Those waiting for frenetic camerawork, gore galore, jaw-dropping visuals and/or overall weirdness should probably point their attention elsewhere, because Sabu may not be what you’re expecting from Takashi Miike.  Instead you get fluid camerawork, very little grizzly action, realistic and vivid visuals and a tale without weird, kinky and kooky plot twists and characters.

Eiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara of Battle Royale and Battle Royale 2) and Sabu (Satoshi Tsumabuki) are two childhood friends making their living in Japan during the Tokugawa Era (1600-1868). Life goes on fairly easily despite their long, hard days of labor but everything soon takes a turn for the worse when Eiji is sent to Ishikawa Island prison camp. Eiji is accused of stealing a gold cloth but he knows for a fact he’s been framed. Life on the Island turns Eiji into an extroverted and violent person whose only motive to survive the ordeals and daily fights is revenge against the ones who set him up. Once Sabu finds out what happened to Eiji he immediately snoops around and tries to get Eiji out, but it’s all in vain. No help comes from the outside so Eiji must wait patiently for his release before he can raise hell on those who wronged him.

Sabu is supposedly Miike’s first Jidaigeki (period drama), although in an interview he claims to have made one before. Whether this is true or not makes no difference, Sabu is still quite an achievement in terms of visual style and acting. The young cast handles their job admirably, though Satoshi Tsumabuki’s slightly overacted scenes of woe and misery may cause some people to wince. As stated before, some people may be turned off by the fact that this movie has no sex, very little violence and no characters with curious agendas, but what the movie lacks in violence is compensated by some stunning and colorful visuals, especially in the beginning. You just can’t get it off your head when a certain character hangs him/herself while white cherry flowers dance around the silent corpse like butterflies in the meadow. The aforementioned scene is both haunting and beautiful at the same time. People looking for brutal beatings and blood spurting will get their share, but don’t expect geysers of the sticky red material (hey, this is a family movie!). Instead you get few quite nasty and realistic fights – I’m surprised the BBFC rated this 12.

The DVD is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphically enhanced. The sharpness is surprisingly good for a TV movie but suffers just a teeny-weeny bit from edge enhancing. The colors are handled nicely with a warm tone and the film never looks overly bleak except for certain parts. The print seems to virtually clean of all defects of scratches. Overall a good transfer.

In audio department we’ve got a DD 2.0 Stereo transfer in Japanese with English subtitles (and a few typos). Channel separation is audible when needed and there’s no problem with the clarity. Dialogue is always clear and doesn’t mix with the music and sound effects.

Extras include a 20-minute making of document, interviews with the cast and director, promotional material and an art gallery. The making of is a pretty standard effort mainly focusing on Tatsuya Fujwara’s long, hard days. The interviews with the actors only last for a few minute or so, but Miike discusses about his work quite thoroughly, though the two interviews sum up to only ten minutes. People wanting to see trailers get their share as the disc contains two of them. The extras are pretty basic but interesting nonetheless.

While Sabu isn’t the greatest film Miike’s done, it certainly isn’t the worst either. The long version running for almost 122 minutes is quite demanding sometimes but it spices up the characters – a thing I don’t think the 90-minute version will do. People looking for a nice little period drama with decent acting will surely get a kick out of this.

Movie: 3/5
Picture: 3.5/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 3/5

Review by Toni Lilja