6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
A dying old man hires a mysterious rogue assassin known as the 'King of Assassins' to kill the former yakuza boss who murdered his family during the Sino-Japanese war. Ironically, the yakuza boss forsees his own death and establishes a $100 million dollar revenge fund to reward the person who kills the instigator.
Starring: Jet Li, Eric Tsang, Simon Yam, Gigi Leung, Kenji SaharaForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 51% |
Action | 44% |
Comedy | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.88:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Cantonese: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Mandarin (Traditional), English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Stephen Tung Wai's "Sat sau ji wong" a.k.a "Hitman" (1998) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Kam & Ronson Enterprises. The supplemental features on the disc include footage from the film's premiere in Hong Kong and standard behind the scenes featurette. In Cantonese and Japanese, with optional English and Traditional Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Shoot to kill
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.88:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Stephen Tung Wai's Hitman arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Kam & Ronson Enterprises.
I have mixed feelings about this release. Unlike a number of recent Kam & Ronson Enterprises catalog releases, clearly we do not have an upconversion being passed on as native high-definition. Unfortunately, however, this is a dated high-definition transfer with a number of issues -- there is a good dose of mild to medium sharpening, sporadic denoising, and light halo effects. Edge enhancement is often easy to spot during the daylight scenes, but it is not as damaging as it might appear on some of the screencaptures we have provided with this review. The light noise that pops up here and there is also relatively easy to tolerate. What will likely frustrate some viewers, however, are the various tiny damage marks (see screencapture #1, bottom right) that are easy to spot, as well as a thin horizontal line that appears a couple of times for a few seconds. This being said, fine object detail and color reproduction are actually quite decent. Contrast levels are also balanced well. Obviously, however, the various issues mentioned earlier make it rather difficult to appreciate the upgrades. (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 its content).
There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 (with portions of Japanese). For the record, Kam & Ronson Enterprises have provided optional English and Traditional Chinese subtitles for the main feature.
The Cantonese Dolby TureHD 7.1 has a decent dynamic range, but balance is not overly impressive. During the action scenes, gunshots have a tendency to stick out while obviously enhanced kicks and punches sound hollow. Generally speaking, the rear channels are also underused. This said, the dialog is mostly stable, crisp, clean, and easy to follow. The English translation, however, is not very convincing. I noticed plenty of syntax and spelling errors.
Stephen Tung Wai's Hitman is a fairly straightforward yet entertaining action film. I enjoyed it, but mostly because I really liked Eric Tsang's improvisations. Indeed, I have to say that without him, the film would have been a major disappointment. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Kam & Ronson Enterprises, is something of a mixed bag. You should consider adding it to your collections only if you could find it on sale.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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