La Comedie Humaine Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

La Comedie Humaine Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 28, 2011

Screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Chan Hing-Kar and Janet Chun's "La Comedie Humaine" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Mei Ah Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer and a photo gallery. In Cantonese and English, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Professional assassins can be passionate film buffs

Chan Hing-Kar and Janet Chun's La Comedie Humaine reminded me about two other films - Patrice Leconte's L'homme du train (Man on the Train) and Keenen Ivory Wayans’ Scary Movie. It is not as original as they are, but it is nevertheless quite entertaining.

In L'homme du train, an aging assassin meets a retired teacher. They become friends and consequently share some of their biggest triumphs and failures. Eventually, the assassin realizes that his life would have been a lot more satisfying if he was a teacher, while the teacher begins to wish he was an assassin.

Something similar happens in La Comedie Humaine. A lonely Mainland assassin, Spring (Chapman To, Infernal Affairs, Isabella), meets and befriends a geeky Hong Kong screenwriter, Soya (Wong Cho-Nam, The Jade and the Pearl), who is trying to recover from a disastrous relationship with a psychotic girl (Fiona Sit, Break Up Club). Both are so passionate about films, and especially Asian films, that most of the time they act as if they are in a film. Naturally, Spring often wonders if real assassins like him have influenced the likes of John Woo and Johnnie To, or if it is the other way around.

In the beginning Soya does not know that Spring is an assassin. But when he impresses a local director who is getting ready to shoot a big budget gangster saga, Soya realizes that his friend is a lot more than a knowledgeable film buff.

Meanwhile, Spring’s amnesiac partner, "Setting Sun" (Hui Shiu-Hung, Running Out of Time), arrives in Hong Kong to finish a job the two have been contracted for earlier. He urges Srping to get rid of Soya - because professional assassins do not have friends - and then the two head to their target’s place. What "Setting Sun" does not know is that for quite some time the police have been following him.

In addition to Leconte’s film, La Comedie Humaine also reminded me about Scary Movie because it pokes fun at a number of classic and recent Asian films, from John Woo’s The Killer to Derek Yee’s One Nite in Mongkok to Edmond Pang’s Isabella to Feng Xiaogang’s Assembly. And a lot of the spoofs - courtesy of Soya’s rich imagination - are indeed quite good.

A rather big portion of the film, however, is also dedicated on Soya’s relationship with his abusive girlfriend, and the romantic overtones that are associated with it do not blend well with the satire. The finale is also incredibly bizarre, though given everything that happens earlier in the film probably not terribly surprising.

As hectic as it may seem, La Comedie Humaine is still quite an enjoyable film. To is absolutely hilarious as the concerned about his image assassin who slowly begins to realize that having a friend is not such a terrible idea. On the other hand, Cho-Nam is unlikely to win a major film award any time soon, but he tries so hard to impress that one cannot help but admire his determination.

Veteran cinematographer Wong Wing-Hung’s (A Better Tomorrow, Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled) lensing is excellent. The spoofs in particular look great.

Note: Last year, La Comédie Humaine was screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

La Comedie Humaine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Chan Hing-Kar and Janet Chun's La Comedie Humaine arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Mei Ah Entertainment.

This is a good looking but quite inconsistent high-definition transfer. Mild edge-enhancement often creeps in and adds a rather harsh edge to many of the outdoor scenes. As a result, occasionally detail is not as impressive as it could have been. The majority of the close-ups, however, look quite good, especially those from the first half of the film. Clarity is also adequate, while contrast levels are consistent. Generally speaking, color reproduction is fine, though some of the greens and blues are a bit shaky. There are no serious stability issues. I also did not see any annoying large damage marks, cuts, or stains to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

La Comedie Humaine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1. For the record, Mei Ah Entertainment have provided optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature.

There are quite a few action scenes in the film that get a strong boost from the loseless treatment - the bass is potent and punchy, the surround channels intelligently used, and the high-frequencies not overdone. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no balance issues with Andy Cheung and Chiu Tsang-Hei's music score either. Lastly, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review. The English translation is good, though I did notice a few small syntax errors.

La Comedie Humaine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for La Comedie Humaine. In Cantonese, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• Photo Gallery - a collection of stills from the film. (1080p).

La Comedie Humaine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I enjoyed La Comedie Humaine more than I thought I would. Chapman To is surely one of the funniest professional assassins to appear in Hong Kong films, while Wong Cho-Nam is suspiciously believable as the geeky screenwriter. A lot of the spoofs are also very good. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Mei Ah Entertainment, is Region-Free. RECOMMENDED.