| DVD Released by : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment/Fortune Star | |
| Player reviewed with : Malata 520 | |
| Receiver reviewed with : Sony 925 | |
| Features: | |
| Cantonese and English Soundtracks 5.1 Dolby and DTS | |
| English Subtitles | |
| Enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs | |
| New and Original Trailers | |
| Running Time : 100 mins. | |
| Region 1 |
OPERATION SCORPIO features Chin Kar Lok as a Yu Shu, a talented comic bool artist who prefers to daydream in class about his stories instead of doing classwork. When he tries to rescue a woman form a prostitution ring, he is forced to go into hiding in a noodle shop. When he can no longer hide, Yu Shu must face his enemy whose fighting techique is styled after a scorpian.
OPERATION SCORPIO has some excellent fight scenes with different styles of Kung FU. There is the Scorpion style which is what the main villain uses. He is nimble and swift. I think my favorite is the one that just relies on shear brute strength. The character wields "500 pound" punches and rarely bothers to even block an attack. He is played by Frankie Chan Chi Leung who you may remember from FULL CONTACT. There is also a "noodle wok washing" technique that used by our hero, Chin Kar Lok. The styles are so extreme that it is almost comical.
OPERATION SCORPIO would probably be more popular if it had bigger stars in it but I found it entertaining.
The picture quality is very good. The film print is in great shape even though the first few frames with the logo aren't the best looking. The colors are vibrant and the print doesn't suffer from the occasional excessive grain that ROYAL WARRIORS and GAME OF DEATH 2 have. There is some grain in the picture at times but I did not find it a problem. The transfer is done well with good black levels and detail. Nights scenes look good without getting muddy looking. I know some may not like the grain in the picture but I prefer it to a smoothed out picture with a lack of detail. I really like level of detail in the Fox/Fortune Star releases.
The sound options are Cantonese or English in either 5.1 Dolby or DTS. As with the other mixes, sound effects are added to the rear surrounds. Much like GAME OF DEATH 2, it's mostly animal sounds during night scenes. Sound effects also come through the rears occasionally. Overall the mix is tastefully done. The dialogue is mixed well and is not drowned out by music and special effects.
Subtitles are easy to read and are well times. I didn't catch any grammatical or spelling errors. These do follow the English dub, It also has the same problem as MY LUCKY STARS in which the subtitles appear when the English dub is present, even if the Cantonese track did not have any dialogue at that moment. This happens only occasionally and isn't too distracting.
There are no extras other than trailers on this DVD.
Overall, I enjoyed OPERATION SCORPIO and would recommend it. It's not a nonstop action fest but the fights it does have are impressive and the movie is worth it for the finale alone. OPERATION SCORPIO might easily overlooked because it doesn't have any major stars but don't let that fool you. It's a solid movie that features some great performances, especially from Liu Chia Liang who you may notice from DRUNKEN MASTER II and several other movies.
Reviewed 6/09/2003 by Matt
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