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Maniac Driver (Reelgore Releasing) Blu-ray Review

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    Ian Jane
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  • Maniac Driver (Reelgore Releasing) Blu-ray Review

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    Released by: Reelgore Releasing
    Released on: December 13th, 2022.
    Director: Kurando Mitsutake
    Cast: Tomoki Kimura, Saryu Usui, Iori Kogawa, Ai Sayama
    Year: 2020
    Purchase From Amazon

    Maniac Driver – Movie Review:

    Though touted as a ‘Japanese giallo,’ writer/director Kurando Mitsutake’s Maniac Driver is really just more of a straight up slasher picture with a whole lot of gratuitous sex and nudity thrown into the mix. Light on story but definitely stylish and weird, it’s briskly paced at seventy-six minutes in length.

    The film opens with a beautiful woman enjoying some quality alone time in the shower. As she lets her fingers do the walking, a man sporting black leather gloves and a black motorcycle helmet wanders in on her, toys with her nipple and stabs her through chest. He cackles away as he does so, his eerie voice muffled by his helmet giving him an almost robotic sound.

    Subtlety clearly not a concern, the movie follows a Tokyo taxi cab driver (Tomoki Kimura) who prowls the streets of the city picking up only beautiful women. His internal monologue lets us in on the fact that he wants to find a woman to die with, the perfect victim to help him prepare to take his own life after finishing her off. As he kills off a few attractive women, including a strange sex scene/samurai movie fantasy with wonderfully curvy Ai Sayama, we see through flashbacks the tragic even that destroyed his fragile psyche and turned him into the killer he is today, leading up to an interesting twist in the film’s final stretch.

    A picture that feels much more like a hyper-violent Roman Porno or pink film, the female member of Maniac Driver’s cast are made up pretty much entirely of adult film actresses such as Saryu Usui, Iori Kogawa, Ai Sayama and Ayumi Kimito. Clearly not averse to nudity, they all get naked at some point and the two sex scenes in the film are lengthy and graphic, though never crossing over into hardcore territory. The solo scenes don’t leave a whole lot to the imagination either. The camera leers at these women as you’d expect it to, crafting a genuinely sleazy vibe that, coupled with the bloody murder set pieces that are intertwined with the sex, definitely feel like a throwback to a less politically correct moviemaking climate.

    Tomoki Kimura is pretty solid in the lead. He’s got a believably psychotic look to him that suits the character he plays and he’s plenty enthusiastic in both the kill scenes and the sex scenes. The female cast members are all very attractive and clearly not bashful in the least. They perform with enthusiasm and are convincing enough when they need to portray their respective characters’ fear.

    While Kurando Mitsutake’s script might be pretty much entirely devoid of suspense or mystery, you can’t deny that the man has made a very stylish film. Full of bright primary lighting hues that harken back to films like Suspiria and Blood And Black Lace and utilizing some split-screen techniques that can’t help but remind you of Brian De Palma’s work, Maniac Driver, which does owe a little bit to Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, may have been made fast and cheap but it looks great. The camera work and cinematography from Makoto Hayashi is very strong and the whole thing is set to a really solid score. This isn’t a new modern masterpiece or anything like that, but it’s an entertaining exercise in sleaze and super gratuitous exploitation!

    Maniac Driver – Blu-ray Review:

    Maniac Driver is presented on a 25GB disc, framed at 2.35.1 widescreen and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. It’s also worth noting that the transfer used for this release of the movie features no optical fogging. Shot digitally, there isn’t any print damage here, the image is pristine. Detail looks nice and color reproduction is very strong. There are no issues with any noticeable compression artifacts, skin tones look good and black levels are strong.

    The main audio option on the disc is a 24-bit DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track but a 16-bit German DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is also included. Optional subtitles are provided in English, German, French and Spanish. The Japanese track sounds really strong, the dialogue is always clean and clear and the weird laughing and muffled voice under the helmet sounds appropriately odd. The score has pretty solid depth to it as well.

    Extras start off with an English language audio commentary from director Kurando Mitsutake that is a reasonably scene specific breakdown of the making of the movie. He talks about the different locations used in the movie and how the shower room in the opening was actually outdoors and has no roof, how this was his fifth feature but his first to be shot entirely in Tokyo, how some of the specific shots and effects were put together, what it was like working with a Japanese crew as opposed to a primarily American crew, details on the car that serves as the main cab in the movie, the giallo influence that works its way into the picture and why he wanted to make a giallo-esque picture, some of the challenges that came up in regards to financing the film, details on the different cast members he worked with on the movie, wanting to get the best score possible for the movie, not being able to tour with the movie and shot it at festivals due to the political climate and the pandemic, trying to do as much practically and without CGI as possible, where clam intestines can come in handy when making a horror movie and lots, lots more. It's a very engaging and interesting talk that covers pretty much everything you'd hope it would.

    The disc also includes a thirty-minute making of featurette that features loads of behind the scene footage that shows us what it was like on set. We get a look at the director getitng his cast and crew prepared for certain scenes, we see them relaxing a bit after the shoot and we get a look at some of the effects set pieces being prepared and some of the sex scenes being directed. Tomoki Kimura is interviewed here about what drew him to the project, thoughts on his character and Iori Kogawa speaks about what it was like on set and how hard her drowning scene was, working with Kurando Mitsutake and her thoughts on doing a horror movie. This is in Japanese with English subtitles.

    Finishing up the extras on the disc are a trailer (you’ve got to love the nods to Lustig’s Maniac in the movie’s marketing materials!), a still gallery, menus and chapter selection options. Menu options are offered when the disc first loads in English or German.

    Maniac Driver - The Final Word:

    Maniac Driver is a stylish and sleazy exploitation/horror hybrid, light on story but rife with strong visuals and, to be blunt, a lot of beautiful naked women. The Blu-ray edition from Reelgore Releasing gives the movie a very nice presentation and both the commentary and behind the scenes featurette are quite interesting. Though it’s hardly a movie for all tastes, those with a taste for kinky sex and violence should appreciate Kurando Mitsutake’s efforts and can consider this release recommended.


    Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Maniac Driver Blu-ray screen caps!

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