Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

To Kill with Intrigue 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 30, 2024

Lo Wei's "To Kill with Intrigue" (1977) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary by critic Frank Djeng; new program with author and critic Rick Baker; vintage promotional materials; and more. In Mandarin, Cantonese, or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The one with the scar

It is easy to understand why Jackie Chan made his displeasure with To Kill with Intrigue public on numerous occasions. Director Wei Lo struggles to balance its action and comedy and give it a proper identity. As a result, Chan moves through it a lot like a blind man guessing which way is the right way.

The narrative is broken into two contrasting parts. In the first, Chan learns from his girlfriend (Yu Lung-Lung) that he is soon going to be a father at the worst time -- The Killer Bees, a notorious gang of bandits, are set to attack his family’s castle. To protect her and the baby, Chan shames her for cheating on him with another man and then drives her away, while secretly requesting that his best friend (Jeong Hee) keeps an eye on her. When The Killer Bees emerge, led by a mysterious beauty (Hsu Feng) whose face is covered with a green scarf, Chan fights like an angry tiger, but his entire family and relatives are massacred. The scarfed beauty frees him, and he leaves the castle, determined to reunite with his girlfriend.

In the second part, Chan again barely avoids death after clashing with members of another gang, Bloody Rain. Much to his surprise, the scarfed beauty helps him get back on his feet, but soon after he discovers that his best friend is a chameleon with dangerous ambitions.

The source of all troubles in To Kill with Intrigue is the unmistakable desire of its director to make it appeal to a wide range of viewers while covering an enormous amount of stylistically incompatible material. To be clear, the story it tells is not problematic. It is how it tells this story that is problematic. For example, before The Killer Bees emerge, To Kill with Intrigue quickly creates the impression that it will be a conventional period action film with a heavy dose of romantic melodrama. In the annals of Hong Kong cinema, hundreds of such films utilize the same blueprint to impress. But the scarfed beauty is introduced in a way that creates a different impression, which is that To Kill with Intrigue plans to move into a different territory. This is a vast territory that just as many supernatural films visit. However, not too long after that To Kill with Intrigue changes direction again. This time it refocuses on a complex web of intrigues that have a pretty dramatic effect on key character arcs, which no longer appear authentic. While it is true that authenticity in Hong Kong genre films is always a flexible element of their narratives, in To Kill with Intrigue the transition looks very strange, and what is even stranger is that it is not the last one. Before the final credits appear, two more transitions are used to cram even more contrasting material that does different damage. Unsurprisingly, while select segments can look decent or good, the complete film does not.

So, what could have been the fastest fix to make To Kill with Intrigue a proper, stylistically coherent, genre film? A simpler screenplay and a director willing to stay with it would have done the trick. In its current form, To Kill with Intrigue looks like a mismanaged project with too many loose ends that are either incorrectly tied or abandoned and a star struggling to get through it. It does not engage the viewer. For a very short period of time, it keeps the viewer intrigued, but then leaves it perplexed and frustrated.

*This combo pack release introduces an exclusive new 4K restoration of To Kill with Intrigue sourced from the film’s original camera negative. Also, it can be viewed with four different audio tracks: Mandarin, Cantonese, English, and a hybrid Japanese/Mandarin mix.

To Kill with Intrigue 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

88 Films' release of To Kill with Intrigue is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-B "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values of this content.

Screencaptures #1-20 are from Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #24-32 are from the 4K Blu-ray.

The release introduces an exclusive new 4K restoration of To Kill with Intrigue. In native 4K, the 4K restoration can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I chose to view it with Dolby Vision. Also, I tested various areas of the 1080p presentation, which is available on a separate Blu-ray release as well.

I was enormously impressed with the quality of the 4K restoration and the quality of its native 4K presentation. In fact, I am going to mention the one and only area where I think some minor adjustments could have been made for an even better final result. In a couple of darker areas, some of the blacks become a tad too thick and begin to crush. I did not see any troubling anomalies, but in several spots just a few tweaks could have produced perfection. The rest is magnificent. Delineation, clarity, and depth range from excellent to outstanding. Some minor density fluctuations can be observed, but they are introduced by the original cinematography, not the 4K restoration work. Color balance is outstanding. In fact, what I saw on my system makes me want to declare that in native 4K this film has the most convincing color scheme of all Jackie Chan films that have been recently restored. The primaries are especially well set, though the supporting nuances look terrific, too. Image stability is excellent. There are absolutely no traces of digital tinkering. The entire film looks spotless as well.

The 1080 presentation is very, very good, too. I prefer how the film looks in native 4K because the terrific color scheme produces some genuinely stunning visuals, but if you can only play Blu-ray discs, you are still in for a special treat. Density levels are a tad better in native 4K as well, though even on a very large screen the discrepancy is quite small. The rest look outstanding in 1080p.

To Kill with Intrigue 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are four standard audio tracks on this release: Mandarin LPCM 2.0, English LPCM 2.0, Cantonese LPCM 2.0, and Japanese/Mandarin 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I began viewing the film with the Mandarin track, but then tested the remaining tracks. I spent the most time with the English track, hoping that it would make the film a bit more entertaining. However, this English track is pretty good, not one of those it-it-so-bad-it-is-wild tracks that many Hong Kong films have. On the Mandarin track, clarity is very good, but balance varies a lot, which is to be expected. The Cantonese track produces greater dynamic contrasts, but it has a lot of even more uneven spots. The English translation is excellent.

To Kill with Intrigue 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - in this exclusive new audio commentary, critic Frank Djeng produces a great overview of the production history of To Kill with Intrigue and comments on some interesting discrepancies that exist between the Chinese content in it and English translation of it, its themes and conflicts, Jackie Chan's performance and his assessment of the film. It is a predictably informative commentary, so if you enjoy the film, plan on listening to it in its entirety.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - in this exclusive new audio commentary, critic Frank Djeng produces a great overview of the production history of To Kill with Intrigue and comments on some interesting discrepancies that exist between the Chinese content in it and English translation of it, its themes and conflicts, Jackie Chan's performance and his assessment of the film. It is a predictably informative commentary, so if you enjoy the film, plan on listening to it in its entirety.

• From the Lo Wei Vaults - presented here is alternate Korean footage for Killer Meteors and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin, sourced from a VHS. In Korean, with English subtitles. (17 min).

• Interview with Rick Baker - in this new program, author and critic Rick Baker discusses the Hong Kong film market during the 1970s, Jackie Chan's early films, and the problematic chemistry between Chan and Lo Wei, which is easily detectable in To Kill with Intrigue. In English, not subtitled. (21 min).

• Promotional Materials -
  
  1. Hong Kong Trailer
  2. Japanese Teaser
  3. Japanese Trailer
  4. Japanese TV spot
  5. Japanese Theatrical Opening
  6. Lobby Card Gallery
  7. Behind the Scenes Still Gallery

• Poster - double-sided poster with vintage theatrical poster art for To Kill with Intrigue.

• Booklet - 34-page illustrated booklet featuring critic David West's essay "Lo Wei - The (Other) Million Dollar Director" and technical credits.

To Kill with Intrigue 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

To Kill with Intrigue is a prime example of a mismanaged film that should have been a very good film. Rick Baker is correct to state that the chemistry between Lo Wei and Jackie Chan must have been quite poor because different parts of the film look pretty random. I do not think that its story is problematic, but it is not told properly, which is why it never establishes a proper identity. 88 Films' combo pack introduces a marvelous new 4K restoration that looks equally impressive in native 4K and 1080p, so Chan completists should not miss it. A separate Blu-ray release is available as well.