The Revenger: Technical Notes

SIGHT
THE REVENGER was filmed in the 1.85.1 aspect ratio. CAV presents the film uncut in 1.33.1 full screen ratio. The fight scenes do not suffer from this cropping, as they are perfectly framed in the middle of the image. Only the exquisite backgrounds and set designs are compromised, but not totally. Speaking of set designs, the talented production crews produce some truly great design work (at times exceeding the big budget Chang Cheh films), which is full of intricacies and splendor. CAV’s transfer is sharp and colorful, so you can appreciate the efforts of the art direction. Most old school 1.33.1 transfers have a tendency to display a washed out picture with muted colors. Not so with THE REVENGER. The dominating color schemes are reds, golds, and blues, and the transfer delivers these visuals flawlessly. That’s not to say that the video image is flawless, because dirt and speckles carry over from the source print. But the all around video quality is quite an improvement compared to CAV’s FATAL FLYING GUILLOTINE, which was dark and scratchy. The violence and fight choreography is plentiful (mostly multiple weapons battles) and looks visually attractive with the detailed production design in the background. Judged in this context, THE REVENGER reaches the heights of the Venoms films, and still manages to deliver the eye candy (even though the film is cropped).

SOUND
CAV’s soundtrack is Dolby Digital Mono 2.0. The soundtrack delivers everything that is relevant about THE REVENGER, namely the clanging of axes, swords, staffs, and explosions. The movie screams out for a stereo presentation, but the two-channel mono mix gets the job done, and without any hiss, pops, or audio anomalies. The English dubbing is passable this time around, and the soundfield recreates the dialog with relative ease. The score also borrows from the Shaw Brothers films, but shies away from the authentic, historical music heard in 7 BLOWS OF THE DRAGON. The dialog, score, and sound effects are tightly integrated into the soundtrack, which is free from background noise and distortion.

FEATURES
The only extra is an original Chinese language trailer for the Donnie Yen’s HEROES AMONG HEROES. This trailer is widescreen, Dolby Digital 2.0, and runs 3:00. There is also Web site information for World Video. The DVD menus are colorful and include photos and themes from THE REVENGER.

CONCLUSION
CAV’s DVD mastering is better than their other titles and the transfer is surprisingly good for the cropped presentation that it is. The only flaw to the DVD is the quick pause at the chapter stops which are nowhere near as distracting as on their other martial arts titles.