7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A Hong Kong cop named Kit busts a major gangster only to find his cover blown and his main witness gone. The gangster, in retaliation, has him kidnapped and put in a Thai jail with a false criminal identity. With the help of a lowly prison guard named Chai, both men must face the gangster and his minions and take them down.
Starring: Tony Jaa, Louis Koo, Jing Wu, Simon Yam, Jin ZhangForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 60% |
Action | 12% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Cantonese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
It’s probably somewhat fortuitous that I had little recollection of Kill Zone when I came to Kill Zone 2, for despite it bearing an obviously linked name and even a couple of the same actors (albeit in different roles), this “second” Kill Zone film is in fact only very tangentially linked to the first outing. In reviewing my Kill Zone Blu-ray review (so to speak), I reacquainted myself with the fact that the first Kill Zone was a decidedly ambiguous affair from a moral standpoint, positing supposed “good guys” who trafficked in a number of questionable activities, making any differentiation between them and the ostensible villains of the piece a study in relativity. There’s little of that ambiguity on display in Kill Zone 2, a film that instead is almost ridiculously contrived at times as it wends its way through an almost comical series of coincidences that fold subplots about human organ harvesting, corrupt prison officials and a well meaning father needing a bone marrow transplant for his mortally ill daughter into one surprisingly satisfying whole. The film’s plot mechanics are completely outrageous, and one simply needs to surrender to near cosmic levels of synchronicity that sometimes attend various developments, but the film is graced with several (literal and figurative) knockout fight sequences and also manages to ply something at least close to honest human emotion in its depiction of an emotionally fraught father doing whatever is necessary to save his adorable little girl.
Kill Zone 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists this as a Red Epic shot production, finished at a 2K DI. Aside from a few transitory banding issues (you'll notice the first in the "red sea" little Sa is swimming in), this is by and large a really nice looking transfer. The imagery is consistently sharp, clear and extremely well detailed, especially in the many numerous extreme close-ups. A number of moments have been intentionally tweaked to resemble either raw video feeds or at the least a somewhat "distressed" appearance (see screenshot 6), and during these typically rather brief scenes detail levels are understandably lessened. A number of scenes have been both pretty garishly lit and then graded toward a greenish yellow that is kind of sickly looking, especially with regard to flesh tones, but which does not materially affect detail levels.
Our audio specs above are a tad misleading, since Kill Zone 2's original soundtrack version features a variety of different languages being spoken, including Cantonese, Mandarin and Thai. One way or the other, my personal recommendation is to stick with the original multi-language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, not just for "purity"'s sake, but also because the overall mix is somewhat more vibrant than the passable English dub that's also available in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The original language(s) mix is expectedly robust in the fight sequences, where all sorts of discrete channelization helps to envelop the listener in the hustle and bustle of bones being snapped to pieces, and there are a number of other interesting ambient environmental effects that dot the surround channels in other moments. Sa's nightmare about the wolf provides a little growly low end, but there's more than ample actual LFE in any number of action sequences. Fidelity is top notch with no problems of any kind to report.
- The Story (1080p; 2:26)
- The Fights (1080p; 3:15)
- The Vision (1080p; 2:47)
- Welcome to Rehab (1080p; 1:40)
- Police Harassment (1080p; 1:32)
- Kit's Apartment (1080p; 2:19)
- Kit: Undercover Cop (1080p; 1:52)
- Prison Punishment (1080p; 3:39)
- Chai Reads Sa's Letter (1080p; 1:57)
- Wa's Warning (1080p; 3:11)
- Sa's Song (1080p; 00:59)
Kill Zone 2 may ultimately not make one whit of sense, but it hardly matters as the film careens through a number of wonderfully staged fight sequences and pretends to care about at least a couple of its characters. It's all resolutely silly, but it's also all immensely enjoyable. Technical merits are generally strong, and Kill Zone 2 comes Recommended.
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