The Untold Story: Technical Notes

Technical Notes Technical Notes:
The Untold Story
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    by So Good... - Hong Kong DVD Movie Reviews
    www.sogoodreviews.com



Tai Seng's DVD is the full uncut version. Even in Hong Kong the movie required some cuts but this release represents the movie Herman made. The 1.85:1 does look a bit muddled but the detail looks fairly good still. I feel that this look is right for the movie and it further makes the mood even darker. Darker SCENES doesn't come off very well however. It's also a remarkably clean print with only a few select instances of specs and whatnot.

The Cantonese original mono track is on here and sounds ok. It's slightly muffled but dialogue and music comes across as it should. A mandarin mono track is also on the disc.

The optional English subtitles are in yellow and featured no errors as far as I could see.

In the cleverly designed menus (restaurant menus actually) we find a number of worthwhile extras staring with not only one but TWO audio commentaries. On the first track we hear director Herman Yau along with Hong Kong Film Critic Miles Wood. Miles merely acts as an interviewer and nothing else really but it's a good track nonetheless. Herman talk about a number of interesting topics like shooting locations (very little of the movie was actually shot in Macau), camera techniques, why there's comedy in a film like this and the reactions to the film in 1993. Among the things I found the most interesting was when Herman talked about the research process into the real events and how he decided to go as far as he could in terms of violence, even though he deep inside knew the ratings board would want him to cut stuff out. The big downside to this track is that it has a number of long gaps with no comments from either participants.

The second track features Miles Wood again and he is this time joined by leading man Anthony Wong. This is a decent listen where, among other topics, Anthony shares his views on and how he handled the character. He's also not afraid to critique some parts of the film including the comedy and even one of the co-stars! Highlights of this track include Anthony's thoughts on Hong Kong cinema and Hollywood plus he adds some good notes about shooting the finale. Miles Wood is a little bit more active on this track and himself discusses nicely the way Hong Kong people see this film compared to western audiences. This track also has a number of gaps between comments but when they do talk it's quite interesting. Note that the second track does end when 5 minutes are left of the film.

We also get a slew of trailers for Anthony Wong and Danny Lee movies. They are as follows: The Underground, Mongkok Story, Ebola Syndrome, Cop Image, Organized Crime & Triad Bureau, Beast Cops, Armageddon and the theatrical trailer for The Untold Story itself.

Rounding up the disc are pretty good biographies/filmographies of Anthony Wong (nice of Tai Seng to mention his performance in Wilson Yip's Mongkok Story), Danny Lee and director Herman Yau.




    by HK Film
    www.hkfilm.net




Extras: commentaries by Herman Yau and Anthony Wong, talent files for Anthony Wong, Danny Lee and Herman Yau, and trailers for the movie, "Ebola Syndrome", "Organized Crime and Triad Bureau", "Underground Banker", "Mongkok Story", "Cop Image" and "Armageddon" (HK versions) and "Beast Cops" (Tai Seng version)

Tai Seng is not normally known for good DVDs, but I have to give credit where credit is due. This is the best DVD that the company has put out. That might not be saying much, but it's a far cry from many of their bare-bones presentations. Starting off with some cool full-motion menus that imitate menus from the resturaunt in the movie, the disc gives some well-written bios, a large amount of trailers (most of them in their original format -- for once, Tai Seng gets it right), a good overall presentation during the film with very readable yellow subs, and interesting (if spotty) commentaries. This is one Tai Seng disc that's definetly worth the money and comes highly recommended.




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