Written by: Michael Den Boer on February 4th, 2010
Theatrical Release Dates: Japan, 2008 (Hard Revenge Milly), Japan, 2009 (Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle)
Director: Takanori Tsujimoto (Both Films)
Writer: Takanori Tsujimoto (Both Films)
Cast: Miki Mizuno, Tetsuya Nakamura, Hiroshi Ohguchi, Rei Fujita, Mitsuki Koga, Masahiro Kômoto, Nao Nakazawa, Kazuki Tsujimoto
DVD released: January 26th, 2010
Approximate running time: 44 minutes (Hard Revenge Milly), 75 minutes (Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen (Both Films)
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese (Both Films)
Subtitles: English (Both Films)
DVD Release: Well Go USA
Region Coding: Region 1 NTSC
Retail Price: $19.98
At the center of both of these film’s is a character named Milly. Who somehow miraculously survives a brutal assault at the hands of thugs who murder her husband and child. The first film (Hard Revenge Milly) focuses on Milly tracking down those responsible for killing her family. The story moves along at a break neck pace with the focus primarily on the revenge kill scenes and only a minimal amount of time is devoted back-story.
The second film (Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle) follows the same structure as the first film with the main difference being Milly is befriended by a young woman seeking help to avenge the death of her lover. Even though the second film devotes more time to fleshing the same themes explored in the first film. The end result is not as satisfying and entertaining as the first film was. Both film’s feature a copious amount of bloodshed and wall to wall action that is convincingly executed.
One of the more entertaining aspects of both film’s are the rouge gallery of villains, especially the stereotype gay character. When all is said and done both films’ retread familiar ground covered in countless other revenge themed films. Feelings of Déjà vu aside, those who enjoy kinetic action and over the top violence are sure to get those most out of these two films.
The DVD:
Well Go USA presents both film’s in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves their original aspect ratios. Both film’s have not been flagged for progressive playback. Even though there are some instances of ghosting / blurring. It is never to excessive. Colors, flesh tones and black levels range from average to good.
Both film’s come with one audio option each, a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix in Japanese and removable English subtitles have been provided. Outside of a few typos the subtitles fare well and are easy enough to follow. The audio is in very good shape as everything sounds balanced and at times dynamic.
Extras for this release include trailers and behind the scenes segments for each film. All the extras are in Japanese and English subtitles have been provided. Besides behind the scenes footage. There are also comments from cast and crew. Topics include casting, special effects and other production related topics. It should be noted that one extra that was listed on the DVD box, a photo gallery is nowhere to be found on this DVD release. Overall Hard Revenge Milly makes it way to DVD via a satisfactory DVD release from Well Go USA.