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Lorelei AKA Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean (2005)
R2 - Japan - Pony Canyon Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (14th September 2005). |
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The Film
 The Japanese film “Lorelei” is a recent co-production between “Fuji Television” and “Toho Studios”. Toho has produced several war-movies during the years (many quite unknown to the mainstream audience), but this time the budget has been bigger, and special effects are more modern. “Lorelei” is a submarine movie, but instead of being a serious and historical war-drama alone, it combines some unusual elements with this kind of film, fantasia with some supernatural elements. Based on the novel by Harutoshi Fukui, the story is set in 1945, and WW2 is nearly over. US and Japan are still in war though, and like history has told us, that war ended with the atomic bombing of Japan, when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were basically destroyed. In the film, “Lorelei” is a name of the I-507 -submarine that Nazi Germany gave to the Japanese before it finally collapsed to the Allies. Now, after the first atomic bombing to Hiroshima, Commander Masami Shin'ichi (Kôji Yakusho) will have the command of “Lorelei”, with one mission in mind that could still save Japan from the “unconditional surrender”. That´s to intercept and sink the US ship carrying the second Atomic bomb to Tinian Island, where the US military base is located. This main plot alone indicates that this film is not meant to be taken as historically accurate, but there is more. The submarine is equipped with (imaginary) technology in a form of a young woman called Paula Atsuko Ebner (Yu Kashii). This woman apparently is a product of the scientific experiment by the Nazi Germany (or at least she has been there in the camps), and has a strange psychic powers that allows her to “sense the ocean” on the surface, and with the help of her “sonar” (nervous system or similar), they can guide the submarine very accurately. Paula is a secret weapon of “Lorelei”. The pilot of the mini-submarine on board, Yukito Origasa (Satoshi Tsumabuki), begins to have a special affection for Paula, and this brings some romantic aspects to the story. There are also a few others plot twists in the film, but those you can find out for yourself. Director (Shinji Higuchi) is best known as a special effects director for the Gamera-trilogy (1995-1999), and “Lorelei” is his first major film as a main director. At least in Japan, the budget probably has been big, which shows in a form of CGI-effects. Some of them are nicely done, but sometimes I had the feeling that I´m watching a “cut scene” of the video game, since some of the CGI-effects looked too digital and “rough” for my taste. A big miniature of the I-507 –submarine is also used, so effects often combine miniature- and CGI-shots, bringing more realism to the exterior-shots of the submarine. The actors were also a mixed bag. “Older” actors (officers) were mainly fine, and Kôji Yakusho (Commander) carried the film in many scenes, but some of the younger actors (mainly Satoshi Tsumabuki and Yu Kashii) were not that convincing (they were not bad though). Maybe in this area it shows that director Higuchi is a newcomer when it comes to being a main director, so he didn´t get everything out of some of the actors. These few points aside, the film includes some nicely executed submarine scenes, and some interesting thoughts in the script about the war in Japan, and how people have to deal with those (mainly bad) memories in the future. When Commander says lines like: “It´s the older generation that started the war”, you´ll sense that this movie also tries to teach something to the younger generation (audience), or at least it could give some thoughts to them for what people went through in the hands of their leaders in the WW2. The film is still more entertainment than serious drama (how could it be a serious drama, when you have a woman using her “nervous system sonar”?), but some scenes here and there show that the filmmakers wanted to add some food for the brain also, not just fantasia and action. The film also includes some US actors (US battleship, which hunts “Lorelei”), who speak their lines in English (with burnt-in Japanese captions in those scenes). Toho has a long history in here also, since some of their films (e.g. “Frankenstein vs. Baragon AKA Furankenshutain tai chitei kaijű Baragon (1965)”) had some US actors working with the Japanese ones. You can tell that they´re not very “known” actors, but they´ll do the job in their scenes (Captain of the US Battleship is played by Tyrone Power Jr. btw).
Video
The film is presented in Anamorphic 2.35:1, and it´s also “THX Certified” (it has the THX-logo before the actual film, which is always nice to have, and “THX Optimizer” in Japanese). As you might expect (since this is a newer film), the transfer is very clean, though there was some grain (probably due the style of the film). The overall feel of the transfer was a bit “washed out”, with a lack of strong colors and black levels, but this most likely was intentional. It worked for the film, since characters who are isolated in the dark submarine deep in the water don´t really need any colorful images surrounding them. I also noticed some edge enhancement in some scenes. Overall, not a bad transfer at all. Film runs 128:46 min (NTSC), and it has 34 chapters.
Audio
The disc has two audio options, both Japanese (like I said earlier, with some English in certain scenes): DTS ES 5.1 (matrix) and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX. Both are “flagged”, so receiver says that the DTS is “matrix”. The film also includes optional English and Japanese subtitles, so the first good news (on the audio-section) is that the film is indeed English friendly. Ah, a submarine film with DTS. It has to be good, right? Well, it´s pretty good. The DTS-track is very powerful and dynamic, with plenty of nice surround activity (not just in the action-scenes, but throughout the movie). Depth charge explosions, sonar beeps, different sounds of water etc are all there and they sound good and believable. And when the Commander shouts something (in a typical Japanese way, I might add), you feel like standing up from the couch and doing what he says.. I watched the film through with DTS, and with some testing on a few scenes the DTS sounded a bit more powerful than the Dolby Digital, but the difference is not huge. End credits also reveal, that “Skywalker Sound” has also worked with the sound on this film, so at least there is no war between the Japanese and US sound engineers.
Extras
This Japanese “Premium Edition” includes 3 discs, 2 booklets, and the UMD-version of the film (which works in the new PSP-console). It should be noted here, that discs 2-3 are all in Japanese, and don´t have any subtitles. The film itself is packaged in a foldout digipack with nice cover art, and together with booklets they are all housed in a cardboard case. The UMD-version is not housed in the case, and is placed separately. Disc 1 The first disc has the film, and only extra (if you don´t count the “THX Optimizer”) is the audio commentary. Unfortunately, the audio commentary is not subtitled. Disc 2 This is the better extra-disc of the two for the English speaking people. *“Making of” -documentary (36:14 min) is in the form of video diary. It includes about 20 different scenes, where the camera follows the action. There is some narration and a few comments from the actors, but there are no proper interviews. This is very visual piece of work which makes it fun to watch, even without the English subtitles. Cast & crew seem to be quite relaxed, and you´ll get some funny moments also when the actors are fooling around. *26 deleted/extended scenes are next, and with “Play all”-option they run 26:41 min altogether. Deleted material has “burnt-in” timecodes (non-anamorphic), and various scenes are included. Many scenes have new bits here and there, and some scenes are still against the blue screen. *“Cast & crew” -segment (4:20 min) is in the form of music video, and basically shows probably most people from the cast & crew. This is nice little segment, and I assume that this is a small “thank you” for the cast & crew. *“I-507” -photo gallery runs like a slideshow (5:45 min), with music. It´s about the making large miniature of the “I-507”-submarine, which they used for the special effects-shots. *“Interview” -featurette (15:23 min) with the director, and other people from the crew. *“Pre-Visualization” -feature (20:01 min) includes 8 scenes. Mainly it includes the comparison of raw CGI-effects vs the final CGI-scenes. *Then we have 2 Japanese trailers (1:18 min/2:03 min), 2 teasers (34 sec/31 sec), and 6 TV-spots (16 sec/each). *Finally, we have a small Easter Egg, which can be found from the bottom right corner of the “Main menu” (click the “Lorelei”-logo). You´ll get a brief (38 sec) comment from director Shinji Higuchi. Disc 3 The final disc is more focused on the interviews, and I have to point out here, that my lack of Japanese language forced me to leave some description of the extras quite minimal (since I´m not sure in which areas they were focused on). *First we have (could be a segment from some TV-special) an discussion with the director and other person from the crew, moderated by interviewer. It runs 18:12 min, and includes also a few storyboards and model-shots. *“Tour of the submarine” -featurette (5:43 min) takes us through the whole set-up of the I-507 –submarine, where they shot most of the interior-scenes. *“Team White & Team Black” -featurette (11:43 min) seems to be about the CGI-effects, and includes mainly interviews. *Another CGI -featurette (17:47 min), includes again interviews. *In the CGI -feature are 18 scenes (no “Play all”-option), where you can compare the layering of the CGI-shots, and in the end we can see the final result. Most clips run under 1 minute, and rest are a bit longer (only one is over 2 minutes). *Rest of the disc includes 5 -featurettes (18:38 min / 15:46 min / 19:09 min / 10:57 min / 11:03 min), that concentrate mainly on the interviews. On each featurette, first we have some comments from the director, and after that 3-4 people will share their thoughts. We have stories e.g. about the costumes, DVD, and finally about the small models and toys from the film (the Japanese must love these models and toys). Booklets 2 booklets are also included: *First we have a reprint of director Shinji Higuchi´s shooting script, which has over 170 pages. There are little notes and sketches on the pages also which makes this is an interesting addition, although all writing is in Japanese. *Another one is a 20-page booklet, which has photos, production notes, and cast & crew biographies, with list of the features on this DVD. All are in Japanese. *Last “extra” is a photo reproduction of the “crew & Paula”-photo, that they´re watching at the end of the film. UMD-disc Finally, the set includes the UMD-version of the film. UMD (“Universal Media Disc”) -format is a optical disc that can store up to 1.8 GB of data. It uses “MPEG-4 AVC” codec. Sony´s new PSP (handheld)-console uses this UMD-format, so now you can play games and watch movies with the new PSP. UMD-version of “Lorelei” is presented in 1.78:1, so it´s probably cropped. UMD-discs has Region codes (games don´t), and like with the Japanese DVDs, this one has “R2”.
Overall
“Lorelei” is a fairly good submarine movie, which has a great soundtrack but slightly mediocre special effects (if you compare those to some US blockbusters at least, but not sure that is that fair?). The story is different, but it manages to overcome the many obstacles of combining war, some history, and fantasia -elements. At the same time it lacks keeping the whole 2 hours interesting and intense, and a few actors did not do that well in the film. I personally like more “historically accurate” -films than “adventure/war”-genre, but this was a good effort. This “Premium Edition” is a big package of goodies, and the main film also has English subtitles, but the lack of subtitles on the extra-features took the best edge out of the extras. I also would´ve like to see the featurette about the US-actors and other people involving of this film, since I feel that extras were too concentrated on the effects. Still, this is a very good DVD-package. This DVD is available at CDJapan.
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