Customer Reviews

Red Sun

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am amazed that I have lived so much of my life without even knowing this flick existed. This is the sort of thing I should have seen years ago, and watched over and over again. Think about it. A Western staring Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven) and Mifune Toshiro (Seven Samurai), facing off against Alain Delon (Le Samourai). As a little icing we get Ursula Andress (Dr. No). Bliss.

Getting these four international actors together in the same plot isn't as strange as you think. Mifune is Kuroda Jubie, a guard for the Ambassador from Japan who is currently en-route to Washington D.C. where he is to deliver a magnificent sword as a present from the Emperor of Japan to the President of the US. Their train is robbed by Bronson, playing outlaw Link Stuart, but he is betrayed mid-robbery by his partner Gauche (Alain Delon) who takes the gold-encrusted sword. Joining together in a wary truce, Mifune and Bronson hunt Delon to recover their lost honor and stolen treasures. Andress is Delon's woman, but someone who can easily be convinced to switch her loyalties if the price is right.

What is so amazing about this film is that, aside from its impressive international cast, is that is just a really good movie. What could have been played for laughs, as happened in the much later Shanghai Noon, is instead treated entirely straight, and a subtle story of honor and revenge is laid out with patience and perfection. Although technically a "Spaghetti Western", none of the tropes are brought into play, and everything is handled with respect and intention. Mifune is not Bronson's wacky sidekick, and Delon is no French buffoon.

As an interesting note, this is the first film I have seen where Mifune speaks English. It was quite a surprise, and he does an able job with his lines, although they are not flawless. His character here is a straight-laced servant to his lord rather than the dangerous rouge from Yojimbo, and the scenes between him and Bronson are fantastic.

This DVD presentation is a little lacking. It is strictly bare-bones, and the video looks to be a PAL transfer. It would be nice to see this gem get a deluxe Region 1 release, but until then I am just happy to have it in any format.

This review is for the Red Sun Region 0 (All Region) version, and the low rating is for this DVD version, not for the great movie. Not mentioned in the Amazon information, and by only one reviewer, is that this DVD is from Hong Kong, and a disclaimer on the back of the case says "for sale in Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR only". This DVD has a big problem, and to my surprise, no reviewer has mentioned it. The problem is a hard, harsh, screechy sound track that makes the DVD almost as difficult to listen to as finger nails scraping a black board. It sounds like the treble was turned way up and the bass way down, and then distortion added. I can only speculate as to the reason. Maybe it's an asian compatibility problem with U.S. equipment, or maybe the sound track was remixed to appeal to asian listening preferences. Whatever the case, the sound is so nasty that I had to return the DVD. Before I did that, I tried it on 2 different DVD player/TV setups. The DVD sounded awful on both. Finally, I tried it on my computer -- a Dell Media Center with excellent 5.1 surround sound. The DVD sounded as bad as on my two DVD player/TV setups.

It's really a shame. Red Sun is a 5 star western, and ranks among the best westerns ever made. It the second best western Bronson made, falling slightly below his amazing Sergio Leone spaghetti western "Once Upon A Time In The West." Red Sun is so good that I can't figure out why there is not an excellent Region 1 remastered widescreen version available.

Unlike the previously released full screen Region 1 version of Red Sun, this Hong Kong Region 0 DVD does have very good picture quality in widescreen with the original aspect ratio. That makes this DVD all the more sad -- it's beautiful to look at but horrible to listen to.

The musical score on Red Sun is beautiful in the tradition of the best westerns ever made. It is right up there with films like the Magnificent Seven and the Ennio Morricone scores for the great spaghetti westerns. It is tragic that such a musical masterpiece would be butchered with bad sound mastering. Please, will somebody release an excellent remastered Region 1 widescreen version of Red Sun with good sound? This is a classic western that should be preserved.

Conclusion: Red Sun is a fabulous movie, but stay away from the Region 0 (All Region) version due to the harsh, screechy sound track.

Finally we get a remastered and unedited version of Red Sun. Ever since
i had this on VHS, the quality had been mediocre. This is the way to see
the film; next to the big screen.

Movie excellent Bronson/Mifune; DVD release horrible. I received the version with the white backdrop with the red sun and color sketch of Bronson, Mifune, Andres, and Stamp on the cover. On the packaging Evergreen Entertainment is indicated as the DVD producer; in the Amazon description it refers to Evergreen as the Studio. It looks like quatlity from the outside and says it has been remastered and that format is letterbox. Not true. It is a poor transfer form a video and is cropped, not even close to letterbox and the sound is poorly mastered. Even the menu mispells words. Amazon has really confounded reviews that try to protect other buyers of DVDs and CDs by combining the reviews for all prints of movies and CDs. Good luck in sifting through the offerings now. I will get a good print and letterbox of this movie if I can find one with confidence, but cannot so far.

As a huge Chuck Bronson fan I wanted to have this film for my collection and glad I now do. The story is kind of 'dumb' really about a samurai and a train robber teaming up to find a stolen sword. But in the film you do get to see a 'lighter' side of Charles Bronson at times laughing and being a bit of a 'rogue' here and that was rare during his long career. Toshiro Mifune is amusing as the 'fish out of water' character a samurai warrior in the Old West. Alain Delon on the other hand, is absurd as a "French Cowboy/Gunslinger". A French Cowboy? Come on--and I'm French! Ursula Andress is also along for the journey and tho looking gorgeous completely adds nothing to the story.

About the DVD itself, I have nothing but praise. The picture and sound were great and at under $15 from a reliable Amazon seller, I was happy with my purchase.

I first saw this film at a theater in Bangkok, Thailand (1972) when I was on leave from army service in Vietnam. It became available on VHS during the 1980's and I wasted no time adding it to my collection. The videotape version didn't really do the film justice, however, and I was quite pleased to see it reissued in a digitally remastered DVD version.

Charles Bronson stars as Link, a train robber who is nearly killed when his partner Gauche (Alan Dillon) tries to blow him up with dynamite shortly after they stop a train to rob it. Apparently unknown by the robbers before the heist, the train includes a Japanese diplomat's private car. Gauche robs the Ambassador of gold and an exquisite sword which was intended to be a gift for the President of the United States. In the process, he also kills one of the Ambassador's samurai guards.

The adventure begins as Link teams up with the remaining samurai Kuroda (Toshiro Mifune) to track down his double-crossing partner. Link's primary motive is to get the gold from the robbery which he believes is rightly his. Unfortunately for Link, Kuroda has his own agenda: recover the precious sword and kill Gauche. Which one will succeed when they finally track down their man?

The digital remastering is impressive. I also noticed a few minutes of restored footage which were not in either the VHS or theatrical versions, including brief nudity by Ursula Andress.

"Red Sun" is about as international as you can get in a film. The actors are from the U.S. (Charles Bronson), Japan (Toshiro Mifune), France (Alain Delon), Italy (Guido Lollobrigida), and Switzerland (Ursula Andress); it has a British director (Terence Young) and was shot in Spain. To add even more flair, it has an actor from "The Seven Samurai" (1954) and an actor from its clone, "The Magnificent Seven" (1960).

Tough guy Charles Bronson is best known for his "Death Wish" films that seemed to go on forever. He appeared in more than 150 films and in 1972 was voted the World's Favorite Male Actor at the Golden Globes. His most memorable performances are in "The Magnificent Seven", "The Great Escape", "The Dirty Dozen" and "Once Upon a Time in the West", and he had his own TV series "Man with a Camera" (1958). Director John Huston once described him as "a grenade with the pin pulled." Sergio Leone said he was the best actor he ever worked with.

Toshiro Mifune was the Japanese John Wayne. Mifune made more than 150 films, most of them Japanese, but he also made several films in Hollywood, the most famous of which were "Hell in the Pacific" (1968) with Lee Marvin, "Midway" (1976) as Admiral Yamamoto, and "The Challenge" (1982) with Scott Glenn. He also appeared in the TV mini-series "Shogun" (1980) as Lord Toranaga. Mifune won Volpi Cup awards in Venice for his work on "Yojimbo" (1961) and "Red Beard" (1965), was Emmy nominated for his role in "Shogun" and won many awards in Japan.

If you're not familiar with samurai films, you will be amazed by Mifune's speed and skill. One of the scenes in "Sanjuro" involves Mifune locking himself in a room and killing more than a dozen soldiers (a similar scene came from Yojimbo). In total, nearly 30 people are dispatched in the film. Mifune's style is the classic Japanese "tateyaku" - the heroic loner. He reprises this role in "Red Sun."

Alain Delon is well known in France where he was nominated 3 times for the Cesar, winning once ("Notre historie") in 1984. Only occasionally has he appeared in US films ("The Assassination of Trotsky" in 1971, "Lost Command" in 1966). He is a favorite of director Luchino Visconti ("The Leopard").

Ursula Andress is best known as one of the Bond girls (Honey Ryder in "Dr. No" and Vesper Lynd in "Casino Royale"), but she's made dozens of other films and was voted the World's Favorite Female Actress at the Golden Globe in 1966.

Capucine was a French actress who appeared in nearly 40 films, and is most famous for her comedy in films such as "The Pink Panther" (1963), "What's New Pussycat" (1965), and "The Honey Pot" (1967). She was nominated for an Oscar in 1960 for "Song Without End"

Terrence Young is best remembered as a director of the best James Bond films ("Dr. No", "From Russia with Love", "Thunderball") among the 30+ films he made. He also directed "Wait Until Dark" that earned Golden Globe nominations for Audrey Hepburn and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and he worked with Bronson again in "The Valachi Papers" (1972).

William Roberts is one of the screen writers. He worked on "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) with Charles Bronson, as well as other Westerns ("Posse", "The Legend of the Lone Ranger") as well as action films (e.g., "The Bridge at Remagen", "The Devil's Brigade").

This is the most famous of the sushi western films. Less famous (deservedly so) examples are "The Stranger and the Gunfighter" (1974) with Lee Van Cleff, "Return of Shanghai Joe" (1975) with Klaus Kinski, "Walk Like a Dragon" (1960) with Jack Lord, and the comedy "Shanghai Noon" with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. The best example of the sushi westerns was the TV series "Kung Fu" (1972-5) starring David Carradine.

While the film is OK and the scenes with Mifune are great, the film comes nowhere near its potential considering the director and the cast. Delon doesn't look nor act the part of a gunslinger, and the host of Europeans playing westerners looks silly. I have the same problem with Leone's westerns as well.

The film will appeal to fans of Bronson and to fans of Mifune. This mixing of western and samurai film may also appeal to fans to "Kung Fu".

I've been looking to get a copy of Red Sun for years. It's one of my favorite westerns, mainly due to it having Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune, two of my favorite actors. The action is good and the dialogue is as expected. Why this DVD isn't widely available I don't know, I'm sure there are many fans of Westerns and these two stars who would purchase it immediately. When I ordered it, I was expecting an American DVD, and when it arrived and said "Hong Kong" verison on it, I was suprised and ready for disppointment. I thought, oh no, this won't even play on my unit. But, to my happy suprise, it plays just fine and the picture quality is very good.

What a terrific movie, a foreign made, atypical western having train robbery, an attempted murderous double cross, and a 7-day cross-country traipse to recover the loot.

The photography, the mountains, out-of-the-way deserted locations, and the crisp dialogue leaves very little to desire in a rousing western adventure. The script is superb, with exceptional acting, interesting and arresting women, Comanche Indian attacks, great looking horses and horsemanship, broken mountainous country, and a mixture of Japanese/American culture combined with a dual quest almost to equal the knights of Arthur's round table. The soundtrack is very pleasant, never intruding as is true with some movies.

A movie not to be missed and one to view over and over. It's been showing on ENCORE westerns all month, September, 2008, and I've already viewed it several times.

Semper Fi.

Overall, this is a great, but not typical Spaghetti Western, as it actually feels more like an American western. "Red Sun" features an interesting plot with an international all-star cast, including Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Ursula Andress and Alain Delon. This film definitely deserves a proper U.S. DVD release, complete with extras.

This edition of "Red Sun" leaves a lot to be desired, but is the best version available at a resonable price (not out-of-print). The transfer looks as if it may have been converted from PAL to NTSC format, as the picture seems a little jerky during fast action sequences. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen, but there is noticible compression artifacting. Colors are good, Dolby 5.1 Surround, no extras, Chinese subtitles.