Red Sun appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Via this Dolby Vision image, the movie held up well after 55 years.
Overall sharpness worked fine. Some soft shots emerged during a few interiors but the film usually looked detailed and concise.
I witnessed no issues with jaggies or shimmering, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt light and natural, and no source flaws appeared.
Unsurprisingly, the film’s palette leaned toward a sandy tone, with a smattering of more vibrant hues. These worked fine and reproduced the source well, with a nice boost from HDR.
Blacks felt deep and rich, while shadows appeared smooth and clear other than a few “day for night” moments. HDR gave whites and contrast extra oomph. Outside of the occasional soft shot, this became an appealing presentation.
The movie’s LPCM monaural soundtrack held up fine over the last 55 years. Dialogue appeared fairly natural and concise.
Effects showed acceptable accuracy and failed to present prominent distortion. Music followed suit, as the score offered adequate range but never came across as particularly dynamic. Given the audio’s age and origins, the soundtrack worked fine.
How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Both came with identical audio.
As for the Dolby Vision UHD, it brought the usual improvements in terms of sharpness, colors and blacks. While I didn't think the UHD blew away the BD, it did become the superior rendition of the film.
Note that some viewers may experience issues with playback of the 4K UHD. A note from Arrow addresses these concerns:
"We have learned of a compatibility issue with our 4K UHD edition of Red Sun and certain Panasonic UHD players: when attempting to play the film with Dolby Vision activated, the film plays with audio but no picture.
"Two workarounds exist in order to play the film on these players: one, if you de-activate Dolby Vision, the film will play correctly in HDR10; two, if you put in another disc with Dolby Vision, play the Dolby Vision content for a few seconds, eject the disc without turning off the player, then put in the respective disc, the Dolby Vision issue should be resolved. (You will, however, need to repeat these steps in order to watch the film again.)
"Prior to manufacture, we quality check every disc in a range of players, including models by LG, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung as well as the X-Box X/S and PS5. We have purchased an additional Panasonic model to add to our checks going forward, and have reached out to them about the possibility of a firmware update to address these issues; we would recommend all customers affected also reach out to them, as we are confident the disc has been authored to the correct specifications.
"We appreciate having to go through these steps in order to play the disc is frustrating, but because the disc has been authored correctly and to industry specifications, and works correctly on all other players, we will not be re-authoring the disc or implementing a replacement program. If unsatisfied, we would recommend returning the product to the retailer you purchased from for a refund."
We get a mix of extras that begin with an audio commentary from film historians C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at cast and crew, genre domains, general production areas and their thoughts about the film.
As a “film historian” track, this doesn’t become tremendously informative, at least in terms of information about Red Sun itself. Joyner and Parke offer a fairly general look at related domains and do enough to make this a moderately informative chat, albeit one that drags at times and doesn’t give us much about the movie in question.
Three new video programs ensue, and A Global Western goes for 31 minutes, 54 seconds. It brings info from film scholar Jose Arroyo.
Billed as an “appreciation”, “Global” looks at general aspects of the production and Arroyo's thoughts about it. Arroyo offers a decent view of the film and gives us a good dissection of a few scenes but I can't claim this turns into a particularly engaging piece.
The Ghosts of the Samurai lasts 31 minutes, 12 seconds. Here we find notes from film professor Daisuke Miyao.
A “visual essay”, this one digs into Japanese culture and history as well as film genre elements and thoughts directly related to Sun. Miyao brings us a solid little summary.
Another “appreciation”, The Man with the Gold Tooth spans 14 minutes, 56 seconds. We locate remarks from film professor Mark Gallagher.
“Tooth” focuses on actor Alain Delon's career, with an emphasis on Red Sun. This turns into a pretty useful examination of Delon's style.
Next we get two archival reels, and Pour le Cinéma runs eight minutes, 27 seconds as it brings remarks from the set with director Terence Young and actors Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Ursula Andress and Alain Delon. They don’t really tell us anything of substance but we get a decent look at the shoot.
Un Journal du Cinéma occupies two minutes, three seconds and features comments from Mifune, Fisher and actor Keiko Kishi at a celebration of Japanese cinema. While vaguely interesting as an archival piece, it doesn’t deliver much informational value.
In addition to the film’s trailer, we get an Image Gallery with 45 frames that display publicity elements and ads. It becomes a mediocre compilation.
While nothing remarkable, Red Sun provides a largely entertaining mix of the ‘mismatched partners’ and ‘Spaghetti Western’ genres. Despite ups and downs, it keeps us with it and ensures we enjoy it. The 4K UHD boasts very good picture, acceptable audio and a mix of supplements. This turns into a likable action/comedy diversion.
