Review for Mardock Scramble: The First Compression

Introduction

I always approach 18-rated anime with a distinct wariness. It stems from my initial exposure to the medium in my teens. It's when Manga Video ruled the roost, and they got their sales by courting controversy and chasing tabloid indignation. They'd release shows and movies that were just shy of video nasties, given dubs that were spiced up with epic profanity, and consisting of sex, violence and gore, and preferably tentacles. If the show could get mauled by the BBFC in the process of making it to UK shop shelves, it was all the better. As a teenager, I lapped these shows up, but with the benefit of experience and hindsight, I have to admit that most of them were pretty rubbish.

Today, when I see a Manga Entertainment logo next to an 18 rating, I get a shiver down my spine that harks back to those days. Mardock Scramble: The First Compression and its sequel have been wowing the festival circuit over the past twelve months, but when it got an 18 rating, the same alarm bells started ringing. Its subject matter starts at underage sex, teenage prostitution, child abuse, and incest, and gets worse thereafter, and that was enough for me to put the check disc to one side and put off watching it until I absolutely had no other choice. If only I had realised who had created Mardock Scramble, and I would have been far less arbitrary. Mardock Scramble's story was created by none other than Tow Ubukata, the creator of the fabulous Le Chevalier D'Eon, one of my favourite series. Had I known that, this disc would have been reviewed weeks ago.

15 year old Rune Balot has had a hard life. Raped and abused by her father, neglected by her mother, when her family was torn apart, she fell into prostitution. When businessman Shell Septinos offered her his 'love', it seemed like an escape from her troubles. Except Shell is psychopath with a memory problem. He doesn't remember any of the crimes he commits, but girls seem to disappear after making his acquaintance, while his collection of blue diamond rings continues to grow. Rune Balot is just another diamond to him, but there are authorities interested in prosecuting Shell, and cracking the mysterious October Corporation that he works for.

Rune Balot would be the ideal witness, but Dr Easter is almost too late in recruiting her help. It's only by invoking the Mardock Scramble 09 ordinance, that he is able to save Rune's life, and that only by using prohibited technology to turn her into a cyborg. To help her get used to her new situation, and to protect her until she can testify, Balot is assigned an unusual advisor, a talkative shape-shifting mouse named Ouefcoque. It's possible that Balot may just be compatible enough to be Ouefcoque's partner, but the darkness in her past may just cause him to reject her. That would be bad, as Shell needs the evidence against him erased, and a grotesque group of assassins is now on Balot's tail. Worse, so is Ouefcoque's former partner, Dimsdale Boiled.

Picture

Mardock Scramble: The First Compression gets a very pleasant 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p transfer on this Blu-ray disc. The image is clear, sharp and colourful throughout, with no significant problems that I could discern. I did see some minor shimmer on the finest of detail in the background of one scene, the sharp edges of the buildings in a distant cityscape, but that was about it.

Mardock Scramble is a very impressive animation, especially in terms of atmosphere and detail. It's a gorgeous, moody cyberpunk vision of the future, gritty, grimy and messy, and there is a lot going on in every scene. The animation gets a green tinge to it, which coupled with a deliberate layer of film grain just adds to the enveloping feel of the story. The way that light is used to layer the images is really effective, and also draws the viewer in. The character designs suit the story well, but character animation, especially in the quieter scenes can be a little static at times.

The images are supplied by the PR company, and may not be representative of the final retail release.

Sound

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 English and Japanese for the theatrical version of the film, but only DTS-HD MA 5.1 Japanese with subtitles for the director's cut. This being a Kaze disc, the audio and subtitle options are locked at selection, and you can't alter them on the fly (excepting the pop-up menu). Choose the other menus, and you'll find Dutch, Italian and French subtitles, as well as DTS-HD MA 5.1 Italian and French dubs on the Director's Cut versions of the film.

Mardock Scramble is a short film, and since there are two versions on the disc, I opted to watch the Theatrical Version with the English dub before trying the Japanese version of the Director's Cut. I still grin like an idiot at lossless soundtracks, and have a hard time picking out the subtle variations between them in terms of quality. When you hear the action, the music, the clarity of the dialogue in both versions of Mardock Scramble, you won't have anything to complain about. The English dub was good for the most part, except for the character of Dr Easter, whose voice actor didn't quite match the tone of the film. He was too light and jovial, and threw me out of the experience. The script is pretty good though and the rest of the performances very natural, especially as neither Balot nor Ouefcoque have a lot of mouth flaps to match. But I still preferred the Japanese audio, and with Megumi Hayashibara as Balot, it was an easy choice. The music for Mardock Scramble is quite eclectic, and put me in mind of Eric Serra. It's certainly a high point of the film. The subtitles are timed well and free of error.

There is an English language dub for the Director's Cut, but you'll either need Region A compatible equipment for the Sentai Blu-ray, or a multi-region player for the Australian Region 4 DVD (or Region 1 DVD), as Australia doesn't have a Blu-ray release of Mardock Scramble at the time of writing.

Extras

This being a Kaze disc that Manga are distributing, you can expect the usual multi-lingual experience, along with the usual UPOPs that prevent you from having full access to the disc contents. You won't be changing the audio or the subtitles on the fly, which is annoying for a reviewer who wants to check for dubtitles, and more of a pain for hard of hearing fans who want to watch the English audio with subtitles on. Also don't stop the disc halfway through the movie, as my player at least forgets where it was, and pressing play again takes you right back to the first menu screen.

That first menu screen, when you place Mardock Scramble: The First Compression Blu-ray into your player is a language select screen, offering you English, French, Italian, and Dutch options. The big extra on this disc is the inclusion of the theatrical version of the film.

Select the English menu screen, and you get an animated menu, with scenes from the film playing in the background. The English screen offers you the Theatrical version on the left hand side of the screen, and the Director's Cut on the right. The Bonus offers you the Japanese TV Spots, the Japanese trailer, and two Promotional Videos for the movie.

Choosing the Dutch menu takes you to a screen where the Director's Cut is presented as the main feature, and the Theatrical Version is part of the bonus options. The only language option here is Japanese with Dutch subtitles.

It's the same arrangement on the Italian menu screen, but the language options here are Italian or Japanese with Italian subtitles for the Director's Cut, and Japanese only for the theatrical cut, the reverse of the English offerings.

Again, it's the same way for the French presentation of the film, but the French selection is where you really get the best treatment in terms of presentation and extras. The French version precedes its menu screen by autoplaying trailers for Kaze TV, Roujin Z, and the One Piece movie. Incidentally we're getting Roujin Z on Blu-ray this summer, and if this trailer is anything to go by, it should blow that flawed Region 1 Central Park Media DVD out of the water. As well as the four sets of movie trailers, you'll also find Kaze trailers for King Of Thorn, The Castle of Cagliostro (a Blu-ray world debut it seems), and Le Fil de L'Araignee.

The big extra on the disc, if you can read French that is, is the Interview with the Creator. The film's producer Go Nakanishi speaks to the original creator Tow Ubukata in a 34 minute featurette. It's presented in 1080i resolution, and subtitled throughout in French.

It would have been nice if the featurette had been subtitled in English as well, but having a look at my collection of multilingual Hollywood offerings with English only extra features, the sour grapes just can't be sustained. What is missing though is a preview for the sequel.

Conclusion

I love a good bit of cyberpunk, and Mardock Scramble may just be the best cyberpunk anime feature to come since the original Ghost in the Shell feature. In terms of atmosphere, audio and visuals, world building and concepts, it delivers something unique and engrossing. It actually trumps Ghost in the Shell in terms of story and characterisation, but fails to match it in terms of scientific verisimilitude. Some of its ideas and concepts drift far too close to fantasy and magic, pushing it away from the hard sci-fi that I prefer, but I still found much to appreciate and enjoy in Mardock Scramble. And when it comes down to it, when a film has as exciting action set pieces as these, you'll forgive the talking mouse mascot animal.

The actual problem with Mardock Scramble: The First Compression is that it's one-third of a story, just the first act of a movie. You get introduced to the characters, the story gets set up, there's a bit of character development, and one or two minor twists and surprises, followed by a whopping great cliff-hanger, leaving you wanting Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion forthwith. It's hard to judge this movie on its own merits as it is incomplete. In fact, it probably will be only after seeing all three features back to back that I'll be able to offer a fair appraisal of the story. In terms of visuals, action, in terms of setting up the story, and in terms of leaving you wanting more, I can definitely recommend The First Compression, but there is the proviso that the subsequent films may let the side down. This isn't The Matrix which (Thank God!) stands robustly alone.

The theatrical version of the film was rated 15 by the BBFC, while the director's cut got an 18, and it isn't just a matter of the extra 3 minutes of footage, most of which is character development anyway. The director's cut actually has different animation in certain scenes, making the sexuality and nudity more explicit, and some of the violence a little more brutal. It certainly raises the bar on what you are watching, but Mardock Scramble's subject matter is where the edginess truly comes in. 15 or 18, there's no changing the background of incest, rape and prostitution in Rune Balot's background, and neither is there any cloaking of the hideous situations she encounters. The director's cut is actually preferable for the extra development that the relationship between Balot and Ouefcoque receives.


That is the heart of The First Compression, and the one aspect of the film that I empathised with. Ouefcoque is that bit of magical fantasy in a cyberpunk world, a genetically engineered, talking mouse with a human intellect, able to transform into a whole variety of objects, including weapons. It would have been a weakness if Ouefcoque had only been a gimmick or mascot, but instead he's a character central to the story. A product of advanced technology, he's a key member of the group trying to prosecute Shell, and he gets assigned to Balot to keep her safe, help her integrate into her new body, and convince her to testify. For Balot, a victim of rape and abuse from an early age, from her father, and the men she prostitutes herself to, the irony is that Ouefcoque is the one male character that she feels safe around, and can trust. It's interesting seeing that trust develop into affection. The trouble is that Ouefcoque is designed to bond and partner with cyborgs like Balot, and that bond is affected by the mental state of the partner. With the kind of past history that Balot has, it proves stressful to Ouefcoque. At the same time Ouefcoque's past also comes back to haunt them in the form of his former partner Boiled, who is now working for Shell.

It takes a while to get going, but Mardock Scramble: The First Compression soon develops into the sort of cyberpunk thriller that I can really get my teeth into. In terms of production values, it's impeccable. In terms of story, characters and action, it quickly grabs the attention and holds onto it until the final frame. There's a gang of grotesque assassins who first go after Balot that come from a seriously warped imagination, both in terms of their character designs and their psychopathic tendencies. The First Compression builds and builds its story and its characters, it raises the tension, intensifies the pace, the action sequences get more and more exciting, and then BAM! Cliff-hanger! And that is the main problem, it's really just the first third of the movie, and until it can be completed by parts two and three, it's impossible to truly decide how good it is. But it is worth watching, and it's definitely worth watching in high definition.