Blu-ray Review: GOEMON
Kiriya Kazuaki definitely makes distinctive films. Goemon is no different. Love it or hate it, it definitely jumps off the screen. When I first saw the trailer for Kiriya's Goemon I was floored. It looked exciting, it looked like a combination of genres and styles that I hadn't seen in a live action film before. I think my initial impression was a steampunk jidai-geki film. Fast moving, unrelenting action. That's what I wanted when I saw the trailer. Is that what I got? Well, mostly...
Goemon opens on a fantastic festival and simultaneous heist. This opening sequence sets the mood for the rest of the film, and definitely deliver on the action I was promised by the trailer. However, shortly thereafter, the film dives into exposition and history lessons.
Most of the characters in the film were real people from Japanese history, radically dramatized to fit into Kiriya's story. I get the feeling that a lot of the subtlety that Kiriya is going for in the more pastoral sequences is lost on the non-Japanese audience. It almost seems like he tries to make up for that culture gap with long periods of exposition, but that exposition just stops the film's flow dead in its tracks. In addition, there are just too damned many key characters to really make sense of them all without some kind of index. That is my main issue with Goemon, too much story.
However, when the film remembers to get back to business, it is a thrill-a-minute ride! The action sequences set the bar pretty high, and so when they go missing for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time, my mind starts to wander. Here's where the film will split audiences. If you are willing to accept the film's inner logic, you'll be fine. If you are a foe of CG fighting and action sequences shoehorned into live action films, you are going to hate this. Then again, if CG bothers you in general, this isn't the film for you. Not only are most of the stunts performed by CG actors, but the cast majority of the backdrops are almost entirely CG. The CG allows very fast movements by the camera and very fast action by the "actors", which keeps those sequences paced at a breakneck speed. These sequences are sometimes dizzying to watch, which I really liked.
The look of the film is somewhere between the Wachowski brother's candy colored Speed Racer and Zach Snyder's desaturated 300. In fact, the film oscillates between those two looks pretty frequently, typically using the over-saturated palette for action scenes and the deadened palette for dramatic scenes. This use of color to impart tone is not exactly Earth-shattering, but it is effective, and I liked it.
Goemon is going to be a divisive film, but I think that is why FUNimation picked it up. It fits in well with their live action catalog of films like Shinobi: Heart Under Blade and yet it feels like a live action anime. Goemon will, no doubt, do well with FUNimation's core audience, which I guess I'm becoming more and more a part of every day.
The Disc:
This is easy. With a film so heavily reliant on digital manipulation, it is easy to see that the image on FUNimation's Blu-ray is exactly the image Kiriya wanted. There are no scratches, no marks, no damage of any kind. The color palette is extremely vibrant and looks beautiful in my dark home theater. There are a few brief moments when the CG looks a bit muddy, but that is entirely due to the source material. The audio is equally good. As is FUNimation's pattern, the disc features two different Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks, one in the original Japanese, and one in English. I listened to the Japanese track for 98% of the film and found it expressive and immersive. The surrounds are put to great use during action sequences, and that is true right off the bat during the first action sequence before the credits even roll.
The disc also features about an hour of extras, all in HD. First there is a 30 minute behind the scenes documentary with a lot of on-set footage. It is amazing just how much green screen this film used and how remarkably little was practical on set. This must have been a massive undertaking in post-production. The second featurette is an 18 minute look at creating the CG world of Kiriya Kazuaki. This is pretty interesting as well, it looks at the raw footage, and how it was composited with the CG to make a final image. It takes so many layers of work that it makes my head hurt.
If you think Goemon is your speed, you can't get much better than this disc. Find a trailer on youtube and check it out. That will give you a pretty good indication of what you're in for. FUNimation have done this title proud, even down to the slipcover and reversible cover art. Definitely recommended for those not prone to epileptic seizures.
Goemon on Blu-ray is Region A locked.
Goemon opens on a fantastic festival and simultaneous heist. This opening sequence sets the mood for the rest of the film, and definitely deliver on the action I was promised by the trailer. However, shortly thereafter, the film dives into exposition and history lessons.
Most of the characters in the film were real people from Japanese history, radically dramatized to fit into Kiriya's story. I get the feeling that a lot of the subtlety that Kiriya is going for in the more pastoral sequences is lost on the non-Japanese audience. It almost seems like he tries to make up for that culture gap with long periods of exposition, but that exposition just stops the film's flow dead in its tracks. In addition, there are just too damned many key characters to really make sense of them all without some kind of index. That is my main issue with Goemon, too much story.
However, when the film remembers to get back to business, it is a thrill-a-minute ride! The action sequences set the bar pretty high, and so when they go missing for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time, my mind starts to wander. Here's where the film will split audiences. If you are willing to accept the film's inner logic, you'll be fine. If you are a foe of CG fighting and action sequences shoehorned into live action films, you are going to hate this. Then again, if CG bothers you in general, this isn't the film for you. Not only are most of the stunts performed by CG actors, but the cast majority of the backdrops are almost entirely CG. The CG allows very fast movements by the camera and very fast action by the "actors", which keeps those sequences paced at a breakneck speed. These sequences are sometimes dizzying to watch, which I really liked.
The look of the film is somewhere between the Wachowski brother's candy colored Speed Racer and Zach Snyder's desaturated 300. In fact, the film oscillates between those two looks pretty frequently, typically using the over-saturated palette for action scenes and the deadened palette for dramatic scenes. This use of color to impart tone is not exactly Earth-shattering, but it is effective, and I liked it.
Goemon is going to be a divisive film, but I think that is why FUNimation picked it up. It fits in well with their live action catalog of films like Shinobi: Heart Under Blade and yet it feels like a live action anime. Goemon will, no doubt, do well with FUNimation's core audience, which I guess I'm becoming more and more a part of every day.
The Disc:
This is easy. With a film so heavily reliant on digital manipulation, it is easy to see that the image on FUNimation's Blu-ray is exactly the image Kiriya wanted. There are no scratches, no marks, no damage of any kind. The color palette is extremely vibrant and looks beautiful in my dark home theater. There are a few brief moments when the CG looks a bit muddy, but that is entirely due to the source material. The audio is equally good. As is FUNimation's pattern, the disc features two different Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks, one in the original Japanese, and one in English. I listened to the Japanese track for 98% of the film and found it expressive and immersive. The surrounds are put to great use during action sequences, and that is true right off the bat during the first action sequence before the credits even roll.
The disc also features about an hour of extras, all in HD. First there is a 30 minute behind the scenes documentary with a lot of on-set footage. It is amazing just how much green screen this film used and how remarkably little was practical on set. This must have been a massive undertaking in post-production. The second featurette is an 18 minute look at creating the CG world of Kiriya Kazuaki. This is pretty interesting as well, it looks at the raw footage, and how it was composited with the CG to make a final image. It takes so many layers of work that it makes my head hurt.
If you think Goemon is your speed, you can't get much better than this disc. Find a trailer on youtube and check it out. That will give you a pretty good indication of what you're in for. FUNimation have done this title proud, even down to the slipcover and reversible cover art. Definitely recommended for those not prone to epileptic seizures.
Goemon on Blu-ray is Region A locked.
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