Let The Bullets Fly Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

Let The Bullets Fly Blu-ray Movie Review

Once Upon a Time in China. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 23, 2012

There was a time in the early days of film when a Western was a Western. There was the hero and the villain, some horse chases and a few gunfights. Sometimes the Indians were the bad guys, at other times it was simply bank robbers and the like. But the genre has proven itself to be remarkably elastic through the years, and everyone from John Ford with iconic entries like Stagecoach to Anthony Mann with his series of "adult westerns" to William Wyler with The Big Country invested the idiom with new perspectives and approaches. The sixties saw another huge influx of innovations, which included everything from Sergio Leone's so-called "spaghetti westerns" to the amiability of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to the somehow lyrical violence of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Things have been a bit more spotty since the high water mark of 1969 (the year that both Butch and Bunch appeared), but over and over, with perhaps less regularity than before, there have been some sterling efforts released that have sought to reinvigorate one of the oldest genres in film. This has included several international efforts, including Leone's late sixties masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West to several Asian entries that have managed to create a whole new niche in Western outings. There's little doubt that Chinese actor – director Jiang Wen had the magnificent westerns of Leone in mind when he made the often outrageously entertaining Let the Bullets Fly, but Jiang, while obviously influenced by Leone, is no mere copycat. Let the Bullets Fly has two salient and distinct differences from the bulk of Leone's work: first of all, it's often incredibly funny, and second of all, unlike Leone's legendary hero The Man With No Name, a character who barely uttered a word, Jiang's characters rip through dialogue like Eastern versions of characters in a Howard Hawks screwball comedy. This is one film where the subtitles can barely--and I do mean barely--keep up with the rapid fire back and forth between the players.

Let the Bullets Fly has become an absolute box office sensation in mainland China and Hong Kong, becoming that nation's all time champion. It's really not hard to see why. The film is a breezy reinvention of the Robin Hood legend placed within a 1920s context of modern day warlords and gangster types, but clad in a neo-Western sensibility that features old standbys like gunfights and train robberies. In tone if not in actual content, Let the Bullets Fly is distinctly at the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid end of the spectrum, a film which slyly winks at itself and the audience as it lays out a scenario of a big hearted thief named Pocky Zhang (Jiang) who engineers a startling train robbery in the film's bristling opening scene, a robbery that ends up killing the aide to a would be governor who is on his way to the sort of backwoods hooligan infested burg that is a Western cliché. Through a bit of subterfuge Pocky is led to believe that the governor himself has been killed in the mayhem. Pocky quickly realizes that since no one in the town knows what the governor looks like, he might as well assume the role, hopefully putting him in a position of power and influence. Unfortunately, he soon learns he has to deal with the town's imperious head gangster, Huang (Chow Yun-Fat), who isn't about to loosen his reins on several of the town's most profitable enterprises, which include drug dealing and selling humans. Because Huang is certain someone somewhere is hatching a plot to assassinate him, he is also training a dunderheaded double (also played by Chow) to take his place in public, so that the idiot version can take any bullets intended for him.

Also playing into this general mayhem are two survivors from the opening train wreck, the supposedly dead governor's wife (Carina Lau) and the real governor, Ma, an obsequious (and scheming) man who takes on the identity of his dead aide, Tang (Ge You), when Pocky threatens to kill him early in the film. Both the governor and his wife quickly come to the conclusion that it's better to go along with Pocky's impersonation than to risk certain death if they resist. While this sets up a potentially labyrinthine set of competing (and often shifting) alliances and motivations, Jiang has a firm directorial hand and a sharply written screenplay which always cuts a comprehensible and solid through line that makes the proceeding fun, fast and often laugh out loud hilarious. The characters do stop on occasion to philosophize, but that is almost always within the context of some over the top CGI or silly action sequence that upends the talkiness and lets the viewer know that Jiang, while serious, isn't about to let out and out entertainment slip from his grasp.

Let the Bullets Fly is a remarkably brisk film, despite clocking in at well over two hours. Jiang repeatedly ups the ante of the developing cat and mouse game between Huang and Zhang, especially once an important subplot is brought in with an unexpected death. Despite what might have been a tonal imbalance caused by this event, Jiang manages to keep things mostly light, if often surprisingly nuanced and philosophically astute. Aside from the sheer entertainment value afforded by the crisp screenplay and appealing performances, the film is also sumptuously beautiful to simply sit back and watch. Impeccable production design and gorgeous costumes keep the imagery alive with color and pageantry, proving that the Western need not be limited to the wide open prairies of America to be incredibly effective.

Let The Bullets Fly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Let the Bullets Fly is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is a spectacularly sharp and brilliant looking high definition presentation, one which positively bristles with eye popping color and some supremely satisfying fine detail. It must be admitted that some of the CGI is less than convincing, especially the train, which kind of lurches by like it's in stop motion, but other than a few elements like this, the imagery here is crisp and solid, with near perfect contrast and black levels, and some of the most richly saturated and robust colors in recent memory. While typical suspects like dust and busy foliage present no problems in resolving correctly, there are some very minor and almost negligible instances of aliasing on some of the complex set patterns.

Let The Bullets Fly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Let the Bullets Fly features both its original Mandarin soundtrack and an okay English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes as well as in standard Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo fold downs. There is a problem with the subtitles zooming by so quickly they're sometimes hard to catch in the Mandarin track, but otherwise, that is the option to stick with, even if you have to go back occasionally to reread what is being said. The Mandarin 5.1 track is just a riot of sonic invention from virtually the first moment of the film. Boisterous LFE cascades out of the subwoofer and bullets zing through the sound field with almost palpable panning effects. There are a number of really great sound effects throughout the film, including massive gongs being struck and of course the gunfight sequences and pounding hooves of horses. Dialogue is crisp and clear (if often incredibly fast paced), and the film's appealing underscore is also presented extremely well. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range is extremely wide throughout the film.

Let The Bullets Fly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with a lot of Well Go USA releases, the label offers two different editions of Let the Bullets Fly. The Standard Edition comes with the feature on Blu-ray, sans supplements other than trailers (see below), and a DVD copy included. This Collector's Edition has the same Blu-ray of the film but instead of a DVD copy of the film includes some supplementary material.

The Blu-ray offers:

• Original Trailer (HD; 1:03)


• Teaser (HD; 00:53)


• Trailer (HD; 1:48)

The DVD features:

• Making Of (SD; 16:49) is an interesting assortment of interviews and scenes of the film shoot, interspersed with snippets from the film itself. Jiang seems to be something of a perfectionist, as several people talk about multiple takes (up to 35 for one actor) of various scenes. In Chinese with optional English subtitles.


• Interview With the Writers (SD; 23:56) features three writers who contributed to the script process. Shu Ping, a frequent collaborator of Jiang's came on board to help the writer â€" director with the script for the film. He talks about the many revisions the film went through, including several different ideas for the ending. Guo Junli is a playwright whose work interested Jiang and he also came on board. Wei Xiao admits he basically just finessed what was already there.

Let The Bullets Fly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Let the Bullets Fly is just good, old fashioned fun, an invigorating piece of entertainment that doesn't harp on any Big Message (despite being rather intellectual for this type of film), while at the same time delivering an epic scale wrapped around a rather intimate story of shades of moral gray. Jiang manages to craft a film that is supremely energetic and dramatic while at the same time being laugh out loud hilarious at regular intervals. Sumptuously beautiful and full of fantastic performances, this is one film that should appeal to virtually everyone, even if they're not particular fans of Asian cinema or even Westerns. This Collector's Edition Blu-ray offers excellent video and reference quality audio, and features two appealing if slight supplements on the bonus DVD. Highly recommended.