Crying Freeman DVD Review

The Crying Freeman manga has been adapted to film no less that four times- in an anime OAV series, a pair of Hong Kong action films (unrelated to each other): Dragon From Russia and Killer’s Romance, and in the wonderful 1997 Canadian/French/Japanese/American co-production titled, simply, Crying Freeman. Far more faithful to the original manga than either of the HK films, Crying Freeman boasts a multinational cast and extremely talented crew. The movie was directed by French director Christophe Gans, who has recently achieved worldwide acclaim with his latest film Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolves), was edited by David Wu, editor on John Woo’s Hardboiled, and stars martial artist and actor Marc Decascos. The movie was shot in Canada and Japan with financing from Japan and American director/producer Brian Yuzna. Released theatrically in Japan and Europe, the film has unfortunately never been officially released in North America. The closest many American manga fans may have come to seeing this film is the single photo from the film printed on the back cover of several of the Viz Communications Crying Freeman graphic novels.

French company Metropolitan films has released a brand new limited edition, special edition of the film on Region 2 PAL format DVD. The special edition DVD package features a DVD case and separate 44 page color booklet housed in an elegant slipcase. The DVD case opens up like a notebook, with 2 pages of chapter lists bound to the interior case spine and 2 dual layer DVD discs attached to the interior of the front and back case covers. Only the first 50,000 copies of the DVD will include the slipcase and color booklet, and each copy of the limited edition DVD is serially numbered.

The film itself is presented in stunningly remastered 2.35:1 widescreen and 16:9 anamorphic widescreen with selectable French or original English dialogue (with brief, untranslated Chinese & Japanese conversations) and optional French subtitles, both audio tracks presented in crisp 5.1 Dolby surround. As a special bonus, the film includes a running audio commentary track from director Christophe Gans, alas, in French. Having seen the film numerous times on VHS and even on Japanese LD, this DVD presentation unquestionably stands as the benchmark presentation of this wonderful film, bringing details to the forefront that get lost even in the Japanese laserdisc version. The colors are bright and crisp and exhibit no artifacting, even after accounting for any possible image clarity loss from the PAL to NTSC conversion during playback.

The second disc features 60 minutes of supplemental material and 13 minutes of DVD-ROM exclusive material including several French language interviews with the director, an image gallery of production design paintings, 1600 storyboards, a brief video film to storyboard comparison, the English language promotional reel featuring behind the scenes footage and interviews, an extensive making of documentary in French and English featuring behind the scenes video footage, interviews with the crew and cast, comparisons of the film to the anime OAVs and extensive on-set video footage.

Bottom line: American manga and anime fans, and American fans of exceptional action films have been sorely mistreated by the lack of an American release of this beautiful film. Part art film, part romance, part violent action movie, Crying Freeman captures the beauty and magnificence of the manga exceptionally well, masterfully combining the grace of John Woo’s best action films with the gorgeous cinematography, camera work and direction one would expect from a French art film. I give this film my highest recommendations, especially to fans of anime and/or Hong Kong action films, and the DVD set itself superior marks for presentation and quality.

For North American fans with the ability to play European Region 2 PAL format DVDs, this set is available through Amazon’s French store, DVDzone 2.com or any other better European or import DVD retailer. For more information, visit the Crying Freeman movie webpage for a more detailed list of the discs attributes, complete with photos.