6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Martial arts adventure from director Ronnie Yu ('The Bride with White Hair'). Set during the early years of the Chinese Republic, the action follows four heroic soldiers who are sent on a secret mission by the Nationalist Guard. With seven days to realise their goal, the young fighters must fend of the attacks from feudal warlord Yue Sai Hoi, and be prepared to sacrifice everything in order to ensure the safe passage of their secret cargo.
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Cherie Chung, Ka-Yan Leung, Eddy Ko, Mei Sheng FanForeign | 100% |
Action | 13% |
Drama | 3% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
It's kind of funny in a way that this film is called either The Postman Strikes Back or The Postman Fights Back, depending on where it was released, since that might make it seem like it's a sequel to The Postman, and in fact both films feature protagonists who are couriers of sorts, attempting to work in a distressed, corrupt environment. Suffice it to say The Postman Fights Back hails from 1982 and Hong Kong and is set in early 20th century China, and so predates the Kevin Costner epic (?) by some considerable time in more ways than one.
The Postman Strikes Back is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This release doesn't sport an insert booklet, and there's no technical information provided on the back cover, so I'm kind of assuming Fortune Star provided the master, and it's actually in really healthy shape most of the time. A lot of the outdoor material in particular pops nicely, and detail levels are appropriately tactile in terms of things like costume fabrics. There are some kind of curious passing degradations in the image, including some scenes where brightness seems a bit boosted, leading to a kind of milky haze overlaying the imagery, but then also some rather brief passing shots where clarity is considerably diminished and grain noticeably chunkier. On the whole, though, this is a great looking presentation that should appeal to genre fans.
The Postman Strikes Back features various audio options depending on which cut is chosen. The Hong Kong cut offers a Cantonese track in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono, while the Export Cut features English tracks in either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono, with the latter kind of interestingly offering an alternate score. The Cantonese track has some noticeable background noise and just a hint of crackle on things like the Golden Harvest masthead, and some of the music can sound a bit tinny, with the track offering somewhat limited range that is probably more noticeable with regard to music than voiceover or dialogue. The English 5.1 track definitely opens up both score and effects, but it has what I consider to be an overly phased sound. I actually preferred the English 2.0 Mono track in terms of overall fidelity, and it's really interesting one way or the other to toggle back and forth to listen to how scoring choices were made. Optional English subtitles are available.
There's some positively goofy stuff on the sidelines of this enterprise (which kind of interestingly was evidently filmed in Korea), which may help to distract from a pretty familiar main through line. While this isn't an action heavy enterprise, it's often quite charming on its own merits, and this Blu- ray offers generally secure technical merits (I'd say video a bit more than audio), and appealing supplements. Recommended.
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