6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In Tokyo's crime ridden Shinjuku district, emotionally and financially bankrupt Detective Jojima plays referee in a gangland turf war pitting the Japanese Yakuza Mafia against a bloodthirsty band of Chinese immigrant gangsters. But Jojima's obligation to his terminally ill daughter and ruthless Chinese mobster Ryuichi's sentimental devotion to his ersatz family of misfit assassins threatens to add their own corpses to the landslide of fresh bodies littering Tokyo.
Starring: Shô Aikawa (II), Renji Ishibashi, Riki Takeuchi, Shingo Tsurumi, Ren ÔsugiForeign | 100% |
Crime | 13% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Japanese: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This film is available as part of the Dead or
Alive Trilogy.
For those unfamiliar with Takashi Miike, perhaps taking a cue from St. Thomas Aquinas’ famous quote about belief could be of some aid. Aquinas
wrote,
“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Taking that formulation as a foundation, one
might amend it slightly to say “For those who have seen a Miike film, no explanation is necessary. For those who haven’t, no explanation is
possible.”
As I mentioned in the relatively recent reviews of
Takashi Miike’s Black Society Trilogy, this provocateur’s filmography is extremely varied, as well as extremely numerous. Somewhat
similarly to the Black Society Trilogy, a trifecta in name only (more or less), Miike’s Dead or Alive Trilogy offers only some relatively
tangential linking elements (including its stars, again like Black Society Trilogy) while serving up Miike’s typically hyperbolic take on various
underworld activities. In a way Miike tends to remind me at times of Quentin Tarantino, for he’s an artist with an obvious understanding of structure
and film technique who nonetheless is more apt than not to throw caution to the wind and dispense with traditional methods of exposition and
especially presentation in an effort to kind of virtually shake the audience into either submission or, perhaps, outright revulsion. Those with
squeamish
sensibilities are therefore probably best advised to approach Miike’s work with extreme caution, though those with a certain amount of fortitude will
discover a filmmaker of such unusual talents that one way or the other his productions are unforgettable.
Dead or Alive is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. I get just a little suspicious when the usually incredibly informative Arrow insert booklets don't offer very much in the way of detail about the provenance of an individual transfer, as is the case with all three of the films in this set. Arrow simply states that "Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive 2: Birds and Dead or Alive: Final are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (note: which turns out to be incorrect) with 2.0 stereo sound." Dead or Alive has a somewhat variable image quality from a number of standpoints, including overall clarity, detail levels, palette and grain structure, as well as occasional compression hurdles (elements it shares with the second film in this set). Some of the palette looks nicely suffused, offering deep reds when blood sprays across the frame (and often on the camera lens). But at other times there's a rather odd blue tone to things that skews flesh tones weirdly and gives everything a perhaps appropriately drugged out appearance. The palette also has moments of looking faded or at least on the drab side, especially in some of the location work outside. There are occasional signs of what looks like artificial sharpening, something that may also account for a somewhat spiky looking grain field at times. Some of the darkest scenes exhibit crush, with elements like black suits basically becoming one with shadowy backgrounds. All of this said, everything is perfectly watchable if not optimal.
Dead or Alive's LPCM 2.0 track has sufficient force and bombast to entertain easily, and Miike's typically overheated sound design helps make the film a whirlwind of sonic activity, at least at times. Dialogue, effects and score are all mixed at appropriate levels and the track suffers from no damage or really from any age related issues.
Just keep that Thomas Aquinas aphorism in mind as you begin watching Dead or Alive, for in some ways this is one inexplicable film. It's my personal favorite of the three in this set (which may be damning with faint praise, given some of the oddities on display in the sequels), but I'm not sure newcomers to this director will know quite what to make of this very peculiar and provocative enterprise. Technical merits have some issues on the video side of things, but for Miike fans at least, Dead or Alive comes Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
2000
2002
1995
1999
1997
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1997
1970
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1933
1968
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