Ace Attorney (2012)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Featurette-Making Of Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Eastern Eye trailers x 4
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	129:08
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Takashi Miike
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Akiyoshi Nakao Takumi Saitô Mirei Kiritani Hiroki Narimiya Shunsuke Daitô Akira Emoto Mitsuki Tanimura Takehiro Hira Eisuke Sasai Makoto Ayukawa Seminosuke Murasugi
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Kôji Endô

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, closing credits

     Ace Attorney (or Gyakuten saiban) is based upon the popular video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and is directed by the prolific cult director Takashi Miike, who currently has 92 titles as director listed on the IMDb. His films are often confronting, often violent, but always interesting and include Audition (1999), Ichi the Killer (2001), Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) and 13 Assassins (2010) although Miike, does have his more goofy moments such as Yatterman (2009). Ace Attorney is again director Miike in a lighter mod.

     Phoenix Wright (Hiroki Narimiya) is an inexperienced attorney defending people from the low end of town. In contrast, Miles Edgeworth (Takumi Saito) is an up-town prosecutor who has a perfect win record and is trying to emulate his hero, ace prosecutor Manfred von Karma (Ryo Ishbashi) who has not lost a case in 40 years. When Phoenix’s associate Mia Fey (Rei Dan) is murdered after seemingly finding some new evidence relating to a 15 year old murder case, her sister Maya (Mirei Kiritani) is found at the murder scene and charged with killing Mai. Phoenix is convinced that Maya has been set up and he defends her, coming into direct conflict with Miles, who is prosecuting. Because of rampant crime, cases are tried before a single judge and run a maximum of 3 days before a verdict is given. Against the odds, and with a little help from his friends, Phoenix wins the case.

     Shortly after, another murder occurs. Miles is arrested and Phoenix decides to defend him. As he investigates, Phoenix discovers that the victim in the old case Mia was investigating had been Miles’ lawyer father, and that the man Miles is now supposed to have murdered was another lawyer involved in that old case. It becomes clear to Phoenix that the three murders are linked and that, if Miles is innocent as he claims, then someone has something to hide and is covering their tracks. And when Miles comes to trial, Phoenix has only 3 days to uncover the truth and expose the real villain.

     Ace Attorney is full of outlandish characters; as well as the principals there is, for example, Larry Butz (Akiyoshi Nakao) with his spikey red hair, the over the top frizzy haired Lotta Hart, the dastardly Redd White (who is dressed all in black) and the policeman Dick Gumshoe complete with trench coat. Indeed, all characters, reflecting the film’s game origins, have different, often spikey, hair and a distinguishable costume which they always wear. Clearly, someone is having a lot of fun, and the film retains an air of good humour. The courtroom scenes play out as theatre, with exaggerated theatrical gestures, a clapping cheering audience and a deadpan judge (Akira Emoto) who is great fun.

     At almost 130 minutes the film feels long for what it is, but Miike is an experienced director and throws in a some camera pans and cuts along the way as well as flashes of colour to maintain interest. I am not familiar with the game upon which the film is based, but from reports it seems that fans of the game are generally positive about the film version. I can only judge the film as a film and the short answer is that it is an outlandish, over the top experience that is very entertaining in its own right. The film is a bit manic, the characters cartoonish (or perhaps I should say game like), the acting theatrical, the gestures exaggerated, but the film is good fun and good natured. While some knowledge of the game background could help, a viewer does not need to be familiar with the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game to enjoy the film.

Video

     Ace Attorney is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     I am not sure what to make of this print. Close-ups are good, but in wider shots the print can look quite soft. Colours are dull, especially interiors where the court scenes have a browny tinge, while in exteriors the colours and skin tones look quite light. There is some glare when the light source is behind the actor (such as at 7:07) and evident noise reduction in a number of dimly lit scenes. The result was that blacks were not as solid as they could be while shadow detail can be indistinct. There was a bit of aliasing and ghosting with movement but marks were absent. Around 118:56 there were a couple of frame jumps.

     The layer change at 73:23 resulted in a slight pause.

    English subtitles are in an easy to read yellow font and seemed to be timely. There were no spelling or grammatical errors that were not deliberate; when Lotta Hart was speaking we get sentences like at 40:14: “ It don’t werk with trashy girlz like you”. Captions, for example identifying witnesses, are in white.

     The print is a bit of a mixed bag.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The only audio choice is Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps.

     The audio is good. Dialogue is clear and centred and the surrounds are used frequently for crowd noise in the court and ambient sounds elsewhere, such as rain. Sudden sounds, such as the gunshots or the judge’s gavel, resonate loudly and effectively. The sub-woofer added nice bass to the music, the gunshots and the thumps of the gavel.

    Lip synchronisation was good.

     The original score by Koji Endo nicely augmented the on screen action.

     A good enveloping audio track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Making Of (9:03)

     This extra consists of some on set behind the scenes footage plus interview snippets with director Takashi Miike and most of the main cast, mainly saying how they felt when the offer to be part of the film came in. Nothing particularly revealing, or important.

Theatrical Trailer (1:29)

Eastern Eye Trailers

     Trailers for The Silent War (2:09), Big Man Japan (1:42), Maiko Haaaan!!! (1:41) and Motorway (1:33).

     There is currently no Region 1 US or Region 2 UK version of Ace Attorney listed. The Region 2 Japanese release is a 2 DVD set that includes as extras an audio commentary, making of, stage event, game creator interview and various promotional materials. However neither the feature nor extras have English subtitles. Region 4 is the only choice for an English speaking audience.

     Ace Attorney feels a bit long but is full of larger than life characters, the courtroom scenes play out as theatre, and the film retains an air of outlandish good humour. This is director Miike in a lighter mood and the film is good fun, even if you are not familiar with the game.

     The video could be better, the audio is good. A short making of and trailer are the relevant extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall