The Climbers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Climbers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 25, 2020

Because it’s there would hardly seem to suffice as a reasonable answer as to why anyone would want to climb any mountain, let alone a peak of the magnitude of Mount Everest. And yet that’s been the joking answer to questions about what motivates mountain climbers to risk their lives in order to ascend to any given summit. Mount Everest is most definitely “there” throughout The Climbers, beckoning almost like the rocky equivalent of Circe, urging and indeed perhaps even taunting those open to its importunings to just try to climb it. The history of attempts to scale Mount Everest have entered the annals of legend in the athletic achievements of Mankind, and the danger of these exploits has rather regularly made headlines, sometimes decades after individual climbs, as when the preserved frozen corpse of George Mallory was found in 1999. Perhaps due to a bit of “built in” jingoism, or maybe even xenophobia, Westerners seem spectacularly ill informed about the adventures of one of the countries closest to Mount Everest, namely China, in attempting to join the ranks of nations which successfully mastered the summit. That said, The Climbers is yet another Asian film that seems designed to appeal mostly to Chinese audiences, since it has the unmistakable whiff of jingoism itself, including a rather notable lack of any real mention of Tibet, at least in terms of its infamously fractious relationship with China.

The Climbers actually depicts two ostensible Chinese ascents to the summit of Mount Everest, one that supposedly took place in 1960 but which was questioned by the international mountaineering community due to the lack of any photographic evidence, and then a later 1975 one which was made by some of the same people as the 1960 expedition, and which may have had a bit of “honor preserving” to it simply by dint of the fact that 1960 climb was questioned. The Climbers ends with what looks like some really kind of cool vintage movies of the actual climbs and climbers, and that as much as anything made me wish this film had either opted for a pure documentary format or at least had hewed somewhat closer to facts, especially with regard to what I assume are fictionalized romances that have been woven (rather inartfully to my eyes) into the story.

Even clocking in at well over two hours, The Climbers at least at times struck me as having left some salient information on the cutting room floor. A chief example of this is some of the early handling of what ultimately becomes one of the central romances in the film, between real life climbing legend Fang Wuzhou (Wu Jing) and a devoted meteorologist named Xu Ying (Zhang Ziyi), a character I'm assuming is fictional since I haven't been able to dig anything up on the internet supporting a real life person (if some expert out there knows differently, let me know and I'll update the review).

The actual climbing aspects to the story here are often grippingly visceral, if at times hokily hyperbolic (there are not one, but two , major avalanches that threaten people at various times). The film also probably tries to hard for a star-crossed romance element, with a bittersweet aspect that may strike more jaded types as unintentionally funny. Kind of weirdly, Jackie Chan is suddenly on hand in a brief coda as an aged climber.

The Climbers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Climbers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists several RED cameras as having captured the imagery (at a source resolution of up to 8K), with everything being finished at a 2K DI. Aside from some momentary banding issues, this is a solid looking transfer that preserves some jaw dropping actual location photography, especially in some aerial shots which feature some pretty stunning depth of field. There's also a glut of what looks like green screened material, where backgrounds in particular can look relatively soft, and some scenes seem to have CGI snowfall, which again can look slightly impressionistic and less detailed than the bulk of the presentation. Fine detail on elements like fabrics on parka and other hiking accoutrements is typically excellent.

The Climbers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Climbers' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in the original Mandarin, with optional English subtitles) occasionally roars into action in some of the outdoor scenes, notably the two aforementioned avalanches and third bracing windstorm which almost wipes everyone out. The whipping winds of the highest altitudes provide some really impressively immersive moments. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.

The Climbers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes

  Wu Jing (1080p; 2:01)

  
  

  Zhang Ziyi (1080p; 2:00)

• Trailer A (1080p; 1:20)


• Trailer B (1080p; 2:16)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically (so that clicking on the first Behind the Scenes featurette is essentially like hitting a Play All button). After Trailer B for this film plays, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

The Climbers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another offering from the Asian film market, which, kind of like the recently reviewed Korean film The Battle of Jangsari (also available on Blu-ray from Well Go USA), tells an actual historical story which absolutely deserves wider recognition, but which seems geared mostly toward audiences who may already know the actual history and so aren't especially bothered by sidebars, like this film's emphasis on love gone awry. The climbing sequences in The Climbers are often incredibly adrenaline pumping, while some of the interstitial personal drama seems positively earthbound. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.