Carlos Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Carlos Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 18, 2025

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal collection from Arrow Video.

In 1976 folks in the United States were celebrating the bicentennial anniversary celebration of a famous revolution, but another revolution of a technological rather than a political variety was just beginning to unfold across the ocean in Japan at virtually the same time. That was the year that VHS began its scrappy upstart status against Betamax in a format war which in its day was probably at least as notorious as the one that decades later marked the rollout of high definition home video with competing HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. Betamax of course ultimately lost that battle (rather incredibly both Betamax player and VCR production extended well into the 21st century, despite having been supplanted by disc formats), and by the time Toei had the bright idea to start producing direct to video releases in 1989, VHS was the dominant format. In a way it's kind of fascinating to compare and contrast Toei's decision to provide "product" to its chain of video stores with the way the major Hollywood studios used to provide feature films for the theater chains they owned until United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. forced the studios to divest those properties in 1948. One way or the other, despite economic tribulations in Japan which had severely impacted (theatrically exhibited) movie attendance, the direct to video market exploded for Toei, so much so that other major (and minor) Japanese studios soon followed suit by offering their own straight to video productions, though Toei had actually trademarked the term V-Cinema to describe their product. This collection of V-Cinema outings from Arrow includes a nonet of titles that tend to feature hardscrabble criminal types, including the film that started the whole V-Cinema craze, Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage.

Regular readers of my reviews of audio Blu-rays in particular may recall that I'm an almost obsessive fan of Brasilian* music, and as such I've long been aware of how some icons from that nation like the late Sergio Mendes actually had huge successes in Japan even after their Top 40 heyday in the United States had passed. There's a Sino-Brasilian connection in Carlos, though it's of the criminal rather than the musical variety, courtesy of focal character Carlos (Naoto Takenaka), an expat thug from Brasil living in Japan. There's a literally a whole gang of mixed Brasilian and Japanese heritages running amok through this tale which highlights an absolutely feral performance by Takenaka. Carlos was the brainchild of Kazuhiro Kiuchi, a name quite likely familiar to anime lovers courtesy of his Be-Bop Highschool. This property also began life as a manga, and there's a certain "graphic novel" approach to some of the framings. Aside from any presentational flourishes, though, the underlying plot conceit of a guy ironically assigned to investigate a murder he may have a connection to can't help but recall at least tangentially related outings like The Big Clock.

*Note: I try to show my respect for Brasil by spelling it the way its natives do.

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Carlos is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Arrow lumps all of the films together in their page devoted to the presentations in this set's insert booklet, as follows:

The films in this collection represent a period of film production in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s where films were made by the Toei Company specifically for home video. Beginning with Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage, these "V-Cinema" titles were produced quickly and inexpensively, but afforded filmmakers significant freedom when it came to censorship, resulting in riskier content than what had been produced for cinema distribution.

As such, the modest origins of these titles can be seen in these presentations. All films have been remastered by the Toei Company in high definition and are presented in the 1.33:1 home video format of the time.

While this presentation can show some of the same fuzziness and lack of really discrete fine detail in midrange framings as several other offerings in this set, I found the palette of this transfer to be in generally great shape despite another production that seems to favor low light vignettes. Some of those shadowy moments are rather evocatively lit in various tones, including some nicely suffused reds, almost all of which pop quite nicely. Again as with many of the other transfers in this set, grain can be quite thick and actually close to noisy looking in some of the lowest light moments. The same minimal but noticeable kinds of age related wear and tear observable in most of the other offerings in this collection are on hand here as well.

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Carlos features LPCM 2.0 audio in the original Japanese. I was frankly hoping some smart music producer would have filled the soundtrack here with some 1970s Tropicalia pieces from Brasil, but, alas, that's not the case, and in fact this is a pretty talky enterprise overall, despite some regular interruptions by gunfire. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• From Manga to Movies (HD; 20:17) is an interview with writer and director Kazuhiro Kiuchi. Subtitled in English.


• An Extra Round in the Chamber (HD; 17:40) is an appreciation of the film by Jonathan Clements.


• Introduction by Masaki Tanioka (HD; 4:00) is accessible under the Play Film menu and is authored to lead directly to the feature. Subtitled in English.

Arrow has packaged Stranger and Carlos together on one disc, and the keepcase features a reversible sleeve highlighting each title, as well as enclosing an art card for each film.

Carlos Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Takenaka makes Carlos a largely riveting and viscerally disturbing viewing experience. Technical merits are generally solid, at least within the context of a low budgeted straight to video affair, and the supplements appealing. Recommended.