Crouching Tiger, Shaolin Soccer, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Kung Fu Hustle, Ip Man, and now…Gallants. That’s how it’s going to be – the best Chinese martial arts films of this decade.
This review is going to be short and sweet. It’s probably best not to read too many reviews of this film since Gallants is the most creatively-made, contemporary martial arts movie that has a great story from beginning to end, has awesome music and soundtrack, has amazing acting, is funny and touching, and has some of the best filmed old school Shaw Bros-style fight choreography with no CGI or wirework.
There’s good news and bad news concerning this movie for home theater viewing. The bad news is that there is no Hong Kong Blu-ray release of this film. The good news is that it doesn’t matter because the KAM & RONSON DVD is excellent quality. Even if this company did release a blu-ray, it probably wouldn’t be such a huge upgrade since they are a company that is known to release their blu-rays with video quality that has been comparable to an upscaled dvd.
The KAM & RONSON Hong Kong NTSC All-region DVD is excellent. The anamorphic video is great and not problematic at all. And the Cantonese DTS-ES 6.1 just rocks and is mixed perfectly. The English subtitles are pretty good with some mistakes here and there. The extras are very nice too – an anamorphic, DD 5.1 trailer, a very good letterboxed DD 2.0 music video, and a really good letterboxed 50-minute in-depth making of the film subtitled in English.
I’m sure this will get an eventual Blu-ray release, but this DVD will be good enough until it’s time to upgrade.
If you are a true martial arts movie fan, you will love this film!
I made a huge mistake – I bought the single disc version of Takashi Miike’s THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, thinking that I don’t care about extras and wasn’t sure if the DVD was going to be anamorphic or not (not exactly stated on the back of the DVD cover – it just says “widescreen”). I don’t usually care for extras in a film unless the film is extremely interesting. I’m almost tempted to give this single disc version away only for one reason – I should have bought the 2-disc DVD version of this fantasy masterpiece! THE GREAT YOKAI WAR is a fairytale nightmarish fantasy film that is pure genius and one hundred percent eye candy. And this was marketed as a Japanese family film? That’s nuts. Those Japanese kids are tough, because this movie is freaking scary if labeled as a children’s film. This movie is so unique, amazing, and I just learned about this film a couple days ago. I haven’t had such a cinematic surprise since watching MIND GAME and NIGHT WATCH. I really don’t want to give too much away about this film, but here’s how I would break down THE GREAT YOKAI WAR:
1. A live-action Hayao Miyazaki film
2. Japanese mythical folklore
3. The nightmares of Terry Gilliam and Guillermo del Toro
4. A Mathew Barney CREMASTER movie made for your average person
5. A G-rated JACOB’S LADDER
6. GAMERA
7. Industrial sci-fi
8. Monsters straight out of the Mos Eisley Cantina bar in STAR WARS
9. Monster robots from that TWISTED METAL video game
10. Sexiness a la LABYRINTH and LEGEND
11. Gogo from Kill Bill dressed all in white, kicking ass with a whip
12. An R-Rated WIZARD OF OZ and NEVERENDING STORY
13. The best parts (robots/machinery coming alive) of Miike’s DEAD OR ALIVE trilogy
14. A Japanese EVIL DEAD film
15. Jim Henson studios on a combination of cocaine, speed, heroine, and extacy
Even though Takashi Miike is an extremely talented director, I have never really been a fan of him. I saw ICHI THE KILLER, the DEAD OR ALIVE trilogy, YATTERMAN, AUDITION, THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS, and THE CITY OF LOST SOULS. I wasn’t crazy about any of them. These movies had some interesting and creative-filmed scenes, but they did not add up well to a whole. All I saw was a talented director without direction or balance. I think that THE GREAT YOKAI WAR is his first real masterpiece. This movie is a perfect balance of Takashi Miike’s brain – horror, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, nightmarish imagery, elegant pretty imagery, memorable characters, excellent CGI and trippiness. The movie is a masterpiece for its genre and Takashi Miike is a genius. I love this movie and I’m dying to watch it again.
The Hong Kong DVD (Universe, NTSC Region 3) is overall very good. The back cover only states that the DVD is “WIDESCREEN,” which made me think it could be letterboxed, but don’t worry, it’s anamorphic widescreen. The video quality is very nice looking, not perfect but pretty solid. The audio has a totally involving reference quality sound – sending out all the sound effects all across the room one would expect from a horror-action-fantasy genre movie. The audio options are Japanese DD 5.1 EX, Japanese DTS-ES, and a dubbed Cantonese DD 5.1 EX. The English subtitles are pretty good with some letters missing from words here and there, but the translation is very good. If you want the plentiful extras (Another Story of Yokai, 2005 Yokai Conference, Short Drama of Yokai, Making of Yokai Movie, Interview with Main Casts, Visual Records of Promotion, Documentary of Ryunosuke Kamiki, The Introduction of Yokai), buy the 2-disc DVD version, which I should have done. For one, I’m dying to see the creation of all the costumes/character make-up they made for this movie. Trust me, these aren’t Mighty Morphin Power Rangers costumes/characters – these are characters that are reminiscent of the original STAR WARS movies.
Although I think that THE GREAT YOKAI WAR is the director’s best film, I’m sure many will disagree and say that AUDITION is (it is a good horror movie, but I’m not too crazy about horror films), but it’s certainly a totally entertaining work of art, with not one boring scene in the film.
There is a USA NTSC Region-Free DVD now available but the audio is only DD 5.1 Japanese and DD 5.1 English. If you like English dubs or if you can’t play a NTSC Region 3 DVD, then buy the USA version.
couchpotatofarm 