Re:Born Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		1.5

Re:Born Blu-ray Movie Review

A martial arts train-wreck

Re:Born is an action-packed martial arts film filled to the brim with stunts and “kick-ass” fighting. Produced by Shinichi Fujita and Midori Inoue, Re:Born aims squarely at entertaining the masses seeking mindless non-stop fight scenes with swooping swords, blades, and kung-fu wizardry from scene to scene. Featuring combat supervision by Yoshitaka Inagawa (Red Blade), Re:Born is style over substance from start to finish.

A skilled martial artist with a history as a covert operative working to take-down the baddies one-by-one, the lightning fast Toshiro Kuroda (Tak Sakaguchi) comes across a new threat that endangers himself and his loved ones. Determined to be a savior and defeat every big-bad that lies in his unquestionably powerful path, Toshiro puts a blade in hand and gets ready to kick some ass.

The filmmaking is outstandingly awful. Re:Born is essentially a cinematic garbage pit with lots of whirring sounds constantly making one wonder when the garbage disposal will be finished with annihilating the production so that viewers can get back to a sense of their lives. The film is just absolutely rubbish, through-and-through.

The entire production is focused on the stunt work and the action scenes. For a well choreographed experience, the idea of a non-stop action film might be acceptable to some (passing) degree. That certainly is not the case with Re:Born. The fights are poorly staged and lack imagination. Some sequences are even unintentionally humorous with how outlandish they are.

...and everyone was kung-fu fighting! But they weren't fast as lightning.

The film doesn't get passing marks on a visual level, either. The auto-pilot cinematography by Tetsuya Kudô (Bushido Man, Alien vs. Ninja) looks like it was put on one setting and never adjusted for the entire film. There is no sense of creativity and the entire film flails around as a lifeless zombie. In viewing the film, audiences might hope that at least the producers were wise enough to get a short, concise edit: nada. The editing by Shinichi Fujita (The Storyteller's Apprentice) and Yûji Shimomura (Death Trance) is a hot mess. Total garbage.

The one (saving grace?) is the adequate score composed by Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, Ip Man). The usually brilliant composer provides a somewhat lackluster effort by comparison – though fleeting moments of his skills for composition are still heard. An acceptable if unimaginative score, Kawai was likely less inspired by the mundane filmmaking.

Perhaps the worst element of the film is the storytelling (or lack thereof). The screenplay by Benjo Saeki and Japanese martial artist choreographer Tak Sakaguchi is so trite and ridiculous it feels as though no screenplay was actually utilized. Was there a ten page long draft used for the entire film? Audiences deserve better than that. The nonsense script is a total mess and tosses in jokes that are both gross and offensive (such as some inappropriate humor: aka “pedo” jokes). Disgusting.

Yûji Shimomura (Death Trance) directs the film as though he is attempting to make a poor man's epic. Hero or House of Flying Daggers, Re:Born is not. The stuntman turned director is normally known as someone who creates behind-the-scenes action... in a much different capacity. It turns out that director Shimomura should have stuck to what he knows best. Not directing, that's for sure! Re:Born is so bad it's like it doesn't even exist. It just is.

Re:Born Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Re:Born is presented with a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition presentation in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 widescreen. The feature film might be a total waste of cinematic celluloid but the presentation has some interesting merits. The release has exceptional color reproduction, detail, and overall clarity.

Re:Born Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Blu-ray release includes two lossless audio options: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Uncompressed PCM 2.0 stereo. Either of these viewing options will provide viewers with a dynamic lossless sound mix. The quality of the music reproduction is superb and the score by composer Kenji Kawai is capably rendered.

The audio is often quiet and simplistic during dramatic scenes and yet it manages to roar to life with surprising vitality during the non-stop action scenes. Though the sound effects are often over-the-top sounding and left me feeling unimpressed (with how loud, brash, and lacking in creativity the sound effects are) the audio track has the kind of detail audiences would expect from a high-resolution track.

Re:Born Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Filmmaker Introduction (HD, 00:38) features the cast introducing a premiere presentation of the film in front of an audience excited to experience the action-packed adventure that awaits them (...or does it?!)

Re:Born Eureka Trailer (HD, 1:39)

Re:Born Original Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:39)

Re:Born Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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A ridiculous and over-the-top action film which is solely designed for almost non-stop action (most notably during the second half of the film), Re:Born is a massively underwhelming experience that caters specifically to viewers wanting to turn off their brains for a few hours to digest martial arts. Given the poor filmmaking, that ambitious undertaking failed miserably. If only the fights were impressive enough to make the nauseating lack of a coherent screenplay forgivable.

The Blu-ray release is impressive with an excellent video presentation, lossless audio, and a small selection of extras. For fans only. Everyone else can take a nap.