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Dom Robinson reviews
Tartan Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: TVD 3587
- Running time: 98 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 0, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: Japanese
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Cast and crew interviews, Behind the scenes, Japanese Press Conference, Digital Effect Exposed, Tartan Trailer Reel, Trailer, Erika Franklin’s film notes
Director:
- Masayuki Ochiai
(Hypnosis, Infection, Parasite Eve)
Producer:
- Takashige Ichise
Screenplay:
- Masayuki Ochiai (from a story by Ryôichi Kimizuka)
Cast :
- Dr. Akiba: Kôichi Satô
Dr. Uozumi: Masanobu Takashima
Chief Nurse Shiozaki: Kaho Minami
Dr. Akai: Shirô Sano
Nurse Yuko Kirino: Yôko Maki
Student Nurse Madoka: Mari Hoshino
Nurse Nanae: Tae Kimura
Old woman: Reiko Kusamura
Dr. Nakazono: Michiko Hada
Dr. Kishida: Moro Morooka
An Infection seems to be the kind of thing that’s on the increase in hospitals in recent years as patients go in for a routine operation and might contract something not very nice after being sliced open. The most recent example of this, thanks to a lack of cleanliness from the shoddy standards of contracted cleaners, is MRSA. Some people survive but not everyone makes it out alive, but that’s small beer compared to what’s going on in this movie in which, as it begins, things are very warm in the hospital as the generator is malfunctioning due to power surges, as if it’s having a ‘hot flush’ 🙂
Yes, it could almost be the National Health Service as we see a hospital that’s seriously understaffed, it’s running out of supplies and they’re making patients share rooms so infectious bugs are running around like wildfire. It makes Holby City look like the Ritz because the hospital is about as clean as the student house the Young Ones lived in back in the ’80s.
The major problems begin for the staff when an extremely ill patient who’s covered in bandages having been admitted three months ago with 70% burns appears to have fallen out of bed, despite that being rather unlikely when you get to assess the full situation. Harrassed Doctors Akiba (Kôichi Satô) and Uozumi (Masanobu Takashima) find themselves in an impossible situation when an apparent accidental dose of the wrong injection causes the patient to kick the bucket. They want to keep things hush-hush while Chief Nurse Shiozaki (Kaho Minami) reckons the authorities must be told.
Akiba has a plan to resolve that one, but that’s just small fry when an ambulance crew ignore their pleas to take a new patient elsewhere and dump the man there, claiming that any further travelling and he won’t make it, not that he’s exactly going to get BUPA-standard care at this place either. In fact, to say this latest addition to the sick people has a complicated medical history is a vast understatement since he turns out to have liquefaction of the internal organs and, from the limited amount we see of him early on, he looks like the combined total of the snot shooting out from Neil’s nose in an episode of the aforementioned BBC student sitcom.
Of the rest of the characters featured here, and without wanting to spoil anything, there’s an old woman who sees her long-dead family in mirrors; there’s a high-up Doctor, Akai (Shirô Sano), who wants to be a pioneer and sees the latest arrival as a chance to learn something new about medicine and make a name for themselves, but is kept in the dark about the fact that the bandaged burns victim is dead; there’s a student nurse, Madoka (Mari Hoshino) who’s being bullied by a mean, experienced nurse, Yuko Kirino (Yôko Maki) and as events progress, little by little they all start going slightly mad.
Overall, Infection is like a ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ story. It’s not scary, just ludicrous with hints of ‘The Shining in a hospital’, but moderately entertaining all the same.
Similar to Premonition, there’s more to enjoy than there is to criticise so I look forward for certain to future titles in this “J-Horror” collection, although – again – one sneaky thing about this release is that while there’s an 18-certificate emblazoned on the cover, the film itself is actually a “15” according to the BBFC’s website, so the increase must be accounted in the extras.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and looks clean and free of defects, portraying well things like some clever use of mirrors, the reflections of which are overlaid later with CGI and not a real reflection. There’s also clever use of colour tinting to make it look extremely drab and to change colours when required (you’ll see why when you watch it).
Soundwise, I went for the DTS 5.1 audio track, but not much use made of the DTS soundmix with hardly any deep bass prior to the ending, so a lot of the time it’s like bog-standard Dolby Surround.
The extras on this DVD are as follows:
- Cast and crew interviews (31:54): Ten of them here, featuring director Masayuki Ochiai who gets 5£ minutes to talk about his work while around 2-3 minutes apiece is given to each of the cast listed above. They all get asked very similar questions in a straight-forward Q&A-style session, which isn’t a bad thing as you get all of the views and opinions from the key actors who took part, but make sure you do not watch them prior to the movie as they contain on-set footage that will act as spoilers. This segment is in 4:3 fullscreen as is the next one.
Behind the Scenes (30:48): Individually chaptered, this contains on-set footage of seven key scenes in the movie, which I won’t describe here for obvious reasons, but this section dedicates a good few minutes to each to give you a flavour of how it was created and what went into it.
Digital Effect Exposed (4:45): Again, no spoilers, but there’s nothing exposed here as it just mixes a few key moments together for an alternative edit of what we saw in the film. It makes for a nice addition, but doesn’t serve any actual purpose. On the Premonition DVD this was used to show the before and after shots of a CGI effect, plus the stages inbetween as a scene is put together. This segment is in 1.85:1 letterbox widescreen.
Japanese Press Conference (5:34): Filmed in July 2004, this is basically a roll call for the director and main cast members, but while it’s great for the completist, like myself, it doesn’t tell you a great deal because they obviously can’t talk about the plot of a movie that – at that point – they’re still filming.
Original trailer (1:26): Presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen, it gives away too much so don’t watch until you’ve seen the film.
Trailer Reel: Five more trailers for other Tartan terror movies: Premonition, Lady Vengeance, A Bittersweet Life, Another Public Enemy, Three… Extremes
Overall, a few interesting bits and pieces there but the real meat is in the behind-the-scenes section. Again, the interviews are rather bland and that is repeated in the press conference bit. Like I said, I’m a completist so it’s good that it’s there, but are *all* press conferences for movies like that? Inside the box with the chapter listing can be found Erika Franklin’s film notes.
There are subtitles in English only, plus the option to remove them which is good as a video would have to have them burned into the print. There are just 16 chapters, but something needs to be done about these as the first chapter runs for 16mins 25seconds! Many of the others aren’t much better, either. Finally, there’s a short piece of the music and CGI on the main menu based on events in the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.