The Stranger in Japan / The Silent Stranger / Lo straniero di silenzio (Luigi Vanzi, 1975)

Spaghetti Westerns šŸŽ¬
41

It was a 26 episode series. It starred Wakayama who was Shintaro (ZATOICHI) Katsuā€™s brother. MUTE SAMURAI dealt with a man named Koichi Hogan whose entire family was killed by a Spanish swordsman named Gonzalez and his cronies. His throat cut by Gonzalez, Hogan becomes a bounty hunter seeking out the men responsible. A number of episodes are incredibly violent. Japanese television could get away with nudity and extreme violence unlike here in the US.

I was thinking of doing an episode guide at my site like I did for the awesome Sonny Chiba jidageki ninja show, KAGE NO GUNDAN 2. If you are a fan of GREAT SILENCE, then you will probably get some enjoyment out of THE MUTE SAMURAI. A friend of mine did the subs for the series. It can be found here. He also sells spaghetti westernsā€¦

http://www.fareastflix.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

42

huhā€¦ cool site, bookmarked. i enjoy good samurai movies/episodes quite a bit, so iā€™m sure iā€™ll find plenty of enjoyment with it- TGS connection will be an added bonus

seeing as how the genre is so intertwined with the spaghetti genre, in terms of characters, plots, style, etcā€¦ its like seeing a spaghetti in a whole new way, makes for very interesting and enjoyable viewing

43

O my goodness. This one has it all. Samurai warriors, midget sword bearers, wrasslinā€™ with lady assassins in the bathhouse and that awesome blunderbuss. I realize some people mightā€™a preferred if he had come across a nice Winchester lever-gun, but that wouldnā€™t have fit in really. And the fact that he modified it to suit his purposes just made me like it even more. I can also see where fans of Samurai flicks might not like this as much. But this isnā€™t a Samurai film, itā€™s a Stranger flick and in that context, i thought everything was awesome. I also liked the fact that we donā€™t know exactly what the Japanese are sayinā€™ most of the time. The only down side to this was some of the shots/cuts couldā€™ve been better, but i was having too much fun to care.

Fun Factor - 7.5/10

BTW, has this ever had a widescreen release with German titles and English language. Runs around 1:25:46 on my DVD player. Just curious as to where this copy mightā€™a been sourced from.

44

The flick looks good but Iā€™m not very fond of samurai crossovers. This particular was painful to watch.
Maybe Iā€™ll give it another try.

45

Heheh, apparently if you like Samuraiā€™s too much itā€™s no good, and if you donā€™t like Samuraiā€™s enough itā€™s no good. But as a Tony Anthony flick this is great in my book. And i read up on the German DVD and it sounds exactly like this one, only some enterprising soul has masked off the open-matte DVD and made a homemade letter-box copy. Which at least saves me from beaking out the black construction paper i guess. Shouldā€™a known there was little chance of a different print.

46

I enjoyed this one for the most part though found the voice overs irritating. Too often those voice overs are only put in to make up for unclear work on the part of the director. Maybe the cut 15 minutes are to blame but I doubt it.

Having said that I like Anthony enough to overlook the faults for the most part and just go with it. Plus I always enjoy a western where the love interest is actually the horse.

47

[quote=ā€œPhil H, post:46, topic:1148ā€]I enjoyed this one for the most part though found the voice overs irritating. Too often those voice overs are only put in to make up for unclear work on the part of the director. Maybe the cut 15 minutes are to blame but I doubt it.

Having said that I like Anthony enough to overlook the faults for the most part and just go with it. Plus I always enjoy a western where the love interest is actually the horse.[/quote]

Well put.

Iā€™ve always assumed that the crude narration was to compensate for missing/altered footage, but who knows.

A very enjoyable entry in the series in any case, in some ways my favourite.

48

I didnā€™t have a problem with the narration. I canā€™t say if it would haveben better without it butā€¦

I think Anthony is good at narrations.

One question, if somebody wanted to address Tony by his full name, properlyā€¦would they call him Anthony Anthony?

yes, I know Tony Anthony is not his real name

49

Database comment:

The Silent Stranger takes the formula of the previous Stranger films, and by transplanting it to a Japanese setting with Samurai instead of gunmen, it somehow brings the genre back to its Kurosawa inspired roots. Tony Anthony garnered for this one a bigger budget, including backing from a large Hollywood studio, which unfortunately in the end backfired. Due to legal quarrels between Anthonyā€™s chosen producer Allen Klein and MGM the film wasnā€™t released until 1974, at a time when the fusion of Eastern and Western had just become the rule of the day. Even worse the released version was cut against Anthonyā€™s wishes and didnā€™t make any impact then, but thereā€™s still hope that Mr. Anthony will one day be able to prepare an uncut version for a DVD release.

50

[quote=ā€œStanton, post:49, topic:1148ā€]Database comment:

The Silent Stranger takes the formula of the previous Stranger films, and by transplanting it to a Japanese setting with Samurai instead of gunmen, it somehow brings the genre back to its Kurosawa inspired roots. Tony Anthony garnered for this one a bigger budget, including backing from a large Hollywood studio, which unfortunately in the end backfired. Due to legal quarrels between Anthonyā€™s chosen producer Allen Klein and MGM the film wasnā€™t released until 1974, at a time when the fusion of Eastern and Western had just become the rule of the day. Even worse the released version was cut against Anthonyā€™s wishes and didnā€™t make any impact then, but thereā€™s still hope that Mr. Anthony will one day be able to prepare an uncut version for a DVD release.[/quote]

Excellent

51

Not as good as your reviews ā€¦

52

Yesterday I had my views to the third part of the Vanzi trilogy .
Very entertaining film with an ever-cool Anthony.
This time itā€™s again to two feuding groups and the Stranger in the middle. He does not understand a word of what people say, but prefers to speak with his weapon. In this case, with a strange design, half gun, the other half ā€¦ no idea.

But one should not expect a spaghetti Western. It is more of a mix between kung fu, action, adventure film with some spaghetti Western ingredients in comic-style shot.
And Vanzi is also one other way than, for exemple Mario Caiano in My Name Is Shanghai Joe or Antonio Margheriti in The Stranger and the Gunfighter. Here sent an Asian main character in the Wild Western. Vanzi sends a Wild West character to Japan. This means that the film maintains a consistent line. For it is in fact no longer be spaghetti Western, but still an entertaining movie with the Stranger figure. If you will, is the Stranger figure established and can afford to strangers paths to wander. In addition, no attempt here by some stupid kung fu fighting to create an appropriate mix. Like the first Stranger film it remains faithful to his story straight.

The Vanzi style is recognizable, though in a different way. There is also a little more humor. But it is never histrionic.

Similarly parody you the first two films. Instead of a taciturn Story (as in the first movie) moved the story in a foreign country, so that the protagonist does not understand a word.

At the beginning of the Stranger goes back through narrow streets, people stare at him and quickly close the window. But here it is less threatening, but more fun.

Again, there is a gold crate. But this time, the Stanger this opens not. No, he is inside.

There is a regular rain. It is raining and raining and raining. An absolute contrast to the constantly hot climate of the other stories on the Mexican border.

And in the end: the Stranger loose the won (or stolen) money and go with a fraction into the sunset.

All in all a very entertaining movie. Just not a spaghetti Western. But it is more consistent than any of the other Kung-Fu / Western mixes.

Or we say: The Stranger went out to explore the world.

53

The movie did its job, but I was expecting alot more :frowning:

I really like the stranger character & the idea of a Cowboy vs Samurai it had some really nice spaghetti/samuari bits through the film for example I really liked the scene of him having to pull the boat along and then when he tricked them & had both the samurais pulling the boat after him

I think what I wanted was for him to team up with his captive/kidnapper & for them to kick alot of ass & some how become allies (a little cliche ) but it just needed more funds I guess Iā€™d give it a 3/5

54

Anyone know if there is a significant difference between the Voulez Vous release and the NEW Entertainment release? Seeing as how they have different titles I was wondering if they could be sourced from different copies.

55

Custom cover (cover is small-sized for forum post & linked to hi-res printable image download page):

800Ɨ536 416 KB
[url]http://img.3ezy.net/a1/a_d986fe08630e0.jpg[/url]

56

So, which is the better version of this, one of the German releases or the sinister cinema one?

57

Iā€™m pretty sure SinCin just took the open matte German DVD and masked it off to 1:66. If you can get the German DVD for a reasonable price, iā€™d say to go for a pressed DVD over SinCinā€™s DVD-R,

58

Yes, but which? :-\

59

Viewed the NEW DVD again, doesnā€™t seem to lose any information at the sides despite being fullscreen. Very well made and one of the best of the genre, imoā€¦ every shot is so vibrant and well thought out, going long stretches with barely any dialogue ā€¦ the only thing that feels half assed is the pointless voice over, just have to block my ears whenever it starts

60

Still not viewed this one, was hoping a better version would come out.