REVIEW: ‘Kiltro’ (DVD – Magnolia Pictures)

KILTRO is the latest in a growing number of eclectic, international action films that Magnolia Pictures has been acquiring including ONG BAK, EXILED and DISTRICT B13. It’s the first of two Marko Zaror films they picked up for the U.S. and will hopefully be followed at some point by MIRAGEMAN.

There’s nothing of great interest to discuss regarding the DVD’s technical specifications. Image quality is fine. Original Spanish language tracks in 2.0 and 5.1 are included along with English dubbing. Subtitles are adequate. One difference I noticed was that profanity was toned down in the dub, probably to make it suitable for TV broadcast right out of the box.

There is a decent amount of extras for a low-budget import, although it would have been nice if Magnolia had made some effort to introduce Marko Zaror to American audiences with a biography or interview at least.

Behind the Scenes (6 minutes) - A couple non-action scenes are mixed with finished footage and no narration.

Fight Scene Training (5 minutes) - Of infinitely greater interest is this combination of stunt team training and test footage where Zaror and his stunt team pre-visualized the film’s showpiece group fight. Like what Tony Jaa did with ONG BAK, every detail is worked out in advance in the relative safety of a training hall before the stunt team got into costume and moved to the set. It provides a strong contrast to the Hong Kong way of shooting action where most everything is made up on the spot.

Storyboards (7 minutes) - Nice companion piece to the Fight Scene Training sequence. It matches storyboard art with practice and finished fight scene footage. This shows Zaror’s approach to action choreography has the technical sophistication of Hollywood while the results still come close to matching Hong Kong standards.

Deleted Scenes (2 minutes) - Two scenes. One is a traumatic childhood memory that Zaror’s character recalls. Another actually looks like a test shot with a stand-in for Zaror where he runs through the streets at night.

Bloopers (2 minutes) - Three blooper scenes. The second one where Zaror trips after kissing the girl is priceless.

Trailers - Magnolia packages trailers for other non-action releases and fails to add a KILTRO trailer.

Format: Region 1 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 16×9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dolby 5.1, English Dolby 2.0, Spanish Dolby 5.1, Spanish Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English
Length: 98 minutes
Release Date: 2008.03.25