A brutal crime thriller barely seen outside of Japan for years, The Beast to Die marked the end of the collaborations between director Tôru Murakawa and star Yûsaku Matsuda that encompassed six films (including The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf and the Game trilogy) and multiple TV shows. Loosely adapted from a previously-filmed cult favorite novel by Haruhiko Ôyabu (Cruel Gun Story) by Shoichi Maruyama (consecutively with the Matsuda classic Yokohama BJ Blues), it's an extremely grim fusion of Namsploitation (with some clear nods to the last act of The Deer Hunter) and the isolated homicidal loner idea made famous by Taxi Driver and later mutated into more extreme variations in America the same year with Maniac, Don't Go in the House, and so on. Still jarring by today's standards, it's a film with plenty on its mind and a high point for everyone involved with Murakawa hurling himself to a frightening degree into his role complete with massive weight loss and even removing his molars.

In a rain-drenched nocturnal opening, Date (Matsuda) confronts and scuffles with a respected police detective, ultimately killing him after a difficult struggle and using his gun to slay several low-level gangsters at a gambling den. A cold and calculating presence, he spends his downtime listening to classical music a la A Clockwork Orange and going to live performances. That routine gets interrupted again when he brings in a criminal associate, violence-prone and curly afro-sporting waiter Sanada (Death Note's Kaga), which results in an escalating crime spree that leads to an ambitious and brutal bank robbery. Complicating things is possible love interest Reiko (pop singer Kobayashi), while the cop on their trail, Detective Kashiwagi (Murota), has an unorthodox approach to foiling their plans.

Featuring an outstanding score by Akhiko Takashima and striking cinematography by Seizô Sengen (Legend of the Eight Samurai) including a sparing but wild use of a telephoto lens at the end, The Beast to Die pulls no punches with its often remote, god's eye view approach to violence echoing the hollowed-out nature of our main character. The eventual revelation that he was a combat photojournalist is a clever way to tie this to the traumatized vet idea catching on in movies around the world, with First Blood just around the corner to take it in a new direction. Though the film isn't necessarily excessive, it does punch you in the face with some convincing bullet squib work and a mostly implied but deeply grotesque sequence near the end you won't believe was included in a mainstream film. Matsuda is a marvel here with his celebrated "Rip Van Winkle" speech late in the game on a passenger train being a particular highlight, but everyone is clearly giving their all to a film that clearly wouldn't have mass appeal at the time.

The last film made by Murkawa for production company Kadokawa (who insisted on shortening his initial cut), The Beast to Die hit DVD in Japan early on in 2000 with a remastered version later in 2007, not to mention VHS releases and occasional late night TV broadcasts. Fansubbed options have been around for a long time, but the 2025 Radiance Films Blu-ray (in both the U.S. and U.K.) is easily the way to go with a fresh, much-improved English translation for the subtitles. The transfer here is from a 4K restoration by Kadokawa used for their earlier Blu-ray release in 2024, which was strictly for the Japanese market and not English friendly. The quality is excellent with fine detail and nice reproduction of the tricky color scheme which uses stylized color schemes in some shots and variations in film stock with a distressed look for the flashback combat footage. The LPCM 1.0 mono Japanese track sounds very good, though if you've heard the soundtrack release, it's too bad this wasn't mixed in stereo at the time.

The first and most remarkable of the extras is an outstanding video interview with Murakawa (20m25s) who explains the Greek mythology that inspired the much-debated final scene, the sequence Kadokawa insisted he cut against much protest, the agreement that he and his star wouldn't get in each other's way with what they intended for the film, and his thoughts on the film as his most important work. Then an interview with Maruyama (22m49s) goes into the process of adapting the source novel for his screenplay, his ongoing collaborations with the director, his work on this back to back with Resurrection of the Golden Wolf, his positive appraisal of the final film, the book's reputation among postwar youths, the motivations he ascribed to the main character, and the challenges of working with Kadokawa. Finally you get a critical appreciation from novelist and screenwriter Jordan Harper (12m29s) discussing the prevalence and role of violence in Japanese and American noir and wider popular culture, the significance of the time setting and its depiction of alienation, the idea of wounded idealism versus nihilism, the inspiration of Jim Thompson, and the standout scenes that really jumped out at him. The disc also comes with reversible sleeve options (including the fantastic original poster art or a new design by Time Tomorrow) plus an insert booklet with a substantial, informative overview of Matsuda's life and career by Tom Mes and "Shadow of the Beast" by Tatsuya Matsuto discussing the film's theatrical release, its impact on him and other young viewers, the ill-advised double bill programming that might have hurt its box office chances, and the scenes that hit hardest for him.

Reviewed on October 12, 2025