Saiyuuki (1960) HD

In honor of the 60th anniversary of its release in 1960, Orphan is releasing a high-definition version of Saiyuuki, encoded from an HDTV version of the movie's recent 4K remastering. Our loyal fans (all six of them) have been asking for a high-definition version of Saiyuuki ever since a 1080p web rip became available in 2017. However, I felt the video in that raw was no better than the original release, which used ARR's DVD encoding and remains available. This new version is a major improvement, with more vibrant colors and greater image stability.

Saiyuuki was based on Tezuka Osamu's highly popular manga of the same name, which in turn was based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West. Tezuka's name was used prominently in promoting the film, although he always denied active involvement in the production. According to some sources, he was displeased with the film's happy ending, and that spurred him to form his own animation company, Mushi Productions.

Saiyuuki is set in China and recounts the adventures of Son Gokuu, a monkey king. Son Gokuu is both powerful and willful. In his arrogance, he challenges heaven itself and is punished by exile to Mount Gogyou. He is eventually released on condition that he accompany a monk named Sanzou to India in order to receive the Buddhist sutras. Along the way, he defeats and then befriends the pig-man Cho Hokkai and the ogre Sa Gajou. Together, they must confront and defeat the terrible bull demon Gyuumaou before Sanzou can accomplish his mission.

 

 

The core cast is supplemented by Rin Rin, a love interest for Son Gokuu, and Shouryuu, a mischievous imp whose head horn doubles as an antenna for a 1960s mobile phone.

Like the original manga, Saiyuuki is a mishmash of styles, with plenty of anachronistic elements. Broad comedy is mixed in with action and chase sequences. Western influences coexist with Asian styling and thought. For example, the gods are depicted with angelic halos, and some of heaven's denizens are from Greek mythology. When Cho Hakkai is trying to impress his bride-to-be (actually Son Gokuu in disguise), he appears successively in formal Western attire, then in a Russian Cossack costume, then as an Indian chief, and then as a hula dancer. Still, Saiyuuki is recognizably a children's film in the 1950s Disney mold. Action sequences alternate with slower sections to allow kids to "cool off." Songs are used to underline the characters or delineate chapters. (Songs account for 10% of the lines in the script.) And despite trials and tribulations, the good guys triumph.

 

Saiyuuki was Toei Douga's third color animated film. The animation is fluid and represents a real advance over the studio's previous animated movies, although there are obvious animation errors; for example, Son Gokuu disappears in one frame of a sequence. Personally, I find the movie a bit bland. I prefer Takahata Isao's Horus: Prince of the Sun, which shows signs of his unique directorial sensibility, even though it too is a G-rated children's movie. Horus is lively, while Saiyuuki is frenetic. However, Saiyuuki was a greater commercial success in Japan. It was redubbed and re-edited for the North American market as Alakazam the Great but failed at the box office.

Because the movie is sixty years old, the voice cast belongs to an earlier era of Japanese animation:

• Komiyama Kiyoshi (Son Gokuu) appeared as the puppeteer in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, an Orphan release. He also appeared in the original Astro Boy, the original GeGeGe no Kitarou, Candy Candy, and other roles.
• Kinoshita Hideo (Cho Hokkai) played Rock in Wan Wan Chuushingura, an Orphan release. He also appeared in other Toei Douga movies, including Sinbad and Wanpaku Ouji.
• Shinoda Setsuo (Sa Gajou) also appeared in Wanpaku Ouji.
• Sekine Nobuaki (Sanzou) appeared in Jungle Taitei, Devilman Lady, Heat Guy J, and Salaryman Kintarou.
• Shindou Noriko (Rin Rin) appeared in Wanpaku Ouji, Sinbad, and Princess Knight.

A few translation notes:

• ri is an old unit of distance, equal to 3.927 kilometers.
• Gogyuu, the mountain where Gokuu is imprisoned, takes its name from the five elements of Chinese medicine: earth, wood, metal, fire, and water.

The subs are little changed since the first release, although the typesetting had to be redone. Magistral did the initial translation; convexity checked the dialog and translated the songs. M74 timed the first release; Yogicat cleaned the timing up for the new raw. I edited and typeset. Calyrica and konnakude did QC on the first release. banandoyouwanna encoded the raw from a TV capture; the resolution is 1280 x 544 (effective 720p). Even though this version is based on the 4K remaster, the video quality wasn't good enough for a 1080p encode. Perhaps we'll get a real Blu-ray someday and be able to release in full HD.

If you missed Saiyuuki the first time, here's an opportunity to see it at higher resolution, with its glorious colors restored.. You can find this release on the usual torrent site or download it from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net