Black Butler DVD Review
Summary: It might not live up to the lofty heights of its animated forbear, but Black Butler is still well worth a watch.
4
Decent
Black Butler
Film Genre – World Cinema
Audio – Japanese (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles – English
Running Time – 119
Aspect Ratio – 2.35:1
Region Coding – 4
TV Standard – PAL
Rating – M
Year of Release – 2014
Primary Format – Movies/TV – DVD
Reviewer – Simon Black
Black Butler is, to paraphrase Pulp Fiction, a bad motherfucker. Watching him eviscerate a warehouse-worth of bad guys with a butter knife during the film’s noteworthy opening sequence, I was put in mind of nothing so much as the words of incomparable Haim bassist Este Haim: ‘Don’t put up with punk ass bitches. My whole life I’ve had to deal with punk ass bitchery and I don’t put up with it anymore. It’s not gender specific: if a girl or a boy is bringing down your vibe, a toxic person who isn’t making you feel good, cut them straight away.’
The titular manservant certainly doesn’t put up with any punk-ass bitchery, cutting his way through a slew of villains, usually more or less straight away, in the service of his ever-petulant mistress Shiori. In reality the relationship is somewhat skewed: the demonic butler has pledged to help a young heiress rebuild her family’s business empire, but in return he gets her soul when she dies. It doesn’t seem like much of a deal for Shiori, but what do I know about the business world? And on the plus side she gets to boss him around a lot, and they both look super cute together in their respective finely-tailored Gothic ensembles and sexy disguises.
This is the first live-action rendering of Yana Toboso’s wildly popular manga. The film departs quite significantly from its source material, being set in the year 2020 instead of the 19th century for instance, yet its Victorian charm translates surprisingly effectively to the anonymous futuristic locale and lead actors Mizushima Hiro and Ayame Gori are well-cast in their respective roles. The costuming and set designs are exquisite, the film’s seasoned supporting cast provide a perfectly over the top backdrop to the increasingly madcap proceedings and the local edition features some worthy bonus fare in the form of two medium-length featurettes and interviews with several cast members. It might not live up to the lofty heights of its animated forbear, but Black Butler is still well worth a watch.
Special Features
- Behind the Scenes Featurette
- Cast interviews
- Japanese Premiere Featurette
- Theatrical Trailer
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