Labyrinth of Cinema: Limited Edition SteelBook – Crescendo House (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Japan, 2019
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Writers: Kazuya Konaka, Tadashi Naitô, Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Cast: Tadanobu Asano, Takuro Atsuki, Mickey Curtis, Tokio Emoto, Yoshihiko Hosoda, Takahito Hosoyamada, Gorô Inagaki, Nenji Kobayashi, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Takehiro Murata, Riko Narumi, Takashi Sasano, Tôru Shinagawa, Yukihiro Takahashi, Takako Tokiwa, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Hirona Yamazaki, Rei Yoshida, Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Release Date: November 2nd, 2021
Approximate running time: 2 Hours 59 Minutes 9 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio’s / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 Japanese, LPCM Stereo Japanese
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $49.99

"Filming in his hometown of Onomichi for the first time in 20 years, director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s new film invites us into an intoxicating cinematic world. Against a backdrop that traces the history of Japan’s wars, Labyrinth of Cinema shapeshifts between styles and genres, drawing influences from silent films, talkies, action flicks, musicals, and more – and creates something triumphantly unique in the process.

Ôbayashi, with a boundless optimism, showcases the raw energy within the medium and the power for cinema to enact real change, as three youths are transported through time into the projected world, fated to cross paths with three heroines through disparate timelines and settings within the silver screen.” – Synopsis provided by the Distributor

Video: 5/5

Labyrinth of Cinema comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 44.2 GB

Feature: 43.8 GB

Shot on Canon RAW (4K) (source format) and Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format). That said, the source looks excellent. Colors are nicely saturated and at times vivid; image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid. This is a solid transfer; it is hard to imagine this film looking better than this transfer. Labyrinth of Cinema, like many of Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s other films, uses multiple aspect ratios. The main aspect ratio is 1.85:1, and other aspect ratios are boxed.

Audio: 5/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 Japanese, LPCM Stereo Japanese)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in Japanese and a LPCM stereo mix in Japanese. Both audio tracks sound excellent. They both sound clear, balanced, and robust when they should. A lot of work has gone into the sound design, and range-wise, both audio tracks do a superb job with ambient sounds and the score. Included with this release are removable English subtitles.

Extras:

The only extra on the Blu-ray disc that includes the main feature are an introduction by Kyôko Ôbayashi wife and daughter Chigumi Ôbayashi (1 minute 37 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with non-removable English subtitles).

Extras on a second Blu-ray disc include US theatrical trailer (1 minute 40 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with non-removable English subtitles), Japanese theatrical trailer (55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with non-removable English subtitles), festival theatrical trailer (31 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with non-removable English subtitles), an interview with producer Kyôko Ôbayashi titled A Conversation with Mrs. Ôbayashi (17 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with non-removable English subtitles), and Notes from the Labyrinth (56 minutes, 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with non-removable English subtitles) a documentary with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Nobuhiko Ôbayashi and the cast.

Other extras include steelbook packaging, a plastic o-card slipcover, four postcards, and a thirty-six page booklet with cast & crew credits, an essay titled Dreaming Together in a Cinematic Labyrinth written by Eiko Ikegami, Eight poems by Chuya Nakahara (English version), Eight poems by Chuya Nakahara (Japanese version), director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi biography, and Director’s Statement.

Summary:

To call Nobuhiko Ôbayashi an unconventional filmmaker would be a massive understatement. He created a unique body of work that is unlike anything that has come before or since. And with his swan song, Labyrinth of Cinema, he delivers an exuberant explosion of cinematic language that those who are familiar with his other films will appreciate more than someone who is viewing a Nobuhiko Ôbayashi film for the first time.

Labyrinth of Cinema features a narrative where anything can happen. What starts off as a story about a cinema that is closing down quickly transforms into a celebration of cinema in which characters in the audience become part of the films they’re watching. Labyrinth of Cinema is both a celebration of cinema and a history lesson about Japanese wars. Labyrinth of Cinema, like Nobuhiko Ôbayashi's previous three films, is an anti-war film.

The performances are best described as enthusiastic. There is nothing conventional about the performances. There are many moments where characters acknowledge that they’re characters in a movie. That said, the performances work perfectly with the artificiality of Labyrinth of Cinema.

At just under three hours in length, Labyrinth of Cinema’s narrative moves along at a surprisingly brisk pace that ensures there is never a dull moment. Also, Labyrinth of Cinema is an exquisitely looking film that has a superbly constructed narrative that builds to a very satisfying climax. Finally, Labyrinth of Cinema is the ideal culmination of one of cinema's greatest auteurs.

Labyrinth of Cinema gets an exceptional release from Crescendo House that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a trio of informative extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer