6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The Jangsan Tiger, who mimics human voices to lure them close, encounters a family affected by the creature.
Starring: Jin Heo, Jun Hyeok Lee, Park Hyuk-kwon, Shin Rin-Ah, Yum Jung-ahForeign | 100% |
Horror | 32% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Korean: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Korean: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Quick: name a film by Guillermo del Toro that only has one word in its title. Even those of you who were able to quickly get past multi word titles like The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim to arrive at a title with a single word may have landed on either Hellboy or Cronos as the answer that most quickly came to mind. But there’s another del Toro film lurking there back in the dim vestiges of memory, one that has kind of become his personal “and the rest” (to quote a certain old television theme song), namely 1997’s Mimic. Mimic was so relegated to the dim vestiges of memory that it took quite some time for it to premiere on Blu-ray, after del Toro had scaled the heights of international fame with several of the other entries listed above. That “better late than never” notoriety surrounding Mimic briefly led me to wonder if The Mimic were some kind of remake, ironically reversing the course that horror reboots have frequently in the past, namely beginning overseas in an Asian country and then making it to the shores of the United States in sometimes grotesquely altered forms. But The Mimic is in fact its own creature (in more ways than one), the brainchild of Huh Jung, the South Korean filmmaker who attracted the notice of horror fans a few years ago with Hide and Seek.
The Mimic is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The closing credits list that the film was digitally captured with Red Cameras (to which I say, "thank you, closing credits", because once again the IMDb has nada, zilch, zip, bupkis on this release). While at least some of The Mimic is either shrouded in outright darkness, or at least dimly lit and often in kind of dreamlike misty environments, detail levels remain nicely high throughout most of this presentation. That said, there's a probably above average amount of brightly lit material here (for a horror film), and the outdoor moments especially pop rather nicely with regard to detail levels, though the entire palette is kind of tamped down throughout the film (Hee-yeon is often seen in beige, for example). There are a couple of brief moments of crush in some very dark scenes, and some flirtations with Well Go USA's seemingly unavoidable bugaboo, banding, but overall this is a sharp and well defined looking transfer.
Even if you're as generally confused as I kind of was throughout The Mimic, you may have the same visceral reaction to the film's really well done DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in Korean, with optional English subtitles). From virtually the first moment, there are wispy voices and flutters of wind drifting through the surrounds, and when the first "siren call" of the title spirit emanates from the cave, it has a creepy "distant" quality that is quite evocative (I kind of wish this had an Atmos track for some of the verticality it might have added). Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the film, but it's the sound effects that will stick with you.
- Director's Commentary (1080p; 1:47). No, this isn't the shortest Director's Commentary on record, it's a very brief EPK bearing a somewhat odd title. Huh does offer some interesting (if, again, brief) comments on the sound design.
- The Actors (1080i; 2:47) is an only slightly longer EPK devoted to the performers.
The Mimic has some great moments, but unfortunately for the less patient, most of those accrue toward the end of the film. There are some interesting ideas here, and the central premise of a kind of "evil Rich Little" (you know what I mean) is quite striking, but Huh wastes a lot of energy going down some family dysfunction detours, and he never adequately resolves what function exactly he wants the lost girl to fill. Still, this film's sound design is one of the more memorable I've listened to lately, so for those who like technical aspects like that, this might be an enjoyable enough time killer.
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