Arrow Video will release Jun'ya Satô's Proof of the Man (人間の証明) (1977) in the UK on 8 September 2025. Releases in the US and Canada will follow on 9 September 2025.
The film is in Japanese and English, with burnt-in vertical (for dialogue) and horizontal (for texts) Japanese subtitles in a white font. Optional English subtitles are English and English HoH / SDH, the latter of which covers the film's English dialogue. Both subtitle tracks shift to the top of the image as necessary. All subtitling is in white font and uses US spellings.
The English audio track is the audio commentary with Rob Buscher and DJ Skeme Richards.
In the booklet, the disc authoring is credited to The Engine House.
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Title Codec Length Movie Size Disc Size Bitrate Bitrate Main Audio Track Secondary Audio Track
----- ------ ------- -------------- -------------- ------- ------- ------------------ ---------------------
00001.MPLS AVC 2:13:03 37,713,378,048 48,887,758,479 37.79 33.37 LPCM 1.0 1152Kbps (48kHz/24-bit)
An interview with Asian film scholar Earl Jackson. Note that while this is billed as an "introduction" in Arrow's press materials, Jackson reveals a major spoiler, so this piece should absolutely not be watched if you haven't seen the film. Thankfully, on the disc, it is located in the extras.
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QUICK SUMMARY:
Disc Title: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Label: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Size: 48,887,758,479 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00002.MPLS
Size: 4,150,997,760 bytes
Length: 0:21:45.512
Total Bitrate: 25.44 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 23937 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB
A Japanese Blockbuster
An interview with film critics Tatsuya Masuto and Masaaki Nomura on the film and Japanese reactions to it.
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Title Codec Length Movie Size Disc Size Bitrate Bitrate Main Audio Track Secondary Audio Track
----- ------ ------- -------------- -------------- ------- ------- ------------------ ---------------------
00004.MPLS AVC 0:27:08 5,196,006,144 48,887,758,479 25.53 23.97 DD AC3 2.0 320Kbps
Code:
DISC INFO:
Disc Title: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Label: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Size: 48,887,758,479 bytes
Protection: AACS
BDInfo: 0.7.5.6
PLAYLIST REPORT:
Name: 00004.MPLS
Length: 0:27:08.293 (h:m:s.ms)
Size: 5,196,006,144 bytes
Total Bitrate: 25.53 Mbps
VIDEO:
Codec Bitrate Description
----- ------- -----------
MPEG-4 AVC Video 23968 kbps 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
AUDIO:
Codec Language Bitrate Description
----- -------- ------- -----------
Dolby Digital Audio Japanese 320 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB
SUBTITLES:
Codec Language Bitrate Description
----- -------- ------- -----------
Presentation Graphics English 54.714 kbps
FILES:
Name Time In Length Size Total Bitrate
---- ------- ------ ---- -------------
00006.M2TS 0:00:00.000 0:27:07.292 5,195,990,400 25,544
00000.M2TS 0:27:07.292 0:00:01.000 15,744 121
CHAPTERS:
Number Time In Length Avg Video Rate Max 1-Sec Rate Max 1-Sec Time Max 5-Sec Rate Max 5-Sec Time Max 10Sec Rate Max 10Sec Time Avg Frame Size Max Frame Size Max Frame Time
------ ------- ------ -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------
1 0:00:00.000 0:12:44.221 24,449 kbps 46,226 kbps 00:00:04.629 40,949 kbps 00:12:12.440 39,880 kbps 00:12:11.480 127,456 bytes 856,778 bytes 00:01:22.499
2 0:12:44.221 0:14:23.070 23,573 kbps 52,938 kbps 00:22:57.918 40,883 kbps 00:13:16.295 38,071 kbps 00:14:33.998 122,911 bytes 633,828 bytes 00:14:29.243
3 0:27:07.292 0:00:01.000 23 kbps 0 kbps 00:00:00.000 0 kbps 00:00:00.000 0 kbps 00:00:00.000 139 bytes 158 bytes 00:27:07.959
STREAM DIAGNOSTICS:
File PID Type Codec Language Seconds Bitrate Bytes Packets
---- --- ---- ----- -------- -------------- -------------- ------------- -----
00006.M2TS 4113 (0x1011) 0x1B AVC 1627.209 23,985 4,878,657,418 26,537,647
00006.M2TS 4352 (0x1100) 0x81 AC3 jpn (Japanese) 1627.209 320 65,091,840 406,824
00006.M2TS 4608 (0x1200) 0x90 PGS eng (English) 1627.209 55 11,136,870 63,448
00000.M2TS 4113 (0x1011) 0x1B AVC 0.876 41 4,531 32
Theatrical Trailers
These are only playable separately.
Theatrical Teaser
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QUICK SUMMARY:
Disc Title: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Label: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Size: 48,887,758,479 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00005.MPLS
Size: 157,621,248 bytes
Length: 0:00:54.888
Total Bitrate: 22.97 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 21510 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 37.814 kbps
Theatrical Trailer 1
Code:
QUICK SUMMARY:
Disc Title: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Label: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Size: 48,887,758,479 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00006.MPLS
Size: 345,701,760 bytes
Length: 0:01:49.025
Total Bitrate: 25.37 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 23829 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 25.798 kbps
Theatrical Trailer 2
Code:
QUICK SUMMARY:
Disc Title: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Label: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Size: 48,887,758,479 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00007.MPLS
Size: 345,327,168 bytes
Length: 0:01:49.025
Total Bitrate: 25.34 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 23802 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 25.798 kbps
Theatrical Trailer 3
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QUICK SUMMARY:
Disc Title: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Label: PROOF OF THE MAN
Disc Size: 48,887,758,479 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00008.MPLS
Size: 723,288,768 bytes
Length: 0:03:48.227
Total Bitrate: 25.35 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 23822 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 27.307 kbps
Image Gallery
Comprises 19 color photos and two DVD covers / poster artworks.
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Title Codec Length Movie Size Disc Size Bitrate Bitrate Main Audio Track Secondary Audio Track
----- ------ ------- -------------- -------------- ------- ------- ------------------ ---------------------
00009.MPLS MPEG-2 0:00:21 7,925,760 48,887,758,479 3.02 1.45
This is a pretty good East Meets West crime thriller, though some plot points are a little difficult to believe and both Yûsaku Matsuda and Mariko Okada are probably too young for their roles, she by a little and he by a lot. There is quite a bit of English in the film, including entire scenes with George Kennedy, Broderick Crawford and Rick Jason that don't involve any of the Japanese cast, as well as scenes where Japanese actors speak English somewhat convincingly. The scenes in English sound very fluid and natural, so they must have either been punched up by a native speaker, or the American actors were allowed to improvise somewhat, although oddly, I don't believe
[Show spoiler]Robert Earl Jones
ever has a single line of dialogue, despite his character's importance to the plot. There is also a lot of location shooting in New York, including an exciting car chase and some really sad shots of decrepit housing (in Harlem, I guess, that's the setting, anyway) which would probably never make it into most Hollywood films. Look out for
[Show spoiler]William Sanderson
in a small role as
[Show spoiler]a gun dealer
.
One thing that's odd is that Arrow has only provided a mono soundtrack. Now, perhaps that was all Kadokawa offered Arrow, but Kadokawa's own 4K UHD release has an original LPCM 4.0 track as well as the mono, though the older Japanese Blu-rays also had only a mono track. I thought the 4.0 audio was very effective and I missed it when looking at Arrow's Blu-ray.
Of Arrow's video extras, the one I enjoyed the most was the new interview with Japanese film critics Tatsuya Masuto and Masaaki Nomura, because they provided the most information on the reaction to the film in Japan, as well as some stories from the production. Unfortunately, despite their claim that the stories of production of this film could fill more than one book, there were too few of these for me during this interview, so I guess I wished it would be even longer. It's a shame that we don't have any interviews with the cast and crew of the film, and it looks like none of the Japanese video releases ever had any, either.
I believe the theatrical teaser and three trailers are all on the Kadokawa 4K UHD disc in Dolby Vision, but on Arrow's Blu-ray, they are subtitled, which is great. Look out for a slight English spelling error Kadokawa made in the trailers, which is all the more bemusing because of certain details to do with race and identity in the film.
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Proof of the Man (1977)
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