6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Fiction begins to bleed into reality for actors as they rehearse a stage production of a classic Japanese ghost story.
Starring: Kô Shibasaki, Maiko, Ebizô Ichikawa, Hideaki Itô, Toshie NegishiHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 75% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Takashi Miike is such a prolific filmmaker that attempting to rein in his oeuvre to an easily describable pattern can be an exercise in futility. Miike is frequently thought of as a modern purveyor of a kind of hyperbolic horror sensibility, as evidenced by Ichi the Killer and Audition, but simply taking into account the last two films of Miike’s that I personally reviewed, Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai , proves that this is not always a workable thesis. Miike obviously has far ranging interests, and his remake of the iconic Harakiri shows that he is obviously well aware of tradition and (perhaps just as important) actual history, both in terms of film and Japanese culture generally. Both of those interests would seem to be able to serve Miike well in Over Your Dead Body, a film which offers a kind of “meta” take on a well known Japanese ghost story, but the result is oddly listless a lot of the time, due at least in part to the fact that the very “meta” aspect tends to divorce the horror from the actual presentation.
Over Your Dead Body is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. This appears to have been digitally shot, though technical data is rather sparse to come by. The image is generally decently sharp and well detailed, but a lot of the film takes place in the shaded environs of the theater, and here shadow detail is often minimal and a general murk often casts a rather hazy appearance over these sequences. There are also recurrent issues with rather noticeable noise and/or compression artifacts throughout many of the darker scenes, with almost pixellated yellow splotches regularly showing up. In brightly lit environments, things pop considerably better, and fine detail is often excellent in close-ups.
Over Your Dead Body features the original Japanese language track in both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, as well as an English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. My hunch is most audiophiles will want to stick with the original language option in its surround iteration, though this is not really a sonic showcase in any meaningful sense. There's excellent attention paid to variant ambiences as the film segues from the theater to other locations, but aside from a couple of startle effects and individually placed sound effects, immersion is relatively subtle most of the time. Dialogue is always offered cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized.
Over Your Dead Body is another at least intermittently interesting piece from Miike, but unfortunately it never really hangs together very well. The Kabuki source material is absolutely fascinating, and had it been woven more organically into this kind of soap operatic story of petulant actors, things might have attained a greater degree of connection. What may distress a lot of Miike fans is how restrained a lot of this film is. Over Your Dead Body can almost be seen as a follow-up or at least a sibling of sorts to Audition, though in this case the Performance (so to speak) isn't always compelling. Technical merits are generally good (video) to excellent (audio) for those considering a purchase.
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