Black & White: The Dawn of Assault Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Black & White: The Dawn of Assault Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 24, 2015

Chances are few Westerners will have heard of let alone seen the apparently popular if short lived Taiwanese television series Black and White, a buddy cop enterprise that ran for one season but which raked in its nation’s version of Emmy Award nominations by the handful, winning several, including Best Television Series, Best Actor in a Television Series (Mark Chao, also featured here) and Best Directing for a Television Series (Tsai Yueh-hsun, also helming this feature film prequel). Foreknowledge is not a prerequisite for understanding the often manic goings on in this bombastic, often overwhelmingly noisy, film, and in fact there are evidently at least a couple of major cast changes this prequel offers that differ from the television series version.

Ying-xiong Wu (Mark Chao) is a cop who doesn’t play by the rules, who ultimately gets mixed up with bumbling bad guy Hsu Tafu (Bo Huang). Fairly rote plot mechanics make these two nemeses unlikely partners as they attempt to wend their way through a criminal conspiracy overtaking Harbor City. The plot is actually fairly incidental here, simply providing the foundation for requisite banter and some exciting set pieces. The film offers a good supporting role for Angelbaby as an enigmatic mystery woman whose own exploits dovetail with the adventures of Wu and Tafu. This is undemanding “popcorn fare” which provides enough of an adrenaline rush at regular intervals to overcome at least some of its more hackneyed elements.

Black & White: The Dawn of Assault Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black and White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This outing is "old school" in more ways than one, having been shot on actual honest to goodness 35mm film, something that gives it a nice texture and depth. In brightly lit environments detail is exceptional, though some of the film's CGI is pretty soft and unconvincing looking. There are some very slight issues with banding in some lighting segues and one or two issues with Shout's regular bugaboo of clumpy yellow artifacts in low light situations.

Black & White: The Dawn of Assault Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

An opening sequence involving the detonation of a nuclear device sets a rather high bar for Black & White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, and the good news is the film regularly meets that bar through the rest of its often extremely boisterous sound design. Immersion is well realized through excellent placement of sound effects in the set pieces, and LFE is a near constant throughout the film. Dialogue is cleanly presented and is well prioritized. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range extremely wide on this problem free track.

Black & White: The Dawn of Assault Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080i; 7:11)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:58)

Black & White: The Dawn of Assault Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's one surprise Black & White Episode I: The Dawn of Assault offers Blu-ray aficionados: it's a Shout! release, when one might more naturally expect it to come from the auspices of a label like Well Go USA. Otherwise, this is pretty resolutely predictable on just about every level, which is not to say it's not reasonably entertaining. One thing it certainly is is noisy: the film is filled to the brim with over the top set pieces, something which may recommend it to those who like their action films largely brainless but manic, though even those folks may find the film's nearly two and a half hour running time too much of a middling thing. Technical merits are generally excellent for those considering a purchase.