| IVL presents Celestial's remastered print in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, with anamorphic enhancement. Note that the opening Shaw's logo is unfortunately not the one from 1985 but instead the beloved old school one is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen before the film then reverts to its original aspect ratio. Free of damage, it was never the most slick film to come out of Shaw's but clarity and colours seems to correspond to the intended look of the film.
The Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 remix adds a little "atmosphere" in the form of thunderstorms and crickets but mostly it's just a wide mono experience that doesn't distract more than once or twice. A Mandarin 5.1 track is also included.
The English subtitles fare well as they contain little errors or poor grammar (rather simple dialogue anyway). They are clearly timed to the Mandarin dub though as evident by character names and the fact that on occasion subtitles appear when no dialogue is spoken on the Cantonese track. We're talking incidental dialogue however. Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese are the other options.
Anyone familiar with the standard extras package from IVL would feel at home when venturing into this part of the disc. Within Trailers we find newly created Celestial spots for Danger Has Two Faces, The Delinquent, Kidnap, The Secret Service Of The Imperial Court and Duel Of Fists. In Movie Information 15 Movie Stills, a scan of the Original Poster and Production Notes (I.e. Celestial's way of presenting the plot synopsis) resides in addition to the selection Biography & Selected Filmography that goes only slightly in depth with its text pieces on Leung Kar-Yan, Goo Ga-Lau and director Alex Cheung. |
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