A prosecutor is framed for crimes and goes on the run to prove his innocence in Junya Sato’s 1976 thriller Manhunt; now on Blu-ray from Toy Robot.
The Film
Manhunt, from 1976, is a solid wrong-man sort of thriller. Not fully a wrong-man, maybe more on a Fugitive level, prosecutor Fuyoto Morioka, played by Japanese film superstar Ken Takakura, is targeted, unraveling the whys while staying ahead of his police colleagues hunting him down. It’s an interesting one, perhaps a bit overlong at 2.5 hours, but engaging. It lands somewhere between those Hitchcockian wrong-mans, with chases and sequences that feel like North by Northwest and not-so-glitzy Bond, plus Japan traveloggging and preternaturally good skill sets for things never done before. But it works.
Man, Morioka is very good at everything he does, to the point that he feels a little odd in an otherwise grounded film. Takakura is a solid lead; he’s not the most expressive, but something about him draws you in. He works very well as the accused prosecutor, keeping it chill and direct while others go bigger. The skinny of the plot, written by Kei Tasaka and based on the book You Must Cross the River of Wrath by Juko Nishimura: a well-revered prosecutor is accused of theft by two different people on the same day. With the stolen items found in his apartment, he’s arrested and treated immediately like a common criminal (it seems to never occur to his coworkers that one of the powerful people he goes after might set him up). Busting out, he hits the road to figure out why he was set up, heading across Japan and getting into thrilling scenarios.
Thus, Manhunt is a conspiracy thriller as Takakura travels around, meeting various folks, both dangerous and friendly, circling the conspiracy and landing in all sorts of high-thrill situations. It’s ludicrous, but never acts like it is, giving it an interesting tone. He saves a woman from a bear attack! That woman and her father become wonderful allies. He learns how to fly a prop plane, and does so just fine, mostly. The same bear sends him down the rapids! Horses are loosed into Tokyo! More women, more intrigue, as he ends up in a psychiatric hospital. All the while, those trying to set him up and the police dog him (who can look at a map and appear there, sometimes in a really “how the hell did they know Takakura was there?” way). The police are also looking for the missing second accuser, who might know more than he is. It’s a lot to chew on.
It’s a good one, but it has some issues. The mentioned length is far too long, and the cracks show in teh setup with each shift, often sliding into something a little goofy. The mismatched soundtrack adds to that feeling. It was so close to the tune of Cabaret’s “It Wouldn’t Please Me More” (Pineapple) that I kept singing “you buy me flowers” as I watched.
John Woo remade Manhunt in 2017. Apparently bigger in action and spectacle, I haven’t seen it, so I can’t say much about the quality, just that it exists. But this version is a solid flick, with some great moments and engaging plotting.
The Packaging and Presentation
Toy Robot puts Manhunt on a single-disc Blu-ray with a poster image. That image also appears on the front sleeve and the O-Ring slipcover. The package also contains two postcards and is wrapped in Toy Robot’s OBI slip. The disc opens with trailers for other Toy Robot releases.
The transfer is a 4k restoration from 2023. It’s a strong one, with great production detail. The film’s color palette is a bit muted, but it still has solid grain. The audio is a good 2.0 Japanese mix, with English subtitles.
The Features
All of Toy Robot’s features are new to this release. Australian boutique label Umbrella previously released it with a different feature set (that included a 40-minute shorter cut; I wonder how that flows).
Commentary
Jasper Sharp and Amber T. Eng have a solid, if low-energy, talk about the film. A common topic here, and in other features, is how huge Manhunt was in China, the first foreign film allowed to be shown after the Cultural Revolution; so a minor film in Japan became massive elsewhere. So they talk about that, the cuts across the world, the intricacies of the plot and adaptation, and the who’s who. In English.
Man on the Run
Mark Schilling gives an “introduction” to the film, though it’s listed under features and gets spoilery, so watch after. Essentially more an appreciation of the flick, it’s a solid look. In English. (17m)
An Unusual Director
Junya Sato biographers Masaaki Nomura and Tatsuya Masuto talk about the director in Japanese. They cover his whole career, themes, and working style. I’m not too familiar with him, so I learned plenty (22m)
Stills gallery
19 slides of promotional images and photographs. Autoplays for 1m31s
Scaling the (Great) Wall to Freedom
A text essay on the disc by James Marsh. First, glad Toy Robot fixed the “super fast auto-play,” so you don’t have to fight the pause button to read (though the background and text sometimes clash). As for the essay, it gets into the film’s connection to China, and a solid half of it is in John Woo’s remake. (15m)
Believing in Ken Takakura
A lengthy (29 slides) essay by Earl Jackson about Ken Takakura, his career, and how the film worked for his good.
Trailer (3m)
Final Thoughts
Manhunt is a highly entertaining, if not a little long, wrong-man sort of thriller. While this doesn’t quite fit into Toy Robot’s more B-movie line-up, it’s still nice to look into. A solid set of features and a jazzy flick make it a good watch. I am very interested in seeing Woo’s version now.