7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.
Starring: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Kenneth Tsang, Wah YuenForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 55% |
Action | 27% |
Crime | 26% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: Dolby Atmos
Cantonese: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
4K Ultra HD
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Some lovers of cult television may remember a relatively short lived but still somewhat influential detective opus from the early to mid-sixties called Burke's Law, which starred Gene Barry as a patrician police commissioner named Amos Burke who occasionally departed from his Beverly Hills mansion in his chauffered Rolls Royce to attend to a homicide or two. The series was notable for its conceit of naming each episode "Who Killed. . .?", with that ellipsis being filled by that week's victim. It also arguably attracted a somewhat more notable guest star cast than many episodic detective shows did during that period, but what is probably most memorable about its show is its fantastic theme song, kind of ironically written by a guy with Burke in his very name, Herschel (Burke) Gilbert. (For those interested, I highly recommend the swingin' rendition of this tune by Si Zenter, though his take omits that seductive female voice intoning "It's. . .Burke's Law" from the broadcast version.) What many may not remember, though, is that in one of the more interesting examples of a show being morphed into something else entirely right before the viewers' eyes, Burke's Law was "reimagined" as Amos Burke, Secret Agent for its final season, in a seeming response to the spy craze that had swept the globe in the wake of James Bond on the big screen and several small screen "wannabes" that had started to replace westerns and traditional cop shows as the default genre du jour. Something at least a little akin to this change in emphasis was at play with regard to Jackie Chan and Police Story, Police Story 2, and the film currently under discussion, with Chan's Hong Kong policeman Chan Ka-Kui becoming something more of a spy himself in the third installment (with an early overt reference to James Bond, just to make the connection even more obvious).
Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc included in this package.
Police Story III: Supercop is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of 88 Films with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. Despite
offering a
rather gorgeous perfect bound insert booklet, there's no real verbiage about the transfer included with this release in it, and even the back cover
misstates the aspect
ratio as being 2.35:1. The insert booklet does offer the data points that restoration was done by Filmfinity, audio sync and Dolby Atmos
were
handled by Þorsteinn Gíslason, and encoding and authoring was done by David Mackenzie and Fidelity in Motion. There are a number of manifest
differences between the Eureka! Entertainment and 88 Films presentations (judging solely by screenshots), including this being slightly wider than
Eureka's 2.35:1 framing and also to my eyes noticeably brighter and perhaps a bit more yellowish. As I am wont to say, different reviewers means
different opinions, and this gets
especially tricky when dealing with what are apparently different masters, so I wouldn't read too much into any score differences, but this is a largely
very pleasing looking 4K UHD presentation and again judging solely by screenshots (I do not have the Eureka release), I actually preferred the
overall
brightness and vividness of the palette in this version. Perhaps understandably, some of the outdoor material tends to pop the best, and it's here
that
Dolby
Vision and/or HDR can add some really appealing highlights in the warmer end of the spectrum. Conversely, some of the film, notably its opening
scenes, struck me as considerably cooler looking, to almost ice cold blue levels, than the 1080 version. Some of the greens in the 4K UHD version
tend
to be somewhat more inflected with teal or blue tones than in the 1080 version. Detail levels are typically excellent, though the increased resolution
of
this version can show some momentary focus pulling issues that aren't quite as noticeable in the 1080 presentation. This offers some kind of quaint
looking anamorphic oddities in the corner of the frame in particular. Grain can be quite thick at times, and is fairly chunky looking in any number of
dark scenes (including one rainy sequence).
Police Story III: Supercop has a number of different audio options for the two versions of the film included on the disc. The Hong Kong cut offers Cantonese Dolby Atmos, Cantonese DTS-HD 2.0 Mono and a so-called Home Video Mix in Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, as well as an English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. The U.S. Cut features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 in English and Cantonese in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. The Atmos track will probably be of most interest to those wanting some kind of audio upgrade, and it springs to considerable life in the action sequences, especially the manic activity toward the film's climax. I was personally not very fond of the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the U.S. Cut, which may have some spaciousness but which also tends to make the dialogue sound like it's emanating out of a very deep well. All of mono tracks offer good support for dialogue, effects and score. Optional English subtitles are available.
The 4K UHD and 1080 discs in this package have slightly different arrays of supplemental material, per the lists below.
4K UHD Disc:
Police Story III: Supercop is a fun and often quite funny vehicle for both Chan and Yeoh, both of whom acquit themselves spectacularly in both the action and comedy arenas. 88 Films offers a release with solid technical merits and some very appealing supplements. Highly recommended.
警察故事3超級警察 / Gíng chaat gu sih sāam: Chīu kāp gíng chaat | Standard Edition
1992
Correct Aspect Ratio
1992
DTS-HD 5.1 Audio Track
1992
警察故事3超級警察 / Gíng chaat gu sih sāam: Chīu kāp gíng chaat Standard Edition
1992
警察故事3超級警察 / Gíng chaat gu sih sāam: Chīu kāp gíng chaat
1992
Police Story III / Ging chat goo si 3: Chiu kup ging chat
1992
Shuang long hui
1992
The Armour of God / Lung hing foo dai
1986
Armour of God II: Operation Condor / Fei jing gai wak / Project Eagle
1991
Police Story II / Ging chaat goo si juk jaap
1988
Ging chaat goo si
1985
'A' gai wak
1983
湄公河行动 / Mei Gong he xing dong
2016
少年黃飛鴻之鐵馬騮 / Siu nin Wong Fei Hung chi Tit ma lau
1993
Huáng jiā shī jiě III: Cí xióng dà dào | Wong ga si je III: Chi hung daai do | 皇家師姐III 雌雄大盜 | 2K Remastered
1988
火燒紅蓮寺 / Foh siu hung lin ji
1994
2013
'A' gai wak juk jaap / 'A' ji hua xu ji / A計劃續集
1987
The Legend of Drunken Master / 醉拳 II / Jui kuen II / Warner Archive Collection
1994
Da Shang Hai Tan Zhi Ma Yong Zhen / E Zhan
2014
2017
Fists of the White Lotus / Hong Wen Ding san po Bai Lian Jiao / Hung Man Ding sam por Bak Lin Gau / 洪文定三破白蓮教
1980
Huáng jiā shī jiě IV: Zhí jī zhèng rén | Wong ga si je IV: Jik gik jing yan | 皇家師姐IV 直擊證人 | 2K Remastered
1989
Zui quan
1978
Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken / 激突!殺人拳
1974
1984