Tag Archives: Radiance Films

When EVIL is so Ingrained, Drastic, Dangers Measures Must Be Taken. “Confessions of a Police Captain” reviewed! (Radiance Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Confessions of a Police Captain” Now Available on Blu-ray!

Police captain Giacomo Bonavia is a dog with a bone when it comes to pinning an arrest against the corrupt and criminal kingpin Ferdinando Lomunno.  Lumunno is seemingly immune and untouchable to conviction, having been acquitted of charges three times already while in Bonavia’s custody after key witnesses go missing or are found dead deemed by accidental circumstances.  Determined to stick it to Lumunno by going outside the limitations of the law, Bonavia strong arms the release of a professional hitman from a psychiatric ward and who has a lethal grudge against Lumunno for dating his sister.  When the plan backfires in a bloodbath, the captain becomes the subject of investigation for assistant D.A. Traini who suspects Bonavia to be no less corrupt than those he pursues, but when the evidence suggests corruption at the highest level within the public office, Traini wavers on the captain’s crusade against inexorable crime.  

Before moving into a follow-up of powerful possession of one of America’s favorite haunted houses in “Amityville II:  The Possession” and even before formulating a planned coup of an Arican nation with a meticulous plan that involves the hijacking of a major hotel and taking key hostages in “Goodbye & Amen,” Italian director Damiano Damiani tackled corruption on every level with “Confessions of a Police Captain,” released 1971.  Originally titled “Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della repubblica,” the script is written by Damiani, who usually has his hands mixed into his directed projects, and Salvatore Laurani, based off a story by Damiani and Italian genre utility screenwriter Fulvio Gicco Palli (“The Designated Victim”).  The Italian crime thriller is shot on location in Palmero of the Sicily region and is produced by “Hitch-Hike” producers Mario Montnari and Bruno Turchetto with Euro International Films and Explorer Films ’58 as the coproduction studios.

One of the biggest names in Hollywood shares the screen with one of the biggest names in Italian cinema as questionable colleagues against crime as Martin Balsam of “Psycho” and “12 Angry Men” plays the cynical police captain Bonavia who has lost all faith in the justice system and takes a covert vigilante approach with a dangerous plan that hopefully kills two birds with one stone.  Balsam fashions Bonavia as a man exhausted by law’s red tape, lack of enforcement, and the justice system need for hard evidence, turning the hardnose captain into playing the game just as the criminals do with deceit, guile, and ruthlessness.  While Bonavia’s intentions are in the right place but executed with malice and frustration, deputy D.A. Traini sees the world in black and white and not as red and complex as Bonavia as the deputy is almost near clueless to the corruption with his straightforward approach to the justice system her serves, believing it works without wickedness.  “Django” actor Franco Nero compliments Martin Balsam’s tranquil plotting and coverup with headstrong thoroughness to cover every base to nab the captain in his own misstep or vocally browbeaten and accuse him into a confession.  Nero purposefully feels lost but never out of the cat-and-mouse game that he plays to a character’s fault, losing sight of the real danger of blatant criminality and the scum that pull the strings right under his nose.  The supporting cast includes colorful peripheral characters who double as cynical expendable fodder or are possibly a double agent with their own set of vices with Marilù Tolo (“The Scorpion with Two Tails”), Luciano Catenacci (“Syndicate Sadists”), Arturo Dominici (“Castle of Blood”), Claudio Gora (“Seven Blood-Stained Orchids”), Adolfo Lastretti (“Venus in Furs”), Giancarlo Prete (“Escape from the Bronx”), and Michelle Gammino (“The Virgo, the Taurus and the Capricorn”) in those roles. 

As far as Italian crime thrillers go, “Confessions of a Police Captain” is about as brutal and unforgiving as they come with a medley of fair game for mortal coil and where high rankings, who are opposed to pure corruption, must go beyond that upstanding public official role to bend or break the law to be effective against the insidious nature and unkillable cockroach conduct of crime.  The story puts to question the moral judgement of good men who want to do the right thing but our bound by the shackles of statutes and can do nothing about the misuse of the justice system and how career criminals in high places can get away with murder without even a scratch.  Is Captain Bonavia the good guy of the story as he goes after a hefty criminal or is he the story’s villain for stirring up trouble with a plotted assassination attempt that in turn leads to a string of homicides?  The latter seems pretty damning but, at the same time, it exposes more truth to the underlining criminal element that disguises itself as powerful public figures who are supposed to be on the right side of the law.  Audiences will be neutral with Captain Bonavia and feel more relatable with Deputy D.A. Traini and his confusion and frustration about the internal conflicts of the law, the transgressions, and the blurred line of vigilantism.  There’s also a remark in the story about how integrated crime is the institutions and this goes as far as being very literal too by comment and even exhibiting a scene of a snuffed-out corpse being encased in cement used for pillars of new skyrise construction.  The ruthless and plausibility of cementing someone inside a concrete pillar is one aspect that makes “Confessions of a Police Captain” a visceral Italian crime thriller amongst an already stacked of powerhouse performance.

Damiano Damiani’s “Confessions of a Police Captain” is a taut crime thriller now available on a 2K transfer restoration, limited-edition Blu-ray from Radiance Films.  The UK distributor releases the Blu-ray for the North American market, encoded with both regions A and B, under is AVC compressed BD50 with Hi-Def, 1080p resolution, and presented in a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio.  The restoration refreshes the image with a stronger color saturation and deeper details that make people and objects pop off screen and have a tactile appearance.  This is the best the Damiani picture has ever looked that remains consistent through the runtime with no issues with the well-preserved and maintained print and no issues with compression codec.  Even wide shots of large landscapes around Palmero, from rock click formations to the cityscape are highly detailed and don’t have that washed out and stretched to lesser image discernability.  The Italian uncompressed PCM mono track offers an about as expected with a post-production, or ADR, audio layer distinctly detached for the action, more so with the dialogue that the action effects as gunshots are particularly well integrated.  Not a native Italian linguist, Balsam’s English performance was noticeably mismatched and had an Italian overlay track with a voice acting dub.  English subtitles are available and they pace well without grammatical error.  Special features include new interviews with actors Franco Nero and Michelle Gammino, a new interview with editor Antonio Siciliano, and a new interview with film score export Lovely Jon.  The new artwork sleeve has a reversible side with a replica of original Italian poster art.  Inside, a limited edition booklet feature a pair of archival interviews with Damiano Damiani conducted by Gerard Langlois and Guy Braucort, cast and crew listing, transfer notes and acknowledgement, and black and white stills from the film within the 23 pages.  Housing the release is a clear Scanova Blu-ray case.  The film is not rated and has a runtime of 104 minutes.

Last Rites: “Confessions of a Police Captain” is the epitome of an Italian police story with subversive city corruption, a vigilante lawman, and unflinching narrative that puts every character in the crosshairs of its noir-like composition.

“Confessions of a Police Captain” Now Available on Blu-ray!

What’s Fashion Without a Little EVIL Behavior? “Helter Skelter” reviewed! (Radiance Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Beauty is Pain. “Helter Skelter” from 88 Films!

Lilico is the hottest Japanese fashion icon.  Fans adore her, brands want her, magazines crave her, and paparazzi and photographers yearn to shoot and work with her beauty that inspires all and commands undivided attention.  However, her astonishing beauty isn’t entirely organic as multiple surgeries through unorthodox surgical procedures that enhance her from a forgettable nobody to an unforgettable somebody.  Her radical surgeries begin to show blight side effects of the surface of her skin, sending her into vanity driven sociopathic spiral of sex, mental torture, and self-destruction, also affecting those closely around her, especially her assistant Hada who takes the brunt of her maltreatment.  When a new, hot model is presented by her manager and the world begins to fall in love with her, seemingly dropping Lilico from being the face of the fashion industry, the model’s snowballing and necrotizing surgical side effects can’t be stopped from becoming all but public. 

Social commentary horror movies like “The Substance,” “The Neon Demon,” and “The Ugly Stepsister” underline the vast awfulness and extreme lengths of beauty standards.  How to keep youthful, how to manipulate the face and body, and how envy can be weaponized from the worst of counterparts are just some of the attributes, which are very accurate outside the cinema, used as tropes for the body horror subgenre where attractiveness is the core catalyst that motivates monstrosities.  These late 2010s and early 2020 films might not have been directly inspired by Mika Ninagawa’s “Helter Skelter” but definitely pulls from the same cloth.  The 2012 Japanese fashion industrialized body and psychological horror is adapted by Arisa Kaneko based off the Kyôko Okazaki manga of the same name with established manga-to-film experienced producers, Morio Amagi (“Cutie Honey”) and Mitsuru Uda (“Xxxholic”), producing the WOWOW, Parco Co. Ltd, and Asmik Ace Entertainment film.

Objectification perspective isn’t always from the outside looking in but can be looking out as well.  In “Helter Skelter,” model Lilico believes in her self-importance, treating others in subordinate to her illustriousness career as the hottest flavor in Japan’s fashion society.  Society objectifies Lilico as nothing more than a stylistic Goddess who can do no wrong and even have the smallest bit of her in their space, whether be the hot topic of conversation or to the be face of their magazine cover, whereas Lilico objectifies those all around her with eviscerating self-proclaimed eminence and dominion over their mind, body, and soul.  “Ghost Train’s” Erika Sawajiri has the perfect look and approach to celebrity derision without blatancy toward others as her expressionless face never contorts with anger, never smiles without the devilish smirk and piercing eyes, that makes the fashion icon unreadable and to sway of control during bi-polar scenes where happiness and disgust swing rapid on a totalitarianism pendulum.  Personal assistant Michiko Hada, under the performance of “R100’s” Shinobu Terajima, takes the brunt of abuse during on-the-clock and off-the-clock professional and personal time.  Terajima’s ordinary bearings for Hada make the character an easy target in contrast to Lilico’s ornate wardrobe and lavish style of living spurred by ruthless nature to be best and most beautiful, taking an authoritative sovereign stance of control in the fashion hierarchy.  Lilico’s spoiled prince behavior coincides by a fueling Kaori Momoi in a queen-like mother figure as the talent agent who mostly advises her star pupil an instigating misconduct mindset with pro-surgical advice and like-minded guidance that artificially influences her body despite the pain and dangers as well as providing a mimicking behavior of dejecting and downcast harm.  Nao Ōmori (“Ichi the Killer”), Gô Ayano (“Woman Transformation”), Kiko Mizuhara (“Attack on Titan”), Hirofumi Arai (“The Neighbor No. Thirteen”), Anne Suzuki (“Returner”), and Mieko Harada (“Ran”) all play a role in the rise and fall of Lilico.

Much like Lilico’s quickly deteriorating fractured state of mind, and body, Ninagawa utilizes a cinematic style that’s overly brilliant with neon colors and a sharp polished look that contrasts reality and distorted perception, creating a disjointed narrative digression Lilico experiences.  The hyper stylization keeps in tandem with the fashion world of flash photography and gaudy maximalism, the ultra-violence and promiscuous behavior depict the cutthroat competition of remaining beautiful and the ugliness that’s truly inside, and the sheer flaunting of indifference and superficiality lingers throughout in and out of favor of our terrible protagonist who is actually the villain and the victim of her own tale.  Each character is flawed beyond reproach and having no redeemable qualities that make them appear strong or promising to be a virtuous type.  Not even the meek and eager-to-please personal assistant Hada who takes the punishing commands of her employer and manager in a purely pitiful subjugation of oneself to not lose a job position and be in the presence of stardom.  Hada even lets Lilico invade her personal life and continues to let it happen with no choice in the matter.  “Helter Skelter” embodies the very definition of the term with its confused and hurried chaotic state in design and in story while, in the same baroque breath, disenchanting the illusion of the fashion industry and beauty standards as not glamourous and genuine but fickle and fabricated with a heavy dish of backstabbing and self-destruction. 

In the same spirit as photogenic magazine models, UK label 88 Films releases a beautifully crafted, limited-edition Blu-ray release.  The numbered release Blu-ray is AVC encoded, 1080 high-definition resolution, onto a BD50 that was already shot digitally with a Red One MX camera through Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo lenses under cinematographer Daisuke Soma.  This gave “Helter Skelter” a glamorously polished look to accentuate the hyper-stylized and contemporary look that starkly discolor the centralized characters as ruthless people of fashion and high society.  When good finally enters the picture, a young model stepping to Lilico’s high heels as the next young, hot model, the harsh design of modernism is scaled back to simple and sterile aspects with more of the dramatics being held locally to the downfallen characters.  Higher contrasts create deeper shadows amongst a medium-heavy color saturation that primaries strong statement colors like fire-engine red and Duke blue.  The curvature of the anamophoric lenses, presenting in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, do show intentional signs of wrapping at the sides to capture the entirety of the wide shots in smaller spaces but adds to the surrealistic effect and is implemented at the right moments to make it all sensible.  No compression issues to note.  The Japanese DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and 2.0 Stereo tracks are the only two formats encoded.  The 5.1 has formidable attention to the side and back channels with the chaotic fashion-industry ambiance with erratic behaviors steering the scene.  Every action detail is highlighted to bring quieter scenes more tension and every tumultuous moments a fuller body.  The dialogue is crystal clear and layered appropriate with environmental track and soundtrack.  Moods rise up and down with the fluctuation soundtrack that pulsates in breath-holding, provocative, turning-point scenes that while melodies play in more of shocking portions to entice attention during climatic notes.  The newly translated English subtitles have no synchronization or grammatical issues to note and pace well with the visuals.  Special features include a feature in tandem audio commentary with Tori Potenza and Amber T., interviews with star Erika Sawajiri and director Mika Ninagawa, a behind the scenes of raw footage making the film, the Japanese premiere stage greeting, an opening day stage greeting, the Q&A from the Taipei Film Festival with director Mika Ninagawa, the original rehearsal footage, an image gallery, and the teaser and official trailers.  Like Ninagawa’s film, 88 Films tangible release is also hyper-stylized with newly commissioned art by Luke Insect that’s surreal, color, and slightly disturbing.  The clear Scanavo cases comes with an gold Obi strip with film and Blu-ray details and the sleeve is dual sided with original Japaense compositional design on the inside.  Inserted inside is a 23-page color booklet with a chaptered essay by Violet Burns, complete with color photo stills and promotional photos with the front and back art contrasting the two model women in a good and evil, light and dark, way.  The not rated, limited-edition Blu-ray has a runtime of 127 minutes and is A and B encoded to support playback in the Americas as well as Europe. 

Last Rites: There are plenty of horror as well as commentary films about fashion, but none do it with style quite like Mika Ninagawa and still develop an unrivaled cynicism of self-implosion.

Beauty is Pain. “Helter Skelter” from 88 Films!

One’s Cool, One’s Crazy, Both Are Chasing EVIL. “Cutter’s Way” reviewed! (4K UHD and Blu-ray Combo / Radiance Films)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Cutter’s Way” 4K UHD and Blu-ray Now Availble!

Cruising through life and women without much purpose, Richard Bone finds himself the prime suspect of a young woman’s murder.  Realizing he may have witnessed and seen the killer deposing of the body in a back alley where his car broke down on a raining night, he confides in his longtime best friend Alex Cutter, a crazed and paranoid disabled Vietnam veteran with a drinking problem.  Alex sinks his teeth into the case to exonerate his friend’s good name when Richard possibly recognizes the killer, a powerful oil tycoon revered by society and an employer to many and won’t let up on proving to Richard his suspected guilt by pieces the clues together.  Richard’s amuses Alex’s obsession, stemmed possibly from his trauma delusions, alcoholism, or his passive aggressiveness toward Richard’s infatuation with his wife Mo, but when Alex’s evidence becomes more and more convincing, Richard can no longer ignore his lunatic friend’s fixation as just a waste of time and conjecture. 

Based off the novel “Cutter and Bone” by novelist Newton Thornburg, the 1981 comedic-whodunit-drama “Cutter’s Way” is an unorthodox buddy gumshoe mystery with themes of the pitiful and nearly forgotten veterans of Vietnam War, the magnate power of whitewash and concealment, and to have purpose in life before life is taken away from you.  The late Ivan Passer, director of crime dramas “Law and Disorder” and “Crime and Passion,” focuses paper-to-screen transgressional energy to the pen-to-paper script by Jeffrey Alan Fiskin in the screenwriter’s sophomore feature film following the 70’s biker-exploitation and revenge caper “Angel Unchained.”   “Revenge’s” Fiskin tones down the ruffian violence, trading it for another type of irrational behavior in the form of the half-bodied war veteran drowning what’s left of himself at the bottom of a bottle while his best friend, a full-bodied, red-blooded, ladies man, ironically enough wants the one unavailable woman the vet married  and could keep in his possession despite her own form alcoholism and depression.  Once titled “Cutter and Bone,” changed to “Cutter’s Way” to appear less like a medical horror production, the film is produced by Paul R. Gurian (“The Seventh Sign”) under his namesake production company, Gurian Entertainment, shot in Santa Barbara, California.

“Big Lebowski’s” Jeff Bridges has the story’s focal point being Richard Bone, the happenstance victim becoming a murder suspect while trying to coast through life by walking away from hard problems and not taking the steps to advance.  The Bridges of 1981 is certainly a different breed than of grizzlier Bridges of more than four decades later, and even nearly two decades later around “Big Lebowski’s release, with a slender cut and tall physique, baby-smooth shaved skin, and a head full of dirty blonde hair that certainly makes him the ladies’ man as shown in the opening scene of him dressing himself after a bedroom romp with a slightly older woman.  Bridges embodies both Bone’s lackadaisical commit to himself, his friends, to woman he loves, and even to the conspiracy surrounding the real suspect concocted and presented by his friend, Alex Cutter, but when the tone starts to shift more toward the evidence of a coverup and all the dots begin to connect to Cutter’s alcoholic rantings and ravings that could be construed as convincing conjecture, you see the Bone begin to care more than he’s ever allowed himself to.  Bridges’ Bone is actually not the most interesting, complex character as that accolade goes to John Heard as Alex Cutter.  The “Home Alone” actor deserved to be praised for his performance as the untamable and wildly convincing Veteran horribly disfigured by his service in Vietnam that fuels his drinking problem, causing a seemingly impenetrable yet sociable wall between him and his wife, and always seems to put tolerable Bone in the middle of his trouble, such as his use of the derogatory N-word in a joke at a bar where we first meet his uncouth, drunken, yet surprisingly together state.  Heard’s intensity has range and emotional standing in the character’s cocky hop-a-log swagger that gives the big ability middle finger to his disability that doesn’t stop his motivational obsessions.  Caught in the middle is Mo, played by Lisa Eichorn who would later costar with Jeff Bridges over 20-years later in the mystery-thriller “The Vanishing” alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock.  Also an alcoholic in a less look-at-me kind of way, Mo has the heart of both Bone and Cutter as Bone walked away from their romance years earlier and she marries pre-war Alex, but Bone and Mo’s spark lingers, teases, and eventually comes to fruition as the damn breaks with Cutter’s behavior that leaves Mo isolated and lonely in a pit of depression.  One character that has girth in the first two acts is the murder victim’s sister Valerie from the girl who yelled SHARK! In “Jaws 2” in Ann Dusenberry and while Dusenberry has a sizable part as part of Cutter’s investigating team, almost like an instigator to his whims, Valerie ultimately disappears in near the tale end of act two and completely from act three, making this one of the biggest mysteries alongside the possible murder suspect itself.  “Cutter’s Way” rounds out the cast with Stephen Elliott (“Death Wish”), Arthur Rosenberg (“Cujo”), Nina van Pallandt (“The Sword and the Sorcerer”), and Patricia Donahue (“Paper Tiger”). 

“Cutter’s Way’s” powerhouse duo of Jeff Bridges and John Heard couldn’t be more perfect with two contrasting walks of life that somehow fit and work, drawn together like strong magnets despite their odd shaped and conflicting personas.  At some points during Cutter’s insane theories and aggressive, uncivilized touting, you would think a calm demeanor and conservatively rational Bone would distant himself from Cutter, or even try to stop his stare-induced antics but Cutter’s shenanigans fuel something in Bone that makes this relationship hobble along without any sign of slowing down and that likely is largely in part to Mo being the connective tissue.  There’s perhaps some guilt residing in Bone who escaped the draft whereas Cutter did not, resulting in losing eye, limp, and leg for a country he obviously has contempt for by going against societal norms.  Cutter convincingly lays the framework of suspicion against the big time oil tycoon with intrinsic connections to not only society by to Bone and Cutter’s friends that makes their meaningless existence in comparison to the oil man’s own feels diminutive and impossible to rise up and action against with the evidence toward a police department that already has Bone in their sights because his car was nearby.  However, the investigation follow-up, as well as the acute disappearance of the victim’s sister Valerie, stamp the story with difficulties of resolve and being a well-rounded narrative. These poofs of key parts differ from the death of main character that goes without explanation, or rather has too many explanations that mold in speculation, that adds to story’s deep misgivings of who was there that dark and stormy night of the murder and culminating to a dramatic finish that impresses a linger skepticism and perhaps even a little bit of cynicism between all left involved. 

“Cutter’s Way” has sorely fell under the radar amongst aficionados of cult classics and UK distributor Radiance Films is looking to expand the Ivan Passer directed adaptation to a broader audience of not only to fans of Jeff Bridges and John Heard but to the fans of thought provoking and open-ended features that get the rusted mind gears turning once again for storytelling and not glaze over with immense computer generated special effects.  Radiance Film’s new restored limited edition 4K UHD and Standard Blu-ray set is pretty deluxe with a 4K restoration presented in HDR/DolbyVision.  The 4K is HVEC encoded with 2160p on a BD100 and the Blu-ray is AVC encoded at 1080p on a BD50.  The ample space allows the restoration to fly without constraint with a vibrant and nicely diffused picture through the dynamic coloring with a slight contrast on its essential organic grading that dips into a bluish tone and low light noir here and there when the moment calls for it.  Impressive detail measurement along the texturing as John Heard looks every bit as grizzly as his character entails with a course, unkept beard, long straggly hair, and ill-fitting military-esque attire whereas Bridges has primary color pristine and neat lines about him.  The Panavision spherical lens used creates a natural concise look, often flat but not unnatural, as it doesn’t try to squeeze the framing.  There were no damage spots to note on a well looked after 35mm print.  The English DTS-HD Master Audio mono track is too flat with frontal space only for the enriched dialogue of the script between mostly Bone and Cutter.  The suitability of track doesn’t change despite a lesser vigorous mix that has competent job performance and is adequate to the type of contemporary noir.  Jack Nitzsche’s soundtrack too makes the film more alluring with a blend of Latino influences and an oxymoronic harmonic dissonance of a musical saw and harmonica that plays into the noir undertones.  English subtitles are optionally available.  On the 4K special features coverage there is an introduction by Jeff Bridges and three audio commentaries with novelist Matthew Specktor, assistant director Larry Franco and Production Manager Barrie Osborne, and an archived conversation between film writer Julie Kirgo and late producer Nick Redman.  There’s an isolated soundtrack from Jack Nitzsche formatted in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 compared to the feature’s mono track.  The Blu-ray houses a little more bonus content with all of the above on the UHD and continues with an analyst featurette Piety, Patriotism, and Violence:  The Legacy of Cutter and Bone by film writers Megan Abbott, Jordan Harper, and George Pelecanos, an Ivan Passer interview from 2015, a Lisa Eichorn interview from the Fun City release, an interview with producer Paul Gurian from the Australian Imprint release, an audio only interview with former United Artist exec Ira Deutchman, Cut to the Bone:  Inside the Score is a featurette that interviews music editor Curt Sobel, Bertrand Tavernier is a Sidonis Calysta’s interview of admiration from the French film director, a still gallery, the trailer, and an alternative title sequence with the original “Cutter and Bone” title sequence.  Radiance Film’s physical presence is substance with this limited-edition release held all together in a rigid slipbox with new commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow on both sides and comes with an obi strip with credit and technical information.  Inside is a clear Scanova Blu-ray case with reversible artwork with the primary art a split still image, one image for either side from the feature, with the reverse containing new artwork as well.  The overlapping stored discs are pressed with a blood red tint.  A 78-page mini book is inserted alongside the Scanova with cast and crew acknowledgements, transfer notes and release credits, and essays from Nick Pinkerton, Christina Newland, and Travis Roberts with an Ivan Passer Q&A by Jerry Roberts.  The book also contains color images as well as composition artwork on the bookends.  The region A locked release doesn’t have a rating listed, assuming not rated, and has a 109 minute runtime. 

Last Rites: Jeff Bridges and John Heard are the dysfunctional detective duo you never thought you needed. “Cutter’s Way” is a cathartic comedy and crime thriller refreshed and renewed for ultra-high definition from the fan’s favorite boutique labels, Radiance Films.

“Cutter’s Way” 4K UHD and Blu-ray Now Availble!

EVIL is Waking Up to Find Yourself Married as a Simple Wife to An Abusive Island Fisherman. “Splendid Outing” reviewed! (Radiance Films /Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Splendid Outing” on Limited Edition Blu-ray!

President Gong Do-hee is an elite executive on top of the business world that’s mostly male-dominated profession.  Securing trade agreements, being head speaker at events, and forming relationships with male peers of other nations, President Gong is exhausted by the end of the day, returning home to regain recharge even if that means not spending time with her two children by letting the governess oversee play and bedtime.  Vivid dreams of being called to the seaside by a mirror image of herself and her therapist reminding her of her dead twin sister in relation to the dream sends President Gong on a road trip to the shore where she’s tumultuous caught up in a riot and chased by a mob only to find herself waking up to four fishermen handing her off to an agitated Island fisherman, Lee Min-Joo, who claims to be her husband.  Seeming stripped of her life on the mainland, she’s constantly under surveillance and abused by Lee’s certainly of her place under him as a dutiful wife by cooking, cleaning, hosting, and taking care of their crippled daughter. Gong Do-hae plays along, submitting to Lee’s instruction, until the right moment to escape back to Seoul where her past life may not be there anymore. 

Coursing with gender inequality, patriarchal oppression, and imposter syndrome, director Kim Soo-young (“Sorrow Even Up in Heaven”) challenges reality with a surrealistic dissociation and inescapable threat of being forcibly tied to an insufferable situation in his 1978 drama-thriller “Splendid Outing.” The South Korean film, originally titled “Hwaryeohan wichul,” is written by Cho Moon-jin (“Dying in Your Arms”) as a personal nightmare where one loses their existence and cut off from the rest of the world, essentially torpedoing their life before and being replaced or forgotten.  Kim Tae-su’s longstanding Taechang Productions (“Deadly Kick,” “Red Eye”) produces the feature from Seoul on the mainland to the adjacent unnamed islands where filming took place.

Without dishonoring or neglecting her costars’ performances, Yung Jeong-hie is “Splendid Outing’s” one woman show as the stoically exhausted President Gong.  From her POV entrance being escorted to her office where the camera turns to face her undivided business façade to the moment she steps into her affluent home with a nanny and maid, the “Village in the Mist” actress can rub elbows with elite professionals as if gender didn’t exist but there’s still this unbalanced tension that’s unsettling for President Gong, one that’s a male-driven society that flippantly places expectations of systematic conventions in regard to women’s placement within the workforce and society.  That pressure through peer misconduct induces anxiety, subverting her subconscious into a trip toward the seaside where being called to ends up being appallingly costly in a mind-boggling spirit-breaking deconstruction of herself.  This is when she meets Lee Min-joo claiming to be her husband, a brutish fisherman with an abusive hand and tongue with stereotypical, old-fashion perspective on where wife should be spending their time.  “Eros” actor Lee Dae-kun rendition of the role depicts an uncouthly aggressive and maybe even on the spectrum with his island bumpkin behavior.  Lee Min-joo’s not niceties extent beyond his mistreatment of Gong with womanizing ways and thievery.  Being trapped on the island, there’s nothing Gong can do is bide her time, time the punishment, and try to use her decision-making skills for the right time to escape but even when she does, the life that she once knew is over like it never existed before.  Those who saw her daily only see a faint resemblance in who they now considered long dead, her children have moved out of their family home with no mention of a forwarding address, and even her bank accounts of whittled down to nothing to complete the total erasure of her life after a year of living on the island.  “Splendid Outing” rounds out with significantly minor supporting roles in Lee Yeong-ha as the visiting island doctor and Kim Jeong-ian as Gong’s island daughter. 

From the opening walk-through of President Gong’s daily schedule and interactions to the oppressive nature of Lee Min-joo’s husbandry, themes of inequality stack up and out of “Splendid Outing’s” Lynchian narrative that courses like a bad dream of subdued impostorism.  President Gong single-handed success is stolen away by the cackling jabs of male perception that women should get married, someone to take care of them.  That seemingly innocent interaction brings big consequences to the executive’s psyche, inducing dreams of the seaside and her sister, and influencing a far drive to an unnamed fishing town where she doesn’t provoke to be whisked away in an unconscious state only to awake married, handed off to a stranger claiming to be her husband.  From there, President Gong is not only top executive of her class but rather in the position she has feared most – in stereotypical relationship with conventional gender roles of men providing, women working, and its askew gender dominance controlled and welded like a weapon by the uneducated island man called her husband.  Other than dreams and flashbacks during Gong’s time on the island, Kim Soo-young doesn’t lean on fantastical uneasiness to culture the effect.  The situation itself bores that sensation right into your core and frantic motions kick in to try and piece the puzzle together of how, why, and when she ended up on a strange fishing island with a strange fisherman.  Combination of her twin sister and the seashore experienced during the dream deduces possibility – perhaps her twin sister isn’t dead but just ran away?  Or perhaps President Gong is mistaken for her deceased twin and the man claiming to be her husband is her brother-in-law?  And even with sprawling open-aired island with jagged rocky hills and lush nature, a feeling of claustrophobia encompasses her as there’s no escape from the island, a hovering over every move husband, and the distance between neighbors creates a sense of confining isolation.

Coming back from dead, President Gong lost everything, or so she thought.  For Kim Soo-young and “Splendid Outing” coming back from the video graveyard, their feature fairs better, gaining all the glow-ups of a new and improved release with Radiance Films’ Blu-ray.  The limited-edition, single disc Blu-ray, “Splendid Outing’s” world-wide debut on the format, comes AVC encoded with 1080p high-def resolution onto a BD50.  The digitized transfer is produced from a 4K scan from the 35mm negative stored at the Korean Film Archive that was sent to Radiance Films for restoration at the Heavenly Movie Corp and presented to us today in an anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio.  Overall, the picture looks phenomenal with a natural diffused saturation, depth of focus in the details between background and foreground, and a fabric texturing that presents no challenges to distinguish.  Skin coloring appears also organic and captures enough glinty sheen of sweat and wet soaked skin and the coarse nature of a days long stubble.  The original print has survived the test of time to assist in producing a freshened up and restored transfer but there are noticeable but minor and faint instances of vertical scratching, mostly on the viewers’ right side of the frame.  The Korean language PCM mono mix offers an adequate mix that harnesses the surrounding the background noise and integrates it harmoniously in with the dialogue and sound designed or hard sound effects.   Dialogue tops the layers with a vigorous ADR that matches the movements with pleasing synchronicity, especially early on in President Gong’s routine where numerous different languages are spoken, such as Japanese and English before entirely switching solely to Korean.  The range extends from the hustle and bustle of a city urbanscape to the coastal sounds of calling seagulls and water splashes against rocks and shores.  Improved English subtitles are available with this Blu-ray.  Limited to 2500 copies, the catch them if you can special features a new audio commentary from Ariel Schudson, writer of classic gender and Korean films, a new opinion interview with “Peppermint Candy” and “Burning” filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, a new interview with assistant director Chung Ji-young, and a Pierce Conran visual essay Stranded But Not Afraid:  The Island Women of Classic Korean Cinema.”  The interviews are in Korean with English subs.  The Blu-ray comes with Time Tomorrow’s new (primary) and the film’s original artwork (reverse) with an informational technical and synopsis obi strip behind the plastic of a clear Amaray case.  The disc is pressed in the Radiance Films’ conventional single block color of mostly pink with black lettering for the title.  The insert contains a 35-page color picture and essay booklet with essays and excerpts from Chonghwa Chung, director Kim Soo-young, and Pierce Conran along with the cast and crew credits and Blu-ray release notes and acknowledgements.  The region free playback gives all nations the availability to enjoy the 94-minute, unrated mainland to island mystery and psychological thriller. 

Last Rites: “Splendid Outing” is a trip down the rabbit hole and Kim Soo-young is Lewis Carroll surrealistically asserting our Alice, aka President Gong, onto a topsy-turvy island of a have-no-say and abusive marriage, ideals and concepts not of her own nor not of her favor. Soo-yonng’s story deconstructs the consummate family idea into an utter nightmare subverted by a male influenced traditionalist society.

“Splendid Outing” on Limited Edition Blu-ray!

EVIL is the Will of the Gods. “Malpertuis” reviewed! (Radiance Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Malpertuis” Now Available at Amazon!

Jan, a young sailor returns home from a voyage to find his family home gone.  After getting into a scuffle with pimp at a night club, he’s knocked unconscious by a blackjack and wakes up to his sister Nancy taking care of him and in the bed inside the Malpertuis home of his draconian uncle, Cassavius, a wealthy, stern, and impatient man on the verge of death with terminal illness.  The sailor finds they’re not alone in the large labyrinth estate with peculiar relatives, nearby acquaintances, and longtime servants.  Before his death, Cassavius has his will read with everyone present bedside, announcing the distribution of the immense inheritance amongst the close assembly who’ve either worked and slaved hand and foot for Cassavius or have been on the outside clawing up into his good graces for their greed.  Yet, to receive their portion, they must abide by one stipulation:  they can never leave the Malpertuis.  Jan plunges himself into Cassavius’s unfathomable parting will and design, seeking to unearth Malpertuis’s warren secrets, but all a while, a killer begins to pluck away potential beneficiaries.

The 1943 gothic novel of the title by Belgium author Jean Ray serves as the film adaptation source for Harry Kümel’s 1971 gialli-like and surreal maddening “Malpertuis.”  Released in the U.S. as “The Legend of Doom House,” the Belgium and Dutch co-production creates phantasmic journey down the rabbit hole that unravels a mystery of pantheon proportions.  The “Daughters of Darkness” directing Belgium filmmaker helms the faultlessly fantastical adaptation and script by Jean Ferry, who would also collaborate with Kümel on “Daughters of Darkness” as well as pen original and adaptations of Franco-Italiano melodramas from “The Wayward Wife” to “The Foxiest Girl in Paris.”  Pierre Levie (1969 “The Witness”); and Paul and Ritta Laffargue (“The Mushroom”) produce the gothic and Greek movie under Artemis Film and Les Productions Artistes Associés.

“Malpertius” houses an international cast that ranges from the native English-speaking countries of Britain and America to the European republics of France, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.  The biggest headliner out of the bunch, and perhaps the biggest drunk at the time too, is none other than “Citizen Kane’s” Orson Welles in the boisterous patriarchal role, Cassasvius, on the brink of death.  Welles commands the screen in his short lived but striking hard every note performance that simply overpowers an otherwise Eurocentric cast fashioned with off the wall characters.  The narrative circles around the ingenuous Jan freshly off the boat for a little R&R.  Played by Mathieu Carrière in one of his earliest performances of his copiously filled career that includes horror-based credits like “Born for Hell,” “Nurse Massacre” and “The Murdered Young Girl,” Jan refrains from mostly having a voice but rather actions his will to discover Cassavius’s secrets within Malpertius’s walls as well as extract his fellow beneficiaries aenigmas, such as why the lovely Euryale won’t ever look him in the eye though she’s destined to be his wife per Cassasvius’ will, his sister Nancy’s inexplicable need to leave Malpertuis with her lover, and Alice, one of three intrusive and gossipy sisters, with her cozy up urge to bed Jan while also sating the sexual desires of his greedy cousin and sneaky creep Charles Dideloo (Michael Bouquet, “The Bride Wore Black”).  All three women are played by a single actress.  Hailing from the UK, “The Violent Enemy” actress Susan Hampshire goes into complete incognito mode that disguises her physical attributes and character personalities with mere makeup and temperament tonal shifts too genuine to easily notice Hampshire being all three women.  Hampshire deserves much of the credit and earns a trifecta win by facing down the challenge without compromising character.  Perhaps a little unfair to single out Hampshire as such but the entire “Malpertius” cast deserves recognition for their titan acts, representing humanity-cladded divinity in the most simplistic of human limitation that none of them, apart from one being more recognizable against the others, can be pinpointed definitively who they’re roleplaying.  Charles Janssens, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Walter Rilla, Dora van der Groen, Daniel Piol, Sylvie Vartan, Jenny Van Santvoort, Jet Naessens, Cara Van Wersch, Fanny Winkler, and Bob Storm fill out the cast.

There’s nothing quite like a good film adaptation of a novel.  Author Jean Ray’s four-part narrative isolates characters more exclusively that delineates the individual storylines of the whole gothic affair inside , and outside in parts, of the crumbling Malpertuis estate.  The Harry Kümel and Jean Ferry vision set out to make “Malpertuis” cinematic by collapsing the subset storylines into a single perspective narrative bestowed upon Jan, who is also the main protagonist in Ray’s novel under Jean-Jacques Grandsire, but less involved in comparison to the film version.  This forces audiences to see through Jan’s eyes, a curious, naïve and perhaps good nature fellow, a nationalized sailor of sorts who cares more about his home and sister than the depravity of sailors on shore leave, and what Jan experiences is nothing short of exploitation, sexualization, and torment amongst Cassasvius’s most prized collection of heirs.  Which brings me to uncle Cassavius who is set up, through the remarks of his nephew Jan, as nothing more than a gruff and stern, ill-tempered man living in the gloomy prison-like structure that is Malpertuis, but Cassavius transforms in a postmortal light as no longer a wealthy grouch but as an omnipotent collector that instills a great power upon him albeit his once feeble condition that took his life.  His house is very much like himself, confounding, mysterious, and surreal now pact with peculiar beings that look, sound, and feel human, or at least to Jan, and in appearances to the audiences too.  There’s a theme of limitless power over power itself but with the caveat that everything must come to an end and “Malpertuis” has one Mount Olympus-sized end. 

What’s also definitive is the limited-edition Blu-ray set from Radiance Films.  A beautifully curated boxset encasing a dedication to the undervalued “Malpertuis” with a AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50 set that’s presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  In the midst of Malpertuis’s dark corridors and staircases, its classically drab common rooms, and a bleakly deserted grayness to the seaport town that exemplifies the intentionally restored stark and severe grading overseen by director Harry Kümel, the 4K scan, compiled by the shorten Cannes cut and Kümel’s directors cut, depicts quite a bit of localized saturation that pops into play that creates stand out characters in tandem with their eccentric personalities.  There’s a meticulousness in the details that greatly heighten Malpertuis into a prison-like character, one that is personified holding the living, breathing characters into a stasis though they’re freedom to leave is unobstructed, the Lamplighter is a good example of this by appearing to be a near skin and bones, unkempt in appearances, and wailing in disquietude about Cassavius putting out the light, as if Cassavius himself was some sort of jailor and, in a way, he is.  No compression issue within the dim-lit black areas, the ruckus of various action, or any macroblocking during the decoding.  Though there is a language version somewhere in the world, Radiance Films supplies only the original Dutch ADR mono.  The post-production dialogue does have an asynchronous measure between picture and sound, especially between the non-native Dutch speakers, but the track is clear and prominent overtop a mysterious and unobtrusive Georges Delerue (“Platoon”) soundtrack, letting the actors and the action take the helm of the narrative with a low-toned menacing as well as hopeful score pieces that drive their curiosity and individual pecularities.  The diegetic dynamism denotes a defined design to be character driven rather than creating the immense suspense built by an edge of your score and omnipresent nondiegetic sounds.  The faultless and well-paced UK English subtitles are available and can be toggled.  Encoded special features include a 2006 audio commentary from director Harry Kümel and assistant director Françoise Levie, new interviews with Kümel and gothic horror writer Jonathan Rigby, an archival and behind-the scenes documentary on the making of the film with interviews Kümel, lead actor Mathieu Carriere, and director of photography Gerry Fisher, archival interviews with Kümel, Michael Bouquet, and Jean Ray with an archival featurette on Orson Wells and actress Susan Hampshire, Malpertuis Revisted takes audiences on location where the movie was shot with Kümel’s descriptions, the Cannes cut of the film, which is approx. 20 minute short than Kümel’s director’s cut and is viewable in the English and French language for selection, Kümel’s short film “The Warden of the Tomb,” and the trailer. Limited to 3000 copies, “Malpertuis’s” physical presence is palpable with a hard cardboard slipbox with Greek themed compositional artwork with a wraparound Obi strip denoting synopsis, bonus features, and technical aspects. Inside, a clear Blu-ray Amary comes primarily with a front and back still image cover given the artistic liberty treatment. The cover can be flipped from more traditional cover artwork, and all artwork provided is by Time Tomorrow. Heavier than the slipbox and the Amaray is the accompanying 78-page booklet with cast and crew acknowledgements, transfer notes and special thanks credits, and 2025 produced essays by Jonathan Owen, Willow Catelyn Maclay, Lucas Balbo, Maria J. Perez Cuervo, and David Flint. The region free release is region free and houses two runtimes with the main feature being the 125-minute producer cut and the Cannes cut, domiciling in the special features, clocking in at 100-minutes.

Last Rites: No one can top Radiance Films’ “Malpertuis” limited-edition Blu-ray set with its comprehensive insight into one of the more original adaptations surrounding Greek mythology, the harnessing and control of great, immense power, and the how that power is transposed and shaped into the human context where greed, sex, and love are the core contentions.

“Malpertuis” Now Available at Amazon!