Todd Brown's DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Mpd Psycho II DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17872 Mon, 26 Sep 2005 00:00:46 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie
If Japanese cult-auteur Takashi Miike's Gozu was the first indication – at least to us here in the west – that he had a Lynchian bent to him then MPD Psycho is his Twin Peaks. Densely layered with images and subconscious urges MPD Psycho is a surreal, compelling meditation on the nature of evil. It is perplexing, confounding, a strong entry into the Miike canon and one of the better manga adaptations I have ever come across, successfully creating a distinctive visual world to capture tone and general strangeness that seldom survives the move from page to screen.

Opening with a scene of schoolgirls in uniform opening fire on a crowded chapel service before turning their weapons on themselves MPD Psycho Volume Two continues Miike's story of bar coded eyeballs, techno religious cults, flowers planted in brains, split personalities and a restless evil that can transmit itse...Read the entire review

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Green Chair DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17873 Mon, 26 Sep 2005 00:00:46 UTC Skip It

The Movie
The Green Chair is a film that desperately wants to be Real Art about Important Issues that Challenge Society. Unfortunately it is mostly just Very Bad, to the point of being Almost Unwatchable. Actually, that's a little too harsh. The film is actually very well shot, so if you turn off the volume and the subtitles it should be perfectly possible to enjoy it as a succession of images, but as soon as the actors open their mouths it's all over …

The story of a woman in her thirties jailed for statuatory rape after having an affair with a high school aged boy and their continuing relationship upon her release, The Green Chair attracted a lot of attention for its explicit sexuality. Though it avoids genital nudity this is a film that clearly set out intending to push Korea's censorship laws and it has certainly done that. A great deal of flesh is exposed. But is there a p...Read the entire review

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Guns & Talks Vol 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17870 Mon, 26 Sep 2005 00:00:46 UTC Rent It

The Movie
In recent days ADV Films has started padding their small selection of live action titles – the company focuses largely on anime – by scooping up several films from the early days of the current Korean film boom. And while they've picked up some notable titles – particularly No Blood No Tears, an early effort from the director of Arahan and Crying Fist – it's a little hard to see the rationale in giving Guns and Talks a domestic release. It isn't that this isn't a well made film but it fits in to an early block of obviously American-inspired action flicks that hit in Korea before the current wave of film makers became confident enough to find their own distinct voices. So while this is a technically competent film it adds very little to the genre and has not much in particular to set it apart from a host of similar and better known North American films. I just don't see h...Read the entire review

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The Wayward Cloud (2 Disc Special Edition) (Taiwan Version) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17869 Mon, 26 Sep 2005 00:00:46 UTC Recommended

The Movie
A Tsai Ming Liang film is a difficult thing to review at the best of times and The Wayward Cloud even more so than normal. Tsai's frequent use of long, static shots and the absolute bare minimum of dialogue is entrancing to some while other find his deliberate pace either maddening or just plain boring as sin. The exact elements that make Tsai so worthwhile for some are the ones that make him a tedious bore for others. But with the Wayward Cloud Tsai has made a film that divides even his admirers. While it has its admirers – it has taken home some major international film awards – many Tsai loyalists have derided it as sensationalist or just plain messy. What's got them so worked up? Sex, and lots of it.

Set in Taiwan during a massive heat wave and drought The Wayward Cloud tells the story of a budding relationship between a young couple who live in the same buildin...Read the entire review

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Don't Move (Non Ti Muovere) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16946 Mon, 01 Aug 2005 19:54:23 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie

Sergio Castellito's Don't move has achieved a certain degree of international notoriety thanks to a pair of graphic rape scenes involving Penelope Cruz, scenes that have not surprisingly given many cause to question the sexual morals of a film that uses rape as the starting point of a 'loving' relationship.

To focus on whether the film's treatment of its thorny subject encourages or justifies violence against women, though understandable and even laudable on a certain level, is to entirely miss what Castellito has done here, however. Don't Move is a beautifully lyrical piece of work that is not at all concerned with addressing the moral issues at all, having started from the assumption - delivered by Castellito's lead character - that "We're all cruel. Some more, some less." That cruelty is a given and in this context Castellito's question is not 'Is this a good thing?' b...Read the entire review

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Strings (PAL) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16947 Thu, 28 Jul 2005 18:38:51 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie
Anders Klarlund's Strings is an absolute wonder to behold. An epic fairy tale from the land that gave the world Hans Christian Anderson and where they still evidently understand that the best fairy tales are the ones with a hefty dark edge Strings tells a tale of treachery, betrayal, war and love and does so in what, these days, is a nearly forgotten medium: puppets. More specifically with highly expressive stringed marionettes.

Strings is the story of Hal, the young prince of Helbaron and his treacherous ascension to the throne. The film opens with Hal's father, the aged king, despairing of ever bringing peace to the land thanks in large part to his own bloody past, committing suicide to clear the path for his son to assume the throne believing that perhaps Hal will be able to succeed where he has so abjectly failed. But, as if having your father commit suicide isn't bad eno...Read the entire review

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Hukkle DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16949 Thu, 28 Jul 2005 18:38:51 UTC Recommended

The Movie
The tag line on the front of HVE's new DVD release of Hukkle proclaims the film "A Bizarre Murder Mystery". While that is true in one sense it is also quite misleading. Hukkle is really a film about observing the quiet, simple, overlooked things in life; an ode to rural living.

The film unfolds without dialogue, following an old man with hiccups as he sets about his morning routine and sits outside on a bench to watch the world in motion around him, happily hiccupping away throughout. The camera moves to track the things that capture the old man's attention and, from time to time, will follow another village resident away as they pass in front of the old man's bench, but the man himself remains the focus that the film always returns to.

Not a film that you approach if you're looking for a lot of plot or action Hukkle is filled with beautiful imagery and a quiet, ste...Read the entire review

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The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16770 Wed, 13 Jul 2005 06:49:09 UTC Rent It

The Movie
With anticipation rising for the upcoming big screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis' classic The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe it was pretty much inevitable that the earlier BBC adaptation would attract some attention. Not only are people casting a fresh eye towards the series of late eighties made for TV adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia from the venerable Beeb, but the set has been repackaged and reissued by the good people at HVE.

Written by C.S. Lewis largely to demonstrate to an obsessively perfectionist friend that writing a children's book need not take nearly as long as his was, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe has gone on to become one of the most beloved children's books in the world with countless young people following the adventures of the four Pevensie children in the magical land of Narnia as they join forces with the magical lion Aslan to fight the evil...Read the entire review

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Mpd Psycho DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16509 Sun, 26 Jun 2005 06:43:09 UTC Recommended

The Movie
The greatest strength of Japanese cult auteur Takashi Miike is his seemingly endless ability to transcend genre, to overcome his budgetary and physical limitations, and to produce films that are endlessly surprising. Just when you think you've got a handle on the man he comes up with something just a little bit different. His films are all instantly identifiable as Takashi Miike films but he is constantly pushing the envelope of just what a 'Miike film' actually is.

Such is the case with MPD Psycho, a six part miniseries Miike shot for Japanese television which is now being released on DVD in three volumes by Adness. Miike's tale of a detective suffering from split personality disorder in pursuit of a bizarre serial killer who cuts the top off his female victims' skulls and plants flowers in their brains works on at least three distinct levels.

On the surface is the...Read the entire review

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Antares DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16311 Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:47:15 UTC Skip It

The Movie
Antares is a film that I had heard much about before actually having the chance to see it, with most of the advance buzz revolving around the extremely graphic, true to life depictions of a healthy range of sex acts. Well, that buzz is accurate - the sex is graphic and not at all glammed up - but, like 9 Songs and other recent films of this ilk, there's not a lot to the film beyond that. Director Gotz Spielmann may know his way around a camera and he is obviously able to build trust with his actors but there simply isn't a single character in this film that I care about enough to invest in the film as anything other than a curiosity.

Antares is a film built around three interwoven stories of really fairly selfish people behaving badly in their relationships. There is a married hospital nurse having an affair with a visiting doctor; a grocery store clerk pretending to be pr...Read the entire review

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Charisma DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16034 Fri, 27 May 2005 20:23:53 UTC Recommended

The Movie
The tagline on the face of the DVD cover labels Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Charisma 'an enigmatic thriller'. That's certainly one way of putting it. Having seen the film a handful of times and finding it undeniably compelling I was nonetheless encouraged to hear writer / director Kurosawa confess in the on-disc interview that he himself doesn't really know what sort of film this is or if it entirely works.

After many longs years scrabbling to make a living in the direct-to-video market Kurosawa finally had a major break through with his troubling, possibly supernatural, serial killer thriller Cure in 1997. Based on the success of that film Kurosawa turned out a trio of films in 1999, two of which (License To Live and Barren Illusion) have never been available outside Japan and the third of which is Charisma.

Kurosawa here casts his favorite actor, and admitted alter-ego, K...Read the entire review

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Seance DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16033 Fri, 27 May 2005 20:23:53 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie
Ah … between the good folks at HVE, Palm, Tartan and Artsmagic roughly half of Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa's filmography will be easily available here in North America by the end of the year and that is a very, very good thing. One of the latest Kurosawa releases is HVE's edition of his made for TV feature Séance.

Kurosawa regular Koji Yakusho stars as a sound engineer in a happy but bland marriage to an emotionally fragile woman with psychic abilities. While in the woods recording sounds for a documentary Yakusho unknowingly picks up a stowaway – a young girl fleeing from her kidnapper hides in his equipment case. She is locked in, taken home to Tokyo and stored in a garage. The police, desperate for clues and grasping at straws, eventually turn to the wife hoping that she can tell them something through her psychic abilities but all she gets are confusing, con...Read the entire review

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Jan Dara DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15816 Fri, 13 May 2005 08:50:38 UTC Recommended

The Movie
You think your family's dysfunctional? You aint seen nothin' until you've seen Nonzee Nimibutr's Jan Dara, a visually stunning adaptation of a famous Thai novel.

One of the most acclaimed Thai directors of the past decade, and arguably the most important thanks to his work as a producer nurturing talents such as the Pang Brothers, any Nimibutr film is bound to draw massive amounts of attention in his native Thailand but this was particularly so with Jan Dara. The film tells the story of one young man's growth into the mirror image of the father he despises and uses sex as its primary window into its character's thoughts and emotions. There is skin in this film, lots of it, and this is a major issue for a film coming out of Thailand, a country which to this day has strict rules against nudity on screen. Thus in making Jan Dara Nimibutr picked himself one massive fight with...Read the entire review

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Rooftop Room Cat, aka: Attic Cat (MBC TV Series) (US Version) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15807 Thu, 12 May 2005 21:40:51 UTC Rent It

The Movie
The massive and greatly deserved success of My Sassy Girl has had an enormous impact on the state of Korean film and television. Not only did Sassy Girl make a massive star of Jeon Ji Hyun but it also spawned a continuing deluge of imitators hoping to cash in on Sassy Girl's success. Korean television series Rooftop Room Cat fits that bill on two fronts. First, like My Sassy Girl and a handful of other recent Korean rom-coms, Rooftop Room Cat is based on a popular internet novel. Second, the television series seems to borrow key elements of its lead characters from the previous film: the same will-they-or-won't-they elements play out between the well meaning but spaced out male lead and the quirky, yet often very aggressive, female. Unfortunately the tv series does nothing quite as well as the earlier film and, though a pleasant enough viewing for fans of the genre, ultimately...Read the entire review

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Hanzo The Razor DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15566 Sun, 01 May 2005 20:48:13 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

Place yourself for a moment in the Japan of the early seventies. Sick of government corruption and fearful that rising capitalism will destroy their way of life the student protest movement has turned radical and violent. The Japanese film studio system, slow to adapt to the cultural changes, has failed with some studios going bankrupt and others surviving by making a wholesale switch to producing 'pinku' films - a wholly Japanese form of soft porn and exploitation film. While this time largely devastated the film industry in Japan it also allowed a small handful of performers and producers to launch the first significant independent film movement in the country's history. One such man was Shintaru Katsu.

Best known for his very long running role as Zatoichi - the hugely popular Blind Swordsman featured in a long running television series and a lengthy run of feature films, with Katsu's sign...Read the entire review

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Sky High DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15514 Tue, 26 Apr 2005 01:14:22 UTC Rent It

Let me state my general bias right up front: ever since Ryuhei Kitamura burst onto the scene with the exhilarating Versus he has proven to be something of a polarizing director. Some absolutely adore him and everything he's done. Others tend to find him incredibly frustrating. I belong in the second group. Here's why. I think the man's got a masterpiece in him but he keeps finding ways not to make it.

Kitamura is very obviously an enormously gifted visual director with style to spare. With Versus Kitamura made a film that was openly about nothing more than that style – cramming as many ridiculous shots and extended fight scenes into his film as he possibly could on his restrictive budget. It worked because it didn't take itself too seriously and because it had a star with major charisma in former street fighter Tak Sakaguchi, who has strangely been limited to only cameo appearances in ...Read the entire review

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Dead Man's Shoes DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15171 Wed, 06 Apr 2005 03:42:54 UTC Highly Recommended

If ever a film has had a more ominous opening line than Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes I certainly have never come across it. "God will forgive them. He will forgive them and allow them into heaven," comes the flat, emotionless voice of Paddy Considine's Richard. "I can't live with that." Clearly something bad has happened. Something very bad. Equally clearly something far, far worse lies in the immediate future.

Dead Man's Shoes revolves around Anthony (Toby Kebell) and Richard (Paddy Considine), brothers born and raised in the British midlands. Younger brother Anthony is an utter innocent, a man-child with some sort of developmental problem that has left him "simple" – sweet, trusting and open to abuse. Elder brother Richard has just returned from a stint in the military and, on learning that his younger brother has been badly mistreated by the local gang of drug dealers and petty...Read the entire review

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