Reviews & Columns |
Reviews DVD TV on DVD Blu-ray 4K UHD International DVDs In Theaters Reviews by Studio Video Games Features Collector Series DVDs Easter Egg Database Interviews DVD Talk Radio Feature Articles Columns Anime Talk DVD Savant Horror DVDs The M.O.D. Squad Art House HD Talk Silent DVD
|
DVD Talk Forum |
|
Resources |
DVD Price Search Customer Service #'s RCE Info Links |
Columns
|
|
Crying Freeman: Complete Collection
There is one assassin that everyone in the underworld fears. A prefect killing machine who never fails. No one knows what he looks like, and no one can stop him. But this is not your average psychopathic killer, this man cries after each and every hit. Who is the mysterious assassin known as Crying Freeman?
Crying Freeman: The Compleate Collection is a series of six OVA shows that were originally released as three separate DVDs. This set collects all three DVDs into one package.
The first episode starts out with Emu Hino. She is a painter, the daughter of a powerful politician who has passed away. While painting a landscape one day, she witnesses a gangland killing. She sees the killers face, and is drawn to him because he was crying. He stops and talks to her, and tells her his name, Yo.
A little while later, she is at the scene of a second murder, this time right in front of police headquarters. The masked assassin runs past her and she sees tears running down his face, and knows that it is Yo. She speaks his name aloud, and the police realize that she knows who he is. They question her, but she won't talk, so they release her. That night, Yo comes to Emu's house to kill her. He confronts her after she leaves the shower, but she has one request before he kills her: she doesn't want to die a virgin. The two have sex, and Yo falls in love with Emu and can't kill her.
Eventually Yo's story comes out. He used to be a pottery artist. Several years earlier he was giving a show of his art in New York, when he noticed that someone was smuggling film in his pots. After seeing what was on the film, he decided to turn the incriminating evidence over to the police, even after being offered $30,000 for the film by the smugglers. It turns out that a Chinese gang, the 108 Dragons was responsible for the film, and when Yo won't cooperate, they kidnap and torture him. Instead of killing him, they brainwash him into becoming a killer. Whenever he hears a certain command, he has to kill, only after the murder is complete will his real personality emerge, and that is when he cries. Since he hates being used by this gang, they give him a code name that represents the one thing he wants, but can never be: Freeman.
Still, he and Emu love each other, but with the police, and a rival gang after him, he can't have a relationship with any woman. But then the two hatch a plan that might get the gang and police off their trail for good.
There is very little continuity in the series, and the other five shows pretty much stand by themselves. Unfortunately, the first show had the most intricate plot, from here on out, the shows are very simple.
In "Shades of Death," there is a traitor among the 108 Dragons who is aiding a rival gang in getting control of the organization. They capture Emu to draw Yo out, and when he comes after her, they manage to subdue him. Or have they?
"Shade of Death Part 2" isn't a continuation of the previous show, so I wonder why they gave it that name. In any case, Yo is promoted to being head of the 108 Dragons, and he marries Emu. Freeman is oddly complacent about becoming leader of the group that ruined his life. An African gang, The Horn of Africa , is fighting the Dragon's and one of their men is able to sneak aboard the Dragon's ship and assassinate the entire council. The killer is aiming for Yo, but he just stands there while every aged member of the council jumps in front of him and gets shot. Only after they are all dead does Yo take out the assassin. You would think a trained killer like Yo would be able to react faster than an 80 year old man, but apparently not. After this outrage, Yo goes after The Horn of Africa with predictable results.
"A Taste of Revenge" has two of the 108 Dragons' enemies teaming up under the leadership of Naiji to replace Yo with a prefect double. Will even his wife be fooled?
"Abduction in Chinatown" has Yo in LA's Chinatown and is asked to look for a missing couple and their child. Apparently the Kidnappers Organization (creatively named, isn't it) has abducted them but their real target is Yo himself. It seems that their leader, Nina, can only have an orgasm if she is looking at a picture of Yo. She ends up masturbating a lot in this episode.
The last show, The Russian Connection, involves a possible traitor among the 108 Dragons (again) and fighting rival gangs from Russia.
I was unsure about this show after the first episode. The show was oddly compelling, and I thought it had some potential, but there was a lot of sex and violence too. I was hoping that it would focus on the psychological aspects of a man who is programmed to kill, but find his acts so horrible that he cries. How he would try to fight the 108 Dragons, and maybe explain why a potter, of all people, was chosen to be turned into an assassin. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The show ignored the aspects that I found interesting and turned into nothing more than gratuitous sex and violence.
There is a LOT of sex and gore in this show. It is rated 17+ for a reason. At times it almost seemed like a porno movie. I don't mind violence and sex when it has a purpose and fits into the plot. But in this show it did neither. There were scenes of women stripping before they fight. Why??? There are a lot of blood splattering scenes when people are shot or stabbed. Too much for my tastes. Then there are the many scenes of an obese woman jogging topless. I could have lived quite happily without ever having seen that.
Much of this show makes no sense at all. They don't even try to explain many of the plot points. Why was someone who supposedly hated the 108 Dragons promoted to be their leader? What drew Freeman and Emu together? Why did the 108 Dragons torture Yo and turn him into an assassin? After the first episode Yo doesn't even act like he dislikes his job as professional killer. I thought the whole point of the anime was that he hated killing.
The characters had no personality at all. They each had one trait, and that was it. The faithful Emu, the stoic Yo, they each had one note and that was all. They did not change over the course of an episode, or even through the whole series. There was nothing that made them interesting.
The stories are entirely forgettable. I found myself having to refer to my notes constantly while writing this review. The shows all melded into one another. All of the sex seemed the same, as did the killings.
The voice talent, both in English and Japanese does a pretty bad job. There wasn't much in the way of acting in either language. It felt as if the actors were just reading the lines that they were given. The animation is not much better. The whole thing has a flat feel to it, and the motion is crudely rendered. Overall not a great show.
The DVD:
Audio:
With this DVD you have the option of listening to it in either the original Japanese (with optional subtitles,) or an English dub. Both tracks have their weaknesses and strengths. The Japanese track is slightly muddled and muted. It is very hard to hear the subtle sounds in the background. The sound of crickets in the night, or the pounding of footsteps on the ground are very faint and almost totally lost. This is not the case with the English dub though. This track sounds clear. The faint noises are at an appropriate level. Easy to hear, but not too loud. The English voice actors do a pretty good job, but not superb. The bad thing about this track is that there is a hum in the background that gets very annoying, especially during the quiet parts. The hum is not present in the Japanese track, but then again, neither are a lot of the sounds. These defects were most noticeable on the first disc. It's too bad that these tracks didn't sound better.
Video:
This show is presented with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The picture is not too good, but it's not horrible. The lines are soft instead of being tight and clean. The colors look muted and flat, and there was some grain in the picture. One odd thing is that there are some hard subtitles in Japanese at various places in the show. Usually when someone is whispering. I they are not translated, so I assume it is just the dialog that is being delivered, but I'm not sure why they were ever put up.
The Extras:
The there were trailers for other anime shows on each DVD, but that was it.
Final Thoughts:
This show was filled with gratuitous sex and violence, at the expense of a coherent plot. The sex was definitely shoehorned in, virtually none of it occurring naturally. The animation was not great, and neither was the voice talent. Though I was intrigued by this show after the first episode, it quickly turn to disappointment and then boredom. Skip it.
|
Popular Reviews |
Sponsored Links |
|
Sponsored Links |
|
Release List | Reviews | Shop | Newsletter | Forum | DVD Giveaways | Blu-Ray | Advertise |
Copyright 2024 DVDTalk.com All Rights Reserved. Legal Info, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use,
Manage Preferences,
Your Privacy Choices
|