THE MANUAL

The Manual is a very dark and twisted Japanese chiller dealing with the somewhat taboo subject of suicide. It's grim viewing, for sure - telling, as it does, the story of a 'Manual' on a DVD, which details how to commit suicide. The DVD is hosted by the enigmatic 'Ricky' and following the viewing of the 'Manual', people appear driven to commit suicide themselves. A reporter is assigned the task of covering the story, but the deeper he delves, the more he begins to re-awaken dormant thought of suicide himself. The further he investigates, the more he is propelled towards his own, inevitable fate.

You would think that a film dealing with such sensitive subject matter, that it couldn't fail to be interesting, but unfortunately The Manual tends to drag and becomes a rather tedious viewing experience. I just found that the film as a whole failed to hold my interest, which is really the worst thing a film can do - bore the viewer. Its themes are certainly controversial, but rather than be thought-provoking, all this film does is make you depressed (but not suicidal, I hasten to add!). Usually I can always find something positive to say about most Japanese movies, but this one just seemed to fall flat and didn't manage to ignite my interest in the slightest, I'm afraid.

The transfer is a bit of a horrible affair, particularly with the film being presented in a letterboxed 4:3. In this day and age, there is no real excuse for presentations like this - 16:9 presentations of widescreen films should be the norm. The image quality is pretty unspectacular too, with lots of digital smearing and the picture is overly dark at times, making it hard to see what's going on. Very unimpressive transfer, visually, unfortunately. The audio fares a lot better and there is a solid DD2.0 track provided - Japanese language with English subtitles.

As far as extras are concerned, there is a behind-the-scenes montage with the theme music playing throughout, a handful of trailers for other DVDs, and two trailers for the main feature.

I wish I could say something more positive, but the film just didn't work for me, sadly. Other viewers may well have a different response to it - but I can only speak as I find.

Review by C J Otter