The Adventurers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The Adventurers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 3, 2025

Ringo Lam's "The Adventurers" (1995) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include new program with critic Gary Bettinson; new audio commentary by critic David West; archival program with screenwriter Sandy Shaw; and vintage trailer. In Cantonese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A/B "locked".

The orphan

Ringo Lam’s oeuvre has several tremendous action films, all of which were produced between the early 1980s and early 1990s. However, even the weaker films Lam directed are still enjoyable for the same simple reason -- they deliver fireworks of the kind that, for a while, transformed Hong Kong into the Mecca of action cinema.

In The Adventurers, Andy Lau plays a Cambodian orphan who is on a mission to take out a former military man-turned-famous billionaire (Paul Chun Pui) running a criminal network together with a delusional communist general still hiding in the jungle. Several decades after surviving the ugly massacre organized by his target, now residing in Hong Kong, Lau, also a military man, decides that the right time to kill him has come. However, after approaching his target at a massive reception in Thailand, Lau misses. In the ensuing chaos, he is helped by his target’s significantly younger mistress (Rosamund Kwan), who instantly falls in love with him. Before he escapes to America, Lau learns from his uncle (David Chiang) that the CIA had him and his late father on a payroll in Cambodia until his target betrayed them.

In San Francisco, the CIA fabricates a criminal history for Lau and helps him become the head of the Hwa Fuk-tong clan, which controls virtually all of Chinatown. After clashing with the clan’s biggest rivals, the Black Tigers, and forcing them to release his target’s kidnapped daughter (Jacklyn Wu), Lau then hatches a new revenge plan. However, the new revenge plan also falls apart when he unexpectedly falls in love with his target’s clueless daughter.

The Adventurers is full of various other ‘unexpected’ twists that make it impossible to take seriously, but this is not why it is not one of Lam’s best films. Its biggest and most consequential problem is that the characters it introduces are all flawed in ways that prevent it from establishing a proper identity. For example, one-third of the narrative forces these characters to behave as if they are stuck in an authentic game of survival where all amateurs quickly die. However, the remaining two-thirds unapologetically treats the same characters as lucky impostors who somehow always know how to avoid certain death. Predictably, the character arcs are quite odd, and the balance between the action, drama, and romance is routinely off.

What partially redeems The Adventurers is again the quality of the action. (This is true for all of Lam’s less-than-perfect films). There are plenty of wonderfully choreographed shootouts, car chases, and big explosions. The final act has a particularly great looking sequence featuring a military helicopter performing several remarkable pirouettes while flying dangerously low and firing rockets, too.

The official credits reveal that Lam used two cinematographers: Ardy Lam, who worked on such big hits as Armour of God and Bullet in the Head, and the prolific veteran Arthur Wong, famous for his contributions to classics like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Armour of God II: Operation Condor

The Adventurers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Adventurers arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

The release introduces a new 2K restoration of the The Adventurers. It is one of the most inconsistent, extremely puzzling, and ultimately frustrating such restorations that I have seen in a very long time. I do not know where it was prepared or by what party, but I do know that The Adventurers can and should look significantly better on Blu-ray. Here's why:

There are various sections that lack proper delineation, clarity, and depth. In the most extreme cases, certain visuals look like upscaled material. You can see examples here and here. I do not know exactly why. However, the drops in quality can be so substantial that it looks like there is material coming from different sources, and this is not true. Simply put, there are many different developments that impact negatively everything from color reproduction to the dynamic range of the visuals, and in areas where all of them are very prominent, quality drops dramatically. If you have a large screen, you should be prepared to see various substantial fluctuations. In wider panoramic shots, a lot of background information can be very problematic. On the other hand, there is still quite a bit of footage, especially with close-ups, that looks pretty good. Grain exposure is still disappointing, but at least there is a decent amount of detail there. Color reproduction is adequate at best. Image stability is very good. So, what could have caused such wild drops in quality? If I had to guess, I would say that it is a combination of less than ideal source material and problematic decisions made during the mastering process. The problematic gamma fluctuations point to mastering errors, possibly even digital adjustments that were unnecessary, but I also noticed plenty of areas where source issues become obvious. What does all of this mean, and should you consider picking up this Blu-ray release? It means that The Adventurers transitions to Blu-ray in an unconvincing manner. On the other hand, even with all of these issues, because of the decent portions of the presentation, this Blu-ray release is probably still a meaningful upgrade over previous DVD releases. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A/B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A, Region-B, or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Adventurers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese LPCM 2.0 (Restored Stereo), Cantonese LPCM 2.0 (Unrestored Stereo), and Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I spent most of my time with the two stereo tracks. Both are decent but at the same time unimpressive. The restored stereo track can become quite thin at times, struggling to produce nicely rounded and rich audio. The unrestored stereo track has some better sections, but there are fluctuations there as well. I think the best thing to do is to test all tracks, including the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which is not the original track, but has the best range of dynamics. The English translation is excellent. Also, I really like the size of the English subtitles. They are proper big, easy to read subtitles, not like the ones that often appear on Kino Lorber and Mondo Macabro's releases.

The Adventurers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Two Adventurers - in this new program, critic Gary Bettinson discusses Ringo Lam's career, his impressive legacy of genre films, and The Adventurers and its style. Also, there are some interesting comments about the decline of the Hong Kong action film in the late 1990s. In English, not subtitled. (22 min).

• Writing for the Dark-Faced God - in this archival program, screenwriter Sandy Shaw discusses her career and involvement with The Adventurers. Also addressed is the contribution of Nam Yin, Ringo Lam's brother and frequent collaborator. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. (15 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage Hong Kong trailer for The Adventurers. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. (4 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic David West.

• Booklet - 20-page illustrated booklet featuring critic Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park's essay "Unconventional Heroism: The Moral Dilemmas of Revenge in The Adventurers" and technical credits.

The Adventurers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

All Ringo Lam films, from the great to the not so good, are worth seeing for the same reason -- they produce quality action. The best ones also pack the action with terrific characters and memorable drama, sometimes a decent dose of romance, too. The Adventurers has the quality action and a little bit of everything else, so it is a decent film. However, a more balanced screenplay almost certainly would have transformed it into a vastly superior film. Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray release introduces a new 2K restoration of it that can best be described as a head-scratcher. Parts of it look decent, even good, but there is plenty more that is impossible to like. If you can find the Blu-ray release on sale, it is probably still worth picking up because older DVD releases have even more problematic presentations of the film. RECOMMENDED.