Review for Villain (Review)

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Introduction
If Third Window Films can be accused of something as crass as hype, then it's with a certain degree of pride and anticipation that they have been promoting Villain, and it's one title that has seen an extensive nationwide cinema exposure, before being released on home cinema format. Who can blame them? Villain has certainly won its plaudits, nominated for 15 Japanese Academy Awards, and winning 5 of them, and sweeping all of the acting awards in the process. It has also received honours around the world, including at the Montreal film festival. On the other hand, I've never been one to trust awards, and certainly given the track record of the Oscars, you'll find a lot more of the losers than the winners in my DVD collection. Once again I find myself in that oxymoronic state of approaching a DVD review with both reluctance and eagerness.

Insurance saleswoman Yoshino is certainly enjoying life. She'd much rather stay in the city over the holidays rather than go back home to her family, after all, as she tells her co-workers, she has a date. Actually she has two men to choose from, a rich college student and society heir named Masuo, and Yuichi, a construction worker 'bit of rough' that she met via a dating website. It was a little tactless of her when she arranged a date with Yuichi, and coincidentally bumped into Masuo. Her brush-off of Yuichi lacked diplomacy. Watching her drive off with Masuo enraged Yuichi, and with a squeal of tyres he was off after them. A few days later, the police are informing her shocked parents that Yoshino's body was found abandoned off a mountain road. Meanwhile Yuichi has started seeing Mitsuyo, a timid shop assistant who also replied to his message on that dating website.

Picture
I should have been reviewing the Blu-ray. But alas, another villain took exception to the Sony DADC replication factory during this summer's riots, and torched the place, putting several independent film distributors a couple of steps closer to the brink. Which is why Third Window Films have had to stick to the DVD release of Villain, and it's an NTSC-PAL standards conversion at that. There is a smidgen of ghosting, blended frames, an overall softness of image, some shimmer during pans, and darker shades lack definition. Otherwise it's a clear and undamaged transfer of a film so engrossing that all but the most strident of video-philes will forget its flaws within a few minutes of the film starting. Third Window Films' past experience has led them to mention on a public forum that it isn't cost effective for them to release a Blu-ray some time after a DVD. I hope that Villain can be the exception to that rule, as it is a film that really deserves a high definition release.

Sound
There are no nits to pick with Villain's audio presentation however, as its DD 5.1 Japanese audio track is put to excellent use. It's a fully immersive soundstage, which while this isn't an action movie, certainly has enough going on sonically to give your speakers a workout. Whether it's the sound of a rainstorm, the squealing tyres of a car, or just ambient dialogue in a restaurant, this is an exemplary bit of sound design. The use of sound, or lack thereof to punctuate character moments is also very impressive, and echoes the changes in audience perceptions of various characters as the story unfolds. Joe Hisaishi, a regular studio Ghibli collaborator, provides the score for Villain, and it's an effective selection of music. Optional English subtitles are available, are timed accurately, and free of error.

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