Review for Villain

Introduction

If Third Window Films can be accused of something as crass as hype, then it's with a certain degree of pride and anticipation that they have been promoting Villain, and it's one title that has seen an extensive nationwide cinema exposure, before being released on home cinema format. Who can blame them? Villain has certainly won its plaudits, nominated for 15 Japanese Academy Awards, and winning 5 of them, and sweeping all of the acting awards in the process. It has also received honours around the world, including at the Montreal film festival. On the other hand, I've never been one to trust awards, and certainly given the track record of the Oscars, you'll find a lot more of the losers than the winners in my DVD collection. Once again I find myself in that oxymoronic state of approaching a DVD review with both reluctance and eagerness.


Insurance saleswoman Yoshino is certainly enjoying life. She'd much rather stay in the city over the holidays rather than go back home to her family, after all, as she tells her co-workers, she has a date. Actually she has two men to choose from, a rich college student and society heir named Masuo, and Yuichi, a construction worker 'bit of rough' that she met via a dating website. It was a little tactless of her when she arranged a date with Yuichi, and coincidentally bumped into Masuo. Her brush-off of Yuichi lacked diplomacy. Watching her drive off with Masuo enraged Yuichi, and with a squeal of tyres he was off after them. A few days later, the police are informing her shocked parents that Yoshino's body was found abandoned off a mountain road. Meanwhile Yuichi has started seeing Mitsuyo, a timid shop assistant who also replied to his message on that dating website.

Picture

I should have been reviewing the Blu-ray. But alas, another villain took exception to the Sony DADC replication factory during this summer's riots, and torched the place, putting several independent film distributors a couple of steps closer to the brink. Which is why Third Window Films have had to stick to the DVD release of Villain, and it's an NTSC-PAL standards conversion at that. There is a smidgen of ghosting, blended frames, an overall softness of image, some shimmer during pans, and darker shades lack definition. Otherwise it's a clear and undamaged transfer of a film so engrossing that all but the most strident of video-philes will forget its flaws within a few minutes of the film starting. Third Window Films' past experience has led them to mention on a public forum that it isn't cost effective for them to release a Blu-ray some time after a DVD. I hope that Villain can be the exception to that rule, as it is a film that really deserves a high definition release.

Sound

There are no nits to pick with Villain's audio presentation however, as its DD 5.1 Japanese audio track is put to excellent use. It's a fully immersive soundstage, which while this isn't an action movie, certainly has enough going on sonically to give your speakers a workout. Whether it's the sound of a rainstorm, the squealing tyres of a car, or just ambient dialogue in a restaurant, this is an exemplary bit of sound design. The use of sound, or lack thereof to punctuate character moments is also very impressive, and echoes the changes in audience perceptions of various characters as the story unfolds. Joe Hisaishi, a regular studio Ghibli collaborator, provides the score for Villain, and it's an effective selection of music. Optional English subtitles are available, are timed accurately, and free of error.

Extras

Villain gets animated menus, where you have the option of playing the film with or without subtitles, a scene select option, and an extras menu.

In the extras, you'll find the film's trailer, and a reminder that a weblink is accessible if you put the DVD into your PC.

By far the most interesting of the extra features is the 62 minute long Making of Villain, tantalisingly subtitled 56 Minutes Removed, 2 Minutes Created. It offers the usual behind the scenes look at the making of the film, with interviews with the cast and crew. But the focus of this piece is on how the film was edited into the final version. The initial cut was some three hours and fifteen minutes long, and some difficult decisions had to be made to create the version that you see on this disc. This documentary examines those decisions, with reference to the deleted scenes, and offers a decent bit of insight into how films are shaped.


The Conversation Between Director Sang-il Lee and star Satoshi Tsumabuki lasts 23 minutes, and is your more usual EPK bit of fluff, as actor and director meet over lunch to talk about the film, leading to voice-over woman introducing many clips from the film and input from other members of the cast and crew.

One small niggle is that the subtitles for the extras don't get the detailed proofreading that the subtitles for the feature do. One or two simple errors do creep in here.

Conclusion

Third Window Films have hit one for six with practically the last over of the match. They've saved the best for last in 2011, and given that the year started so strongly with titles like Confessions of a Dog, the Memories of Matsuko Blu-ray, and with releases later on in the year like Cold Fish and Sawako Decides, that such quality would be hard to match. In my mind, nothing was going to exceed the brilliance of Confessions, released on a stunning Blu-ray, but Villain has gone and done exactly that. This may just be my movie of the year.


It's a thriller with a difference; a straightforward whodunit on the surface, with Yoshino's murder really having only two suspects, and the reveal of just who is responsible comes pretty early on. The set-up comes as little surprise to those who have even a passing knowledge of such films. Yoshino is a happy-go-lucky girl on the surface, having a good time living and working away from home, but there is a selfish, mercenary streak to her, having found Yuichi on a dating website, and using her long distance relationship with him for her own physical needs, but dropping him like a stone when she sees the possibilities in Masuo, a rich college kid who is heir to a substantial family business. Masuo's the typical playboy, who's hooked up with Yoshino on a whim, so he can brag to his friends, but the minute she gets slightly clingy, he's ready to run for the hills, after kicking her out of his car. Then there is Yuichi, quiet, polite, doesn't speak much, keeps himself to himself, respects his elders, takes care of his grandparents… He sounds like a cliché of a murder suspect. But he's actually looking for love on that dating website, although he's very much an introvert and lacking in social skills or empathy. When these three characters collide, tragedy is inevitable, and what you think would be a typical thriller looks set to ensue.


But then Villain takes an unexpected right turn into unpredictability, as it becomes a character study, and it won't be long before you're questioning just who the villain of the film actually is. The arrogant college student reveals a defensive vulnerability and lack of moral backbone as he tries to deal with the situation. Yoshino, painted by her grieving parents as angelic, is revealed to be anything but, while of course the focus of the film is on Yuichi, who while initially presented as the antisocial loner, slowly gains dimension as the story unfolds. It isn't the clichéd character revelation either. He remains a reprehensible character pretty much throughout. It's despite his personality and his actions that he begins to garner some sympathy.


That of course happens when he encounters shop assistant Mitsuyo, herself introverted, timid and withdrawn. Warped by his prior experience with Yoshino, Yuichi's first date with Mitsuyo is something of a disaster, but when she unexpectedly treats him like a human being, with warmth and affection, a connection between the two is formed. When it becomes apparent that the police are hunting for Yuichi, the two of them go on the run, and in the process uncover Yuichi's past, and we learn just what made him the way he is.


In the meantime, the film also introduces us to Yoshino's grieving father, playing the blame game with his wife over who is responsible for her death, having to deal with the prurient rumours that surface afterwards, and looking for a target to lash out against, a need to avenge his daughter. We also meet Yoshino's grandmother, a woman who dotes on her grandson, has in fact raised him and proudly thinks of him as her son, who at the same time is getting caught up in a conman's get rich quick scheme, and then has to face a barrage of press outside her house when Yuichi becomes a murder suspect and goes on the run.


Villain is a thriller to be sure, but that is the least of its parts. It's really about people, about understanding why such reprehensible acts as murder are committed, and the effect such an act has on the victim's family, the murderer's family and loved ones, indeed the murderer himself. I don't think any film I have yet seen has been as effective as Villain in getting into the mindset of a killer. It feels very realistic in the way that these characters are presented, but there is such a sympathy and understanding, without any measure of sugarcoating or glamorisation, that it is much more effective than any traditional thriller. I never thought that I would shed a tear for a murderer.


Villain is the most moving film that I have seen this year, it's one that needs to be in every collection, and for once I've seen an award winning film that's actually deserving of its accolades. The only thing that would have made this film more perfect would have been a Blu-ray release.