Video: Brian White and the team at Dragon Dynasty have delivered an excellent transfer of this Fortune Star re-mastered print. The colours are extremely strong and vibrant, and yet at the same time do not suffer from any form of over-saturation (ie no heavy pink tones, although they pop up during the interview clip montages, maybe from an earlier transfer, but not in the main picture). The detail and clarity of the print are excellent (just take a look at the detail you can see on some ones face or the uniform of a police officer) and allow for a great ease in picking up a lot of the cameos in this film. The transfer is 1:85:1 and of course enhanced for 16X9 televisions.
Audio: The primary track we listened to was the Cantonese mono track (which I can confirm is just that mono, thankfully Dragon Dynasty has never suffered the problem of receiving fake mono mixes). It sounds a tiny bit harsh, but that has more to do with the recording techniques in Hong Kong at the time, more so than anything else.The classic sound effects are present and make the film all the more enjoyable. The are also English and Cantonese 5.1 mixes available and both sound fine nothing having any dropout or sound problems. There is also a audio commentary track with Bey Logan.
Extras: Once again Dragon Dynasty delivers and produces a nearly perfect disc for Above the Law. First, off is a lengthy (16:26 ) interview with star Yuen Biao, which at one point he even pays great tribute to Cynthia Rothrock calling her "irreplaceable" and discussing among other things the parachute scenes in the film. Next is an interview with Cynthia Rothrock lasting 12:39, which is also excellent and talks about working with the Hong Kong crews and also earning their respect. We also have a very nice interview with Peter Cunningham which lasts 18:42 and talks about his kickboxing career and humorously how it nearly cost him the ability to be in the film. Peter is clearly a fan of Hong Kong action cinema as he freely admits and has a fan his interview has a fun quality to it that makes it very enjoyable to listen too. Finally, we have the entire alternate ending which last roughly 23 minutes and contains the original English credit sequence from the international versions (an extra bonus in itself)! It's not as re-mastered as the main feature, but nowhere near the quality of the Shanghai Express deleted scenes. Now, as Above the Law was shot in two versions (as Bey Logan points out many of the differences in another excellent audio commentary), the only extra footage is the alternate ending, it's a shame that Dragon Dynasty could not put either both versions on it or a feature similar to the Police Story 1 extra feature section. Oh well, its a shame, but thankfully only a small complaint. The original HK trailer is present only with a US promotional one.
Final Thought: While not perfect (it comes pretty darn close), Dragon Dynasty delivers another excellent release with Above the Law. I can say fans cannot wait to see what the Shaw Brothers DVDs are going to be like.
1 comment:
wa the deleted end scene in sync when u watched it? mine was out..
Post a Comment