Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
and the Silent Era Company.
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No Blood Relation
(1932)
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This feature-length drama, directed by Mikio Naruse, stars Yoshiko Okada and Shin’yô Nara, with Yukiko Tsukuba, Hisako Kojima, Fumiko Katsuragi, Jôji Oka, Ichirô Yûki and Shôzaburô Abe.
A successful actress returns home in hope of reclaiming her abandoned daughter. Meanwhile, the child’s adopted family falls on hard financial times.
Naruse’s flashy, self-confident direction is apparent from the opening sequence involving a of a couple of petty thieves. Rapid camera framing from character to character, close-ups, montage, and swift camera moves are not unusual in Naruse’s work here.
Due to the entrenchment of the Benshi narrator tradition in Japanese film exhibition, the production of Japanese silent films extended well into the 1930s.
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 The Criterion Collection
2011 DVD edition
Silent Naruse (1931-1934), black & white, 370 minutes total, not rated, including No Blood Relation (1932), black & white, 79 minutes, not rated.
The Criterion Collection, ECL120 (Eclipse Series 26),
UPC 7-15515-06931-1, ISBN 978-1-60465-400-4.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc (three DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 6.8 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; Japanese language intertitles, optional English language subtitles; 14 chapter stops; 4-page insert booklet; three slimline DVD keepcases in cardboard slipcase; $44.95.
Release date: 5 April 2011.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 8 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.
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This DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good 35mm print with signs of beginning nitrate decomposition. The midtones of the greyscale range are a bit dark which makes the overall picture seem a little dull. Moderate amounts of dust and significant amounts of speckling, emulsion blooms, chipping and scuffing are most noticeable in the picture. Schmutz, frame jitters, and other minor print flaws are present throughout.
The film is accompanied by a music score composed by Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz. As audio channel 1 is devoid of any content, audio channel 2 must be chosen to hear the music score performed by a small ensemble.
As would be expected of a Criterion Collection release, this edition has been lovingly produced for home video and is enthusiastically recommended.
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