On DVD: Bloody Reunion

Directed By Dae-wung Lim

Starring Ji-hyeon Lee

In the early days of the Asian horror craze the great films were all coming out of Japan.  Recently the interesting films have started coming from South Korea rather than Japan.  So when I got Bloody Reunion a horror film from South Korea from Tartan's Asia Extreme line of DVD's I was excited to dig into it.

The Movie

Bloody Reunion is a low budget slasher flick, which in and of itself is OK by me, but it's deeper than your standard slasher release.  There's some solid characters here and an interesting story that most people can relate to in one way or another.  In the film a retired teacher confined to a wheelchair and nearing death only wishes to see the students she taught so many years ago one last time.  So, her caregiver arranges a reunion for the students bringing them to the teachers seaside home for a weekend of eating, drinking, and reminiscing. 

The students are basically what you'd expect, there's the bad boy, the nerd, the slutty girl, and the hero.  They all fist meet and seem happy to see each other but one of the thematic elements that makes this movie so interesting is the approach to looking at ones past through rose colored glasses.  The truth slowly starts to come out that most of these students didn't like each other and the teacher was actually fairly abusive to them.  I love this story because there's nothing I hate worse than running into someone who I barely knew in high school, or knew them to be an ass only to have them so many years run up to me and want to give me a hug and say how great it is to see me.  Now, I don't go around holding grudges from high school but I do live in reality.  So, if I see some one who was not cool to me back in those days I don't think it's great to see them and seeing them surely didn't enhance my day as they are acting like our meeting has done for them.  I'm in the south, and this region is flooded with this fake hospitality and need of people to appear a certain way even if it's a lie.  Ok, stop, don't get me started on this because I could write a book.  Anyway, suffice it to say, the truth starts coming out and things get ugly.

So, even with the foreshadowing in the first act of the film I felt like we might be getting into a 2LDK situation or a Battle Royale.  If you haven't seen those films (you should) basically the comparison stops at people getting into a confined space and killing each other.  Actually what happens is a slasher starts taking these people out one by one in some pretty grotesque ways.  So, along with the emotional elements and the students stories now there's a slasher on the lose!  So we get the gore and the mystery of who the slasher is.  Some will say the ending is just a bit ridiculous and they might be right but I found myself not caring because everything that leads up to the climax of the film is so intriguing.  I wasn't expecting much from this film but I was surprised by a much deeper story than I expected, some solid acting, good special effects, and for the most part strong directing.  Bloody Reunion ends up being an above average horror film that should please fans of good drama as well as good gore.

8.5/10

The Video

The anamorphic widescreen transfer here features nearly everything that can be bad about a transfer, the blacks are a grainy mess making darker scenes a bit tough to watch, there are compression artifacts throughout the film, detail is low making many scenes feel a little blurry, and there's even a couple of instances of line shimmering.  Now with that said colors are fairly well done with flesh tones looking natural.  I know some of the issues with the transfer may be due to the low budget nature of the film but a better transfer could have been done.  It's worth getting because the film is so good, it'll rise above the issues with this transfer believe me.

5/10

The Audio

There are three options for sound, a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS 5.1 all in Korean with English subtitles.  The two surround mixes seem to be identical with only a minor edge going to the DTS option because I heard my sub woofer kick in more often in that setting.  Overall the audio transfer is much more solid than the video featuring a good balanced presentation with dialogue, sound effects, and score all well mixed.  The surrounds even kick in quite a bit throughout the film making the experience more immersive.  It's not demo quality but it's solid especially considering the video transfer.

7/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

The single disc DVD comes in a standard amaray case with some very effective artwork that does actually not oversell the film.  When I saw the cover I had to immediately check the film out.

First up is a 10 minute interview with the director where he discusses his stylistic choices as well as casting and working with the actors.  The interview is surprisingly informative for its brief running time. 

Next up is am 8 minute special effects featurette that shows some key special effects being prepared and it shows all the work that went into the set design.

There's a half hour long featurette that feels like promotional material more than an in depth look at the making of the film but there are interviews with the cast and crew and some behind the scenes footage.

There's a brief featurette showing the cast posing for photographs, boring stuff.

There are three deleted scenes with optional commentary with the director.  These are definitely worth a couple of viewings, first without the commentary and then again with it turned on because the director offers some insight to why he cut these scenes from the film.

Other than that there's a trailer for the film.  There's not a lot here but what we do get does enhance the overall viewing experience of the film and the quality of the interviews is above average for an Asian horror film.

7.5/10

Bloody Reunion is a surprising film with everything you could ask for outside the slightly ridiculous ending, another solid release for Tartan Asia extreme.

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

The Season 8.5/10

The Video 5/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 7.5/10

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

-Stephen Lackey