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UMIZARU (Japanese)

 ABOUT THE MOVIE


Genre:
Drama/Romance/Action
Starring: Hideaki Ito, Atsushi Ito, Ken Kaito, Ai Kato, Tatsuya Fuji
Director: Eiichiro Hasumi
Rating: NC-16 (Some Nudity)
Year Made: 2004

 

 


SPECIAL FEATURES

- Original Movie Trailer

 

 


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: Japanese
Subtitles: English/Chinese
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 Letterbox
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
Running Time: 2 hrs
Region Code: 3
Distributor: Comstar Entertainment

 

 

SYNOPSIS:  

A disparate group of 14 young Japan Coast Guard officers are thrown together to spend 50 days of the hardest days of their lives training to become elite rescue divers. Until then, the trainees are "Umizaru", as they are called by the local community for their wild drinking and carousing in town. The bonds of trust and friendship forged under the intense demands and circumstances of the profession form the foundation of a highly compelling and realistically portrayed human drama.

MOVIE REVIEW

Umizaru plays along liked a typical "uniform" theme movie which you may have seen many times in HK television serials (portraying firemen or cops) or Hollywood movies liked "SWAT". The plot is simple enough. 14 young coast guard officers are recruited into the Japan Coast Guard for 50 days of hellish training before they can graduate as full-pledge rescue divers.

The movie traces their journey of how they learnt the true meaning of having a "buddy" and their gruelling training routines. Singapore guys who have went through NS training will appreciate the preaching of this. Though 50 days might seem kind of short, the lead character played by the handsome Hideaki Ito still manages to find romance on one of their nights out.

Based on a popular manga series in Japan, Umizaru in short is an inspiring tale of realistic human drama. Although there is virtually none of the non-stop action sequences you see in Hollywood movies, the colorful array of characters in the movie is enough to charm you for the 2 whole hours.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The disc comes equipped with Japanese Dolby Surround 2.0. Since the movie itself doesn't boast any fancy, bombastic sound effects, dialogues which are aplenty throughout are pretty much sharp and clear to the ears even without the Dolby Surround turned on. The azure oceans are nicely captured and transferred on the disc.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Just the original movie trailer is attached which is quite pathetic. But please do not switch off your player once the credits roll consider there are some outtakes and a short epilogue to be seen later.

MOVIE RATING:

OVERALL DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

 

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This review is made possible with the kind support from Comstar

 


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