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    • BLU-RAY REVIEW

    Demon Pond 4K Ultra HD

    Featured In Issue Issue 275, September/October 2024

    Picture2.5
    Sound2.5
    WSR Score2.5
    Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
    (Studio/Distributor):
    The Criterion Collection
    (Catalog Number):
    CC3608UHDBD
    (MPAA Rating):
    Not Rated
    (Rating Reason):
    (Retail Price):
    $49.95
    (Disc Type):
    Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-66)
    (Widescreen Edition):
    Yes
    (Full Screen Edition):
    (Running Time In Minutes):
    124
    (Color Type):
    Color
    (Chaptered/Scene Access):
    Yes
    (Closed Captioned):
    Yes
    (Regional Coding):
    ABC
    (Theatrical Year):
    (Theatrical Release):
    Yes
    (Direct-To-Video Release):
    (Disc Release Date):
    10/15/2024
    (THX® Digitally Mastered):
    (Director):
    Masahiro Shinoda
    (Screenplay/Written By):
    (Story):
    (Music):
    (Director Of Photography):
    (Production Designer):
    (Visual Effects):
    (Costume Designer):
    (Editor):
    (Supervising Sound Editors):
    (Re-Recording Mixers):
    (Executive Producers):
    (Co-Producers):
    (Producers):
    (Academy Awards):
    (Principal Photography):
    (Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
    (Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
    (Disc Soundtrack):
    PCM 24/96 2.0
    (Theatrical Sound):
    (Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
    (DTS Bit Rate):
    (Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
    (Additional Languages):
    (Subtitles):

    In "Demon Pond," Japanese New Wave renegade Masahiro Shinoda transforms a classic Kabuki tale with his own extravagant visual style in this dimension-shattering folk-horror fantasia. When a lone traveler (Tsutomu Yamazaki) stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants—including lovers Akira (Go Kato) and Yuri (Tamasaburo Bando, who also plays the ethereal princess reigning over the water)—in their hands. Demon Pond blends theatrical artifice with cinematic surrealism for an aquatic-apocalyptic fable of human love and folly caught in the current of nature’s wrath. (Gary Reber)

    Special features include a new interview with film scholar Dudley Andrew, program on the film’s special effects (SD 18:12) and an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson.

    The 1.85:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 4K Ultra HD Dolby Vision/HDR10 picture, reviewed on a VIZIO Quantum X P85QX-JI UHD/HDR display, photographed on 35 mm film stock and sourced from a new director-approved (Masahiro Shinoda and Actor Tamasaburo Bando 4K master Digital Intermediate format. Film grain is very smooth and never objectionable. The picture exhibits a generally subdued, darkish appearance. The color palette exhibits desaturated hues with no vivid hues apparent. The village structures are made of wood and dried thatch foliage and exhibit a brownish palette. The foliage is a dark green. Flesh tones can appear natural at times, but are very much off most of the time. HDR contrast is poor. While levels are desaturated, shadows are dark and not delineated, and white levels are crushed, except for the English subtitles. Resolution is poor as the picture is softly focused, This is a generally very dark picture that appears as a play rather than a film and not very well crafted and amateurish. (Gary Reber)

    The LPCM 1.0 monaural soundtrack features an electronic synthesizer/choral score by Isao Tomita’s. Japanese dialogue is the focus (with English subtitles). The music sounds distorted. Foley sound effects sound overstated at times. There are no dynamic sounding events. Even the village flooding scenes is lacking dynamic power. This is in essence an undistinguished soundtrack. (Gary Reber)

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