Kazuhiko Hasegawa, the screenwriter of the masterful cop film Retreat Through the Wet Wasteland, takes the directing duties in the most interesting film of the 70’s. Kenji Sawada plays a high school science teacher who decides to build an atomic bomb of his own. The film begins as a masterpiece but unfortunately, and for a reason that I couldn’t quite figure out, the director takes the film so over the top at the end, that it loses all its credibility. Perhaps Hasegawa wanted to further underline the fact that the film is indeed a black comedy, although a somewhat restrained one most of the time, but the outcome is nevertheless wrong. Still, even with the flaws the film is amazingly fascinating and memorable.
The R2J calls itself "Ultimate Premium Edition", which translates as remastered transfer, 2.0 and 5.1 audio and original trailer...* And yes, english subtitles are included. There's also a cheap HK dvd but it's supposed to be crap. They even gave the characters new, chinese names. Finally, as one last warning, regardless of the edition this movie may cause deep depression when you realize you ain't gonna find anything as interesting within the next 10 years.
EDIT: I was not aware an oop 2 disc edition existed. I have it now, will review some day but not anytime soon. It comes with a couple of hours worth of new and old interviews (also loads of behind the scenes stills) and a booklet.
(I have the Thai box set).
