For the Emperor Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

For the Emperor Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 7, 2015

The perhaps unlikely intersection of Korean love for baseball and the evidently equally powerful Korean love for organized crime offers some of the plot mechanics of the relentlessly visceral and often quite violent For the Emperor. As is quickly detailed in a quasi-montage that plays out along with a series of knock down, drag out fights, Lee Hwan (Lee Min-ki) was an up and coming baseball player whose shoulder injury stops his career ascent dead in its tracks. It turns out Lee was actually “throwing” games for a profit, an ironic choice for a star pitcher. When the cops get involved, Lee ends up working for a notorious loan shark named Jeong Sang-ha (Park Sung-woong), while also getting involved with the babelicious Cha Yeon-soo (Lee Tae-im). What might have been an interesting if derivative exploration of the moral degradation of a an already troubled character is instead handled so haphazardly that few will probably care what happens next, especially with some convoluted plotting in the third act.

It’s probably instructive that a lot of the action elements, ostensibly the chief allure of this film, are shot in darkened environments where it’s next to impossible to see what’s going on. That’s certainly the case with the melée that opens the film, where it’s evident that people are getting stabbed and pummeled right and left, but who’s whom is left completely undeciphered. One begins to wonder if there was not sufficient time (or perhaps even talent) to have requisite fight choreography established and rehearsed. The film does a bit better in some more salacious sex scenes, where at least those moves have a bit of authenticity. For the Emperor simply revisits too many crime thriller tropes to ever be very effective, and its sloppy screenwriting and stumbling action scenes only add to the feeling that this is one “empire” in some serious need of rebuilding.

For the Emperor Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For the Emperor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. When the film ventures into brightly lit and/or outdoor scenes, detail, palette and sharpness are all excellent. Unfortunately, a lot of the film takes place in extremely shrouded environments, and at other times rather aggressive color grading has been applied (lots of blue, yet again), and detail and fine detail struggle at times to overcome general murkiness and lack of shadow detail. Quick cutting adds to a perception of softness at times. There are no compression artifacts despite the frequent darkness of this presentation.

For the Emperor Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For the Emperor's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is very immersive, offering a glut of well placed effects in the fight scenes and other action elements. Dialogue and a kind of synth heavy thumping score are also well rendered with excellent fidelity and very wide dynamic range.

For the Emperor Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:10)

For the Emperor Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For the Empire traffics in too many hoary crime thriller tropes for its own good, and adding to the general lethargy here is an often haphazard presentation which includes some less than convincing fight scenes. Technical merits are generally excellent for those considering a purchase.