Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Kotoko Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 5, 2012

Winner of Venice Horizons Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto's "Kotoko" (2011) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailer for the film and a video interview with director Shinya Tsukamoto. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles for he main feature. Region-B "locked".

Alone

The main protagonist in Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s latest film, Kotoko, is a young mother with a serious medical condition who suffers from an unknown illness that sporadically splits her vision. As a result, she cannot tell whether what she sees is real.

Kotoko (played by Japanese pop star Cocco) does her best to lead a normal life and take care of her son, but the occasional blackouts – during which she finds herself right in the middle of vivid nightmares - slowly begin to erode her mental stability. As the transition from the blackouts back to reality is never easy to recognize, Kotoko begins cutting her hands with razors - because for her this is the only reliable way to confirm that she is still alive and in control of her body.

Eventually, the authorities take Kotoko’s son and give it to her sister. Kotoko rarely sees him because her sister and her family live far away in the countryside. Now alone in her tiny apartment, Kotoko loses the desire to stay alert and the blackouts almost completely change her personality.

Around the same time, a middle-aged man (Shinya Tsukamoto) appears and confesses to Kotoko that he has been stalking her. Takanaka also makes it clear that he is madly in love with Kotoko and willing to help her overcome her illness. At first, Kotoko is unsure whether Takanaka is a real person or yet another maniac that her mind has created. She consistently hurts him and attempts to erase him from her mind, but then warms up to him and allows him to stay close to her. Takanaka does his best to restore balance in Kotoko’s life, but her condition worsens and their relationship takes a very unusual turn.

Shinya Tsukamoto’s Kotoko is easily one of the most disturbing Asian films to reach my desk in a very long time. There have been far more graphic films that have been released in the West (take a look at Shion Sono’s Cold Fish), but this one hits the senses with authority that simply has not been matched to date.

Shot digitally, Kotoko feels like a documentary project which gradually evolves into a brutally realistic horror film. It is broken into multiple episodes which create the impression that everything was shot over a long period of time. As Kotoko’s condition deteriorates, the blackouts become bigger and more intense, and the thin line separating reality and fantasy is almost completely blurred.

The film’s greatest strength is its ability to sustain a high level of intensity from start to finish. There is plenty of graphic footage in it, but what truly disturbs is the mental chaos. If a camera could enter the sick mind of a person, then the visuals that it will capture as well as the manner in which they move and evolve will likely be very similar to what Shinya Tsukamoto has assembled in Kotoko - or at least this is how it feels. Indeed, there is a very strange sense of authenticity here that makes the viewing experience an incredibly tense one.

Kotoko was apparently partially inspired by Cocco’s own struggles with a condition similar to the one her character attempts to overcome. In a video interview offered on this Blu-ray disc, Shinya Tsukamoto explains that the entire film was an attempt to visualize Cocco’s world, a disturbing place ruled by strange forces that nearly ended her life. (In the film, Cocco’s own son plays Kotoko’s teenage son, while her sister and other family members appear as Kotoko’s provincial family).

Note: In 2011, Kotoko won Venice Horizons Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. Kotoko is the only Japanese film to win the award in the Orrizonti section.

Kotoko Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Shinya Tsukamoto's Kotoko arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films.

Shot digitally, Kotoko looks very strong on Blu-ray. Detail and clarity are often exceptional. If there is plenty of daylight, depth is also very impressive. Colors are stable. Only the blacks occasionally appear a bit soft, but this is an inherited source limitation, not a byproduct of a serious transfer flaw. There are no serious banding or aliasing patterns. There are no serious stability issues either. Lastly, I did not detect any edge-flicker to report in this review. All in all, this a very strong presentation that is guaranteed to please fans of Shinya Tsukamoto's work. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Kotoko Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Third Window Films have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The lossless track is outstanding. There are certain sequences in the film that are enormously intense and will likely test the muscles of your audio system (see the sequence where Kotoko is holding her son and trying to cook). During the blackouts, in particular, there are sudden spikes in dynamic movement that are very effective. Elsewhere, the falling rain and Kotoko's singing are also quite impressive. The dialog is crisp, stable, and clean. Also, there are no audio dropouts or problematic distortions to report in this review. The English translation is very good.

Kotoko Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Kotoko. In Japanese, with imposed English subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Interview - in this video interview, director Shinya Tsukamoto explains what inspired him to shoot Kotoko, and discusses his relationship with Cocco before and during the shooting of the film, the message of the film, the reactions the film generated around the world, etc. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (22 min, 1080p).

• Trailer - original trailer for Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo. In Japanese, with imposed English subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

Kotoko Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Shinya Tsukamoto's Kotoko is essentially the flip side of his Tetsuo films - the violence and madness here are as real as they could be in a film. Obviously, Kotoko isn't easy to endure, but no one ever said that a great film should be. Kudos to Third Window Films for bringing it to Blu-ray and giving Western viewers a chance to see it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.