Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

The Enforcer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 5, 2023

Corey Yuen's "The Enforcer" a.k.a. "My Father is a Hero" (1995) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary by critics Mike Leeder and Arne Venema; archival programs with producer Wong Jing and actors Tse Mui and Ken Lo; vintage trailer; and more. In Cantonese or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Was Corey Yuen trying to impress a special lady friend with The Enforcer a.k.a. My Father is a Hero in 1995? I do not know how else to rationalize the extraordinary amount of soapy melodrama in this film other than to assume that Yuen was in fact on a mission to melt the heart of someone very dear to him. The only other scenario that makes some sense to me is that Yuen was helping another person accomplish the same, possibly Jet Li, but I prefer my original guess. Even by Hong Kong and Chinese standards, which are very, very flexible, this film goes overboard with the melodrama with such profound enthusiasm that I cannot but speculate that it was meant to get a very particular emotional response. It is too obvious that it is so. When a director temporarily mismanages the tone of his film usually there are a few sequences that look awkward and reveal the errors that could have been avoided. Not only are you not going to find any such sequences in this film, but you will very quickly realize that the soapy melodrama in it is very carefully scripted and timed to perfection. In other words, it was meant to be in the film exactly as it is.

I find this strange, to say the least, because the remaining material is utterly incompatible with the soapy melodrama and constantly forces the actors to adjust their performances. This creates the impression that Yuen is moving through different, quite uneven cycles, rather than directing a film that aspires to tell a coherent story. Also, the adjustments make it virtually impossible for the actors to make their characters appear authentic.

Li plays two different characters. The first character is an undercover cop in Mainland China who is tasked to bust an international crime organization whose boss is in Hong Kong. To get to his target and its partner in Mainland China, Li becomes a prisoner and helps a member of the crime organization escape with him. When the two reach Hong Kong, Li is introduced to his target and then quickly transformed into a violent thug. But while trying to identify the influential Mainland person working with his new boss, Li compromises himself.

The second character is a loving husband and father who is forced into a race against time -- if he finishes the job in Hong Kong on time, he will make enough to buy the medicine his dying wife desperately needs to stay alive. While at home and abroad, he also teaches his little boy (Tse Miu) how to take care of his mother as well as various skills that may help him survive on the streets.

The film’s one and only strength is its action material, which is predictably outrageous and entertaining. Everything else is either strange, very strange, or flat-out bizarre. Unfortunately, there is a lot more of the latter than there is of the former.

There is some comedy material too, but it is quite easy to group with the flat-out bizarre material because plenty of the funny emerges from the film’s enthusiastic rejection of conventional logic. For example, Li’s little boy enters a couple of very intense fights and almost instantaneously overpowers supposedly very tough thugs who routinely carry out executions. An astonishingly naïve Hong Kong inspector (the late beautiful Anita Mui) falls head over heels for Li and joins the fireworks as well.

There is a short sequence at the very end that accurately sums up the entire film. After a most intense confrontation with his opponents, Li recovers his little boy and transports him to a safer place, where a doctor pronounces him dead. Next to Li is Mui and she looks equally devastated. Li desperately begins massaging the little boy’s heart, but Mui pulls him back, shakes him up, and screams: “Don’t act like this”. Just a moment later, the boy coughs up water and comes alive.

The Enforcer 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 Enforcer arrives on Blu-ray coutesy of Eureka Entertainment.

The release is sourced from a spectacular new 4K master. I liked everything that I saw on my system -- delineation, clarity, depth, and fluidity were as good as I think they can be in 1080p. Also, there are absolutely no traces of problematic digital corrections, so all visuals, regardless of whether they are dark(er) or not, have very, very strong organic qualities. The new 4K master is graded incredibly well, too. All primaries are lush, healthy, and stable. All supporting nuances are equally healthy and nicely balanced. I was very impressed with the color scheme and think that at times it produced visuals that I would expect to see on a native 4K presentation. Image stability is excellent. I did not notice any age-related imperfections to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Enforcer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese LPCM 2.0 and English LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The Cantonese track is the superior one. I tried viewing portions of the film with the English dub track, but the tone and delivery of the English exchanges are frequently ridiculously poor. Something else worth pointing out is that the Cantonese tracks mixes Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, so there are native tonal shifts that are lost on the English dub track. Dynamic intensity is very good but in some areas uneven as well. I assume that this is how the original audio mix was finalized.

The Enforcer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. You probably know by now that I enjoy listening to these guys discussing Hong Kong cult and classic films a lot because they have done quite a few commentaries for various Blu-ray releases. They are quite knowledge and, which is something I value a lot, have a proper grasp of the eras from which various films emerged. Again, there are interesting observations about the struggle to transform Jet Li into a Hong Kong superstar, the overlapping of humor and action in The Enforcer, the various locations in Hong Kong where different parts of the film were shot and how they are losing their identity, why Hong Kong actors often change their names to avoid bad luck/karma, etc.

• Crowd Please: An Interview with Wong Jing - in this archival interview, producer Wong Jing recalls his first encounter with Jet Li and their collaboration on The Enforcer. Also, there are some quite interesting comments about Li's working methods and pay discrepancies in the rates of Hong Kong and Beijing film crews. In English, not subtitled. (18 min).

• Like Father, Like Son - in this archival interview, Tse Mui, who plays Jet Li's young son, discusses his background in martial arts and contribution to The Enforcer. In Mandarin, with English subtitles.(18 min).

• Born to be Bad - in this archival interview, Ken Lo discusses his move from Laos to Hong Kong, martial arts background, training routine, and interactions with various cast members during the shooting of The Enforcer. In Cantonese, with English subtitles.(21 min).

• Deleted Scene - in Cantonese, with printed English subtitles. (2 min).

• Trailer - presented here is an original Hong Kong trailer. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. (5 min).

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring new essays by Simon Abrams and David Desser, as well as technical credits.

The Enforcer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is impossible to take anything that occurs in The Enforcer seriously, and for multiple reasons, too. The bulk of the film looks like it could have been extracted from a secret Disney project that was conceived to target Hong Kong audiences but mismanaged because several writers kept improving the screenplay that was handed to Corey Yuen. There is some predictably outrageous and entertaining action material in it, but the rest, which is a lot, is either mediocre or bad. Eureka Entertainment's release is sourced from an outstanding new 4K master and has a good selection of bonus features. It is included in Heroes & Villains: Three Films starring Jet Li, a three-disc box set.