Vexille Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
2067: Isolation
Japan seals herself off from the eyes of the world in the face of unilateral international
policy setting strict limits on the use of robotic technology. The island nation exists only
behind a veil of seclusion. No soul shall enter. No soul shall leave.
2077: Revelation
The veil is breached. Japan is infiltrated by agents of the organization S.W.O.R.D., a
fighting force operating outside of the protection of the United States and her allies. Their
mission: Determine if the Japanese are developing banned robotic bio-technology, forbidden
due to its threat to humankind. In the battle between machine and man, humanity stands
to suffer most.
For more about Vexille and the Vexille Blu-ray release, see Vexille Blu-ray Review published by Lindsay Mayer on November 16, 2008 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
I must admit I was intrigued by Fumihiko Sori's inspiration for his 2007 film Bekushiru 2077 Nihon sakoku. Roughly translated to 2077 Isolation of Japan, the title has been shortened to Vexille in most international markets. Sori was driven to produce a story from his observations on the cumulative effects that personal technology was having on humanity. The ironic trend that the more connected the throngs of mankind appeared to be - with everything from e-mail and the internet to mobile phones and personal planners - the less face to face interaction we actually have. That we are isolated by the very bits of technology we produced, until we are merely a sea of faces, strangers under our own roofs. As my mother once wrote, "I walk alone amongst the crowds of people who walk alone." Sori took this alarming trend, and created a worst-case scenario with it. What if technology became so powerful that it could shut off an entire country from the rest of the planet? And for what purpose would a country want to do that in the first place?
Vexille contemplates the difficult mission ahead.
And so begins Vexille. Sori used his homeland of Japan to tell a dystopian science fiction tale set 70 years into the future. The prologue, occurring in 2067, depicts how the Japanese monopoly of the robotics market had become so massive that the corporation, known as Daiwa Heavy Industries, controlled the very culture, economy, and government of Japan itself. Ironically, the nation is naturally isolated because of its very geographic structure as an island. Daiwa seeks to further cut off the country by withdrawing from the United Nations and working outside of international law. Setting hundreds of signal towers around all of Japan and much of its surrounding seas, they cloak the country in secrecy with powerful electromagnetic signals that scramble all incoming signals and diffuse outgoing information. No citizens are allowed out, and no foreigners are allowed in. Nothing can even be seen from space. Why would this immensely powerful corporation want to isolate an entire nation from the rest of the planet? What do they have to hide?
This is the norm for ten years. Japan remains perfectly secured in a fortress spanning thousands of miles. Flash to Christmas of 2077, where the elite individuals of S.W.O.R.D. - a specialized military unit based in the United States - investigate the potential abuse of robotics technology development. Their current mission is to infiltrate the highly-protected grounds of Japan and, at first, decode the electromagnetic cloak signal long enough to allow satellite mapping of the country. Vexille, a young female lieutenant commander of this suicide mission, becomes the film's focus as most of her team are killed or go missing in the process of their mission, which is not sanctioned by the U.S. federal government and is essentially a rogue task. She makes a narrow escape and is taken in by humble Japanese residents, including a mysterious rebel named Maria. Vexille is horrified by the sight before her. Tokyo has become a tiny, derelict slum surrounded by a towering ceramic wall. Outside the borders, the picture is even bleaker. All of Japan has become a desolate wasteland - forests, fields, mountains, and cities alike are entirely obliterated.
The worst of it is yet to come, as Vexille discovers something even more ghastly. Japan has been wiped out because of a heinous experiment initiated by Daiwa company head and mad scientist Kisaragi. Shortly after the nation was veiled in 2067, a mysterious illness swept the country, causing high fevers and a reeling mortality rate. The government issued mandatory vaccines for every citizen as a result. It later became known that the disease was a cover in order to have every man, woman, and child injected with an experimental nanotechnology that, like a virus, attacked the body's cells and converted them into a form of bio-metal, effectively turning human beings into the perfect android, mindless and lifelike. The technology was imperfect and half-baked though, and hundreds of millions died or suffered painful quasi-conversion into machines. These freak side effects eventually formed massive, semi-sentient forms called jags - whirling spirals of metal akin to the sandworms from Dune. They will voraciously devour any metal material they can detect and access - including the remaining citizens of Tokyo, who hang on to their humanity as long as they can before fully converting to a Daiwa android, incapable of independent thought.
It is these jags that provide the small group of resistance fighters with a way to destroy the offshore Daiwa complex before its megalomaniac leaders move on to infect the rest of the world, having perfected the technology in Japan. Maria and her crew seek to lead the jags via metal cables into the headquarters, where they will eat the factories from the inside out. What follows is a harrowing, valiant race against time, captures and close calls. Vexille, aiding Maria's team, proves herself a vital component in the success of the plan. When many elements fail to fall into place, it is up to her to attempt victory against the most dangerous forms of evil - that which seeks unity and perfection to their own selfish ends.
Vexille sports an impressive AVC encoding that averages about 30 Mbps. The film utilizes a rather extreme color palette and lighting scheme - perhaps to service the dystopian theme of the story, or perhaps as a method to mask the sometimes awkward animation. Action is never lost within the brooding depths of the picture, however, and even the smallest facial expressions are easily readable. The prevalent black levels and shadow detail are excellent, being rich and deep without, as mentioned, overwhelming the settings or characters. The screen is otherwise saturated with bold blues, greens, violets, and flaming oranges and reds. Lighting at times can seem harsh or look overexposed, but this is to achieve a deliberate graphic look, and not necessarily an error in the transfer itself. Contrast is overall very good, and no artifacts or compression problems originating from a bad master are apparent on this release in the least. FUNimation continues to do an excellent job with the new release Blu-rays under their distribution with Vexille.
With both Japanese and English offered up in lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes here, Vexille offers only the best for its Blu-ray viewers. Whether one is a dub or sub fan, they will not be disappointed. Electing to view the film in Japanese with subtitles, I was consistently impressed with the quality of Vexille's mix. Action scenes abound in this sci-fi futuristic tale, so naturally all six channels get quite the workout. Dialogue, in either language, is clear and easily distinguishable; though it mostly emanates from the center channel, it is lent a "fuller" feel by following characters throughout the aural field when the need dictates it. Fronts mainly house the film's rumbling score and trippy background music, which successfully aids in giving an alien feel to a world so very different from our current paradigm. Rear channels were most impressive when massive military vehicles or robotic soldier suits sped across the settings, giving a truly convincing effect of a three dimensional landscape for the viewer. LFE, of course, was put to ample use with the plentiful explosions, kickback of gunfire, or the menacing presence of the giant, predatory metal jags. It is certainly enough to get one caught up in the kamikaze action.
Vexille comes equipped with about two hours' worth of extra features, covering the entire spectrum of the film's production from its initial inspiration to its world premiere. All of the making-of segments are presented in standard definition with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. One can elect to view the supplements in a continuous "documentary" style with the Play All option, or view individual topics alone. Many of the segments center around the film's director, Fumihiko Sori. Beginning with his Opening Comments at Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival, the disc features several interviews, personal tidbits, and daily diaries with the director. Sori's Work As An Animation Creator gives a short history of the filmmaker, who had worked, among other things, for the Tokyo Broadcasting Service and as a visual effects animator on the feature film Titanic. The Sori's Guest Lecture at Digital Hollywood Tokyo has the man speaking about the state of the animé industry and using Vexille as an example. An Old Friend Visits Sori and Behind-the-Scenes Footage of Ichi are brief slices of life that follow Sori as he spends a day directing his live-action film Ichi (produced in tandem with Vexille), and hosting a short visit from a friend and her child to the Oxybot studios where Vexille was produced. Sori's Closing Comments is a short clip that give the director's impressions of Vexille's audience reception after the Swiss festival has ended.
Interviews with voice actors are also provided in a handful of cast recording segments. Voice Acting Footage – Voice of Vexille is a 5 minute clip with the eponymous character's actress, the popular and comely Meisa Kuroki. Voice of Leon, likewise, reveals the director's intentions with hiring the Japanese hunk Shosuke Tanihara to play Vexille's leading man. Other Cast Members focus on four popular animé voice actors in Japan - Takaya Kuroda, Akio Ôtsuka, Toshiyuki Morikawa, and Romi Paku - who play tertiary characters here in Vexille. Creating the Music in Vexille, Part I & II focus on the other aural aspects of the film, featuring Paul Oakenfold as score composer and several trippy electronic pieces as background songs, as well as singer Mink performing the title song "Together Again."
Auxiliary making-of featurettes focus on aspects like the film's physical format and design choices. Creating the Cities in Vexille documents the process of designing the film's urban landscapes, whether the the slick downtown settings of the United States in 2077 A.D., or the derelict slums of the former Tokyo. Creating Vexille's 3D Animation profiles what the Japanese call "3D Live Animé" - a blend of motion capture, CG animation, and graphic design to evoke lifelike action without skewing too hyper-realistic. CG Demo Videos, which curiously can only be accessed with the Play All feature, compile short clips ranging from the motion of a hand to nine visual effects test clips.
The remaining Vexille material is promotional in flavor. 2007 Tokyo International Animé Fair Event follows director Sori as he and the cast show some footage from the then-unfinished film during an event at the animé expo in Japan. Vexille's Premiere, longer than other segments at 13 minutes, documents the cast and crew jitters as the film makes its big bow at the Locarno International Film Festival, where it has since then been shown in 129 countries. Original TV Spots and Previews contain 2 theatrical trailers in Japanese with English subtitles, totaling about 3½ minutes. And on the part of the distributor, FUNimation offers up a handful of trailers for upcoming and current releases. Samurai 7, Darker Than Black, and the latest Dragon Ball Z double feature, Cooler's Revenge and The Return of Cooler, are provided in high definition AVC, while standard def trailers for Hana, Aquarion, Dragon Ball GT, Burst Angel, and Glass Feet are also included.
Vexille may fail to impress those with extensive exposure to animé on a whole, and sci-fi action in particular, because it may feel like familiar territory. Future dystopias, especially involving robotics, are popular subject matter in the many animation studios of Tokyo, so Vexille may feel only mediocre for some. In my humble opinion, the familiar themes are spun creatively enough to be genuinely entertaining - the classic fight to regain humanity has real weight and empathy to it. The concept and plot device of the jags was also well-executed enough as to be rather fascinating. As a Blu-ray release, Vexille boasts an intriguing animation medium and great picture quality. With audio that is nigh-on demo material, and fairly exhaustive extra features, I recommend this for sci-fi fans and animation patrons alike!
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