7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
During the 16th century, Japanese pirates proliferate along the Chinese coastline. In 1557, the pirates take over Cengang in Zhejiang. After months of futile advances, Commander Yu finally defeats them under the leadership of newly promoted General Qi. The Pirates, however, manage to escape.
Starring: Wenzhuo Zhao, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Regina Wan, Keisuke Koide, Yasuaki KurataForeign | 100% |
Action | 40% |
History | 12% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: DTS:X
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
God of War has a lot of battles chaotically if intermittently filling the frame, as its very title may imply, and that may be enough to distract some adrenaline junkies from narrative hurdles that accrue at least in part from the fact that while elements of this story may be familiar to a fair number of Chinese, my hunch is a lot of Westerners, myself included, will be pausing and rewinding at various intervals to figure out who’s whom and what exactly is going on. The film begins with one of those “establishing texts” which seeks to provide context, but which is probably too brief and basic to offer much more than the fact that the film takes place in the mid sixteenth century and involves Japanese pirates who have taken control of certain areas of the Chinese coastland. One of the odd issues that is (again, briefly) alluded to in this opening mini-barrage of information is the fact that some of the “Japanese” pirates were in fact Chinese themselves, something that seems to be more of a major part of the actual historical record than some aspects of God of War might indicate. The biggest issue with God of War, though, may well not be any cultural disconnect between the story and its (Western) audience, but the fact that those action elements, while fairly numerous (especially in a front loaded series of sequences), are repeatedly interrupted by long stretches of “talky bits”, where everything more or less stops as various strategies are discussed — endlessly. The film has an opulent production design that brings this historical epoch winningly to life, and it certainly features a top flight cast, including Sammo Hung, but the film never trades on its star power and in fact doesn’t seem to want to delve beneath the surface of any of its supposedly iconic characters. That said, this is a Blu-ray release whose excellent technical merits may sway consumers who might otherwise be cool to this historical epic.
God of War is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is one of the more consistently pleasing transfers of an Asian film Well Go USA has provided recently, and while I can't find any authoritative data online to support this thesis, I'm wondering if a 4K master might have been used. Levels of fine detail on the often unbelievably gorgeously textured costumes is really amazing to behold at times (just take a look at several of the screenshots accompanying this review), and detail levels across the board are routinely excellent. The palette is rich and natural looking (the film is commendably free of long graded sequences), and several of the almost dance like battle scenes feature some wide vistas that have superb depth of field. There are no persistent issues with banding as has been seen on some other Well Go USA releases, and this is certainly a fine looking presentation whatever the dramatic deficiencies of the film.
God of War has a really engaging sounding DTS:X track. The film's penchant toward nonstop action in its opening few minutes at least provides lots of great opportunities for midair effects, including gunshots, explosions and (most impressively) the whiz of scores of arrows flying through the air. A lot of the film takes place outside, which offers similarly great opportunities for well placed ambient environmental effects. A perhaps rote but still grand sounding score by Shigeru Umebayashi also offers a bed of surround activity at regular intervals. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track which boasts flawless fidelity and extremely wide dynamic range.
Every film tends to have peaks and valleys of energy, but what I found a little odd about God of War is that it starts out with guns literally blazing and everything firing on all pistons, only to then pretty much stop for the next good while to talk about it. There's some interesting material here, and I for one didn't even know Japanese pirates were an "issue" in China in the sixteenth century, but the film could have used a bit of judicious pruning in the talky bits to get back to the action sooner. Performances are excellent, and the production design really quite beautiful to behold. With the technical merits of this release so excellent, some sitting on the fence may well want to consider checking this out even if they end up not loving the film itself.
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