I Love Maria 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

I Love Maria 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 8, 2026

Science fiction and the fantastical seldom, for one reason or another, been especially popular in the Hong Kong film industry or with its audiences. But the two genres have long been staples in American cinema. As the 1980s progressed, they were a dominant presence in Hollywood. After the releases of such classics as Ghostbusters, The Terminator, and RoboCop, they became too prominent to ignore in overseas markets. At the Film Workshop, Tsui Hark and screenwriter Yuen Kai-Chi (hot off A Chinese Ghost Story) conceived a sci-fi yarn about robots and cops battling it out in Hong Kong.

In I Love Maria, an evil ragtag group known as the Hero Gang wants to assume control of the city with its ED-209-like creation Pioneer I marching through downtown. Saviour (aka Big Brother played by Ben Lam) leads the gang along with his tough-as-nails girlfriend Maria (Sally Yeh). Saviour wants to expand the robotic line by making a machine simulacrum out of Maria. She is less thrilled about it must defer to her boss. Ex-Hero Gang member Whiskey (Tsui Hark) and Curly (John Sham), a special weapons designer who works for the Royal Hong Kong Police, become involved in one of Saviour's plots. When the robot Maria is discombobulated and essentially taken "offline," Curly reassembles and reprograms it to be a "good robot" and receptive to the phrase, "I love Curly."

David Chung was the original director of I Love Maria but after Tsui Hark became unhappy with the film, the producer reportedly re-shot scenes. I have read (but can't officially confirm) that Tsui the actor initially was not in the film's early cuts but his character was added later once he took control of the production. Fellow producer John Sham also has an important role here as the weapons designer. He was probably added to the cast to save Golden Princess money. Tony Leung (credited here as Leung Chiu Wai) portrays T. Q. Zhuang, a klutzy and inefficient newspaper photographer who can't seem to hold on to his camera. Leung was still a very young actor just wrapping up his TVB productions. He had not become the great actor for the silver screen that he soon would develop into. Scribe Yuen Kai-Chi wants to make him a hero but the script's weakness is that it never lets T. Q. partake in any genuine heroic acts that win over the audience. The script creates several comedic skits for Tsui and and John Cham's characters but the film has an imbalance of comedy and action. It sorely could have used more action like the breathtaking sequence where human Maria chases Whiskey across a forest Tarzan-style through vines and wires. Sally Yeh is the best part of the film. She constructs a fine line and key distinction between her Hero Gang character and her robot incarnate. Yeh is the reason to see I Love Maria.

I Love Maria 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Love Maria is the most recent addition to Shout! Studios' Hong Kong Cinema Classics lineup. This release is housed with a slipcover. A 4K scan was processed from the original camera negative for the transfers appearing on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and regular Blu-ray. The UHD has been encoded with Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible). Shout! presents the picture in its original exhibition ratio of 1.85:1. Colors and contrast stand out equally well on the 4K and HD presentations. The transfers have absolutely zero stability issues. There's a solidity to every shape shown in the frame. Much of I Love Maria was shot at night so you'll see a lot of earthly blues and grays. I'm impressed with how backlit silhouettes appear in long shot (see screen capture #s 5 and 39-40). I examined the 4K transfer on a smaller screen shot for shot and counted around ten or fewer instances of source-related artifacts. Most are blink-and-you'll-miss-them so they shouldn't distract from your viewing enjoyment.

The UHD delivers a mean video bitrate of 83.7 Mbps for the feature while the whole disc boasts an overall bitrate of 93.0 Mbps. The MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 carries a rough average video bitrate of 32000 kbps. My video scores for the 4K and Blu-ray are 4.75/5.00 apiece.

Screenshot #s 1-30, 32, 34, 36, 38, & 40 = Shout! Studios 2026 4K Ultra HD (downscaled to 1080p)
Screenshot #s 31, 33, 35, 37, & 39 = Shout! Studios 2026 Blu-ray BD-50 (from a 4K restoration)

Nine chapter breaks can be accessed via remote control only.

I Love Maria 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has provided the original Cantonese track, which is encoded as a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1581 kbps, 16-bit). The boutique label has also included an English dubbed track with identical audio codec, a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono (1574 kbps, 16-bit). I concentrated entirely on the native Cantonese mix. Spoken words are intelligible. Dialogue is delivered with clarity and crispness. Gunshots and sound f/x associated with the robots are reproduced well. Dynamic range is impressive. There's a decent amount of bass. I didn't catch any pops, crackles, or dropouts.

Shout! has supplied optional English subtitles for the 100-minute feature. See Screenshot #s 24-26 for subtitle samples. Frame grab #s 27-30 are of the intertitles.

I Love Maria 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

DISC ONE: 4K Ultra HD

• Audio Commentary with Film Historians Frank Djeng and Erik Ko - this full-length commentary primarily features Djeng, who's joined by Erik Ko, a college classmate. The latter professes to be an expert on manga. The commentary promises to deliver on I Love Maria's manga-like aspects but it doesn't at all. When Ko speaks, it's mostly him reacting to the onscreen action. Djeng is definitely the more valuable presence here. He gives brief accounts of Tsui Hark's career and Tony Leung's days at TVB. Djeng also talks about Sally Yeh's performance and gives nuggets on I Love Maria's production. He does a fine job of picking up on Ko's shorter points and extrapolating on them. But on other occasions, Djeng just replies with a lot of "Mm-hmm" expressions. Both Djeng and Ko speak in English, not subtitled.

DISC TWO: Blu-ray

• Audio Commentary with Film Historians Frank Djeng and Erik Ko - this full-length commentary primarily features Djeng, who's joined by Erik Ko, a college classmate. The latter professes to be an expert on manga. The commentary promises to deliver on I Love Maria's manga-like aspects but it doesn't at all. When Ko speaks, it's mostly him reacting to the onscreen action. Djeng is definitely the more valuable presence here. He gives brief accounts of Tsui Hark's career and Tony Leung's days at TVB. Djeng also talks about Sally Yeh's performance and gives nuggets on I Love Maria's production. He does a fine job of picking up on Ko's shorter points and extrapolating on them. But on other occasions, Djeng just replies with a lot of "Mm-hmm" expressions. Both Djeng and Ko speak in English, not subtitled.

• From Brainwaves to Mainframes: Interview with Writer Yuen Kai-Chi (6:25, 1080p) - Yuen Kai-Chi covers a lot of ground in just over six minutes. He gives his reason for I Love Maria getting made. He also talks about the casting of Sally Yeh and ideas that went into the Maria character. Yuen remarks on her performances in Peking Opera Blues and I Love Maria. He speaks very briefly on Tony Leung's casting. Yuen spends the most time discussing differences between humans and robots. Additionally, he mentions that a good chunk of script material didn't make it into the film. Yuen reveals that I Love Maria's crew was deep in pre-production before RoboCop came out in theaters. In Cantonese or Mandarin, subtitled in English.

• English-Language Credits (2:20, 1080p) - these all-English credits comprise both the main and end titles of the film, which is called RoboForce for certain markets outside Hong Kong. While the footage looks pretty good, it hasn't been fully restored since it displays source-related artifacts.

• Image Gallery (6:55, 1080p) - this slide show consists of photographs taken on location and on the sets of I Love Maria. It also encompasses publicity snapshots, English export and Hong Kong lobby cards, and several posters taken from ad campaigns in different countries. There are as many as four stills displayed at once. The images don't appear at full-screen resolution. A decorative border circumvents all four sides of the screen (with music from the score playing). Interestingly, the Mexican lobby cards use RoboCop's banner but include stills from I Love Maria instead!

• Theatrical Trailer (4:53, 1080p) - an original trailer for I Love Maria presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and accompanied by a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track (1611 kbps, 16-bit). This appears as if if it was transferred from a trailer reel immediately after retrieval from a vault. There are various artifacts scattered throughout the frame. The sound has good bass. Pops and crackles are heard at the beginning but not thereafter. In Cantonese, subtitled in English.

I Love Maria 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The sci-fi action/comedy I Love Maria is a rare breed in Hong Kong cinema (even in its Golden Age) because you see few of its kind. It is a fun movie in spite of shortcomings in the screenplay and a few of the performances. If you approach it as HK's version of RoboCop, I think you will be greatly disappointed. The robotic suit for Maria literally shines bright silver in 4K. While the discs' audio commentary is average, the short interview with Yuen Kai-Chi is very good. A VERY SOLID RECOMMENDATION.