6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Nami has been creating artwork for a new video game based on images she's been seeing in her dreams. With one of the game producers, she travels out to an abandoned house that seems to match her visions. As they explore the old mansion, Nami begins to have more visions of a forgotten childhood, until at last she comes across a photo of twin infants, labelled "Nami" and "Naomi". As Nami and the producer go from room to room, an unseen person seems to be watching them from a hidden room.
Starring: Megumi Okina, Yôichirô Saitô, Kôji Ohkura, Reiko Matsuo (I), Minoru TeradaForeign | 100% |
Horror | 77% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.75:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Japanese: LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the
J-Horror Rising set from Arrow Video.
When a set like J-Horror Rising offers someone like the venerable Tom Mes freely detailing how at least some elements that combined to
create what is commonly
called J-Horror (at least vis a vis J-Horror as it's about to be defined, below) might be likened to American B movies or even direct to
video or made for television efforts, there may be a bit of a subliminal
warning
to be gleaned,
all of which is to say, perhaps expectations need to be reasonably set when approaching some and potentially all of the films in this set. Mes
unabashedly lists Ringu (the original Japanese Ring film, for the uninitiated)
as
a defining J-Horror
landmark, at least within the context of the films offered here, in that none of these films probably could be imagined and almost certainly wouldn't
have been made without the influence of the celebrated Hideo Nakata outing. It's also salient to note that several of the films in this collection
were
first exhibited as the "down ticket" item on "double features", sometimes not so coincidentally under main attractions like Ringu 2 and/or
Ringu 0. As Mes overtly mentions in his overview of J-Horror included in this set, the wake left by Ringu was wide, but it
wasn't particularly deep, at least as evidenced by how quickly this particular "rage" ebbed, and so as such even the Rising part of the title
of
this collection might be slightly misleading, since as Mes describes, by the time these offerings came along, things may have already been fading.
Note: Those interested in this release may want to also check out Daiei Gothic: Japanese Ghost Stories, from Radiance, which is streeting the same day as this
collection.
St. John's Wort is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following minimal information on the transfer:
The films in this collection were remastered in high definition and supplied by Kadokawa.Something as intentionally stylized as this film tends to evade our normal metrics of analysis, but that said, this offers an unavoidably heterogeneous appearance a lot of the time, simply due to different technologies (or supposed technologies, like closed circuit video feeds) and especially some of the filtering and grading going on. Even supposedly "normal" scenes tend to have a somewhat sickly yellow-green cast to them, something that's especially noticeable in flesh tones. Less "normal" moments have almost fluorescently blooming colors on display, with chartreuses and oranges clashing with each other, but often with an at least somewhat similar yellowish tint pervading the image. Detail levels are highly variable depending on bells and whistles employed.
St. John's Wort is presented in 1.85:1 [sic] with 5.1 and stereo sound. Additional remastering work was completed by R3Store Studios, London.
St. John's Wort features either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 options in the original Japanese. Despite the film's apparently miniscule budget, there's been some attention paid to sound design, and as such the surround track can definitely show more directionality as well as some well placed sound effects. A couple of startle effects are more pronounced in the surround version, at least due in part to discrete channelization. Scoring is also effective and provides a wash of underlying sound in the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
- Archive Interview with Megumi Okina (HD; 17:39)
- Archive Interview with Koichiro Saito (HD; 19:50)
- Archive Interview with Reiko Matsuo (HD; 4:24)
- Archive Interview with Koji Okura (HD; 4:56)
- Inugami and St. John's Wort TV Spot (HD; 00:22)
- St. John's Wort TV Spot 1 (HD; 00:11)
- St. John's Wort TV Spot 2 (HD; 00:28)
- St. John's Wort Trailer (HD; 00:37)
St. John's Wort never quite "got there" for me, but I was still often fascinated by its almost drug fueled visuals. While those very visuals make the video side of things a bit hard to properly analyze in a "traditional" way, technical merits are generally solid and the supplements enjoyable, for anyone who might be considering making a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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2007
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1983
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1967
El vampiro de la autopista / Standard Edition
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1973
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1922
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1999
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1969
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1999