0 with Optional English subtitles. While the track does have some hiss and distortion in the higher registers it's a solid track, the Japanese dialogue sound good, and the off-kilter score from Naozumi Yamamoto (Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon) fares well also.
The Limited Edition (of 3000) release arrives in a clear full-height Scanavo keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow. The reversible artwork I found to be the most striking of the pair. We also get Radiance's signature Removable OBI Strip which leaves packaging free of certificates and markings. Inside is a 20-Page Illustrated Booklet featuring new writing by critic Claudia Siefen-Leitich and an archival review of the film, as well as cast and crew information, notes about the transfer and Blu-ray credits.
Special Features:
- New 4K restoration of the film by Nikkatsu Corporation
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- New interview with critic Mizuki Kodama (2024) (14:45)
- Bonus feature: Seijun Suzuki’s Love Letter (1959) (39:48)
- Audio commentary on Love Letter by Suzuki biographer William Carroll (2024)
- Underworld Beauty Trailer (3:15)
- New 4K restoration of the film by Nikkatsu Corporation
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- New interview with critic Mizuki Kodama (2024) (14:45)
- Bonus feature: Seijun Suzuki’s Love Letter (1959) (39:48)
- Audio commentary on Love Letter by Suzuki biographer William Carroll (2024)
- Underworld Beauty Trailer (3:15)
- Love Letter Trailer (2:54)
- Newly improved English subtitle translation
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Claudia Siefen-Leitich and an archival review of the film
Extras: 
Buy it!
- Newly improved English subtitle translation
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Claudia Siefen-Leitich and an archival review of the film
Screenshots from the Radiance Films Blu-ray:
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