Cutie Honey (Kyūti Hani) (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer Featurette-Making Of Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	89:07
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (38:44)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Hideaki Anno
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Eriko Sato Jun Murakami Mikako Ichikawa Eisuke Sakai Mitsuhiro Oikawa Sie Kohinata Hairi Katagiri Mayumi Shintani
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Kumi Koda Yutaka Izubuchi Dango Takeda

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Though only for Japanese products
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    When the evil Golden Claw, along with thousands of his generic minions, attempts to kidnap her uncle, the professor, Cutie Honey (Eriko Sato) zooms in to save the day. Using her secret power, the Honey Flash, her martial arts skills and her powers of disguise, it is not long before the professor is saved and the half-android "Warrior of Love" Cutie Honey has revealed her existence to the world.

    Through some new friends Cutie Honey soon discovers that the plot to kidnap her uncle was masterminded by the sinister Panther Claw, who murdered Cutie Honey's father some time earlier. Panther Claw is trying to find the key to eternal life for the evil Sister Jill (whose own experiments into eternal life have virtually entirely turned her into a tree) and has a whole host of other Claw-named super villains, armed to the teeth (in some cases literally!), at his disposal to aid in his pursuit. With the aid of her new-found police detective and journalist friends, Cutie Honey must set out to defeat Sister Jill and her minions once and for all!

    Cutie Honey is a live action interpretation of a classic Japanese manga and anime from the 1970s. Particular emphasis belongs on "interpretation". This is no remake, but anime brought to life through outrageous costumes and effects. Masterfully directed by Hideaki Anno, the mastermind behind Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cutie Honey does a surprisingly good job of capturing the panel-by-panel feel of the manga. In this regard it is, stylistically, a bit like a Japanese Sin City, albeit trading the moody noir veneer for a camp, colourful, hyperactive and thoroughly Japanese facade.

    It is impossible to express just how barmy Cutie Honey is without relating it to Japanese pop culture. It is to cinema what Japanese game shows are to television - completely nuts but thoroughly enjoyable. It follows no conventional plot structure. It deliberately goes from looking like a work of art one minute to an episode of Power Rangers the next. It only half explains many of the more bizarre goings on in the plot. All this and it somehow manages to hold itself together into a near masterpiece. Something this eccentric will not appeal to the masses in the western world, but Cutie Honey is destined to be a cult classic.

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. The film does not appear to be noticeably cropped in any way.

    The image is reasonably sharp and free from grain and significant low level noise. There are no noticeable film artefacts in the transfer. A modest level of macro blocking is noticeable in scenes with a lot of movement, but there are no particularly distracting video compression artefacts visible in the transfer.

    The colour palette is bright and vibrant. Light and dark colours come out equally well in the transfer.

    The English subtitles are yellow with a black border and are easy to read. They appear well timed to the dialogue and action.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer change occurs at 38:44 but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The film features Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) and a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio tracks.

    The dialogue appears to be in good sync throughout and is at an easily audible level in the mix.

    The score is a rather out-there and very funky affair that is a little reminiscent of the Cowboy Bebop theme. It does an excellent job in helping to link the scattershot plot together.

    The surround channels get a great workout with this soundtrack. The audio bounces all over the place, but in an appropriate manner that really complements the hyperactive visuals. The subwoofer gets a great workout from effects and music and is used quite dynamically, not just for the odd thump every time there is an explosion.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The disc features a decent swag of extras.

Main Menu Animation and Audio

    The menus on the disc deserve a rare special mention. They capture the crazy feel to the movie and are quite smooth.

Making of Featurette (19:33)

    A reasonably thorough "Making of" featurette that combines behind the scenes stunts and effects footage, an explanation of the development process and interviews with the cast and crew. This one is well worth a watch.

    It features Japanese audio and English subtitles.

Original Trailers (6:21)

    A teaser trailer, theatrical trailer and half a dozen TV spots for the film.

Stills Gallery

    33 stills from the film itself.

Madman Trailers

    Trailers for Godzilla - Tokyo SOS, Please Teacher and Seven Samurai follow the standard, much despised, anti-piracy trailer. Godzilla movies are never as good as their trailers, so these are worth a look!

    A near identical edition is available in Region 1, albeit missing the Madman trailers. This one is a draw.

    A hyperactive Japanese superhero action film that is almost as indescribable as it is entertaining. This one is destined for cult status.

    The video and audio presentations are both very good.

    The disc has a modest amount of decent extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall