When you’re taking an English Literature class, at some point the teacher will talk about the unreliable narrator. This is when you get a sense that the person telling the story might not be honest about the events. A lot of autobiographies have unreliable narrators since the “real” people want to claim a more glory than they earned. Dogra Magra has an extremely unreliable narrator in the proper place for someone so unreliable.
Ichiro (Princess Mononoke‘s Yoji Matsuda) has a bad dream and wakes up in a locked room at a sanitarium. Professor Wakabayashi (Endless Waltz‘s Hideo Murota) is in charge of Ichiro. The patient is suffering from severe amnesia. The doctor is trying to figure out why Ichiro killed his bride on the night before their wedding. Can Ichiro want to remember this moment again? At one point during their treatment, he gives Ichiro a novel called Dogra Magra written by an old student. He thinks it might be of help. Is it because the former student is really Ichiro? Things quickly get weird when Ichiro sees a photo of Professor Masaki (Sijaku Katsura) that starts talking to him. Ichiro quickly thinks that this is the doctor that delivered him into the world. In his quest for identity, Ichiro keeps thinking he is the various people that Wakabayashi and Katsura discuss. Can this be? Is he ever going to discover his true self and why he murdered his almost- bride?
Dogra Magra perfectly captures an unreliable narrator in Ichiro. While we have zero idea what is the truth, you can’t take your eyes off the screen. Everything gets so tangled away from reality. Sijaku Katsura gives a compelling performance as Masaki. His shaved head and bushy mustache make us sense that his approach to Ichiro might get him the boy to break through to his real memories. Ichiro gets exposed to a puppet theater, a slideshow and a cursed scroll by the professors. We are not sure if we’re experiencing the real Masaki or one imagined by Ichiro. The same is true of Wakabayashi. I won’t list any examples of real or unreal moments so not to spoil your experience. What is really happening is always in flux in during the movie. This could be disconcerting, but becomes hypnotic here. Dogra Magra is a film that pulls you into the madness and won’t let go until the very end. Or maybe it’s still pulling?
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The High-Definition digital transfer supervised by director of photography Tatsuo Suzuki and producer Shuji Shibata. The Audio is Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono. It’s a clear track so you’ll hear all the weirdness. The movie is subtitled in English.
Audio commentary by director Toshio Matsumoto was originally recorded in 2003. He speaks in Japanese. There are English subtitles. He really talks about creating a nightmare on the screen at the start and the significance of Ichiro waking up.
Interview with Toshio Matsumoto (21:23) is from 2003. He gets into how he tried to make this his third film with the same studio, but they were having money issues. It took him a while to find backing. He talks about how he adapted the novel.
Dogra Magra Through the Eyes of Tatsuo Suzuki (13:27) is a visual essay by programmer and curator Julian Ross. He relates the new film with a movie directed by Toshio Matsumoto nearly 20 years before Dogra Magra. Both films dealt with memory loss characters. Toshio read the novel after finishing the first movie. He liked the disorientation that came from reading the novel. Ross gives us background on cinematographer Tatsuo Suzuki who worked on both films.
Instructions on Ahodara Sutra (16:19) features the chant Dr. Masaki makes in the film as done by legendary street performer Hiroshi Sakano. Director Toshio Matsumoto watches the chant.
Gallery are sketches by production designer Takeo Kimura of five key sets.
Trailer (2:03) lets us know the main character has a serious identity issue. The trailer refers to the film as “an elliptical smokescreen.”
Limited edition booklet with essays by Hirofumi Sakamoto, president of the Postwar Japan Moving Image Archive and author Jasper Sharp on screenwriter Atsushi Yamatoya plus an interview with producer Shuji Shibata and Matsumoto’s director’s statement
Radiance Films present Dogra Magra: Limited Edition. Directed by Toshio Matsumoto. Screenplay by Toshio Matsumoto & Atsushi Yamatoya. Starring Yôji Matsuda, Shijaku Katsura, Hideo Murota, Eri Misawa, Kyôko Enami & Hidekazu Nagae. Running Time: 109 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: October 29, 2024.
