8.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.4 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.4 |
Chow Yun-Fat stars as an assassin with a code of honor, who agrees to one last job before quitting for good. When his bosses double-cross him, he must confront the mob in one of the most explosive showdowns in film history.
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kong Chu, Kenneth TsangForeign | 100% |
Crime | 35% |
Melodrama | 11% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Cantonese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
There are surprisingly few directors who have initially made their mark in foreign markets whose names become well known in our down and dirty, flash in the pan celebrity culture here in the United States. Even in the halcyon days of the art film, we had a major triumvirate of Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, and then a somewhat broad, if no less accomplished, second tier that included everyone (rightly or wrongly) from Ophuls to Antonioni. One of the positive impacts of both cable television, with its niche film channels, as well as the ever evolving home theater market, is that a whole new generation of “foreign” directors have been discovered, often, unlike some of their “ancestors” listed above, actually having their greatest successes in the United States marketplace. John Woo had a long and varied career in his native Hong Kong before first coming to notice stateside with such features as Hard Target and Broken Arrow before finally finding firm American footing, both stylistically and content wise, with the blockbuster Face/Off. By the time Woo helmed Mission Impossible 2 his name had become synonymous with over the top action sequences and tightly wound dramatic structures often hinging on hyperbolic setups. The attention that his American success brought also reflected back to his earlier Hong Kong creations, especially to The Killer, Woo’s 1989 opus which had done, well, killer business internationally even if it didn’t quite raise Woo’s public profile as much as it should have, at least in America.
Chow Yun-Fat is The Killer.
A lot of Hong Kong film fans have been salivating over the prospects of Vivendi's new Dragon Dynasty branding which is bringing several long sought after films to Blu-ray. Unfortunately, as I discussed in my previous review of 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Vivendi's inexplicable decision to author these in 1080i (via an AVC codec in the OAR of 1.85:1) from what appears to be secondary source material (perhaps converted from PAL) is, well, inexplicable. This Dragon Dynasty is more fragile than a Ming Dynasty vase caressed by a sledgehammer. If anything, The Killer looks even softer than Shaolin, if that's possible, at times not even as sharp as a decently upconverted SD-DVD. Colors are decent, but nowhere near high def standards, and the print is reasonably clean and free of damage, but, wow, what a major disappointment. This is so far from high definition quality that aside from being anamorphically enhanced I can't really say much else recommends it. I know some are saying this is the best the film has looked on home video, but if that's the case (and I haven't seen an SD-DVD of The Killer in several years, so I can't reliably recall), it's damning with faint praise. Haziness and lack of detail make this a murky experience at best. Contrast is way below average, leaving several darker scenes not just crushed but virtually obliterated. Conversely, the brightly lit scenes are badly clipped at times with completely indistinguishable elements resulting from something as relatively minor as abundant candlelight in some of the church scenes. Vivendi really needs to go back to the drawing board on these Dragon Dynasty releases, because the first two have been travesties from an image standpoint.
Things are at least incrementally better in the audio department, but once again far less than we should expect (indeed demand) from a high definition release of such a vaunted film. We're presented with either a DD 2.0 Cantonese track or a DD 5.1 English dub. I sampled the 5.1 English track just for comparison purposes, finding the 5.1 repurposing fine, if not outstanding, with at least an attempt at surround activity in the many action sequences. The 2.0 Cantonese track sounds fine, if on an understandably narrow sound field, but it has decent fidelity, if no thundering low end, something this film cries out for and which a lossless audio track hopefully would have provided. There are no anomalies of any note in the Cantonese 2.0 track, and I recommend you stick with that one, despite its lack of surround activity.
The best extra on The Killer is a new Interview with John Woo (23:47) which allows the director to place the film in the context of his oeuvre.
Two quite excellent American Cinematique Q & A sessions address Woo's The Killer (35:01) as well as Hard Boiled (11:35).
A bit more standard and EPK-ish are the featurette on The Killer Locations (8:47) as well as the collection of five John Woo trailers.
Also on tap are Five Deleted Scenes totalling around seven minutes of alternate takes and scenes from different versions of the film.
A director as lauded as John Woo and a film as viscerally memorable as The Killer deserve top notch efforts on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, Vivendi has once again really dropped the ball and I have a very bad feeling about any future Dragon Dynasty releases unless someone comes to in a big hurry and realizes the disservice they're doing to countless expectant fans.
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