Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

City Under Siege Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 19, 2011

Benny Chan's "Chun sing gai bei" a.k.a "City Under Siege" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Universe Laser & Video Co. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer; standard making of featurette; and four deleted scenes. In Cantonese and Japanese, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Get out of my way

Benny Chan’s City Under Siege is about a gang of mutants blowing up things in downtown Hong Kong. They have various superpowers and as it seems an unknown number of extra lives that make them invincible. Inspired by a beautiful TV reporter, a half-mutant tries to stop them but gets kicked around each time he raises his right hand. I know. It looks bizarre as well.

Things get going in Malaysia, at the end of WWII. A group of Japanese scientists inject various prisoners with a brand new drug that can supposedly turn humans into superhumans in a secret laboratory. One of the prisoners overdoses and goes berserk. At the same time the British Army shells the laboratory and kills everyone.

Fastforward. Sunny (Aaron Kwok, The Detective) wants to be a famous knife thrower, just like his late father. Thus far, however, he has only managed to become a circus clown. While on tour in Malaysia, he joins a group of crazy youngsters who enter a large underground cave and discover the same laboratory which the Japanese used for their superhuman tests during WWII. One of the boys opens a canister full of gold, and another immediately begins escorting Sunny out of the cave. Another boy opens a canister containing an unknown mix of poisonous gases and everyone runs out.

Fastforward again. Feeling sick from the gases in the cave, Sunny collapses on a contraband ship heading to Hong Kong. Before the ship reaches its destination, however, he is dumped in the Pacific Ocean. Somehow he manages to reach Kowloon Bay, looking like a giant pumpkin, where a beautiful TV reporter, Angel (Shu Qi, Three Times), picks him up in her car. Before the two part ways, Sunny tells her that he is unsure what has happened to him, and that he is indeed much more athletic than he appears at the moment.

Meanwhile, Sunny’s buddies begin evolving – first their muscles and nails get bigger, then they lose most of their hair. Eventually, they also lose their minds.

Sunny also evolves but not as dramatically - his vision and hearing improve enormously but he keeps his hair. A few days later, he helps the police solve a complicated hostage situation, which leads him right back into Angel's arms, who falls madly in love with him. Thanks to the media, Sunny's popularity skyrockets and he becomes something of a local hero.

The mutants kidnap a famous doctor, hoping that he would be able to reverse the disastrous effects the poisonous gases have had on their bodies. When he fails to do so, they begin terrorizing Hong Kong. The police immediately contacts two kung-fu experts, Suan (Wu Jing, Invisible Target) and Hua (Zhang Jingchu, Aftershock), to help them neutralize the crazy mutants.

There are some spectacular action scenes in City Under Siege, but the narrative is indeed borderline insulting. It reaches so far and it is so chaotic that even the most tolerant of action/sci-fi fans will eventually start shaking their heads in disbelief.

To say that City Under Siege caught me off-guard would be a major understatement. I enjoyed Connected, Chan’s remake of David R. Ellis’ Cellular, quite a lot, and was expecting something completely different, but I was very unpleasantly surprised. And occasionally I don’t mind seeing bad films either. Sometimes the really, really bad ones could be a lot of fun. This one, though, is just unbearably bizarre.

City Under Siege Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Benny Chan's City Under Siege arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Universe Laser & Video Co.

City Under Siege looks very good on Blu-ray. Fine object detail is excellent, clarity pleasing, and contrast levels consistent. The color-scheme is also solid; the variety of yellows, greens, blues, reds, browns, grays, and blacks seen throughout the film look healthy and well saturated. Edge-enhancement is not a serious issue of concern, though there are a couple of scenes right before the mutants clash with the police where I noticed its presence. Heavy noise corrections have not been applied either. Lastly, when blown through a digital projector the high-definition transfer conveys very good depth and tightness. All in all, fans of the film will be pleased with the technical treatment. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access it).

City Under Siege Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are five audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Cantonese LPCM 7.1, Mandarin LPCM 7.1, and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 ex (each with portions of Japanese). For the record, Universe Laser & Video Co. have provided optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track is outstanding. The bass is potent and punchy, the rear channels intelligently used and very effective, and the high-frequencies not overdone. There are at least four different scenes in the film that will undoubtedly test the muscles of your audio system, so keep your remote control close. The prolonged clash between the kung-fu experts, Sunny and the mutants, for instance, is very impressive. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no balance issues with Anthony Chue's music score either. Lastly, I did not detect any annoying pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review. (Note: I noticed a number of grammatical errors with the English translation).

City Under Siege Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for City Under Siege. In Cantonese, with imprinted English and Traditional Chinese subtitles. (3 min, 480/60i).

• Making of - a standard featurette containing raw footage from the shooting of the film in Hong Kong and comments from director Benny Chan and various cast members. In Cantonese, with imprinted English and Traditional Chinese subtitles. (23 min, 480/60i).

• Deleted Scenes - four deleted/extended scenes. In Cantonese, with imprinted English and Traditional Chinese subtitles.
  
  -- Scene 1 (3 min).
  -- Scene 2 (10 min).
  -- Scene 3 (2 min).
  -- Scene 4 (5 min).

City Under Siege Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are some impressive action scenes in Benny Chan's City Under Siege, but I had a very difficult time enduring the eccentric narrative. Simply put, there is too much style and not enough substance. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Universe Laser & Video Co., looks and sounds terrific. The disc is, however, Region-A "locked", so keep that in mind if you reside in a Region-B territory. If you can, RENT IT first.