Bullets 'n' Babes

W no higeki

Top: R3 HK IVL (interlaced / dvd-5)
Bottom: R2J Kadokawa (progressive / dvd-9)

































Another fine example of how terrible IVL are at encoding. The compression is horrible even on dvd-5 standards. As usual, the english subtitles sometimes appear a bit too early, sometimes a bit too late, rarely perfectly on time. Extras are limited to trailers.

Kadokawa's dvd has much better compression, despite the video file being only 4½ GB. The disc is progressive, and comes with an additional 5.1 remix. Extras feature trailer, tv spots, photos, filmographies and a 56 min documentary (more about it soon).

How is the film?

I definitely liked it. It's quite theatrical and not that fresh but then again, it is about theatre. I'm not sure if I'd fully recommend it to you, though. I liked the structure (the theatre play and the main character's real life start resembling each other) (<--not a huge spoiler) but someone might find it too intentional. The storyline loses its credibility once big time but that turn is also at least partly in line with the theatre play style of the film.

Those problems certainly wouldn't bother any mainstream viewer (which means almost every member of this board) but I know you're not exactly one. If I wasn't a big Hiroko fan myself I might not have enjoyed the film quite that much either. But being who I am, I happily bought the R2J after viewing the HK disc.

The 56 min documentary I mentioned before concentrates on W no higeki, but also features footage on Hiroko in general. Loads of great stills that I haven't seen on other Hiroko dvds (mainly Hiroko Yakushimaru kanpekiban and Hoshi kikou concert dvd, which also feature stills) are also shown.

Hiroko




Director Shinichiro Sawai


Stills and pics








Hiroko performing the film's theme song

I aim to sort out and get rid of my OST collection sometime this decade, if I remember I'll send you the soundtracks for this and another Sawai film.

Really? Amazing. W no higeki is one of my favourite Hiroko songs.