Overview: Movie mogul Haruki Kadokawa changed the landscape of Japanese cinema for good when he introduced the concept of the blockbuster to the country with this gripping crime drama featuring an all-star cast.

When mixed-raced Johnny Hayward (Flower Travellin’ Band vocalist Joe Yamanaka) heads from his Harlem home to Tokyo, he becomes the victim of a brutal stabbing in the elevator of a plush hotel hosting a catwalk show by elite fashion designer Kyoko (Mariko Okada).

That same night, Kyoko’s son with her powerful politician husband Yohei (Toshiro Mifune) is involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident and flees the country. Suspecting the incidents may be linked, Detective Munesue (Yusaku Matsuda, The Game Trilogy) heads to New York to investigate Johnny’s background.

Here he is partnered with local detective Ken Shuftan (George Kennedy, Airport), whose own links to Japan dredge up painful memories from Munesue’s childhood.

Adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Seiichi Morimura by director Junya Sato (The Bullet Train, Manhunt) and screenwriter Zenzo Matsuyama (The Human Condition trilogy), and shot on location in Japan and New York by veteran cinematographer Shinsaku Himeda (Pigs and Battleships, Vengeance is Mine), Proof of the Man is a compelling exploration of racial identity and the trauma of the postwar occupation period framed in the form of a whodunnit.

Arrow Video is proud to present the film for the very first time outside Japan for the home-video market in a brand new transfer sourced from a new 4K restoration by Kadokawa.

Blu-ray Verdict: Originally known as Ningen no shômei in Chinese, this is actually a very famous 1977 Japanese movie imported to China in 1979. It was a phenomenon of a movie in the late 70’s in both Japan and China. Also, the song in the movie, Straw Hat Song was one that almost all the people was familiar with, especially since the movie was the first of several movies imported into China when China had started to open up to the world.

On the high-rise of the Royal Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, the annual Costume Design Awards exhibition is reaching its climax. Kyoko Yasugi, the wife of a Congressman, a famous fashion designer, attended the exhibition. At this time, it was reported that a black young man had died in the hotel elevator. According to the elevator attendant, the victim shouted Wheat straw hat, wheat straw, straw hat in English before he died. Saijo Yaso ... How can a black youth die here? Who is the murderer? The police launch a tense investigation soon thereafter.

The police dog sniffed the Valley Park near the Royal Hotel from the location of the victim’s death. The police found a pool of blood and a straw hat in the grass, indicating that this was the real crime scene. A pair of young men who had a tryst in the park reported seeing the deceased in the park, and before that, a woman in a suit also left the park in a white Crown sedan.

It is quickly discovered that the victim was Johnny Hayward (played by Joe Yamanaka, who himself is also of mixed blood who is also a singer and sings the famous Straw hat song in the movie and who came to Japan from New York three days ago. The Saijo Yaso Poems and the straw hat he left behind were brought in from the United States when he entered the country, as we soon learn.

After extensive searches, police learn that Johnny’s father, Wilshere Hayward, had lived in Yokosuka, Japan, as a U.S. soldier stationed there after World War II, exactly the same period as the straw hat and the book of poetry. And the word Casmi left by the victim when he was dying was also found in a poem in the poetry collection, referring to a place called Kiritsumi.

So the police detective Munesue decides to go there to investigate. The local people say that the old lady Nakayama should know the story best, but when Munesue arrived at her house, someone had already taken the lead and murdered the old woman who knew the inside story.

Munesue investigates some clues and learns that Nakayama opened a small hotel on the seaside of Hisanohama in Fukushima Prefecture that year and specialized in US troop’s business. At that time, Yasugi Kyoko was also working in the store and at the very same time the son of the designer Kyoko Yasugi, Kyohei Kori, fled to New York after killing someone in a car accident!

Detective Munesue follows the leads to New York. With the cooperation of the New York International Criminal Police, they also launch an investigation into the case of black young man Johnny. They find the home of a man named Adams based on the clues. He reported that a few months ago, when he was driving, an old black man suddenly jumped out on the road. He knocked him down before he could brake and was blackmailed for $6000!

The man’s name was Wilshere Hayward and the money was given to his son, Johnny Hayward, at his request. The police then deduce that Johnny’s father had crashed into the car in order to get money to send his son to Japan. But why did the father have to send his son to Japan?

If you are still following along, which I hope you are, I won’t give away any more of this highly engaging film plot, but will end with the fact that there is lots of well acted scenes, a brilliant car chase in New York, and the film is like a big puzzle slowly being put together. Yamamura sings a catch title song in English, but he is badly dubbed in the U.S. version, sorry. Regardless, the film is highly recommended! [H.Y.]

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
High-Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original lossless mono audio
Optional newly translated English subtitles
Brand new audio commentary with Asian American film scholar Rob Buscher and DJ Skeme Richards
Taking the Big Apple, a brand new video introduction by Asian film scholar Earl Jackson
A Japanese Blockbuster, a brand new filmed discussion with critics and Junya Sato biographers Tatsuya Masuto and Masaaki Nomura
Original theatrical trailers
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film critic Michelle Kisner and scholar Alexander Zahlten

Proof of the Man (1977) Original Trailer [4K]

Official Purchase Link

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