REDLINE BluRay Review

(And Manga UK is the first one out of the gate, followed by Madman with Anchor Bay closely trailing in third...)

It's not often that I write two reviews for the same film almost within a month from each other, but for Takeshi Koike's "Redline" I will gladly make an exception. Now for those with a big wallet this film was actually available already from Japan with English subtitles, but the first truly English-friendly version (meaning: with an English dub as well) will be released by Manga UK within a week in several editions, with even the most pimped version costing only a fraction of the Japanese disc.

"Redline" is one of my favorite films out of all I've seen this year and sure is worth owning on BluRay. But will the Manga UK releases do the film justice? They sent me the retail version and the happy news is: oh hell yes! I had an exhilirating time in the cinema with this film but it is also infinitely rewatchable at home, and a marvel to behold on HD.

Let me elaborate...


Note: I will re-use bits and bobs from my earlier review here but there are a few added insights after having seen the film now, like, twenty times instead of just once. However, should you just be interested in the BluRay quality all you have to do is skip to the part which says: "On to the Discs".


The Story:

Once every 5 years, the highly popular but illegal Redline race is held and racers from all over the galaxy gather to try and see who's best. Trans-am racer "Sweet" J.P. would love to participate but cannot as he earns his money by finishing second on purpose in all the semi-finals, forced into skewing the betting odds on behalf of a disgusting mobster.

But when the latest Redline race is revealed to be held on an extremely hazardous location (a warzone even), some scared racers drop out and J.P. unexpectedly gets sent a wildcard.

Will J.P. take the offer and race?
Will J.P. manage to romance the lovely Sonoshee McLaren even though she is his rival in the race?
And given his tendency to crash any vehicle he is in, will J.P. survive long enough to reach the finish?


The Movie:

While re-re-re-watching "Redline" I got reminded of a line out of Mel Brooks' "Spaceballs": "Let's go to... LUDICROUS SPEED!".
"Redline" is the visual representation of that line.
There is a moment about two minutes into this movie from whereon you have to turn off whatever part of your brain tries to link what you see with any semblance of reality and just go with it. From then on you are expected to keep that part firmly dormant for the remaining one-hundred minutes.
If you do not, you will most likely be frustrated and get bored by all the overstimulation this film provides. Allow yourself to run loose with the mad dogs however and you are in for one hell of a thrillride.

The crew who made "Redline" seems to have been hand-picked from a group of people we like here at ScreenAnarchy, first and foremost Ishii Katsuhito of "Funky Forest: The First Contact" and "The Taste of Tea" fame, who wrote the screenplay. Strong and manic animation featured in his earlier films already so it always was interesting to see what would happen with him being involved in a fully animated project, and the end result thankfully does not disappoint. His particular brand of humor is very apparent here, as is his ability to infuse some honest feeling into even the silliest things.

Take lead character J.P. whose behavior would in any other setting be either asinine or saccharine, but he manages to come across here as neither. The ultimate underdog, J.P. gets screwed, swindled, thrashed and badmouthed throughout the film but he never complains about it. He rolls with the punches and keeps acting nice, choosing to power up his car for speed alone instead of opting for added weaponry like the rest does. A caricature greaser with a caricature hairdo, he looks ridiculous but compared to the freakshow made up by his opponents he is pretty easy to identify with. It's rare to see an anti-hero who never acts as an asshole yet is without even a shred of self-doubt, but J.P. fills that bill and we start rooting for him automatically.

This goes for the rest of the film as well. "Redline" has a lot of clichees in it, but instead of spoofing them it uses them as pillars, embellishing the entire movie around them. It cheekily asks its audience some pointed questions. What is wrong with cheering for the good guy? What is wrong with getting the girl just by being nice? What is wrong with winning a race through just being the best kick-ass driver with an awesome car?
And the answer is: nothing. There is nothing wrong with cheering for the obvious hero as long as the film never becomes boring or quaint. And "Redline" sure doesn't.

For most of the time the animation saves the film all by itself. The level of detail in the drawings is amazing and even though cgi must have been used (NOBODY can animate a ticker-tape parade by hand within a century!) it all looks firmly handdrawn. It took seven years to produce "Redline", more than five years of which were spent on animation and it sure shows. Pastel tints are used for the main action but details have been gloriously embellished to show a metallic sheen. Visual jokes sparkle in every frame, regardless of whether it depicts a dusty desert, disco dancers or the kind of starscape filled with galactic wonders which makes instant astronauts out of ten-year-old boys. There are shout-outs, references, homages and good-natured spoofs by the dozens and these all provide an extra goofy layer while never entirely taking over the film.

Because at the same time, "Redline" is pretty focused on the race and its racers. There is plenty of evidence shown in the background that this particular Redline race is only held to show the whole universe what evil weaponry the fascist Roboworld has secretly been preparing for an upcoming war, but it is just a bit of background. It is an ulterior motive for the filmmakers to add even more carnage with a high chance of obliterating all racers in the process. Not that these racers would probably complain as the teams are shown to be dying for their chance to star in this race. Each of them gets presented through short televised specials and these are brilliantly funny. The drivers in Team Superboins from planet Supergrass were very popular with the audience during the cinema screening, never failing to get an appreciative grin whenever they showed up and once you see them you will know why. As you see their car get into offensive mode when attacked it's hard not to laugh, and surely the Superboins are proof that Ishii Katsuhito is pleasantly unhinged. Dare we hope for a Team Superboins movie one day? Planet Supergrass sure looks like a fun place to visit from the few snippets shown here...

When the day of the Redline race finally arrives, you learn that the rest of the film has just been a warming up exercise for the finale. The way the race starts is already pretty insane and it quickly escalates from there towards pure lunacy. The entire track is put wham smack in the secret weapons testing grounds of the Roboworld empire, so the emperor want the racers dead (and the cameras gone) as quickly as possible. It gets worse when some extremely powerful bio-weapons escape the control of their masters during the race and planet-busting lasers come out as a safety device. Add to that a finishline which is hundreds of feet above the surface, which may seem like bad planning with a race of ground-based vehicles until you see how that little problem gets resolved (and no, it's not the vehicles which do the resolving). Not that the racers need to be obliterated much, as they do a perfectly fine job of that amongst themselves. Even when they are not shooting rockets at each other the sheer torque and acceleration of the racing cars has them rattling and disintegrating around their drivers already without any outside help.

Escalation can be tricky to accomplish if you do it quickly yet want it to last for some time. How do you top one insanity with another? Some careful scaling needs to be applied lest the peak is reached too early. "Redline" manages to accomplish it though, keeping the viewer invested right till the very end. I don't know what my blood pressure or heartrate was during the final minute but in the cinema I felt exhilarated during the end credits. Now that a BluRay has arrived I have already watched it over and over again, and writing about it urges me to view a few choice bits once more. Stellar, stellar entertainment.

Let's go to ludicrous speed indeed... mission accomplished!


Conclusion:

If the devil is in the details Lucifer is very present here: while the general story could hardly have been simpler the execution is a marvelous thing to behold. Many may find it too hyper for its own good but "Redline" is fun from start to finish, a collection of wicked sight-gags wrapped around a 'rah-rah' feeling of righteousness. And the intricate drawings have to be seen to be believed.
Firmly lodged in my top-10 for this year so far, this title is definitely recommended!


On To the Discs:

Ever since the expensive Japanese BluRay hit the streets back in September, the wait has been on for a proper English release. And surprise surprise, for a change it's Manga UK being the first one on the calendar! Kaze was a scant few weeks earlier but their French-German-Dutch release does not have any English subs or dubs. Maybe for once this pesky parallel importing thingy will work to Manga UK's benefit, perhaps? The quality of this release sure won't be a preventing factor.

Manga UK has built a rather reliable reputation as of late in their BluRay releases. Meaning that when they DO release a BluRay, it is never a bad one. The same thing applies here: "Redline" looks nothing short of magnificent on BluRay. This is a film which often demands being seen in high-resolution, with the insane artwork at times stretching even the boundaries of that platform. There is nothing wrong with the DVD-release of Manga UK, but oh man... this BluRay chews it up and spits it out. This is one of my favorite BluRay releases this year and the image quality is stunning. Lines are razorsharp, colors look like you've taken LSD, contrast is flawless. This disc is demo-quality on the visual side. For a moment I feared it was slightly cropped compared to Kaze's French-German-Dutch version, but a quick check on the computer shows this is not the case.
And unlike Kaze, Manga UK has used the original flashier end credits instead of the English-language ones. Applause!

Soundwise there is only good news. Both the Japanese and the English tracks are delivered in a Dolby True-HD 5.1 and regular 2.0 track (funnily enough the Kaze disc had a Japanese DTS-HD track, go figure...). The Dolby True-HD 5.1 track is a very good one too, just listen to your woofers coming alive during the first race as the racers approach. And with this film it sure pays to have good sound!
Further good news: the English dub (currently exclusive to Manga UK, Madman and Anchor Bay) is actually pretty good. And for those who, like me, always prefer the Japanese dub, know that the subtitles on this release are excellent. If my memory serves me well the subs here are even better than on the cinema release as the announcer's voice in the background is also subbed in a separate track at the top of the screen, and there is a lot of extra exposition hidden in what is said in there.

So the film itself is very well covered. Now for the extras:
The DVD has the 2006 trailer and a "Quick Guide to Redline". The trailer is really interesting, as it is nearly five minutes long and only contains footage not seen in the final movie. Actually, it's more like a preview and it shows a completely different race in a different city. So we see JP, Sonoshee, the Superboins and the others again, but doing different things. Cool, and the boinscar can actually kick nearby cars!
The "Quick Guide" is a 24 minute publicity piece but it does show Takeshi Koike and Katsuhito Ishii providing some background information.

The BluRay has these items but also a "Perfect Guide to Redline", which is nothing less but a whopping 67-minute fullblown "Making of". You see extensive interviews with Takeshi Koike and Katsuhito Ishii, often together, hints and tips for watching the BluRay, pre-production art, trying to do things the Hayao Miyazaki way (and failing, because according to Ishii "...only Miyazaki himself can do that..."). You also get to see the voice-recording sessions with the original Japanese cast, including Tadanobu Asano and Takuya Kimura having fun behind the mike. This is a very good documentary and worth the package all by itself. Recommended viewing, and both guides are in HD.

The Manga UK Collector's Edition contains the DVD edition, the BluRay edition and an 18-page booklet. This has additional interviews with Takeshi Koike and Katsuhito Ishii in it, and an article on Redline's roots written by Jonathan Clements. Again, not exactly filler.

All in all I am extremely satisfied by Manga UK's handling of this title. The film looks amazing on BluRay and the extras are very good. To have both English and Japanese soundtrack in True-HD is bliss. On top of that these releases are quite cheap, with even the Collector's Edition costing only about 20 EUR.
To end this review: this release is very, VERY much recommended.

You can buy the Manga UK Collector's Edition of "Redline" through our affiliate (link).

Or you can buy the regular BluRay (link).

Or you can buy the DVD (link).

(Me, I'd go for the Collector's Edition as the difference in price with the regular BluRay is almost zilch, and easily worth it for the booklet. But hey, that's me...)