DVD
REVIEW: NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE
02/18/08
SYNOPSIS:
Investigating a rash of mysterious suicides, a female
detective finds a curious link between the deaths: each of
the victims had dialed ‘O’ on their cell phones almost
immediately before taking their own lives. As she discovers
more about the bizarre deaths and their chilling connection,
the young cop enlists the aid of a fellow detective who
shares the killer’s ability to enter people’s dreams… but
she soon realizes that she must face her own fears if she is
to prevent further murders.
REVIEW: Nightmare
Detective is one of those movies that the audience have to
be paying attention form the beginning. It is true that the
first 10 minutes of the movie are very confusing and
somewhat monotonous, but they are also key to understand the
other portions that turns out to be a delightful
Drama/Horror/ Thriller. It is impressive how a movie that
has so much graphic scenes did not used as much CG, this
makes the movie more real and fun to watch. Shinya Tsukamoto
adds to his repertory another incredible, bizarre, and
disturbing movie; Nightmare Detective is, in my opinion, his
best movie since his 1989 Classic The Iron Man.
As imaginative the story can be, the events are presented as
clear and graphical to the audience , that it catches
completely their attention. From the first time the hero is
presented, the feeling of compassion and sympathy for him is
inevitable. He is presented as an enigmatic, trouble, and
dark person with an awful past and with a gift that he
hates. The villain although he shares as similar
characteristics as the hero, is really despicable, he is as
manipulative as Jigsaw, with the powers of Freddy; the other
characters although as not as interesting as the main ones
they added what was necessary to entertain. All the actors
did a good job performing their roles, specially Ryuhei
Matsuada and Japanese singer Hitomi. The movie’s highest
point is not the acting, it is the way it delivers the
story. With an impressive used of camera, special effects
and audio the movie involves the audience to feel the
desperation , fear and anxiety of all the characters, also
the way the reality and the dreams merged was fantastic, it
shows great skill from the director in unifying both world
without making the audience to lose interest in the movie.
The downside of the movie is that the director in my
opinion, overuses the first person camera, there are parts
where he shakes it to much, giving more nausea than causing
fear, also that little of the villain and the hero is known,
specially how they obtain their powers; some sporadic scenes
are shown that the meaning is left unsolved like when the
Nightmare Detective is coming back from the dreams, the
water scenes, and specially the little kids at the end of
the movie, let us hope that for the sequel this things are
explained.
Asian cinema is without a doubt growing at a fast rate in
any category, but in the horror and SciFi genres, it is
taking them to another level. It seems that the visual
taboos that western film makers have do not apply in the
eastern region, Nightmare detective combines this vision
along with an imaginative and original story, depicting the
suicidal mind, that catches any movie fan attention. The
result: a terrifying, smart and disturbing pieces that will
let everyone asking for more.
VIDEO:
Widescreen in a “Matted”
widescreen format preserving the aspect ratio of its
original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for widescreen TVs
AUDIO:
English
and Japanese
5.1 (Dolby Digital).
Subtitles - English and Japanese - Optional
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Unfortunately for special features fans this DVD
disappoints, it does not have any special as matter of fact
it only has two choices the theatrical trailer and the
making of, which is about an hour long, starting with the
director‘s idea, all the way to the last day of shooting
night, although the movie can be seen in English, I
recommended to watch it in its original language with
subtitles.
The Making of Nightmare Detective: a
presentation of the idea behind the movie and how the scenes
well filmed, special effects, settings and make up, also it
shows the director‘s and main actors comments on the movie,
nothing special really.(55:26)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
| FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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| BONUS
FEATURES |
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Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
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