Released as part of Media Blasters' Exploitation Digital line, this DVD presents the third and final film in the Rica series. Unfortunately, this release doesn't quite hit the mark, offering only mediocre video quality, decent audio and very little in terms of bonus features.
| Video: |
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The video quality presents a few issues throughout. In terms of the print source, there are some mild specks and scratches that are visible. Around the 27-minute mark, there's noticeable flickering on the left side of the frame, which reappears at the 32-minute mark and is especially distracting in a dark sequence. The flickering occurs once again around the 66-minute mark.
Sadly, the image itself is fairly soft, lacking the sharpness you'd expect. I'd imagine this is due to the level of compression being applied to the video track. That's noticeable as the grain level feels low, but that's more because the compression masks this a bit and causes smeary pixilation artifacts.
In terms of color, the overall palette is decent. While the colors aren't as vibrant as they could be, the reds are good, especially for a DVD. There is also no significant color tinting to speak of, which is a positive. In addition, the black levels stand out, with some nice depth to the darker areas. This all said, when text is superimposed on the image, such as during the credits sequence that appears over characters racing on motorcycles, the colors take on a brownish tint that is mildly distracting.
Rica: Juvenile's Lullaby is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is Anamorphic for widescreen TVs. However, for me I had to go through and manually change the aspect ratio on my device to 16:9 rather than "default" to get the correct appearance of the film. Mileage will vary of course, but for me it was showing as a scrunched 1.33:1 image before changing the setting. What's especially odd is that the menu and trailers appear fine, it's just the main movie that had this issue for me.
| Audio: |
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The disc includes a single audio track, the original Japanese audio in a one-channel mono format. While this is a straightforward, no-frills presentation, it earns some leniency for preserving the movie's original format. The audio track is free from any noticeable issues, such as pops or crackles, and the dialogue is generally clear. That said, the songs feel fairly muffled here. Having not seen the film outside of this DVD, I'm not sure if that was always the case, but there is a lot less clarity in them versus the rest of the audio track here. Overall, though, the audio is an acceptable presentation.
The movie can be accompanied with, removable, English subtitles. As a nice touch, this also translates the songs heard during the movie.
| Extras: |
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Unfortunately, there isn't much extra content included with this release. However, the disc does feature a selection of trailers. There are three trailers for the Rica trilogy, each presented in decent quality, though they show some signs of print damage, especially along the right side of the frame.
Additionally, there are four more trailers for other films released under the "Exploitation Digital" label. These films, all Italian in origin, fall within the Naziploitation genre. If you're unfamiliar with this genre, first of all, kudos to you, dear reader. To provide some context, though, Naziploitation films were a subgenre of exploitation cinema that emerged in the 1970s. Marketed as provocative and boundary-pushing, these films are now widely regarded as reprehensible, often exploiting the horrors of war and the Holocaust for shock value and sensationalism.
Anyway, the only other extra on the disc is an image gallery, which in this case is a shot of the film's poster alongside lobby cards.
| Overview: |
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Bottom line, this is far from an exceptional release. However, the film remains relatively obscure even more than a decade later. Fans of schlocky exploitation films may still find themselves giving this release a chance, either to explore Toho's foray into the genre or simply to see how the Rica series wraps up.
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