Blood on the Sun

These comments apply to the edition released by Artisan in July of 2003. Aurally and visually, this version is relatively clear, particularly when one considers its age. However, there are problems with its presentation.
The film is described on its container and on the disc itself as being in black and white. In fact it is colorized, and rather unnaturally so.
Special features are promised by the insert, accessible through the MENU button. In fact, there are none.
Incidentally, there was a version of this on VHS with a time of 98 minutes; this runs 94.
One might hope that Steve Beeks of Artisan will act to insure more care in future offerings.

Based on a true story, BLOOD ON THE SUN is an entertaining little stewpot of a movie.
James Cagney plays Nick Condon, managing editor of the Tokyo Chronicle. It's 1920-something and the United States and Japan share an uneasy peace. That peace threatens to be broken violently when the "Tanaka Plan," a Japanese government document outlining a blueprint for world domination, falls into Condon's possession. Condon has to get the document out of Japan and announce its contents to the world, the Japanese have to stop him.
When I first saw BLOOD ON THE SUN I shrugged it off as a piece of late-war propaganda. There ARE a lot of stereotypical portrayals and attitudes coursing through this one- the Japanese are portrayed for the most part as buck toothed, diabolical schemers. Cagney is attacked from behind twice in this movie. The officials present trumped up charges in their attempt to stop his muck-raking ways. The outrageousness of a foreign correspondent stealing and threatening to publish a secret state paper seems lost on this movie. Then I did a computer search of "Tanaka Memorial" and had a chance to read the document in question. If it's not a forgery (the Japanese government claimed it was), it dwarfs the movie's presumptions. As a side note, the web site I visited informs us that the Chinese, and not a crusading American editor, originally released the document.
As usual, Cagney is a bundle of energy and is great fun to watch. I've read that he took judo classes in preparation for this part, and it seems he's doing a lot of his own stunt work. Sylvia Sydney plays Iris Hilliard, Cagney's love interest and someone interested in the document as well. Soon after her character is introduced we learn she is half-Chinese, which should alert us to the fact that she isn't quite as sinister as she appears. The Chinese were our allies during to the war. They were the good Asians. Another fun character in this one is Capt. Oshima (John Halloran), one of many Caucasian actors partially hidden behind false teeth and taped eyelids. Oshima is a menacing, murderous, towering brute of a cop. Symbolically he's the first to attack the American Cagney with a karate chop from behind, a blow that knocks Cagney out. Later, when the gloves are off and the two square off against each other in a fair fight the results are decidedly different.
Wiard Ihnen & A. Roland Fields won a little statuette for Best Art Direction for their work on BLOOD ON THE SUN. The sets do look pretty good.
BLOOD ON THE SUN is in the public domain, so anyone can copy and sell it. If you get the Delta version be warned that their logo will appear periodically in the lower-right hand corner. They've included a short documentary (still photos with a voice over narration- yawn) and an intro and outro by Tony Curtis. Unforgivably, Curtis tells us in the intro that Cagney plays a newspaperman "right after World War Two." It may seem a minor point, but couldn't somebody on the set have reminded him that the movie took place after World War One?

By 1945, the war in the Pacific was rapidly drawing to a close, and one would think that Hollywood would have presented a then contemporary view of America's relation with Japan. Surprisingly enough, director Frank LLoyd harkens back to a pre-Pearl Harbor take on Japanese, which is to say that as far as Orientals were concerned, Charley Chan was mainstream America's image of the Asian. It took the events of 12/7 to awaken America to a newer, more lethal yellow peril. What is remarkable about LLoyd's BLOOD ON THE SUN is that nearly every one of the Asian characters is played by an American wearing some really bad makeup. Since political correctness was non-existant then, no one seemed to mind the incongruous accents and eye makeup. Into this mess of a national antipathy towards anything Japanese comes James Cagney, a Tokyo-based American news editor who somehow comes into possession of a secret Japanese document that outlines nothing less than a domination of the world by the Japanese emperor. The plot revolves around efforts by the Japanese to regain custody of this document before Cagney has a chance to publicize it. From a purely dramatic point of view, the interest of the film lies less in the race for possession of the document and more in a not so subtle expose of what passed for an anger towards all things Japanese. Most of the Japanese were of the buck-toothed, slanty-eyed, grinning widely school of acting. The only true oriental who radiated any genuine emotion was the Chinese veteran character actor Philip Ahn, who has made a career of playing rogues and coolies with an impressive depth of dignity. Here Ahn has a bit part as a sadistic Kampetai (Japanese secret police) official who nevertheless gives a chilling performance as a officer who exudes menace with each soft-spoken word. Most of the action revolves around Cagney who must navigate his way through a series of political roadblocks put there by those who may or may not be on his side. Sylvia Sidney is a half-oriental woman with whom Cagney has an unlikely romance and is on screen mostly to give Cagney something to do when he is not being pursued by the local cops. Early on, a hulking Japanese officer suggests that he would like a Judo match with Cagney. Such subtle foreshadowing sets up a climactic grappling bout that is far more realistic than what is found in most chop-socky kung fu films. The ending, of course, is sheer nonsense and bears as much resemblance to real world intrigue as, say, this movie. Still, BLOOD ON THE SUN has its charm as long as one can plow through mounds of cinematic and ethnic implausibilities.