The Fatal Raid Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

The Fatal Raid Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 21, 2021

The Fatal Raid is one of those action films which tries fitfully to develop characters and establish at least a bit of human emotion, but which is frankly simply about getting to the next knock down, drag out hand to hand combat situation and/or blistering shootout sequence. There seems to have been a concerted effort on the part of some Asian filmmakers to reinvent the "girls with guns" subgenre, and in some ways The Fatal Raid does decently with that premise, offering a retinue of female police officers with "particular sets of skills" that allow them to pummel a variety of nemeses in a number of different ways, while also of course demonstrating their facility with a gamut of firearms. The actual plot of the film is decidedly less visceral, supposedly looping back on itself to document both a long ago raid that went horribly wrong as well as a "new, improved" (?) showdown that may in fact end up the same way. It's relentlessly silly a lot of the time, and characters exist mostly as types, functioning as pawns on a chessboard designed to offer as much action as possible, typically every couple of minutes, lest any viewer be growing restless with trifles like dialogue and/or story.

There's probably a serious film to be made about how police deal with post traumatic stress disorder, and in fact that element has informed the subtexts of all sorts of films, including memorably in productions like In the Line of Fire, but there's really no intent on the part of The Fatal Raid to actually explore this situation, and instead it's proffered as a sort of structural McGuffin where an opening salvo isn't clearly identified as happening in the past or the present. The revelation is of course ultimately delivered, but by that point, the film has already opted out of any realistic depictions of police or police work, so the whole thing seems kind of silly.

Suffice it to say that a raid gone wrong long ago has resulted in a number of wrecked lives, as well as actual deaths, and current day events seem to be propelling several of the people who survived the first fracas right back into a similar situation. In the meantime, The Fatal Raid delivers a regular assortment of body slamming action sequences featuring a bunch of female cops attempting to break up a smuggling ring. The action side of The Fatal Raid is competently handled for the most part, even if some may wonder how so many bullets can be fired (the film poetically pauses to offer spent shell casings plopping into puddles, all in slow motion, just to be "artistic") without any of them ever hitting (human) targets.

The Fatal Raid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Fatal Raid is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. This is another Asian film of relatively recent vintage where I really haven't been able to dredge up much if any technical data. The closing credits offer a bunch of "behind the scenes" snippets of various scenes being shot, many of which show the cameras utilized, but because this footage is offered in a kind of "picture in picture" format, it's relatively small and I just wasn't able to make out any logos or other identifying marks on any of the equipment. All of this said, this is a competently captured production that I'm assuming was probably finished with a 2K DI. Detail levels are quite commendable throughout the presentation, and some of the admittedly trite slow motion sequences offer a good chance to see fine detail on things like squibs exploding and the like. One kind of curious thing that struck me is that large swaths of the presentation looked just a tad too bright to my eyes, and in some of the outdoor material in particular I personally would have preferred a bit more delineating contrast.

The Fatal Raid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Fatal Raid features the original Cantonese soundtrack in either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0, with mirrored offerings in an English dub. The two surround tracks sound similar (I'd say identical) in terms of amplitude and overall mix, but unless you're opposed to reading subtitles, I'd opt for the Cantonese track (which actually has a few isolated lines in English, anyway). The sound design in the film is typically propulsive, offering a glut of effects in the many action sequences that help to keep the side and rear channels regularly engaged. While dialogue is almost comically stiff at times, it's at least delivered without any issues. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Fatal Raid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 1:26)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the the disc has been authored to automatically move 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.

The Fatal Raid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The problem with The Fatal Raid is it doesn't seem to totally trust its tendency toward exploitation level action featuring butt kicking women. Instead, the film seems to want to inject an actual story, though it doesn't know how to get there in any meaningful way. That leaves large swaths of the film just kind of hanging there, waiting for the next action extravaganza to (literally) kick in. Thankfully, that wait is typically quite short, as the set pieces erupt with regularity throughout the film. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering making a purchase.