| DVD Released by : Fortune Star |
| Player reviewed with : Momitsu v880 |
| Receiver reviewed with : Pioneer VSX-D409 |
| Features: |
| DTS Digital Surround; Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Original Mono |
| ENGLISH, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified) Subtitles |
| Enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs |
| New and Original Trailers |
| Running Time : The Killer 111 mins. |
| Running Time : Bullet in the Head 131mins. |
| Region ALL |
These are good times for lovers of Asian cinema. The studios seem to be making a good effort lately to provide us with quality DVD releases. Many older releases with poor transfers are being re-released with a much better treatment and we are all better off for it.
This DVD set of two of John Woo's greatest films was an easy decision for me to make as far as purchases go. I had a non anamorphic version of Bullet In The Head (Mega Star) which I was looking to upgrade and since I did not own The Killer yet this set was a must buy. I am assuming that most of you reading this review are familiar with these two great films and if you haven't seen either of these movies yet, what are you waiting for?
This collection is attractively packaged in a sturdy cardboard box. Each film contained in its own standard DVD case. The graphics are subdued, but clean and classy. This is a good looking packaging job and starts everything off nicely.
There is no documentation of any sort inside the box or cases themselves, not even a chapter list. I personally would have liked to see at the very least a booklet containing some anecdotes, a description of the movies and their place in the world, etc. It's not important, but I would like to have seen something else besides the DVDs and their cases, even if it was only a lonely chapter list with a nice background image of some sort.
Let's take a look at the movies themselves.
The Killer (1989)
The Killer is near or at the top of the list of John Woo's best films for most people I would hazard to say. Considering that this film was shot about 3 years after his first true gunplay film, Heroes Shed No Tears, (which I have not seen) which was closely followed by A Better Tomorrow there is a real growth in Woo's confidence when it comes to bringing his main themes of loyalty & honor with more finesse into his stories. This in no way is intended to say that The Killer is a subtle movie, just that the story and the themes contained inside of it flow together more smoothly than both A Better Tomorrow and it's sequel.
The character the movie is titled after is Jeff, masterfully brought to life by Chow Yun Fat. Jeff is a top assassin for the triads, completely professional, ruthless and efficient. The main contact Jeff has with the triads also happens to be his great friend, Sydney Fung (Kong Chu). In the opening scene Jeff meets Sydney, who in the past was a top assassin as well, to get his latest assignment. This newest job leads him to make a hit in a nightclub. During the carnage that ensues, the beautiful singer for the nightclub, Jennie (Sally Yeh), is accidentally blinded by Jeff. This accident causes Jeff's conscience to go into overdrive.
This leads to some trying times for Jeff as not only is his conscience weighing heavily on him, determined detective Inspector Li (Danny Lee) is hounding him, the crime boss that employs him (Fui-On Shing) double crosses him with Sydney betraying him during the double cross. Mixed up in all this is Jeff's blossoming friendship with Jennie and his desire to do one last job that will pay for the cornea transplant that she will need to see again. Inspector Li gets closer and closer to Jeff and the double crossing triad hires large numbers of assassins to take Jeff out.
All these plot lines drive this movie forward to the final bloody conclusion in a church. The action scenes in this movie are impeccably staged and beautifully shot. When people talk about John Woo's films being "bullet ballets", The Killer is one of the first Woo films you should watch to fully understand what that means.
The characters are all very well played, with standout performances by Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee. The character of Jeff is so cool and completely realized by Chow Yun Fat that you never question his actions as he moves between being the cold blooded assassin and the caring honorable man that wants to restore Jennie's sight. Danny Lee plays Inspector Li as a tenacious bulldog of a cop that slowly builds a measure of respect and eventually even friendship for Jeff.
That isn't to say that everything is perfect about this movie. The female characters in Woo's films are notoriously weak and Jennie is a prime example of this. Furthermore, despite the intense violence and bloodshed, Woos penchant for corniness is most definitely present at times. None of these weaknesses detracts from the overall feel of the movie as it all works very well as a whole, but those with more of a politically correct western sensibility may have some adjustments to make.
Though I may rank Bullet In The Head and Hard Boiled ahead of The Killer when it comes to my favorite John Woo films, this movie is a masterpiece that must be seen. A completely over the top, heavily stylized and beautifully shot action film with some heavy melodrama used to push the plot forward confidently towards a blood drenched conclusion.
Video and audio
I have not had a chance to view any of the current versions of The Killer on DVD so I can not compare this transfer to any of the currently available DVDs of this film. I found the transfer to be a soft throughout with grain prevalent to varying degrees especially in the darker scenes. Colors are good for the most part, but appear slightly washed out in a few scenes. The black levels were acceptable throughout if not as deep as they could be. I did see some minor edge enhancement at times, but this was never distracting and mostly showed itself in some minor haloing of dark objects against lighter backgrounds. The transfer is at a ratio of 1.85:1 and is enhanced for widescreen TVs, a definite plus.
Considering that these older Hong Kong films are not always stored in optimal conditions, this transfer is a big step in the right direction for fans of this movie. Most definitely more than acceptable, I would imagine that this transfer is about as good as you can get for this film at this point in time.
We get three surround tracks here, a Cantonese Dolby 5.1 track, a Mandarin Dolby 5.1 track and a Cantonese DTS track. I initially watched the film with the Cantonese DTS track and went back to a number of different scenes where the surrounds were used to compare the surround tracks. The difference between the two Cantonese surround tracks is minimal with the DTS track sounding a bit fuller and smoother than the Dolby 5.1 track. The Mandarin 5.1 track, aside from the dialogue is appears to be the same mix used for the Cantonese 5.1 track The surround tracks do a very good job with transforming what was an original Cantonese 2.0 track (also included in this DVD) into a well done mix. The rear speakers are mostly used for ambient sounds, music, etc. but you do get some bullets whizzing by you effects as well.
Menus, subtitles and extras
The menus, which are not animated, all offer anamorphic enhancement, including all company logos and warnings. The menus do give you the option to have the text displayed in either Chinese or English.
The subtitles are the older subtitles. The newer subtitles call the main character Joe and do away with the two protagonists calling each other Mickey Mouse and Dumbo (changing the nicknames to Shrimp Head and Runt instead) due to John Woo wanting to avoid having Disney take legal action against him. The subtitles are decent with only minor spelling and grammar mistakes.
The extras for this disc are almost non existent. Besides two different trailers for The Killer and more trailers from various John Woo films you only really have the "Codes of Bullets" Part 4 feature as an extra with any sort of substance to it at all. This feature (which is the only item on the disc not offered with anamorphic enhancement) is a short piece focusing on the weapons used in the film and how they are used to generate a certain image of the character using them.
Bullet In The Head is neck and neck, in my opinion, with Hard Boiled as being my favorite of John Woo's films. The epic nature of this film really gives the story a lot of room to breathe in. Vietnam is the perfect setting for elaborate, over the top gunplay, and this movie has plenty of it. This is the same 126 minute cut, with the "car joust" ending, that the Mega Star DVD gave us.
The story starts in Hong Kong, 1967 with three best friends just coming into adulthood; Ben (Tony Leung), Frank (Jacky Cheung) and Paul (Waise Lee). When Frank is jumped by a rival gang in an attempted robbery, Frank and Ben accidentally kill the rival gang leader when they go back later for revenge. Needing to get out of Hong Kong the three friends take a job smuggling pain medication to Vietnam.
Upon arrival in Vietnam, they quickly lose their possessions and fall in with slick, professional assassin Luke (Simon Yam). Things rapidly spiral out of control as they rob a local triad leader for a box of gold. On the run in Vietnam, they eventually find themselves in a Vietnamese P.O.W. camp where their friendship is tested to the breaking point.
No one but John Woo can go from extremely sappy cornball sequences straight into brutally violent scenes and make it all fit together so well. The corniness, which for the most part only occupies the first section of the film where the main characters are introduced, does not detract from the overall grim nature of this film.
This film was a personal project for John Woo. After his split with producer, Tsui Hark, Woo had to come up with a large portion of the financing for this movie. It was a labor of love and it shows. Very highly recommended.
Video and audio
My first thought when I started watching this film was, "Wow!". I owned the Mega Star release previously and this presentation is head and shoulders above that DVD. The image is clean and smooth with good detail. There was some grain present, but I never found it distracting. Edge enhancement was kept to a minimum. Contrast and levels were very good and the colors are vibrant and natural in appearance. This film is presented in a ratio of 1.85:1, anamorphically enhanced. This is an excellent transfer of this film.
This movie also gets the three surround tracks, Cantonese Dolby 5.1, Mandarin Dolby 5.1 and Cantonese DTS. I went with the Cantonese DTS track for my main viewing of the film. All surround tracks are very well done with the edge going to the DTS track again as it had a more natural feel to the mix. Explosions (and there are a lot of them in this film) had an excellent punch in the low end and gun shots sounded like they should - with had authority. The original Cantonese 2.0 track is included as well for the purists out there.
Just like the menus for The Killer DVD, the menus are not animated, are enhanced for widescreen TVs and give you the option to have the text displayed in either Chinese or English. The menus are very simple and easy to navigate.
The subtitles are adequate. Grammar and spelling suffer at times, but never enough to confuse things.
Also just like The Killer DVD, the extras aside from the various trailers is limited to the "Codes of Bullets" Part 5 feature. This piece, which focuses on the weapons and tactics used in Bullet In The Head is interesting to a point. This DVD also comes short in the extras department.
Basically, this is not much of a box set, you are really just getting the two movies in a fairly bare bones package, extras wise. But considering the excellent price and that the quality of the presentation for both movies really kicks major ass, this is an essential buy if you don't have one or both movies already in your collection. Even if you do, you may want to upgrade from what you own already own if you have one of the older non anamorphically enhanced DVDs.
copyright©2004
Reviewed - 9/19/2004
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