Mamabar
Pierrette
(2023*)/Monster
(2023/Well Go Blu-ray)/Misunderstood
(1966**)/Shape
Of Night
(1964/**both
MVD/Radiance Blu-rays)/Spare
Keys
(2022 aka Fifi/*both
Icarus DVDs)/Yuni
(2021/Film Movement DVD)
Picture:
C+/B-/B-/B/C/C+ Sound: C+/B-/C+/B-/C+/C+ Extras:
C/C-/C+/C+/C-/C- Films: C+/C+/C+/B-/C/B-
Now
for a group of foreign dramas, old and new...
Rosine
Mbakam's Mamabar
Pierrette
(2023) is the documentary filmmakers first scripted work, telling the
story of the title seamstress
(Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat) who is trying to build her business and
name while raising a family, but she is about to encounter more than
a few turns of misfortune and how she deals with it will determine
possibly the rest of the course of her life.
Running
a tight 94 minutes, it feels real, has some good performances from
its cast if unknowns and is well directed enough. I don't know if I
would have liked it more if it were longer or if Mbakam had come up
with a few twists or unexpected ideas in the time she had, but I did
feel I had seen some of this before. Otherwise, it sets up a look
and feel that it manages to stay with and for those interested,
they'll find it worth a good look.
Extras
include a 15-minutes-long
interview with the director.
Kore-Eda
Hirokazu's Monster
(2023) offers a strange twist on the unusual situation it offers; a
young child seems to be getting harassed and bullied by his teacher
in school, leaving his mother shocked and deciding to confront the
whole school system. They actually do nothing and have no
explanations, but is the harassment because the teacher is bad, some
kind of predator (sexual or not) and what does this say about the
character of the school and Japanese society it takes place in?
Not
very memorable, the problem is this runs over two hours and is
really, really uneven in how it deals with its issues and situations,
more frustrating when you get some good moments and the actors are
really trying. A highlight for many is that the music score is by
Ryuichi Sakamoto, delivering a score that makes this more watchable
than it would have been otherwise. Unfortunately, the script is not
able to take on in total what it sets out to and the results are
disappointing.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Luigi
Comencini's Misunderstood
(1966) is a decent Italian melodrama about a widowed father (the
underrated British actor Anthony Quayle) and his two
sons (Stefano Colagrande and Simone Giannozzi,) the younger of whom
has not been told the truth about his mother. Of course, this kind
of secret cannot last and can only be perpetuated for so long, so
complications will soon ensue.
I
know I saw this a long, long time ago and realized this in about the
middle of watching. I had the same mixed response then that I do
now, was there not an easier way or different way to handle such a
depressing situation if one were there? Especially these days, lying
to children always strikes me a creepy and it is worse now than ever,
but that is even a separate essay.
The
look and feel of the film can also be depressing with its slightly
muted colors and it is also part of a cycle of films with children
that Truffaut launched with The
400 Blows
in 1959 where the children are portrayed as more realistic,
naturalistic and honest. No phony acting here and since this is
Italian, it also leans on Italian Neorealism. That all works, but
the last reel or two of the film, become a bit convoluted (seeing
Quayle being dubbed in Italian is odd in a separate way) and the
ending is too melodramatic for its own good. Still, this has some
nice moments and Quayle proves once again how solid an actor he was.
The rest of the supporting Italian cast is also joined by the great
British character actor John Sharp.
Extras
(per the press release) include:
Interview
with legendary critic Michel Ciment (2021, 24 mins)
A
Child's Heart:
a visual essay by David Cairns on Comencini and the filmmaker's
affinity for childhood stories (2023, 25 mins)
Trailer
Newly
translated English subtitles
Reversible
sleeve featuring designs based on original promotional materials
and
a Limited
Edition
booklet featuring new writing by critic Manuela Lazic and a newly
translated archival interview with Comencini.
Noburo
Nakamura's The
Shape Of Night
(1964) is the real surprise of the pack here, a serious drama set in
Japan about a woman
(Miyuki Kuwano) is dating a man from the Japanese ganger organization
the Yakuza and as things get worse in the relationship that she would
have been better off without, he pushes her into prostitution. What
could have been a plain old color-rich melodrama like those of Wong
Kar-wai and Douglas Sirk lands up being darker and offers something
different.
We
get a character study of the people, of crime, of Japan and a
statement that no matter how much the country has rebuilt itself up
post-WWII, some things never change and in a society where 'man is
king' and the like, any progress could slide back very quickly and
that the country has a long way to go to grow in better ways as it
did after the film was originally released. Of course, this kind of
crime is always in all countries, no matter what, but the film (from
its script to its impressive, memorable images and impactful use of
scope framing) pulls off what it wants to show and say. Save a few
small points that have aged oddly or might not work as well, The
Shape Of Night
is a key film from Japan and an underrated one at that. Glad it is
here, restored and given top treatment by Radiance.
Extras
are fine too and (per the press release) include:
Visual
essay on the artistic upheavals at Shochiku studios during the 1960s
by Tom Mes
Original
Theatrical Trailer
New
and improved English subtitle translation
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time
Tomorrow
Limited
Edition
booklet featuring new writing by Chuck Stephens
and
Limited
Edition
of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with
removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and
markings.
Jeanne
Aslan and
Paul Saintillan's Spare
Keys
(2022 aka Fifi)
has an interesting premise with a young 15-year-old French gal
(Celeste Brunnquell as Fifi) driven nuts by her toxic family and life
with them, so she gets to stay at a good friend's house while that
family is away. Now free from the stress and dysfunction, but the
twist comes when the brother of her friend (Quentin Dolmaire) shows
up unannounced and learns of the temporary arrangement. Then they
start to develop a relationship, but where will it go?
Now
whether a gal her age should be alone in any place is highly
debatable, but leaving that aside, that set-up is supposed to be
about the coming-of-age theme the screenplay tries to address and
only gets so far with. The acting is decent and this is shot well
enough, but I don;t think it delivers as much as it could have with
its premise and even if she was more 'of age' that would not matter
because it is about the script structure and not that side issue. If
it is a curio to you, try it out, but I think others will not be as
impressed.
Extras
include Original Theatrical Trailers.
Kamila
Andini's Yuni
(2021) has Awarinda Kirana as the title character, brought up in an
Islamic society, yet yearning to be free and find herself and a good
man, which is why she just rejected a marriage proposal which was
bad, had nothing to it and she knew would doom her further. A
character study of Indonesia, Islam and the people there, it is not
bad at all and juggles all the issues very well.
The
actors are also good, but Kirana carries the film and stands out as
she needs to for this to work. Only running 95 minutes, it can feel
longer, but not in a bad way and you get to experience the oppressive
feel of things as she does, which is not an easy thing to pull off.
It may not be for everyone, but it is one of the more successful
import dramas I have seen of late, so it is recommended for those who
a really interested.
Extras
include Original Theatrical Trailers.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Misunderstood
is not bad, though it has some minor flaws and despite being a
dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor 35mm film release in some markets, color can
be a little on the dull side beyond what the makers might have
intended. You still get some great shots, but not always.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Night
can show its age was shot in what was called Shochiku Grandscope,
which was better than the old CinemaScope format, but is not as
impressive as the better scope lenses since. But color is just as
impressive and the Shochiku Studios were using Fuji 35mm color
negative often (like Fuji 25T 8512) as well as some Eastman Kodak
color 35mm film, but odds are this is Fuji. Either way, it looks
really good and that it survived looking this good is a plus.
Both
offer PCM 2.0 Mono that is as good as these films will pretty much
ever sound, with some solid restoration
work on both.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can on Monster
is done with a certain dark and even slightly faded style in certain
ways, but tends to be softer and more off than you would expect from
a recent HD shoot. Even color is affected and the overall
presentation is not that good, making it the weakest of the blu-rays
here. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is also a little lacking in
soundfield and overall impact, so the overall presentation is not
what it could or should be.
Are
three DVDs are here in anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image, save
Keys
in 1.66 X 1, which is the softest of the three and softest
presentation here, despite some good color. All can be soft and
trying in the older format, but that's what you get. All of the DVDs
also offer lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mixes (Belgian, et al, in
the case of Mamabar)
and Yuni
also offers lossy, Indonesian Dolby Digital 5.1, which are fine and
all about on par with each other. DVD is low def, so you know what
you are getting into when you get and watch one.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
