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Serpent
[Orochi]
(1925)

This feature film features Japanese superstar Tsumasaburo Bando, who is supported by Seki Misao, Tamaki Utako and Haruji Kensaku.

Digital Meme
2007 DVD edition

Serpent (1925), black & white, 74 minutes, not rated, with Backward Flow (1924), black & white, color-tinted black & white and color-toned black & white, 28 minutes, not rated.

Digital Meme, DMSF1008, UPC 4-571233-840085.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 5.2 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate (modern benshi) and Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 192 Kbps audio bit rate (historic benshi); Japanese language intertitles, optional English, Chinese and Korean language subtitles; 6 chapter stops; four-page insert booklet; standard DVD keepcase; ¥5,229.
Release date: 28 November 2007 (reissued in 2011).
Country of origin: Japan

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 7 / additional content: 6 / overall: 7.

This DVD edition has been mastered from a 35mm preservation print that has been transferred at sound film frame rate. The original film may have been shot at approximately 14-16 frames per second as the resulting playback speed here is way too fast. This edition’s presentation may have been closer to 90 minutes long had the film been transferred at a more natural speed. There is a moderate amount of scuffing and fine scratches, processing flaws, frame instability, and other minor print flaws.

The film is accompanied by two soundtracks: a music score with contemporary female benshi narration, and a vintage music score soundtrack with a male benshi narrator (which likely originates from the soundtrack of the source print).

Supplemental material includes an introduction to the Digital Meme DVD series of Japanese silent films with a historical overview of the benshi tradition by Midori Sawata (2 minutes); a video afterword on the work of Tsumasaburo Bando and the evolving style of Japanese films by historian Tadao Sato presented in Japanese with English subtitles (16 minutes); and a four-page insert booklet in Japanese and English.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

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