Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Park Chan-Wook made quite the name for himself internationally with his superb "revenge" trilogy. He's probably best known in the US for the middle of the three films, Oldboy. This time around Chan-Wook takes on a different type of film, though the knack for heavy violence is still present. I'm a Cyborg revolves around a young girl who is committed to a mental hospital after attempting suicide at a factory. There she meets several interesting characters with various mental issues and a young man who hides behind a mask. The girl thinks she is a cyborg and talks to various electrical items throughout the hospital and the film takes on a bit of a fantasy role with interesting visual displays that reminded me slightly of the French film, Amelie. Overall this is a slow building film but by the end you realize the full heart of the characters. People looking for a film similar to Chan-Wook's more popular offerings may be disappointed, but this was still a very interesting character piece on its own.

This film was shot using the "Viper" digital camera. We haven't seen much use of this digital camera in American cinema but some popular examples include Collateral and Cloverfield. The Blu-ray image is extremely punchy and vibrant and detail overall is quite satisfying. Some of the facial features are slightly obscured in terms of fine detail, but environmental details are outstanding. This is a brighter film and the digital image does a lot for depth of image but contrast can be slightly lacking in the darker sequences. Shadow detail is good but the Viper doesn't seem to do quite as well here as conventional film. Overall this is still a spectacular looking HD presentation that is just short of reference quality.

Tartan has included both a Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack for this release. The soundtrack is Korean but English subtitles are provided. The mix is a bit hot at times in overall level compared to the stateside Blu-ray releases I'm used to. I had to turn it down quite a bit from my standard viewing levels. Dynamics are impressive though and while this film doesn't offer a lot of excitement in sound design, it has its moments of intricate sound detail and convincing ambiance. I love the way they used the surround soundstage in this film. Subtle nuances are picked up throughout and there is a lot of character to the soundstage added from the surrounds. Voice work sounds natural enough and thankfully I didn't notice any dubbing issues at all.

According to the case extras include the trailers, an interview with the director a production feature and a music video. Unfortunately I could not get any of these to play with my US Playstation 3. This has been reported as a problem on several AV forums. The extras are presented in Standard Definition.

With Tartan US's recent closure I am pleased to see Tartan UK supporting the Blu-ray format and in region-free form. Tartan has always been one of my favorite studios for foreign cinema releases and I'm looking forward to their future releases.