This Peruvian gay-themed drama was directed by Javier Fuentes-León, and stars Cristian Mercado, Manolo Cardona, and Tatiana Astengo. The award winning film revolves around the lives of a fisherman named Miguel (Mercado), his pregnant bride Mariela (Astengo), and his secret male lover Santiago (Cardona).
Miguel and his wife Mariela are expecting their first child, but Miguel conceals a shocking secret; he’s in love with a painter by the name of Santiago, who has already been banned from their village for his gay lifestyle. One day a dreadful accident occurs when Santiago drowns while swimming in the ocean. When his ghost returns to Miguel, he asks him to find his body so that he may have a ritualistic burial, and his soul can rest in peace.
Initially Miguel is torn, because on one hand he selfishly likes having Santiago around still in secret, and at the same time he’d also be forced to reveal his relationship to Mariela and the entire village. But when a group of local fishermen find Santiago’s body, Miguel is essentially subjected to accept himself for who he really is and come clean with his wife, in order to ensure that his lovers soul can rest.
The picture quality of this film is certainly not indicative of what blu-ray has to offer, even though it’s delivered with a 1080p AC-3 transfer. I can’t fault the quality of the transfer with the problems that are in the film, as I saw no evidence of screen tearing. However the release contains excessive amounts of grain that often make the release appear to be nothing more than a DVD. The colors never pop off the screen, and the blacks are just black. Never deep, but never washed out.
The audio arrives to your sets with a middle of the road Dolby 5.1 audio track. The track isn’t bad, but it’s certainly not great. The dialogue is clear, however since it’s in a foreign language to me, my clear might not count for much to a native Spanish speaker. I’m simply speaking of clear, as in there are no interruptions, pops, or audio drops in the dialogue.
The films underscore also fails to impress. Though the film heavily relies on dialogue, there is music playing in the background, and sometimes the foreground, however it’s generally flat and lacks any real dynamics to the sound. It, much like the dialogue, doesn’t suffer from any interruptions, it’s just nothing special.
It seems that it’s become the trend to treat blu-rays as nothing more than DVDs by many companies and to only put the bare bones release out for public consumption. Luckily Undertow gives you something extra to enjoy after you’ve watched the movie. Though it’s not jam packed with special features the ones that are on this release are not to shabby. It’s certainly more than a lot of new releases are getting, though the lack of any sort of commentary left me a bit peeved. With that said, take a look at the special features:
- Undertow: A Look Inside – Interview with Writer/Director Javier Fuentes-Leon
- Interviews with Christian Mercado and Tatiana Astengo
- Behind the Scenes Featurette
- Deleted SceensTrailer
- GLAAD PSA “Hazte Amigo y Aliado” (con Sofia Vergara)
If you’re already a fan of the film, or of gay cinema in general, then this is probably the only release you’re going to see of this film. Much like other films in gay cinema, they often get a single release version and you’re forced to either like it or not.
As mentioned above, the audio and video quality certainly aren’t reference material, but if you’re a fan of gay, or even independent cinema, you’re aware of the repercussions that come with making a film on a low-budget.
I can’t say with complete confidence that this release looks better on blu-ray than it does on DVD. I would wager that it’d be slightly better if anything at all, but I’ve never seen another copy to make the comparison. Therefore my recommendation would be to wait for a price drop if you’re not dying to have the film in your collection. With that being said, I would certainly recommend buying the film eventually. It’s important to support gay/independent cinema, and the AQ/PQ issues don’t detract from the story being told.
