Savage Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Savage Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 18, 2019

Chinese writer, director and star Siwei Cui evidently really has a thing for isolated places. Cui wrote and had a featured part in The Island, certainly one of the more outré films that showed up in my review queue this year, and one which I not all that jokingly compared to a kind of combo platter of Lost: The Complete Collection, Lord of the Flies and Gilligan's Island in its tale of a bunch of employees on a “team building” exercise who get stranded on an “uncharted desert isle” (so to speak). Cui is on hand here as scribe and director (his first at bat as a helmsman) and Savage is surrounded by water again, albeit this time in a somewhat more “solid state” as snow and ice, as a bunch of gold thieves end up interacting with cops in a mountainous region that has been devastated by an end to the chief driver of its economy, the logging industry.

The Island offered a number of really odd plot elements kind of thrown together willy nilly, but Savage is (ostensibly, at least) a more straightforward thriller, albeit with some arguably kind of unusual structural artifices that may in fact prove stumbling blocks to real momentum being generated. The film begins with an exciting if not especially convincing (due to some inartful CGI) sequence involving the heist of gold bullion from an armored truck which is rather improbably making its way through a clearing in a snow drenched mountaintop. That at least sets up the “bad guys” in the film, but the real focus turns out to be on two cops, Han Xiaosong (Li Guangjie) and Wang Kanghao (Chang Chen), who are competitors in a way both for a career promotion but also for the romantic interest of local doctor Sun Yan (Ni Ni). The film attempts to fitfully weave all these elements together, but there’s a weird timeframe breach as well as what some may feel is a tendency to ping pong back and forth between character and set pieces too indiscriminately. The film’s setting offers an interesting element (no pun intended), but even this aspect may feel rote for those who have seen domestic output like the similarly snowbound Braven .

Savage Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Savage is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.65:1. Shot with Arri Alexas and finished at a 2K DI (according to the IMDb), this is a surprisingly sharp and well detailed looking transfer, at least when one considers the glut of scenes that are drenched in various shades of white, and many of which feature blizzard like conditions. Fine detail pops quite agreeably on elements like the fur lined parkas some characters wear. There's a slightly blue-green tint that overlays a lot of the material, but detail levels remain generally consistent throughout. There are some minor issues with banding in evidence during fades and other changes in lighting conditions.

Savage Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Savage's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets occasional workouts as in the opening heist sequence, and with several outdoor scenes where ambient environmental effects (including some whipping wind) can waft through the side and rear channels. Some of the more violent set pieces also provide nice jolts of LFE. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.

Savage Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:41)

As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to move automatically on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Savage Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Savage seems to want to be two films at times, one more concerned with nefarious thieves and honorable cops stranded in a remote and challenging environment, and a second more focused on "quieter" character aspects. The two never completely meld together, but there are some nicely energetic set pieces that Cui stages with a fair amount of flair. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.