Review for Vulgaria

Introduction

Forgive me, but I keep thinking of the Wombles, which is wholly inappropriate to this review. As soon as I got the PR blurb for the movie, my mind randomly made the connection to Great Uncle ‘Vulgaria’ and hasn’t been able to let go since. Replace a couple of mules with a couple of wombles in this film, and some cherished childhood memories would be shattered, irrevocably tarnished. As it is, Vulgaria manages to tarnish a few childhood memories even without my intervention. But let’s face it; inappropriateness is the order of the day with this film. Just when you think that it can’t go any further, that it’s done making you simultaneously wince and guffaw, it will push the limits once more. Never has a film been more aptly named than Vulgaria.


It’s never the easiest job being a film producer, trying to pull the resources together to get a feature film off the ground. It’s even worse for Wai Cheung To, who has an ex-wife demanding alimony, a daughter he rarely gets to see, a director who insists on remaking the scripts in his own single-minded way, and an air-headed personal assistant who is yet to actually assist. Just try explaining the role of a movie producer to a room full of film students with that kind of situation to deal with. Fortunately for the students, To has just the right example to impart, the lengths that a producer will go to secure funding for a film.


With money drying up, his wife demanding alimony payments, and his daughter maintaining her faith that he will be a success, To gets desperate for money, and doesn’t balk when his friend introduces him to a gangster named Tyrannosaur with some money to invest, albeit a gangster with some odd tastes in cuisine, and even more bizarre tastes in postprandial entertainment. Swallowing his pride takes some doing, but that is nothing compared to swallowing Tyrannosaur’s demands. He fondly remembers a porno from his youth, Confessions of a Concubine, and he wants To to remake it, with the original star Yum Yum Shaw. So now To has a veteran star to recruit, and a movie to make, Confessions of Two Concubines.

Picture

Vulgaria gets a 2.35:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution on this Blu-ray disc. The image is clear and sharp throughout, with the digital cinematography graded to a somewhat sepia toned palette. Detail levels are good, and the image comes across without flaw or significant artefacting. I did notice some light banding in a couple of darker scenes early on in the film, and I did feel on occasion that black detail could be a little better defined, but these are small nitpicks in an otherwise very agreeable transfer.

The images in this review are sourced from the PR, and aren’t necessarily representative of the final retail release.

Sound

Audio comes in DTS-HD MA 7.1 Surround Cantonese format, which I’m two speakers shy of fully appreciating. Nevertheless, I found it to be a robust and effective surround track, offering detail and clarity, as well as a rather quirky music soundtrack. One thing’s for sure, you’ll never be able to watch 2001 in quite the same way again. The optional subtitles are legible, accurately timed, and other than the odd minor typo, free of error. I do wonder if the subtitles have been toned down for the main feature though, as in the extra features, certain scenes are repeated with a much greater degree of profanity. Of course there’s a difference between a transliteration and a translation, and maybe keeping the original profanity as is, wouldn’t have flowed as well for UK audiences.

Extras

The disc gets an animated menu screen that offers scene select, play movie, and subtitle options, as well as a link to extra features.

The Making Of lasts 10 minutes, and plays a little like a spoof mockumentary, with the director trying to sell the movie to star Chapman To. It’s a series of mini-featurettes joined together, which is usually too soundbite-y to really appreciate, but here the mocking style works well to sell the film.

Also on the disc are trailers for Vulgaria, and the forthcoming For Love’s Sake, a Takeshi Miike musical!

Conclusion

I’m going to be boring here, and tell you how brilliant this film is, without really telling you why. That’s the problem with reviewing comedies, it’s hard to explain just why they are funny without spoiling half of the gags, and Vulgaria is a film that really works on one level because of its shock value. In that respect, you do not want to know where and what the ‘wince and guffaw’ moments are. It’s fair to say that they are plentiful in this film, and where often I am found in front of a comedy, merely smiling in agreement, or politely chuckling, this was one film where I was compelled to laugh out loud. In that respect, Vulgaria is a tremendous success, and should be bought forthwith.


Despite its title, it is an incredibly sharp and incisive satire, as well as a close to the knuckle bawdy comedy. What surprised me is that it isn’t a gross-out comedy. Certainly situations in the film are close to the edge, and liable to turn weaker stomachs, but that is something that it accomplished more through implication than explicitly. It doesn’t need to show its gross-out moments on screen. Your imagination will do the work for you. The satire comes from its examination of the film industry, the lengths that producers will go to make movies, and the headaches they have to deal with. If Bowfinger made a porno, it would be Vulgaria.


I want to tell you more about what happens in this film, but that would obviously lead to spoilers. I’d love to go into more detail about the characters in this film; I mean Chapman To as the producer is just brilliant, his apathetic personal assistant is delightful, the gangster is amazing, but then I’d have to tell you just why, and again we’re heading toward spoiler territory. Vulgaria is a brilliant comedy that just keeps on hitting you with knockout punch after knockout punch of hilarity. Just when you think you haven’t got any breath left to laugh, the film will reveal previously undiscovered limits of your lung capacity. The film comes with a tongue in cheek warning before the opening credits (as well as a post credits sequence that you must remember to stay seated for), so I’ll end with a warning to certain ladies and gentlemen. It is very likely that after watching this film, sales of popping candy will increase. It is also likely that hospital admissions may rise by a similar number.