Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Revenge Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 27, 2013

Screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Yermek Shinarbayev's "Mest" a.k.a. Revenge" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The only supplemental feature on this disc is a short video introduction by director Martin Scorsese. In Russian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked."

"Where is the murderer?"

Note: Revenge is part of Eureka Entertainment's World Cinema Foundation: Volume One Blu-ray box set.

In the film’s fascinating prologue, a powerful king orders the head of his guards to transform his son into a fearless warrior. Many years later, the young man, who has inherited his father’s kingdom, is defeated by a peasant in a duel. Feeling humiliated, the king immediately orders his guards to beat the man to death. However, the king’s best friend, a brilliant poet, asks that he spares the man’s life. When the king refuses, the poet begs for permission to leave the kingdom.

The year is now 1915, the location a small Korean village. A local schoolteacher named Jan loses his temper and kills the daughter of a family he once lived with. When Jan flees to China, the dead girl’s father, Caj, vows to find him and cut his throat with his karambit. After years on the road, he finally tracks him down in a silver mine deep in the heart of China, but before he can kill him a beautiful young woman appears and saves Jan’s life. Soon after he returns home, Caj remarries and has a son, Sungu. In his final hours, he tells Sungu that he was brought to this world for only one reason: revenge.

The rest of the film follows closely Sungu as he matures and plans for the day when he would finally meet Jan. But like his father before him, life frequently presents him with difficult dilemmas that force him to reconsider his priorities.

A collaboration between Kazakh director Yermek Shinarbayev and Russian-Korean writer Anatoli Kim, Revenge a.k.a. The Red Flute is a deeply atmospheric film in which Soviet type melancholy meets documentary reality. The result is a fascinating hybrid of a film which despite its exotic flavor frequently reminds of Aleksandr Sokurov’s best work.

The film is divided into seven chapters (tales) -- Jan, Caj, Nemaja, The Monk, Elza the Romanian, The Revenge, and The House -- each focusing on different events that actually reveal a lot more about the rhythm of life and customs in the countries Caj and Sungu visit than the people they encounter throughout their journeys. Unsurprisingly, quite often seemingly important characters disappear without a trace.

But the fascinating point the film makes, which is that right and wrong are perhaps reflections of each other, becomes quite easy to embrace precisely because the audience isn’t manipulated to side with anyone. Instead, Shinarbayev and Kim present a series of interconnected events which essentially suggest that life is nothing more than a cycle of obsessions that constantly redefine us. It is a remarkable concept, really, considering the fact that the world we live in today is very much shaped by all sorts of different obsessions we have with status, material possessions and even weight.

Different parts of the film are lensed with special filters that give them a very appropriate soft and dreamy look. The prominent colors are also unusually soft and warm yellows, blues, greens, and browns. The footage from the final third, where Sungu is seen building his dream home on the Russian island of Sakhalin, is particularly beautiful.

Revenge has been restored using the original camera negative, the sound negative and a positive print provided by the Kazakhfilm Studio and held at the State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The restoration has been supported by the World Cinema Foundation launched by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

Revenge Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Yermek Shinarbayev's Revenge arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.

Recently restored and screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Revenge looks beautiful in high-definition. Because the film was shot with different filters, color temperature and contrast levels often fluctuate to enhance the unique period atmosphere and highlight the different flashbacks. (Some of the bleaker sequences from the second half, in particular, easily could have appeared in an Andrei Tarkovsky film). Detail and fluidity are very good. However, because shadow and light are frequently manipulated, some minor sharpness fluctuations are present throughout the film. The large panoramic shots look wonderful (see screencaptures #8 and 5). There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections. Compromising sharpening adjustments also have not been applied. Finally, overall image stability is excellent. Debris, cuts, damage marks, scratches, and stains have been removed as best as possible. Unsurprisingly, the film has a solid and very healthy organic look. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Revenge Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Russian LPCM 2.0. For the record, Eureka Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

Revenge has a very atmospheric soundtrack which mixes elements from traditional Russian and Kazakh music. Where the music is prominent, depth, clarity, and dynamic intensity are very good. Some random nature sounds and noises are also effectively used. The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow. Also, there are no pops, cracks, background hiss, audio dropouts or distortions to report in this review. The English translation is excellent.

Revenge Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction - director Martin Scorsese introduces Yermek Shinarbayev's Revenge. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

Revenge Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kudos to Eureka Entertainment for bringing Yermek Shinarbayev's Revenge to Blu-ray. It is every bit as impressive as Sergei Dvortsevoy's Tulpan and Ermek Tursunov's Kelin. There is a poetic fluidity in this film that also reminds of Andrei Tarkovsky and Aleksandr Sokurov's best work. The technical presentation is excellent. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.