6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Rothrock stars as Cindy, an American FBI agent who travels to Hong Kong to arrest a criminal newspaper editor, Ronny Dak (filmmaker Ronny Yu) who prints counterfeit money using the newspaper's presses (a dubious notion, but storyline is not the film's strong point). While investigating Dak's crimes, Cindy hooks up with her old friend Judy Yu (Elizabeth Lee), an undercover cop (Chin Siu-ho), and an intrepid journalist (director Mang Hoi) to battle his kung-fu henchmen.
Starring: Cynthia Rothrock, Hoi Mang, Ronny Yu, Melvin Wong, Wu MaForeign | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Cantonese: LPCM 2.0
English: LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
"Hoi Mang's "Lady Reporter" a.k.a. "Blonde Fury" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include new program with Cynthia Rothrock; new audio commentary by critics Mike Leeder and Arner Venema; new audio commentary by critic Frank Djeng and actor Vincent Lyn; vintage trailers; and more. In Cantonese or English, with optional English subtitles. Region-B "locked".
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Lady Reporter arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.
There are two versions of the film on this release -- original Theatrical Version and Export Cut -- and both are fully restored in 2K. I viewed approximately half of the Theatrical Version and the entire Export Cut. Virtually all close-ups look very good. Early into the film, most wider panoramic footage looks good, too. However, there are different segments where grain begins to appear flattened and delineation suffers a bit. Some encoding optimizations definitely could have helped, but I think that there are some inherited surface anomalies as well. For example, what you see in screencaptures #3 and 24 would not have been fixed with encoding optimizations. On a larger screen, trained eyes will easily spot these fluctuations. Color balance is very good. All primaries and supporting nuances look very healthy. It is possible that there is room for some rebalancing work, but the color temperature and balance are convincing. Image stability is very good. I did not encounter any age-related imperfections to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese LPCM 2.0 and English LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the Cantonese track.
The Cantonese track sounds sharper and often noticeably clearer. The English dub track is frequently quite flat and anemic, which is hardly surprising considering that the dubbing was done fairly cheaply. On the other hand, on the Cantonese track, Cynthia Rothrock and a couple of other actors are still dubbed, so there is an unevenness that is shared by both tracks. During action footage, there are some significant spikes and drops in dynamic intensity, I do not think that they become distracting. I did not encounter any audio dropouts or distortions to report in our review.
It won't take you long to realize that a lot of the stunts Cynthia Rothrock does in Lady Reporter are every bit as difficult and dangerous as the ones Jackie Chan did in some of his best films. These stunts are the main attraction in Lady Reporter. The rest is filler material shot by a first-time director that rolled the dice by having a foreign female actress as its star. I had a good time with Lady Reporter but only after I changed my mind and decided to see the Export Cut, which utilizes a very colorful and funny English dub track. Eureka Entertainment's release introduces a slightly uneven but good new 2K restoration of Lady Reporter, together with several very good exclusive new bonus features. RECOMMENDED.
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