| Movie
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Extras
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| Audio
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Video
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This is the Spectrum DVD release from Korea. Hence, it’s region 3.
Movie
You’ve got Yuen Biao (‘Dreadnaught’)
and Lam Ching-Ying (‘Vampire vs. Vampire’)
in this movie and you don’t you them? What’s the deal here?
Mr. Biao disappears after the first scene and only comes back at the end
to have a really crappy fight with Lam Ching-Ying, who doesn’t really fight
at all until the end. You get really nice cameos, though. Lau
Kar-Wing, Paul Chiang and Bolo Yeung lend their names to the movie (but
Mr. Chiang actually has a slight role to play). The plot goes something
like cop Jackie Chan has to stop some bad people, and Sammo Hung and his
gang get involved in some way. The premise is basically that of ‘Winners
& Sinners’, but they end up in different places.
You’ve also only basically got only 3 action sequences. The movie concentrates on Sammo Hung (‘Iron Fisted Monk’, ‘Magnificent Butcher’, here and here) and his cronies, who basically play the exact same characters as in ‘Winners & Sinners’ (bing). You’ve got the pretty boy, the weirdo, the diplomat, the Mr. Hung, and Eric Tsang, who doesn’t play in the earlier Lucky Stars movie, but plays Mr. Hung’s brother here.
The action is good but it’s too short. This movie is generally regarded as being the weakest in the Lucky Stars movie, and I agree with that. It’s got some funny parts, don’t get me wrong, but when you got fighting talent like that, you better use them.
You get Jackie Chan fighting in a mascot costume, which is pretty fun. The scene right after that, when Mr. Chan (‘Hand of Death’, ‘Gorgeous’) goes exploring the house, reminds me a lot of the last fight from ‘Kill Bill’, here. You also get Sammo Hung fighting a bunch of people. It’s your typical Sammo Hung action. It’s great and fast and exciting. If it weren’t for this, the comedy would be okay, but the movie wouldn’t be as good. The choreography is quite fun.
The problem with this movie is it assumes people will watch it for the comedy. Now, I know Mr. Hung and his gang were known at the time the movie came out, but Mr. Hung and Mr. Chan were known for their action. The use of comedy over action is strange here because ‘Wheels on Meals’ (here) was done the year before this one and it’s considered by many to be the best Lucky Stars movie. It also had Yuen Biao in a much bigger role than he had in this one. Whatever the reasons, this movie is nice, but isn’t the best Lucky Stars movie. You’re forewarned, but if you like Jackie Chan be sure to watch this flick.
Special Features
Like the other Spectrum/Fox DVDs, you get the original theatrical trailer
(4:15) and the newly edited trailer (1:19), the movie stills photo album
and the album in slideshow format (a minute long). You can tell the
movie is a little short on action because the new trailer is about 20-30
seconds less than all the others in the collection. The trailers
are nice. They do what they can with the footage offered in the movie.
The stills are very nice and some of them are taken from behind the scenes
footage, or footage that isn’t in the movie. It’s a really touch.
Interview with Michiko Nishiwaki
This release has an extra interview bit that isn’t on the region 1
release. It’s taken from the Hong Kong Legends release of the movie.
Luckily it’s in English, even though it’s with the crazy Japanese bodybuilder
karate lady. She talks about herself, getting the role, about the
trio, about Mr. Hung and Mr. Chan’s relationship and her fight scene.
She also talks about her injuries, one of which became a scar. She
also says Yuen Biao ‘can move’. This is actually very good.
It runs a really nice 20 minutes.
Trailers
‘Eastern Condors’ (1:57, here) and
‘Heart of the Dragon’ (1:52) get trailers. The ‘Heart of the Dragon’
trailer is a far cry from the Hong Kong trailer, which is basically all
drama. This one is basically all action, even though the movie is
mostly drama. In stark contrast, ‘Eastern Condors’ is mostly action,
so I’m surprised they actually put in some dramatic moments. They’re
both good trailers, though, with plenty of action scenes to make you rub
your hands in anticipation.
Audio
For this DVD, you’ve got the choice of a Mandarin Dolby 5.1 track,
or a Cantonese Dolby 5.1 or DTS track. What I find beyond logical
comprehension is the subtitles are actually the dubtitles from the region
1 release, which is really, really annoying. I listened to the DTS
track and I was happy. It’s not the best ever, but it does its job.
Score comes from the front and back, but not much else comes from back
there. It’s mostly front-loaded with voices coming from the centre.
You’ve got a few surround effects, which is nice. Overall it’s a
soundtrack that shouldn’t blow you away, but should make you cry.
Video
1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture here is pretty nice.
You still have small specks throughout the movie, but nothing big.
The biggest problem with the picture is that it isn’t as detailed as I’d
like it to be. The grain is pretty hefty so the overall detail gets
left behind. The colours are bright, though, that’s not a problem.
The contrast is okay and so is the black level. A better picture
than the Universe Laser DVD, but not as good as the IVL/Fortune Star DVDs.
12/11/2004