Helter Skelter Blu-ray Review (88 Films)

Time is an ever-flowing constant in Mika Ninagawa’s Helter Skelter. Its protagonist Lilico (Erika Sawajiri), a Japanese megastar model and multimedia icon, is in constant battle with the effects of time’s decay – from her own looks, artificially molded and modified by surgeries and serums, to the public’s fleeting interest focusing on the next starlet Kozue (Kiko Mizuhara). Throughout, Ninagawa’s exploration of Lilico’s external self-destruction is paired with constant visual symbolism, bathed in beautiful blood-red backdrops and hyper-saturation for extreme stimulation. Sawajiri gives a powerfully brave performance that unfortunately runs parallel to her post-Helter Skelter personal life. Ninagawa’s film sharply hones in on beauty culture, expectation, and an often intentionally hypocritical perspective on decadence that gives way to rot in this pre-Substance masterwork. 

88 Films’ Blu-ray shines with its gaudy extras. Video source is not revealed but one assumes it must be the 2K digital intermediate; it looks quite good here and showcases the important set design backdrops along with vital skin and clothing textures. Audio includes both a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track, which effectively moves the film’s excellent soundtrack around the satellite speakers, as well as aDTS-HD 2.0 stereo option. Both are in Japanese with default newly translated English subtitles. This Blu-ray collects a number of previously-available archival interviews, but adds a new audio commentary from Tori Potenza and Amber T. that effectively dissects the film throughout its run. Also recommended is a poetic extensive essay on the film’s subject matter by Violet Burns, an obvious appreciation of both Ninagawa’s art and her filmography. This also comes with reversible cover artwork.