Blackhat
4K
(2015/Universal/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/In
The Line Of Duty I - IV
(1986 - 1989/88 Films Blu-ray Set)/Yakuza
Graveyard
(1976/Radiance Blu-ray/all MVD)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B Sound: B & B-/C+/B-
Extras: C+/B/C+ Films: C/B-/C+
Now
for some deluxe releases of some action titles you may have only
heard of in passing...
Michael
Mann's Blackhat
4K
(2015) is part of an early, often under-discussed cycle of cyber
thrillers that did not work on arrival and have aged very, very
badly. This one has Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, as a cyber hacker
who is in a Chinese prison for breaking the law. However, someone
had damaged a Hong Kong nuclear plant and the authorities offer him
his freedom if he can find the culprit or culprits. What results
instead is one of the most unconvincing, weak, forgettable thrillers
of the time and era and a shocking miss for Mann.
Considering
Mann's track record includes Thief,
Manhunter,
Heat
and even Public
Enemies,
the Miami
Vice
creator cannot make this one work, no matter how hard he tries and
even with Viola Davis, even she cannot help him bring this to life
and the Chinese angle plays poorly then and now. Worse, the film
does not seem to have an understanding of some of what cyberspace is
really all about and like most films from this era (even The
Cell
with Jennifer Lopez, which had nothing to do with computers!) has
bizarre narrative interruptions of video footage (usually bad, early
CGI animated work that was dated on arrival) of taking trips through
computers and circuits. Unfortunately, it all just looks desperate
now.
That
makes it a curio at best and since it involves some major names, yes,
it should be available in 4K for people to see. However, Mann took a
long break form the big screen after this and that was a smart move.
Now you can see for yourself why.
Extras
are numerous and (per the press release) include a brand new Feature
Length Audio Commentary by critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
Next
up is the new Blu-ray box set from 88 Films of In
The Line Of Duty I - IV
(1986 -
1989) which is also part of a cycle that began in the late 1970s;
that of women in police work in a man's world and it was happening
all over the world on the big and small screen. Summaries for each
film and there extras are included as follows, then I'll explain
more, but note that all movie sound is in the lossless DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) format...
Extras
are many and along with (per the press release) the 2K restorations
of all 4 films in 1:85 X 1 aspect ratio, a 100-page book by Matthew
Edwards with archive stills, production imagery, posters & more,
reversible sleeves featuring original artwork and a double-sided
foldout poster and more!
ROYAL
WARRIORS
Returning
from her holiday in Japan, Inspector Yip (Michelle Yeoh, Everything
Everywhere All At Once)
foils a daring mid-air rescue of a gangster being returned to Hong
Kong for trial. But Inspector Yip needs to watch her back: that
gangster has friends.
ROYAL
WARRIORS - SPECIAL FEATURES:
2.0
Cantonese Mono Theatrical & Alternate Mixes
2.0
Classic English Dub + 5.1 New English Dub
Newly
translated English subtitles
Audio
Commentary by Hong Kong Film Expert Frank Djeng
Missing
Aeroplane Inserts
Cantonese
& English Trailers and more!
YES,
MADAM!
Chicks
with kicks! When gangsters murder her friend, Inspector Ng (Michelle
Yeoh, Tomorrow
Never Dies)
is drawn into a deadly search for the men who did it. Just as well
she's got backup from British supercop Carrie Morris (the legendary
Cynthia Rothrock, China O'Brien).
YES,
MADAM! - SPECIAL FEATURES:
Hong
Kong Cut featuring: Cantonese Original Theatrical Mix Mono &
Cantonese (Home Video Mix) Mono Original Effects
5.1
New English Dub + Export Version with classic English Dub
Audio
Commentary by Frank Djeng (HK Version)
Interview
with Cynthia Rothrock
Select
Scene Commentary with Cynthia Rothrock and Frank Djeng
Interview
with Men Hoi
Archive
Interview with Michelle Yeoh
Archive
Battling Babes Featurette
Hong
Kong Trailer
IN
THE LINE OF DUTY III
How
do you top the first two In
The Line of Duty
films? Easy... bigger explosions, wilder fights and even crazier
stunts! This time, two Japanese thieves have fled to Hong Kong with
a tough J-cop (Cynthia Khan, Blade
of Fury)
hot on their heels. It's up to Hong Kong's finest to stop the
villains before too much damage is done!
IN
THE LINE OF DUTY III - SPECIAL FEATURES:
2.0
Cantonese Mono with English Subtitles + 2.0 English Mono
Audio
Commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth
Interview
with John Sham by Frederic Ambroisine
Hong
Kong & English Trailers and more!
and
IN THE LINE OF DUTY IV
The
fourth (and for some fans... the best) of the In
the Line of Duty
series, sees the return of Cynthia Kahn (The
Avenging Quartet)
as Inspector Yeung. This time, she's on the trail of some ruthless
international drug dealers, ably assisted by Donnie Yen (John
Wick: Chapter 4,
Ip
Man)
and Michael Wong (Royal
Warriors).
IN
THE LINE OF DUTY IV - SPECIAL FEATURES:
Hong
Kong cut, featuring: 2.0 Cantonese Mono with English Subtitles + 2.0
English Mono
Export
Version of the film featuring the Classic English Dub
Audio
Commentary with Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto (HK Cut)
Archive
Interview with Donnie Yen
and
Hong Kong & English Trailers
So
while more liberated women were slowly showing up in genre films and
TV shows, not even including any low budget B-movie work, the 1970s
gave way to the 1980s, which leads us to ask if the 1980s women were
as liberated or just safe, establishment variations of their male
counterparts. When done well, like Helen Mirren in Prime
Suspect,
the more potent Bond women and all the way to Clarice in The
Silence Of the Lambs
(1990, when the cycle came to an end pretty much,) the answer is yes
and not just gals acting like tough guys.
Fortunately,
we can say the same about Yeoh in the first two films here and Miss
Khan in the latter two films. More of a big deal at the time than I
think people in the U.S. at least if not further out realized, these
are smart crime films with great humor, stunt work, wit and also
feature other great martial artists at their early peak without
having them just turn up in trivial, reactionary B-movie film
releases (like so many a Cannon Film) and they have all aged pretty
well as a result.
The
first two are outright crime films introducing a new world for women,
the third does its best to imitate 1970s Hollywood crime dramas, the
Bond films and most interestingly and successfully, Michael Cimino's
Year
Of The Dragon
(1985) which itself would lead to imitators like the obnoxious Rush
Hour
films, Black
Rain
and Rising
Sun,
et al. The final film simply goes for broke in the hand to hand
combat department and does very well as a result. I have to say that
the always impressive Donnie Yen is in exceptional, rare, stunning
form here and that says something.
With
these great restorations and a ton of extras, this is the only way to
go to see these films outside of a mint-condition film print and
makes it all one of the year's most pleasant surprises yet.
Last
but not least is Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza
Graveyard
(1976)
that is part of a new kind of realism in gangster crime drama that
was happening in Japanese cinemas at the time and at the Toei Studios
in particular. Not bad and holding up well enough, a respectable
detective (Tetsuya Watari) lands up falling for the wife of a jailed
crime boss, compromising his position and life in a situation where
the police and Yakuza are too close for comfort. Making things
worse, two groups of Yakuza are having a gangland war, so things can
only get even worse!
If
made now of any organized crime organization, the film would likely
be sillier, more derivative and less realistic that this is here and
that is not to say it is any kind of innovative, groundbreaking
classic, but the makers respect the audience as much as the material
and it is at least effective enough and not afraid to get its hands
dirty. A solid use of the scope frame with decent color and
convincing situations with matching locations, it has a good cast and
is never condescending or trite. It is not wallowing in the idea it
is a genre film, so it moves along well enough and has enough
realistic, mature, even brutal moments to make it work. Those
interested will definitely want to give it a look and it is more
realistic than many such films (good and so-so) from the 1960s period
of the genre.
Extras
(per the press release) include an appreciation by filmmaker Kazuya
Shiraishi (2022)
The
Rage and the Passion:
A visual essay by critic Tom Mes on Meiko Kaji and Kinji Fukasaku's
collaborations (2022)
Gallery
of promotional imagery
Easter
Egg
Trailer
Newly
translated English subtitles
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time
Tomorrow
Limited
Edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mika Ko on the
representations of Koreans in the yakuza film, and newly translated
re-prints of a contemporary review and writing by screenwriter Kazuo
Kasahara
and
a Limited Edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo
packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of
certificates and markings
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on the Blackhat
4K
disc looks the best of all these releases, but by default and almost
barely so as those bad CGI 'inside cyberspace' moments look all the
worse in 4K. They also look bad on the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition Blu-ray version, but the 4K brings out more from the older
HD shoot with cameras that range from 1080p to 2.8K. The saving
grace is that they used Hawk Scope lenses, which helps make up for
the lack of definition and this is therefore upscaled for 4K. Both
versions have DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, but the 5.1 on the 4K disc
sounds a little better than the regular Blu-ray for some reason.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on all four
Duty
films look really good with few issues in detail, some aged grain,
but great color in all four cases, resulting in better presentations
than expected. As noted before, all soundtracks are in DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) lossless sound but only the Cantonese 2.0 Stereo
mixes (including the enhanced versions on the earlier films) sound
any good, yet they show their age and can sound a little compressed,
off and remastered in ways that render them flat. The English dub
versions are far worse to me, though. The original language versions
are highly likely
the best they will ever sound and were all theatrical mono
presentations.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Yakuza
is also impressive, with solid color, detail and depth from the
original 35mm Toeiscope color negative, this was not a bad lens if
not the very best. It is used to fine effect here. You get some
parts that can show their age, but it holds up nicely. The
PCM 2.0 Mono sounds a little better for its age than expected and is
likely as good as this film will ever sound.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
