Red Sun (1971)

Studio Canal are releasing a 4K restoration of Terence Young's EuroWestern on Blu-ray, DVD and on 4K UHD as a steel book:

Link (Charles Bronson) robs a train with Gauche (Alain Delon) who makes off with the money. He also makes off with a gold Samurai sword belonging to the Japanese Ambassador to the US. The ambassador charges Link and his one surviving Samurai - Kuroda (Toshiro Mifune) - with returning the sword in seven days or Kuroda will have to commit Hara-Kiri, and include Link for good measure. 

A French-Italian-Spanish coproduction from the early 1970s, RED SUN really should be more fun (or at least more interesting) than it actually is. After all we're now in the era of the ultra-violent American Western, with Bronson himself starring in Michael Winner's CHATO'S LAND the same year. As a result RED SUN feels dated before its time and the music score by Maurice Jarre doesn't help. This was the era of Morricone, or avant garde composers like Dee Barton (HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER) but Jarre frequently goes for some old-fashioned heroic-style scoring.

There is some fun to be had, especially if you're a fan of EuroHorror from the same period. The explosives expert at the beginning is played by Julio Peña from HORROR EXPRESS (Inspector Mirov) and Paul Naschy's WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN (he's the doctor at the start). José Jaspe, also from HORROR EXPRESS (as Koñev the conductor) is the driver of the train in this. Anthony Dawson (Director Terence Young's DR NO, Hammer's CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER) is one of Delon's gang, as is Luc Merenda (TORSO and PENSIONE PAURA). 

Extras consist of 20 minutes of documentary film-maker Steven Okazaki talking about Toshiro Mifune, and a 9 minute extract from a French TV series called Pour Le Cinema which provides an on-set report which is worth watching to see director Terence Young explaining the film in French. The Blu-ray edition includes four art cards:

Terence Young's RED SUN is out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD steel book from Studio Canal on Monday 9th September (4K on 29th September) 2024