Ryuhei Kitamura’s so called return to roots is True Romance set in Japan. Suffering from nerve wrecking supporting characters and lacking in that style that brought the director to fame, it’s no surprise this mess of a film was ignored by most international distributors. Numerous cameos, ranging from Riki Takeuchi to Yinling the Erotic Terrorist aka Yinling of Joytoy attempt to spice it up with mixed results. Lead couple Shinji Takeda and singer NorA – two lovers on the run from yakuza and corrupt cops - are as convincing as NorA artist name. The film was shot with modest budget – hence the advertising tagline of Kitamura returning to his origins – but with unaffected film stock ; the epic runs massive 159 minutes. Partly due to the circus display sort of nature of the film, it does manage hold up till the end – in theory at least. There’s occasional success with humor and atmospheric shots of lovers cruising through the mad world in red Corvette, but the American… sorry, Japanese dream, is brought to a quick end by the noisy cast and embarrassing dialogue.
Disc 1 (6,64GB)
Video: 2.35:1 Anamorphic widescreen (progressive)
Audio: DD 5.1 Japanese (448 kbps)
Subtitles: -
Film length: 159:02
Extras: Cast and Crew Commentary
Disc 2 (7,2 GB)
Making of (33:28)
Crazy World of LoveDeath (24:55)
Behind the LoveDeath: Takeda Shinji (6:21)
Behind the LoveDeath: NorA (5:11)
Trailer (1:49)
Teaser (3:50)
Supplementary film 1 (18:21) *
Supplementary film 1 (12:26) *
Deleted and alternate scenes (26:21)
Photo gallery
NorA: The Promise music video (5:24)
Hound Dog: Fight for Love live performance (5:36)
* I don’t really know what the heck this is. Too much kanji in the title, and I can’t be bothered to actually view the feature, or any other extras on this disc.
Package
Cardboard sleeve & plastic case
44 page booklet
Film screencaps
Extras screencaps
Making of and other behind the scenes featurettes
Bonus films
Deleted Scenes
Stills gallery
The Promise music video
Hound Dog: Fight for Love live
Cover front / Back
Plastic case
In short, if you're a fan of the film, this is a good release to own. A French release also exists, and I believe it's native PAL even.
