Millionaires’ Express Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Millionaires’ Express Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 26, 2023

There's an interesting phenomenon vis a vis ostensible humor in foreign films where sometimes the verbal bantering can get "lost in translation", so to speak (no pun intended), but where physical comedy can typically be understood by audiences of any nationality. There is a lot of physical humor in all of the versions of Millionaires' Express included on this two disc release (see detailed information from Arrow about the versions which I've reproduced in the Video section, below), but what's kind of refreshing is how some of the goofy but still at least occasionally raucously hilarious verbal joking also "lands" surprisingly well. While it may not pass muster with either more "PC minded" people or even outright "woke" viewers, there's one particularly amusing scene in at least a couple of versions of the film that finds a bunch of semi-harridan if understandably upset married women protesting at the local brothel where their husbands evidently do a great deal of business, chanting and waving banners proclaiming the "working women" of the establishment to be any number of less than tasteful epithets, until Ching Fong-tin (Sammo Hung) makes an impassioned plea in defense of the employees of the establishment. Suddenly, the protestors are at least somewhat chastened, letting the prostitutes exit the facility while the former protestors actually start clapping and telling the prostitutes to keep up the good work, even if that "work" does involve the husbands of some of the women. That little vignette is already at least a little giggle worthy, but after Ching and the prostitutes leave, the lead rabble rouser suddenly has a "new, improved" thought about it all and where umbrage should rightly be placed, and begins leading the women in a new chant of "fight the patriarchy!" Now there are admittedly other bits that don't really work, including a kind of forced introduction of some supposedly boneheaded criminals, but a lot of the humor of Millionaires' Express gives it a genial manner that may buoy the film even with a somewhat cumbersome and chaotic narrative.

Sammo Hung is not just the star of Millionaires' Express, but also its writer and director, and if the screenplay understandably gives Hung the strut both his often wacky physical humor and action chops (pun unavoidable), it's actually commendable if also problematic that Hung doesn't, well, hang the entire film on his broad shoulders. Instead the plot in this piece is almost stuffed to the bursting point with a number of at least intermittently interlocked subplots and especially sidebar characters, ultimately giving the film a definite feeling of traditional farce.

That farcical element is probably on display from the get go in several versions of the film, which sees obvious conniver Ching stumble upon what appears to be a field full of dead Russian soldiers on an isolated snowy mountain field. Ching, sensing an opportunity, begins to rifle through the various "corpses" for loot until the punchline is revealed that the soldiers are actually play acting for some kind of military exercise. That of course lands Ching in hot water, forced to strip to his skivvies with a mop on his head and impersonate some kind of "dancing girl". Suffice it to say with the aid of some nascent CGI (which a commentary track rightly makes fun of), Ching is able to blow up the brigade of tormentors, only to almost immediately fall into the clutches of Fook Loi (Kenny Bee), who is some kind of lawman trying to bring Ching to justice, though the context is not immediately explained.

Ching obviously is a bit of scoundrel, but he's a good hearted one, and that proclivity comes into play when he comes up with a patently ludicrous scheme to dynamite nearby railroad tracks that are due to carry a train full of extremely wealthy passengers. Ching doesn't want to "rob" the passengers in any traditional way, and instead wants to usher them into the poverty stricken town where he's taken refuge, in order to drum up a bit of business for the town's inhabitants. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of other people interested in this same train for various nefarious reasons. That brings a carnival like assortment of gangsters, bumbling escaped prisoners, and those aformentioned "working women" together with the passengers, who are another assortment of eccentric characters. The film delivers a series of sometimes fanciful but still intermittently laugh out loud funny vignettes involving all of these people.

There's probably a bit too much going on as a result, but Millionaires' Express plays at times like a precursor to Let The Bullets Fly. It may admittedly not have the rapid fire verbal virtuosity of the 2010 film, but Millionaires' Express is often very funny, expertly combining deft stunts and action sequences to provide some enjoyable set pieces, even if the narrative is really too dense for what might be termed a certain kind of Chinese soufflé.

Millionaires’ Express Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Millionaires' Express is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 2.39:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer(s):

Millionaires' Express is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio [sic] with its original Cantonese and English monoaural soundtracks. It was restored in 2K resolution from original film elements by Fortune Star, who supplied this master to Arrow Video for this Blu-ray release. Further materials were kindly supplied for this release by Eureka Entertainment, originally produced for their UK edition. The film is presented in four versions between two discs, each with differing audio options. On Disc 1, the 97 minute Hong Kong Theatrical Cut is presented in the original Cantonese; the 102 minute Extended "International" Cut, which deletes some scenes and adds others, is also presented in Cantonese, as well as a 'hybrid' English mono track that augments the classic 1980s dub with additional material from a later DVD dub. On Disc 2, the 93 minute English Export Cut is a shorter variant of the Hong Kong Theatrical Cut, presented here with its original 'classic' English mono dub track; and finally, the 109 minute Hybrid Cut (newly assembled in 2021 for Eureka Entertainment), combining all available material from the three aforementioned cuts into one 'integral' version, is presented in Cantonese.

With so many versions of the film to contend with, it's understandable that there are some noticeable variances on display, especially with regard to some of the longer cuts, though my general sense is that things look more or less identical for the bulk of all four presentations, at least with regard to shared footage. There's a just slightly processed look to the transfers at times, something that may affect the "naturalness" of grain resolution (though as can be seen in the screenshots I've uploaded the accompany this review, there's a clearly discernable grain field). There are noticeable upticks of grain in a couple of sequences which may or may not be in all four versions, including an early introduction of a bunch of gangsters and a later pretty hilarious vignette involving two elder martial artists and their young sons on a train that passes through a number of tunnels, to injurious consequences. Those moments can also suffer slightly from a downturn in detail levels. On the whole, though, the palette is beautifully robust, especially in the frequent outdoor material, and fine detail levels tend to be very good to excellent (take a look at the fine threads on the sleeve of the red sweater in the second screenshot for just one example). The CGI is absolutely laughable (not in a good way) and as one of the commentary tracks mentions, probably needlessly distracting.

As alluded to above in Arrow's verbiage, this release repeats what was found on the The Millionaires' Express Limited Edition from Eureka! Entertainment, which came out back in July of 2021 but as of the writing of this review doesn't look like it's been covered by the site yet.

Millionaires’ Express Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

See the Video section above for Arrow's detailed descriptions of what audio options are available on each version included on this two disc set, but all of the audio options are delivered via LPCM Mono tracks. There's not a huge difference to my ears between them, though the Cantonese track may sound just slightly boxier, especially with regard to some of the music cues, than the English track. That said, I'd personally recommend sticking with the Cantonese track where available, unless reading subtitles is a deal breaker. The track has the requisite goofy "martial arts sound effects", but it also has a number of nicely reverberant moments, as when Ching blows up the train tracks. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Millionaires’ Express Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Hong Kong Theatrical Cut (HD; 1:37:11)


• Extended Cut (HD; 1:41:42)


• Commentaries

  Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng (Theatrical Cut)

  
  

  Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder & Arne Venema (Extended Cut)

  
  

  Select Scene Audio Commentary by Cynthia Rothrock & Frank Djeng

• Interviews with Cynthia Rothrock

  Cynthia Rothrock on Millionaires' Express (HD; 16:35) stems from 2021.

  
  

  Shanghai Express: Behind the Scenes (HD; 14:25) is an archival interview originally produced for Rothrock's official website.

  
  

  Trailblazer with Cynthia Rothrock (HD*; 23:59) is a 2007 archival piece.

• Interviews with Sammo Hung

  A New Frontier (HD*; 10;58) is an archival interviews from 2005. Subtitled in English.

  
  

  Express Delivery (HD*; 14:46) is an archival interview from 2007. Subtitled in English.

• Way Out West with Yuen Biao (HD*; 20:51) is an archival interview from 2007. Subtitled in English.


• On the Cutting Edge with Yukari Oshima (HD*; 30:16) is an archival interview from 2007. Subtitled in English.


• Alternate English Credits (HD; 4:16)


• Trailer Gallery

  Hong Kong Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:55)

  
  

  Shanghai Express Export Trailer (HD; 2:11)

  
  

  Tai Seng Video Promo Trailer (HD; 1:45)

Disc Two

• English Export Cut (HD; 1:32:40)


• Hybrid Cut (HD; 1:48:57)

Additionally, Arrow sweetens the pot with some nice non disc swag, including its typically well appointed insert booklet, a double sided fold out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Gilbey, and a reversible sleeve featuring original and new artwork by Sam Gilbey. Finally, packaging features a slipcover.

Millionaires’ Express Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Millionaires' Express is a lot of fun and it can be an interesting parlor game of sorts to compare the at times widely variant versions Arrow has aggregated (with a little help from Eureka) for this set. Technical merits are generally solid and as usual with Arrow releases, the supplements are outstanding. Recommended.