The English dub was markedly inferior to the original language track. While the sound effects and music were still strong, the voice acting just didn't fit the characters well. There are optional English subtitles that were well written with correct spelling and grammar.

Video: The widescreen (2..35:1) image is anamorphically enhanced and looks very good. The film takes place in the desert and is filled with dark earth tones and all these dark colors were reproduced well. The level of detail was excellent, allowing viewers to clearly see the dirt mixed with sweat on the actor's faces as they trudged through the sand. Even in night scenes fine details were able to be discerned. An all around excellent looking disc.

While I was very pleased with the look of this film, it has been reported that the image has been tampered with and isn't the way the creators intended. Without having another version to compare this to, I can't comment on the veracity of this or how much this may effect the presentation.

Extras: This two-disc special edition is absolutely packed with bonus material. US DVD producers could learn something from this set. The first DVD, in addition to the film itself, has a commentary track by two Asian film experts Bey Logan and Mike Leeder. This track, which is in English, was informative in parts but filled with too many digressions. The pair manage to talk through the whole film without slowing down a bit, and discuss Korean history, the background of the actors, some of the cultural differences, and Asian cinema in general, which was nice. Unfortunately they drifted off topic frequently and several times devolved into middle school-like banter; making jokes out of the Asian names (Is Sammo Hung's brother Well Hung?) and talking about which actresses were the hottest. There's a fair amount of time devoted to the way Ang Lee directed Crouching Tiger too, which wasn't relevant at all. If you can ignore these digressions, it's an informative track though flawed.

Disc two has the rest of the extras. The disc starts off with three promotional featurettes. Inside The Warrior is an hour long look at the making of the film that features interviews with the cast and crew. The half hour long Legend in the Making interviews supporting actor Yu Rong-Kwong who played the Yuan general in the film. He talks about his life in acting, he started with the Peking Opera when he was six, and his role in the film. A very interesting interview. The final featurette is Songs of the Desert, a short look at the music of the film.

The set also included five minutes worth of outtakes, a reel of candid shots of the cast and crew during filming, and a ten minute behind-the-scenes short that shows how some of the special effects were created. Designing The Warrior looks at the costumes and how they were created.

As if that wasn't enough, there are also 24 deleted scenes that run almost half an hour in all. (These were originally in the movie, and had been cut for this edition.)

There are also two trailers, a photo gallery of stills from the movie, and text biographies of the lead actors. A very impressive set of bonus material. I can't think of anything that they've left out.

Final Thoughts: ...This DVD is very good with excellent audio and visuals and many interesting bonus items it's a disc that will show off your system and impress your neighbors. I only wish that this 'special edition' had included the uncut version of the film. (And though the cut material is in the extras, it's not the same. It was released in its original form in Australia and Korea.) As it is, I really enjoyed the film but think if you are going to import a DVD, why not get an uncut edition? The movie is highly recommended, but this edited edition, though it plays well at this length, would make a good rental.

Special thanks to Mike Lee for help on this review.