7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A young fisherman from a provincial village arrives in Manila on a quest to track down his girlfriend, who was lured there with the promise of work and hasn't been heard from since. In the meantime, he takes a low-wage job at a construction site and witnesses life on the streets, where death strikes without warning, corruption and exploitation are commonplace, and protests hint at escalating civil unrest.
Starring: Joonee Gamboa, Spanky Manikan, Hilda Koronel, Bembol Roco, Lou Salvador Jr.Foreign | 100% |
Drama | 79% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Filipino (Tagalog): LPCM Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Lino Brocka's " Manila in the Claws of Light" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include new program with critic Tony Rayns; vintage documentary film by Mike De Leon; introduction by Martin Scorsese; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by Jose B. Capino and technical credits. In Tagalog, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The newcomer
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Lino Brocka's Manila in the Claws of Light arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"The work was restored in 2013 by the Film Development Council of the Philippines and the Cineteca di Bologna/L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, LVN, Cinema Artists Philippines, and cinematographer Mike De Leon. The restoration was funded by Doha Film Institute, Supervised by De Leon, this digital transfer was created in 4K from the 35mm original camera negative, deposited at the BFI National Archive by Pierre Rissient on behalf of Cinema Artists Philippines. Because of color decay in the negative, De Leon guided the grading phase and validated the color using a positive print as a reference. The monaural soundtrack was restored from the 35mm original sound negative, also deposited at the BFI National Archive by Rissient on behalf of Cinema Artists Philippines.
Transfer supervisor: Mike De Leon; Cineteca di Bologna and L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, Italy."
I find the new appearance of the film that was delivered via the 4K restoration unconvincing. Indeed, there is an entire range of color values that effectively destabilizes the film's native dynamic range and in many cases even collapses existing detail (see screencaptures #4 and 12). Plenty of the darker/indoor footage also conveys very specific digital flatness that gives the film a distracting artificial quality (see screencapture #15). Quite predictably, there is no proper depth that a scan of the OCN should have ensured. Grain exposure is also unconvincing, though I have to make it clear that without the anomalies that are described above the visuals would have been quite wonderful. Image stability is very good. Debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, and other standard age-related imperfections have been carefully removed. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Tagalog LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The lossless audio track is very good. Excluding one short segment where a light echo effect appears during the exchanges, clarity and stability are excellent. The music is nicely balanced as well. Dynamic intensity is limited, but given the organic nature of the original sound design this should not be surprising.
I am grateful that I was able to discover this wonderful film from Lino Brocka because it has a little bit of everything that I appreciate in foreign films, and if compared to Sean Ellis' recent powerful drama Metro Manila it is obvious that it remains a relevant eye-opener. The film has been fully restored in 4K, but I was unimpressed with the work that was done at L'Immagine Ritrovata. Similar to the recent 4K restorations of King Hu's Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen that emerged from the European lab, this film has been awkwardly color-graded and looks very unappealing and at times flat-out artificial in high-definition. This is unfortunate. I really wish that the folks at Criterion were in charge with some of these projects because they would have delivered vastly superior organic presentations. If our review has piqued your interest, please find a way to rent this release and then decide whether you wish to own it. RENT IT.
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