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Once Upon A Time In China 2
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Jet Li returns in this sequel, directed by Hong Kong action master Tsui Hark, as legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung. The year is 1895 and Hung is about to attend a medical confrence. Joined by Auntie 13 and sidekick Foon (Max Mok, on-hand for comic relief), Hung finds that things are not safe at the confrence, as the White Lotus cult is opposed to everything foreign. Wong and his group of followers prepare to fight the troops of the cult and another skilled, almost invincible fighter (Donnie Yen).
The film is an excellent example of strong storytelling and the martial arts that we've come to expect from the talented individuals working behind and in front of the camera. Most noticably, fight choreographer Woo-ping Yuen("The Matrix", "Twin Warriors", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), who has planeed out quite a few elaborate fight sequences throughout the picture to showcase Li's impressive skills - although, to be honest, there was more intense action in "Warriors" (which Woo-Ping also directed), in my humble opinion.
Still, the acting is uniformly superb. The film nicely skips between genres, at times providing a comedic tone, and at other times, turning into either an action picture or a drama. Li's intensity is able to carry the more serious moments, while he also is able to show a nice sense of comedy at times. It's an terrific film, and really provides all of the elements of the genre strongly.
Both the original theatrical version of the film and a separate English dubbed version of the film are presented here, but both seemed to be about the same length at 113 minutes.
The DVD
VIDEO: The original theatrical cut edition is generally a decent 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer from Tristar, but it's somewhat flawed at times. Sharpness and detail are only fair - I'm not sure if the film was intentionally filmed softly, but it generally appears soft and even hazy at times. This varies somewhat, though, and some of the brighter exteriors do take steps towards looking somewhat more well-defined, but never reach a satisfying level of defintion.
I didn't notice that much in the way of wear during the film. There were some slight speckles and marks on occasion, but nothing that really called attention to itself or proved to be a major irritant. The only problem that seemed to pop up during the film was edge enhancement, which was visible and somewhat annoying in some scenes.
Colors appeared fair - for the most part, they looked natural. There were moments, though, where they looked a bit faded.
Interestingly, there is an English dubbed version of the film on the other layer of this dual-layer disc. This presentation is also a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, and it generally looked a good deal better than the theatrical version. Although the theatrical version wasn't unwatchable, the image here seemed sharper, noticably crisper and more defined. The mildly irritating enhancement that was occasionally noticable on the theatrical edition also seemed to be absent here. Print flaws were unfortunately visible, though, as small speckles, marks, tiny scratches and dirt popped up. Neither version is great in terms of video quality, but the English dubbed version unfortunately presented the prefered image.
SOUND: The film's theatrical cut is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Mandarin or Chinese. I would think that this film obviously wasn't 5.1 in the first place, so a re-purposed version of the audio had to be done. The end result is fair, but slightly irritating at times, as whoever worked on the sound seemed to get a little too carried away with it. Surrounds are used quite a bit for various effects, and often, their use sounded rather artifical and slightly distracting. Audio quality seemed rather thin, but still, comfortable to listen to - not thin to the point of being harsh.
If you look in the special features menu, you will also find an English dubbed version, presented in mono. Although the dubbing, as you might expect, wasn't very good, it was nice to not have the artifical-sounding nature of the 5.1 presentation on the theatrical cut, which had too many sounds coming from all sides.
MENUS:: The menus are rather basic, with film-themed images serving as backgrounds.
EXTRAS: Trailers for "Once Upon a Time in China" 1 and 2, as well as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Miracles".
Final Thoughts: Unfortunately, this is a bit of a mixed review. The movie is a stellar example of the martial arts genre and deserves a viewing for fans. On the other hand, Tristar's DVD provides only fair audio/video quality, with the English dubbed version presenting better image quality than the theatrical version. There's really nothing much in the way of extras, either, depending on whether you agree with the "dubbed" version's listing as an additional feature. Maybe a DVD worth renting first.
Jet Li returns in this sequel, directed by Hong Kong action master Tsui Hark, as legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung. The year is 1895 and Hung is about to attend a medical confrence. Joined by Auntie 13 and sidekick Foon (Max Mok, on-hand for comic relief), Hung finds that things are not safe at the confrence, as the White Lotus cult is opposed to everything foreign. Wong and his group of followers prepare to fight the troops of the cult and another skilled, almost invincible fighter (Donnie Yen).
The film is an excellent example of strong storytelling and the martial arts that we've come to expect from the talented individuals working behind and in front of the camera. Most noticably, fight choreographer Woo-ping Yuen("The Matrix", "Twin Warriors", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), who has planeed out quite a few elaborate fight sequences throughout the picture to showcase Li's impressive skills - although, to be honest, there was more intense action in "Warriors" (which Woo-Ping also directed), in my humble opinion.
Still, the acting is uniformly superb. The film nicely skips between genres, at times providing a comedic tone, and at other times, turning into either an action picture or a drama. Li's intensity is able to carry the more serious moments, while he also is able to show a nice sense of comedy at times. It's an terrific film, and really provides all of the elements of the genre strongly.
Both the original theatrical version of the film and a separate English dubbed version of the film are presented here, but both seemed to be about the same length at 113 minutes.
The DVD
VIDEO: The original theatrical cut edition is generally a decent 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer from Tristar, but it's somewhat flawed at times. Sharpness and detail are only fair - I'm not sure if the film was intentionally filmed softly, but it generally appears soft and even hazy at times. This varies somewhat, though, and some of the brighter exteriors do take steps towards looking somewhat more well-defined, but never reach a satisfying level of defintion.
I didn't notice that much in the way of wear during the film. There were some slight speckles and marks on occasion, but nothing that really called attention to itself or proved to be a major irritant. The only problem that seemed to pop up during the film was edge enhancement, which was visible and somewhat annoying in some scenes.
Colors appeared fair - for the most part, they looked natural. There were moments, though, where they looked a bit faded.
Interestingly, there is an English dubbed version of the film on the other layer of this dual-layer disc. This presentation is also a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, and it generally looked a good deal better than the theatrical version. Although the theatrical version wasn't unwatchable, the image here seemed sharper, noticably crisper and more defined. The mildly irritating enhancement that was occasionally noticable on the theatrical edition also seemed to be absent here. Print flaws were unfortunately visible, though, as small speckles, marks, tiny scratches and dirt popped up. Neither version is great in terms of video quality, but the English dubbed version unfortunately presented the prefered image.
SOUND: The film's theatrical cut is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Mandarin or Chinese. I would think that this film obviously wasn't 5.1 in the first place, so a re-purposed version of the audio had to be done. The end result is fair, but slightly irritating at times, as whoever worked on the sound seemed to get a little too carried away with it. Surrounds are used quite a bit for various effects, and often, their use sounded rather artifical and slightly distracting. Audio quality seemed rather thin, but still, comfortable to listen to - not thin to the point of being harsh.
If you look in the special features menu, you will also find an English dubbed version, presented in mono. Although the dubbing, as you might expect, wasn't very good, it was nice to not have the artifical-sounding nature of the 5.1 presentation on the theatrical cut, which had too many sounds coming from all sides.
MENUS:: The menus are rather basic, with film-themed images serving as backgrounds.
EXTRAS: Trailers for "Once Upon a Time in China" 1 and 2, as well as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Miracles".
Final Thoughts: Unfortunately, this is a bit of a mixed review. The movie is a stellar example of the martial arts genre and deserves a viewing for fans. On the other hand, Tristar's DVD provides only fair audio/video quality, with the English dubbed version presenting better image quality than the theatrical version. There's really nothing much in the way of extras, either, depending on whether you agree with the "dubbed" version's listing as an additional feature. Maybe a DVD worth renting first.
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