The Beast to Die Blu-ray Review

Radiance Films

Blu-ray Release: July 22, 2025

Video: 1.85:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 118:41

Director: Tôru Murakawa

Deeply scarred by what he witnessed on battlefields across Asia, a young war photographer named Kunihiko (Yusaku Matsuda) returns to the bustling streets of Tokyo, plotting a series of brutal murders and robberies that are mere warmups for an unprecedented bank heist. Searching for an accomplice, he finds the short-fused and equally disenfranchised Tetsuo (Takeshi Kaga). (From Radiance’s official synopsis)

As the 1970s drew to a close, actor Yusaku Matsuda had grown into a counterculture idol. His cool screen persona, as seen in director Tôru Murakawa’s Game trilogy (The Most Dangerous Game [Japanese: Mottomo kiken na yûgi, 1978], The Killing Game [Japanese: Satsujin yûgi, 1978], The Execution Game [Japanese: Shokei yûgi, 1979]) and the Detective Story TV series (Japanese: Tantei Monogatari, 1979-80), became legendary, inspiring a long line of live action, comic book, and animated characters, including the equally Mad Max-inspired Kenshiro from Tetsuo Hara & Buronson’s Fist of the North Star (Shonen Jump, 1983-’88) and Spike Spiegel, the bounty hunter co-protagonist of Hajime Yatate’s Cowboy Bebop (1998).

Meanwhile, in America, the New Hollywood movement was approaching its apex as Vietnam War angst seeped into counterculture. This led to a small collection of downbeat thrillers and dramas about PTSD-stricken veterans turning their trauma into acts of violence. The key film was Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), but others fit the mold, like John Flynn’s Rolling Thunder (1977), and, to a lesser extent, Michael Cimino’s Deer Hunter (1978) and Bob Clark’s Deathdream (aka: Dead of Night, 1974). 

Looking to break from his curated antihero identity, Matsuda reteamed with Murakawa, who besides the Game trilogy, had also directed some episodes of Detective Story, as well as The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf (Japanese: Yomigaeru kinrô, 1979). The duo had, along with The Execution Game and Yokohama BJ Blues (Japanese: Yokohama BJ burûsu; starring Matsuda, directed by Eiichi Kudo, 1981) screenwriter Shōichi Maruyama* developed The Beast to Die (Japanese: Yajū shisubeshi, 1980) – a morally ambiguous character study based on the novel by Haruhiko Ôyabu*, re-adapted in the spirit of PTSD thrillers, like Taxi Driver and Rolling Thunder.

The Beast to Die isn’t exactly the antithesis to the Game movies and Detective Story, but it is comparably quite bleak and Matsuda was actively shedding his pop idol image, a process that included physical changes, like major weight loss. Kunihiko evokes the same isolation, obsession, and social incapability as Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle (who also lost weight for the role), even directly referencing a few scenes from Taxi Driver (the Russian roulette climax is also likely an allusion to Deer Hunter), but the gravity of his wider career rests on the character in a way that it doesn’t for De Niro, who had already played similarly troubled figures.

Though his goals also spring from a twisted sense of self importance, Kunihiko isn’t driven by misplaced heroism – he wants to rob a bank, not assassinate a political candidate or kill pimps – and his job as a journalist is a major contrast to Bickle’s blue collar, late-night taxi work. In fact, Kunihiko’s refined appetites and white collar circle of supposed friends fully contradict Bickle’s low social standing and lack of artistic interest (“I don’t know much about movies…”), allowing Murakawa to explore urban decay and isolation not only from a Japanese point-of-view, but from across the class divide.

Murakawa’s stylish editing, voyeuristic camera work, and surrealism initially help coax the audience through Beast to Die’s nihilism early on, but the sheen of is peeled back, following the shell-shocking heist sequence, where Kunihiko’s violence and cruelty is fully unleashed, free of the fear that hindered him during earlier murders. By the third act, the fantasy has descended into a nightmare even more disturbing than Taxi Driver’s notoriously blood-soaked climax (during the interview on this very disc, Murakawa claims that he actually decided to cut an additional train car massacre that would’ve made it all the more traumatic). 

Murakawa continued making yakuza and cop films into the ‘90s and was still working in television as late as 2022. Matsuda also kept busy, appearing in Seijun Suzuki’s Kagero-za (1981) and Yoshimitsu Morita’s satirical comedy The Family Game (Japanese: Kazoku gêmu, 1983), and directing himself in manga adaptation A-Homance (Japanese: A-hômansu, 1986). He had his international break in 1989, when Ridley Scott cast him in Black Rain, but, unfortunately, he died of bladder cancer only a couple of months after the film’s premiere, ending his career at the relatively young age of 40.

* The Beast to Die is the third adaptation of Ôyabu’s novel (I cannot find an official publication date), following Eizô Sugawa’s The Beast Shall Die (Japanese: Yajû shisubeshi, 1959) and its sequel, The Beast Must Die: Mechanic of Revenge (Japanese: Yajû shisubeshi: fukushû no mekanikku, 1974).

Video

Radiance’s Blu-ray represents Beast to Die’s North American and UK home media debut, though there was a 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo pack release in Japan from Kadokawa in 2022. That release has zero English subtitles and is very expensive. The good news is that this 1.85:1, 1080p transfer utilizes the same 4K remaster, just compresses it a bit to fit on a BD. Cinematographer Seizô Sengen’s gloomy yet vividly colorful photography is faithfully reproduced without oversharpening the textures or over-brightening the purposefully dark compositions. Grain levels are fine and print damage artifacts are minimal. Again, it is the delicate palette that really sets the photography apart and those complexities are neatly maintained throughout.

Audio

Beast to Die is presented in its original Japanese mono and uncompressed LPCM. According to specs, the Kadokawa release included a (likely unnecessary) 5.1 remix that is not included here. The limited dialogue is consistent and both incidental and environmental effects exhibit little distortion and squeeze. Akihiko Takashima’s score is a largely somber and spooky affair. You could draw some comparisons to Bernard Herrmann’s dreamy Taxi Driver cues, but I don’t think that innercity Gothic was really what he was going for. Kunihiko’s interest in classical music means that orchestral pieces also play a big role throughout the film and all of the music sounds quite rich, despite the single channel treatment.

Extras

• Interview with Toru Murakawa (20:25, HD) – In this new interview, the director looks back at his career, his collaborations with Matsuda, the making of Beast to Die, earlier (and apparently much different) adaptations of Ôyabu’s novel, and the meaning behind certain scenes and images.

• Interview with Shoichi Maruyama (22:49, HD) – The second Radiance exclusive interview is with writer Maruyama, who chats about his career, changing many aspects of the book, grappling with the main character’s motivations, and his other collaborations with Murakawa and Matsuda.

• Interview with Jordan Harper (12:29, HD) – The crime novelist, screenwriter, and showrunner finishes things off by exploring Beast to Die, genre and societal connections between Japan and America (mostly relating to film noir), the feeling that America ‘haunts’ Japanese crime films, and Murakawa and Matsuda’s larger careers.

The images on this page are taken from the Blu-ray and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.