‘Love & Crime’ Blu-Ray Review: Terrifying Tales of Japan’s Jilted Women
Female-led films continue to be a hot commodity, and that interest extends to the world of catalog titles, with 88 Films releasing Love & Crime, a lesser-seen effort from the strange and perverted mind of Japanese filmmaker Teruo Ishii. These aren’t women to admire, however—unless you’re the type looking to off a relative or coworker. Ishii relies on history to inspire his tales of psychotic women who, for various reasons, snap or are cajoled into killing. The film is a hodgepodge anthology, which I kind of love. Not every segment is the same length; some stories are just a few minutes. But the four main segments—featuring tales of infamous Japanese murderers—along with various bits and pieces, give the feature a documentary feel. Some of the sex and violence are amplified to make things more salacious, but overall, this feels like a brief overview of historical female killers.
There is something of a wraparound story here, with a young man who performs the opening autopsy becoming infatuated with the woman on the table. His obsession leads to research, and so the tales told here are based on his findings. Some of these are, apparently (forgive me) big in Japan; others are either less known or fabricated but well within the realm of possibility.
All of these stories carry the film’s themes, but the first one hit the high mark for me. It’s a sneaky story full of greed, double crossing, triple crossing, and satisfying comeuppance—all told in a short time. Ishii makes use of the film’s afforded economy, keeping his tales lean and ensuring there isn’t any fat for 92 minutes. I found nearly all of the stories interesting, and Ishii shoots them with an eye toward both drama and sleaze. Effective, odd, sexual tales from one of Japan’s early eclectic filmmakers—this is an oddity worth checking out.
88 Films doesn’t provide any information about the transfer, but the 2.35:1 1080p picture is generally nice looking. Plenty of lush colors to be seen, with one segment in black and white. Contrast is solid and stable. Film grain is heavy but organic. I didn’t see any major print damage or anomalies. Fans of this era of Japanese filmmaking generally know what to expect to see in terms of “film restoration” (using that term to loosely define whatever the studios do on their own and then provide to boutique labels). A Japanese LPCM 2.0 mono track supplies the audio. It, too, is typical of the era: competent, discernible, a bit thin, no hisses or pops. There’s a one-second audio dropout around the one-hour and nine-minute mark, but no issues otherwise. Subtitles are included in English.
An audio commentary is provided with Jasper Sharp and Amber T. “Kiss of Death: Mark Schilling on Love & Crime” (HD, 17:50) is a critical appraisal of the film with a bit of history, too. A trailer (HD, 3:27) and an image gallery (HD, 00:59) round out the extras.
Off-disc, the package is attractive, offering newly-created key art, an OBI strip (a cool touch), a booklet with writing, photos, and salacious imagery, plus a DVD copy. All in all, a fantastic offering for collectors who want more than just a disc and simple cover art.
Special Features:
- Audio commentary with Jasper Sharp and Amber T.
- Kiss of Death: Mark Schilling on Love & Crime
- Theatrical trailer
- Image Gallery
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Love & Crime
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Special Features
Summary
Japanese films are my favorite imports and 88 Films’ release of this new-to-disc early release from a notorious filmmaker is worth seeking out if you like any or all of what I just said. The film itself is pretty good but the package geared toward collectors is what makes this a cut above most.
Categorized: Reviews
