6 | / 10 |
Users | 1.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A mysterious drifter and a young Japanese warrior arrive in a town controlled by criminals, each with a separate purpose. They meet at the Horseless Horseman Saloon, where the enigmatic bartender encourages them to join forces to bring down the evil Nicola the Woodcutter, who rules the city as head of a gang of killers.
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Gackt, Woody Harrelson, Kevin McKidd, Ron PerlmanAction | 100% |
Martial arts | 41% |
Thriller | 36% |
Fantasy | 11% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Directors in love with movies aren't an unusual phenomenon, and their work can be brilliant and inspired. Tarantino, Bertolucci, Scorsese and Woo are just a few examples of innovative talents who have drawn creative fire from cinematic giants who preceded them. But a cinema of homage risks becoming disconnected and incoherent unless it remembers to do the essential work of telling a story and entertaining an audience. The talents who invented cinema as we know it -- directors like Griffiths, Ford or Hitchcock, just to name a few -- didn't try to imitate anyone; they were too busy doing their job as storytellers. They never set out to create an Art Form, and they certainly never let the worship of what they were doing get in the way of actually doing it. Writer-director Guy Moshe is a prodigiously talented filmmaker, who, working from a story by producer Boaz Davidson (most recently, the remake of Conan the Barbarian), has fashioned Bunraku, a two-hour collage of references to other films, tricked out with so many stylistic flourishes that you can almost overlook the slimness of its plot. Almost. One of Moshe's favorite films is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, which, as Moshe observes, is a compendium of elements from dozens of previous Westerns. Moshe figured, why stop at one genre? For Bunraku he frappéed samurai films, spaghetti westerns, gangster films, Hong Kong martial arts, graphic novels, anime, pulp exploitation films -- and let's not forget musicals. The result is frequently ravishing to behold, because Moshe attracted impressive collaborators, including Alex McDowell, one of Hollywood's top production designers, who served as producer, and editor Zach Staenberg, who won an Oscar for his work on The Matrix.
Bunraku was shot by Juan Ruiz Anchía, who has done impressive cinematography for David Mamet and James Foley, among others. But Bunraku is not a film where the cinematographer has nearly as much impact on the movie's appearance as the technicians in the various digital suites. Indeed, although Bunraku was shot on film, it looks more like a hi-def production, since so much was created in the digital realm, and artificiality seems to have been the watchword. The Blu-ray's 1080p, AVC-encoded image is consistently smooth, glossy and grainless, with textures that are often clearly intended to resemble a video game world more than a realistic environment. Because nothing is realistic, detail can be hard to judge, but the sheer volume of minutia in many of the frames suggests that detail is well-resolved. Black levels are solid, and the vivid neon fluorescence of "Bunraku-ville" gives the image the HD "pop" that is so beloved by many enthusiasts. (In pre-release publicity, the film's look was compared to that of Sin City, but the colors are considerably more varied and the frame is much busier.) Having been sourced from a digital intermediate, the image is free of post-transfer digital scrubbing or edge haloes, and the lack of grain simplified the compressionist's job, preventing artifacts.
The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is extremely active and aggressive, taking full advantage of the rear channels to place sounds to the rear of the listening environment. Guns may have been banned from "Bunraku-ville", but that leaves plenty of room for crashes, falling objects, entrances and exits, vehicles and other assorted sonic events off-camera. Although dialogue is not a major component of the film, what talk there is can be clearly heard at the front center. The single finest component of the track, however, is the playful score by jazz musician Terence Blanchard, who's certainly in on the joke and strikes just the right note of mocking playfulness for Bunraku's gonzo style.
Moshe is an interesting director, and Bunraku is overflowing with intriguing visuals. It has "cult classic" written all over it. If you happen to vibrate at its particular frequency, then this is a disc you'll want to add to your collection. I'm more interested in what Moshe does in the future, if he can bring these kind of pyrotechnics to bear on a story that's more than an outline, peopled by characters who are more than attitude with a name (and, in most cases, not even that). If you're the kind of viewer who expects strongly defined characters and coherent storytelling (e.g., me), then Bunraku isn't for you. On its technical merits, though, the Blu-ray is recommended.
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