Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Limbo 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

One man's trash.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III December 29, 2024

Soi Cheang's Limbo is a visceral black-and-white action thriller whose only real flaw is its familiarity, falling somewhere between David Fincher's Se7en and Robert Rodriguez's Sin City. Limbo isn't as good as either of these earlier films due to its clichéd characters and occasionally gimmicky presentation, but nonetheless impresses as a visually memorable experience that sneaks in a few surprises along the way. Dropping us head-first into its cluttered, murky urban world during a violent crime spree, it lulls viewers into complacency while simultaneously keeping us on our toes.

Limbo's story is deceptively simple, introducing us to a reluctant new team of police officers in Will Yam (Mason Lee) and Cham Lau (Gordon Lam); one's a by-the-book rookie and the latter is an aggressive veteran who isn't afraid to break procedure to get results. They'll need both to solve a series of violent attacks and kidnappings, interlinked in the sense that young women are disappearing and either turn up dead or missing a hand (or both). Not surprisingly, their vastly different approaches to the job lead to lots of conflicts between the two. One major catalyst is the second-act introduction of a streetwise female informant named Wong To (Cya Liu), who is able to provide valuable information about potential suspects but whose past actions -- one in particular -- actually led to a traumatic experience in Cham Lau's personal life that ultimately required a long and almost career-ending leave of absence.

Limbo establishes and maintains typically high levels of tension in a number of ways, with the first and most obvious being a palpable sense of dread created by the killer's mostly uninterrupted crime spree. The second is, of course, the fractured three-person team that was already on edge due to Will Yam and Cham Lau's wildly opposing personalities. The third and perhaps most oppressive element is Limbo's disorienting cinematography, which is black-and-white by design (more on that later) and mostly inhabits a dilapidated urban setting where mountains of trash are piled high and heavy rain pours from above at the worst possible times. Simply put, this won't be an easy case for anyone involved, and even the film's semi-circular narrative may not provide the closure that first-time viewers might expect.

I'll admit that I wasn't familiar with the work of director Soi Cheang going in, and a quick glance at his filmography doesn't reveal that we've covered most of the films he's directed or produced since 1999; one obvious exception is 2012's Motorway, which earned high marks. Normally I'd be able to use these past films as some sort of litmus test or guide to where Limbo tries to take us; on the surface it's visually striking and certainly has a few interesting twists and turns, but otherwise feels too derivative of better-known films to leave a stronger impression. It's most immediately impressive element is the cinematography, a silvery showcase of miserable urban decay that will likely have first-time viewers frantically searching each busy frame for clues or signposts. However, its relatively simple story soon becomes needlessly convoluted by red herrings and narrative tricks, and some of the acting isn't all that great either. (Cya Liu is a clear exception as the perpetually abused Wong To, and she rightfully won multiple acting awards for the supporting performance in her native Hong Kong.) Perhaps it'll play better on repeat viewings, but my introduction to Limbo felt like it was perhaps trying too hard to decorate its basic story with too much window dressing.

Nonetheless, I can't help but feel that newcomers will be strangely drawn towards Capelight's handsome 4K/Blu-ray Digibook combo pack, which of course features the visually arresting main feature on both formats in one handy package. It's been priced to move for at least a month now and, even with the disappointing lack of bonus features, makes for a pretty decent movie-only disc that supports Limbo with a solid A/V presentation.

Limbo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: This review's screenshots are sourced from the included Blu-ray.

Limbo's 2160p/HDR10 transfer is listed as a 2K upscale which, combined with its black-and-white cinematography, don't necessarily make it the most obvious candidate for UHD's most sellable strengths. But its visual benefits are many on the superior format, as Limbo's extremely busy compositions are loaded with texture and fine detail that punch a bit harder thanks to 4K's better encoding and of course the courtesy bump to a higher resolution. As a whole, though, the image still has a somewhat unusually waxy appearance and lacks any added grain, which of course isn't a complaint but also doesn't lead to a monumental amount of perceived detail gains. Black/gamma levels are unfortunately all over the place; I'm sure this was part of the source material, but most scenes struggle to dig deeper than medium gray and some of the occasionally deep blacks actually flatten out surrounding shadow detail. Nonetheless, Limbo seems to be encoded well and the UHD disc runs at a supportively high bit rate that doesn't suffer from any noticeable compression issues beyond the black crush mentioned above... which again, may be part of the source material.

By contrast, the included Blu-ray holds steady even at a lower bit rate, occasionally running into slight trouble during the busiest visual sequences like wide shots of the urban landscape or sporadic heavy rainstorms including one during the film's climax. Nonetheless, it handles most of the material well enough and can be seen as a comparatively strong presentation within the format's limitations, so those limited to 1080p can still buy this and enjoy it.

Limbo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The default Cantonese DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track offers an extremely forceful sonic atmosphere at key moments including busy group conversations, sporadic action sequences, environmental happenings, and stray musical cues by composer Kenji Kawai. who has a deep roster of credits for movie and anime music dating back to the 1980s including Ranma 1/2 and Ghost in the Shell. It's a fantastic track (and also has optional English and German dubs in lossless 5.1), but I'm still deducting a half-point because I clearly saw a Dolby Atmos logo during the end credits.

Limbo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc release ships in Mediabook packaging, which is roughly the same size as a DVD case and is thus wider, taller, and thicker than a normal Blu-ray. It features attractive and striking design elements with a busy illustrative depiction of the pivotal junkyard seen in the film and two of its key characters on the back surrounded by ornamental statues. Both discs sit on separate hubs inside the front and back cover with a glued-in booklet between them that features photo stills and an interview with director Soi Cheang. On-disc extras are unfortunately minimal.

• Teaser Trailer (1:33)

• Original Movie Trailer (2:27)

Limbo 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Soi Cheang's Limbo made a light but noticeable wave among import enthusiasts upon its 2021 theatrical release, which has undoubtedly grown quite a bit since the film's more recent domestic debut on 4K/Blu-ray from Capelight Media via this handsome Digibook combo pack. The film didn't completely win me over during my first viewing but it certainly has its merits including striking cinematography, a great supporting performance from Cya Liu, and a solid original score by anime and film veteran Kenji Kawai. It's supported soildly enough from an A/V perspective but lacks any real bonus features, though I'd still lightly recommend Limbo as a potential blind buy to curious newcomers.