Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet 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.

Rather interestingly, at least given how "down and dirty" and unabashedly visceral as Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage was, this particular V- Cinema outing blends that same action ethos with a much more liberal dose of (sometimes rather black) comedy, to rather surprisingly effective results. Junko (Show Aikawa, cited as a someone "made" a star by V-Cinema in some supplements included in the set) has dreams of being a truly tough yakuza, though he's basically the court jester of his clan, especially to his uncle Junichi (Joe Shishido, who evidently played this part happily despite arguably being "too big a star" for V-Cinema). Of course events transpire which suddenly thrust Junko into a perceived leadership role, with some almost screwball consequences unfolding. As is discussed in some of the supplements on this disc, there's a socioeconomic subtext to this tale which is rather pointed, if never absolutely central to the actual plot mechanics.

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet 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.

This is a rather nice looking presentation despite its obvious low budget and lack of production design finesse. Detail levels on costumes tends to be quite good in the better lit moments. As with several of the other films in this set, some of the lower light sequences can suffer from a noticeable lack of shadow detail. The palette is nicely suffused throughout for the most part, and primaries in particular pop extremely well at times. Minor age related wear and tear can be spotted. My score is 3.75.

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet features LPCM 2.0 audio in the original Japanese. The action elements are probably the "showiest" bits of the sound design, and effects are offered with good midrange if maybe a just slightly less powerful low end. Several outdoor sequences offer good ambient environmental sounds dotting the background. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Zooming Out (HD; 15:14) is an interview with Banmei Takahashi, writer and director of Neo Chinpara: Zoom Goes the Bullet. Subtitled in English.


• Trailer (HD; 2:07)


• Introduction by Masaki Tanioka (HD; 4:25) is accessible under the Play Film menu and is authored to lead directly to the feature. Subtitled in English.

Arrow has packaged Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage and Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet together on one disc, and the keepcase features a reversible sleeve highlighting each title, as well as enclosing an art card for each film.

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The fact that Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet is at least intermittently winking rather broadly at the audience makes this a perhaps unusual entry in the typically testosterone drenched V-Cinema idiom, but that may be exactly why I actually enjoyed it more than some of the other relatively humorless entries in this set. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements appealing. Recommended.