Domo Arigato (Blu-ray 3D Review)
- Review Date: Jan 29, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray 3D
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Director
Arch ObolerRelease Date(s)
1973 (January 13, 2025)Studio(s)
Sherpix, Inc. (BayView Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: C-
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B-
- Extras Grade: A-
Review
Arch Oboler’s Domo Arigato is a little seen 1973 3D film that has rarely been screened to the public since its very brief and very limited release (with only two known screenings in 1973 and 1990). Arch Oboler, who had started his career in radio before switching to film, revolutionized filmmaking by kickstarting the 3D craze with Bwana Devil, and later the science fiction film The Bubble. For his final film, he helmed the Japanese travelogue meets Love Story-esque drama Domo Arigato. Unfortunately, it was far from the success that everyone involved with it hoped it would be, and has been difficult to see in good quality for multiple decades.
Tara (Bonnie Sher) has come from American to explore the sights of Japan, along her way meeting Doug (Jason Ledger), a former military physician in training who immediately takes up with her, following her on her seemingly endless quest to see as much of Tokyo as she can... but for unknown reasons. They begin to fall in love, but Tara is initially resistant. Doug is somewhat preoccupied with his direction in life, and subsequently becomes frustrated with Tara. As their exhaustive and dramatic trek across Japan continues, they grow closer and learn much more about each other, and why Tara is so reluctant to slow down.
The most important aspect of Domo Arigato is its visuals, whether you watch the film in 3D or not, because the heavy melodrama between these two characters is extremely bipolar, with nothing to motivate it. They’re happy and fully engaged with each other one minute, lost and self-absorbed the next, or straight just up angry with each other, especially Doug who constantly makes an ass out of himself in public for no good reason. It doesn’t help that there’s a streak of misogyny running throughout him, coming from his actions, but also what comes out of his mouth. Matters are further muddied since Tara seems hopelessly adrift in an almost drugged-like state throughout the majority of the film. What’s worse is that she doesn’t reveal why she is the way she is until the final minutes, which is much too late at that point. As it is, the story plays out as a sort of proto-Before Sunrise or Lost in Translation, but in all honesty, it’s difficult to care about either of these characters because they’re so poorly depicted.
On the other hand, the film does attempt to set up some dramatic moments outside of their relationship, including the possibility of the death of a child, which Doug being a doctor of sorts, attempts to resuscitate. At once it reminded me of a similar moment in The Darjeeling Limited. In both cases, this event occurs straight out of nowhere, but in The Darjeeling Limited, the story is a spiritual journey of sorts, with the three leading characters having a personal moment of bonding over something terrible happening to them that was out of their control. In Domo Arigato, it serves only one purpose: to have a brief scene of Doug feeling mild regret, then to turning around and happily enjoying a bull fight the very next day, with seemingly no lasting impact on his character. In other words, the story and its characters are completely aimless.
That all said, Arch Oboler certainly goes after some interesting visual appeal. Not just in the 1970s Japanese backdrop, which is beautiful and multifaceted unto itself, but also in scene transitions. The use of Japanese tchotchkes and souvenirs fade in and out with translucency, often symbolizing the mood of the characters, their actions in between scenes, or in one case, to cover up scenes that weren’t actually filmed. In one section of the story, Doug is talked into participating in a car race by a beautiful blonde stranger, but instead of actually seeing that, we see a small toy race car on a mechanized track instead. There’s also an instance when Doug and Tara are meant to sit down to a meal, whereupon we see a serving tray with hot food come into the frame. There are also moments when these small items actually appear at the beginning of a scene and float away before it begins. Obviously, most of this imagery is meant to be a part of the 3D experience, but the more important aspect of the 3D is the depth seen throughout a version of Japan that doesn’t really exist anymore, making the visuals in Domo Arigato very valuable.
Interestingly, this was Donald Peterman’s first film as a cinematographer (along with his fellow camera operator Nick McLean), and he would go to lens classic films like Splash, Cocoon, Flashdance, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Point Break, and Men in Black, among others. Perhaps somewhat bittersweetly, this was also Arch Oboler’s final film as he could no longer get any more projects off the ground before his death in 1987. Though Domo Arigato is mostly a failure as a story, one cannot help but be drawn in and charmed by its lasting visual beauty.
Domo Arigato was shot by cinematographer Donald Peterman on 35mm film with the Space-Vision 3D camera system (supervised by system inventor Colonel Robert V. Bernier), finished photochemically as a single strip negative, and presented in the aspect ratio of 2.39:1. BayView Entertainment debuts 3-D Film Archive’s restorations of the film from 35mm master positive elements held by the Library of Congress in three separate presentations: polarized 3D, anaglyphic 3D, and standard 2D—all on a single BD-50 disc in the aspect ratio of 2.40:1.
Bitrates for all three presentations sit somewhere between 15 and 25Mbps at any given moment, and all three are stable from beginning to end. Scratches, speckling, and splice marks pervade the 2D presentation (which uses one side of the original elements), as well as heavy grain. The color palette is beautiful when it comes to the many sights in and around various areas of Tokyo, but flesh tones aren’t all that even. However, the main Blu-ray 3D presentation irons out many of these issues, hiding some of the inherent flaws. It offers outstanding depth in the many backdrops and various locales of Japan. Since Arch Oboler wanted audiences to feel like they were actually in Japan, the Space-Vision system was able to push everything occurring on the screen very far forward into the theater. This effect can mostly be achieved at home, depending on the size of your setup and your distance from the screen, obviously. Some ghosting does appear, but the majority of the presentation is quite effective. As per usual with 3-D Film Archive, they also include an anaglyph 3D version, which was created using their Adaptive Multi-Band Anaglyphic Encoding process. It’s definitely superior to any previous anaglyphic version of the film, and it also provides those without access to a polarized 3D interface a way to experience it properly. As such, there’s something here for everyone, regardless of your setup.
Audio is included in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. It’s a track that has obvious limitations, with some hiss and mild crackle present, as well as some thumps during reel changes, but dialogue is mostly discernible while both sound effects and score have plenty of support.
BayView Entertainment’s Region-Free Blu-ray 3D release of Domo Arigato sits in a blue Amaray case with a pair of red/cyan anaglyphic 3D glasses and an insert with new artwork created specifically for this release, while the original poster art can be seen on the main menu. The following extras are included (the video-based content can be viewed in all three formats):
- Audio Commentary with Matthew Rovner and Mike Ballew
- Cleopatra Follies (HD – 10:52)
- Skid Row Holdup (HD – 10:39)
- Domo Arigato Outtakes (HD – 2:45)
First up is an audio commentary with Arch Oboler biographer and author of the upcoming book The Devil and Arch Oboler, Matt Rovner, with the participation of 3D expert and author of the upcoming book Close Enough to Touch: 3-D Comes to Hollywood, Mike Ballew. It’s an excellent listen. Rovner covers the majority of the background on the film and the criticisms of it, with Ballew stepping in to speak about the ins and outs of the Space-Vision 3D camera system.
Cleopatra Follies is a burlesque 3D short written by Ed Wood (meaning that he wrote the small bits of narration) and was produced by burlesque theater manager Harry A. Farros for Broadway Roadshow Productions. The film was originally titled Flame of Islam, but the title was changed before its release in 1953. Bob Furmanek had originally discovered the film’s original elements at Movielab Film Laboratories in Hollywood in 1985, but was unfortunately unable to save them before they were junked when the lab closed. However, a very faded 35mm anaglyphic print has survived, which 3-D Film Archive’s technical director Greg Kintz was able to utilize and extract from to produce a polarized 3D presentation. Watching the film in 2D is rather pointless as it’s a very battered though still salvageable presentation, but like the main feature, the 3D is outstanding. Featured are performances by Zabuda (aka Gloria Robles), performing her routine “Slave to the Sultan;” Paula French, performing “Exotic Moon” (the audio isn’t super clear, so it could also be “Exotic Moods” or “Exotic Moves”); and Shirley Hayes, performing “The Pussycat Girl.” The 2D presentation suffers from obvious ghosting, but all of the women are lovely and their very chaste numbers, which are performed in an expansive courtyard setting, are worth your time.
Skid Row Holdup, a 3D short so obscure that there’s almost no information about it to be found anywhere online, is another burlesque short from 1953. However, it’s much more on the light entertainment side. Photographed by future Ed Wood cinematographer William C. Thompson (billed here as WM. C. Thompson) and presented by Sonney Amusement Enterprises, this short features a brief stage show at the New Follies Theatre in Los Angeles. It showcases dancer and contortionist Mickey Harris and her very specialized but no less exciting routine, followed by a comedy skit performed by The Jack Mann Company. The restoration for this short in particular presented its own set of challenges since the original right eye camera negative doesn’t survive, and the only available elements were the left eye camera negative, which contained severe photochemical deterioration, and a 35mm master positive, which suffered from advanced vinegar syndrome. However, the 3-D Film Archive’s restoration magicians have pulled off another great 3D presentation, as if nothing was wrong with these elements in the first place. It too has wonderful depth, and in 2D, it fares much better than its predecessor, appearing cleaner with sharper detail.
Last is a brief set of outtakes from the shooting of two scenes from the main feature, showing the clapperboard in use with the temporary title Arigato. In one instance, we see one of the crew members standing in the back of a shot.
Domo Arigato as a narrative film is very difficult to recommend for its story. The star of the film is the 3D and the wonderfully-captured Japanese environments. Whether you have a Blu-ray 3D setup or not, this is definitely a disc you’ll want to pick up since all three of the films offered here were more or less lost, or simply unable to seen by the public, for decades. It’s another knockout Blu-ray 3D release. Highly recommended.
- Tim Salmons
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