7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A renegade film crew becomes embroiled with a yakuza clan feud.
Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Jun Kunimura, Fumi Nikaidô, Hiroki Hasegawa, Shin'ichi TsutsumiForeign | 100% |
Drama | 16% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Drafthouse Films has become the patron saint of midnight movies and cult classics, and its latest release, Japanese writer/director Sion Sono's Why Don't You Play in Hell?, is a perfect addition to a collection that already contains The FP, Miami Connection, The Visitor and Ms. 45. Sono's blood-soaked tale of an amateur film crew shooting the most realistic yakuza epic ever made has frequently been described as "Tarantino-esque", but even America's most famous former video store clerk has never attempted anything so brazenly self-referential, where the film is about making a film that, in the end, may be impossible to complete because it's an open question whether anyone survives to finish it. Decide for yourself after watching. Sono wrote the script for Play in Hell at least fifteen years before making the film, and he loosely based the amateur filmmakers on the group of friends with whom he worked as a young man before his mainstream success with such works as Suicide Club (2001). According to Sono, the film's title refers to the low levels of the filmmaking pyramid, where budgets are small, critical acclaim is unlikely and awards are scant—but you get to keep your freedom. It's no doubt intentional that he flashes the title across the screen during a confrontation between the wannabe auteurs and a frustrated truck driver whose path they are blocking and who treats them as errant children interfering with adult business. "Kids should listen to their fathers!" he yells at them. "You aren't my father!" replies the ringleader, lobbing an egg at the windshield—and the film's title is superimposed over the yellow smear. Play in Hell is Sono's celebration of his apprenticeship in the "hell" of exploitation films, where independence serves as compensation for the lack of everything else.
Why Don't You Play in Hell? was shot by Hideo Yamamoto, whose work includes Ichi the Killer and other works for Takashi Miike, as well as the American remake of The Grudge. The film was shot on the Red Epic and finished on a digital intermediate, from which the digital master for Drafthouse's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably derived. Substantial CGI was used in post-production to extend and amplify the practical effects involving grievous injury, severed limbs, multiple decapitations and other effects that are best left for the viewer to discover. The footage from the earlier time period has been processed to add additional texture that might almost be mistaken for film grain, except for its distinctly digital appearance. For present-day scenes, which comprise the bulk of Play in Hell, the image retains the smooth surface typical of digitally acquired footage. Even with the artificial "aging" in the sequences set ten years ago, the Blu-ray image remains sharp, clear and detailed, which is important for a film containing numerous long shots with multiple characters, all engaged in different activities. The only time that detail suffers is when the frame shrinks to a 1.33:1 square in the center to simulate either the view through an 8mm viewfinder or the image on a TV. Colors are generally rich and intense, especially primaries such as the red of blood, the yellow of Sasaki's track suit, various blues throughout the frame. Black, and its various shades, are solid and well-rendered. Given the many kinetic scenes, violent and otherwise, in Play in Hell, including Sono's preferred scene transition of a rapid page turn, one can only be grateful that Drafthouse has mastered the disc with an average bitrate of 31.99 Mbps. Not only are there no artifacts, but the image quality remains consistently high throughout.
Play in Hell's original Japanese 5.1 soundtrack is encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, with optional English subtitles. It's a lively mix to accompany the busy plot, and the sound effects often have that slightly unnatural quality that fans of martial arts films will immediately recognize, especially where sounds of violence are concerned (knife thrusts, sword clatters, even gunfire). The surrounds are used subtly but effectively to create an expansive sound field, and the cheerful score (composed by Sono himself) fills the room. The voices are clear and audible, but I have to defer to others on whether the dialogue is clear.
Why Don't You Play in Hell? isn't for everyone. It's aimed at martial arts genre junkies who are willing to laugh at themselves and their enthusiasm. Certainly no one is more the butt of Sono's humor than himself, as he paints a mocking self-portrait through the character of Hirata, the director who is more ruthless than any yakuza boss in sight, mercilessly setting one clan against the other for the sake of the best possible shots, then gleefully scooping up the blood-soaked film mags for the lab to develop. Hirata is the most savage maniac of the lot. Then again, maybe that's what it takes to survive in film "hell". I would have liked to see more extras about the making of the film, but the presentation is superb and the film is highly recommended for those who know what they're getting into.
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