| This disc has been released in both a DVD case and a sturdy VCD case. Buyers can expect to get either one depending on availability. The cover art for both looks like something out of 1993's Iron Monkey and has nothing to do with the actual film. This is a mainland Chinese budget release that is roughly the equivalent of a standard Ground Zero or Xenon release in the US. That means moderately low resolution, slightly off-tint colors, heavy degradation, and an image severely cropped from its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. A thin bar of distortion at the bottom of the screen betrays the print's video sourcing. Despite all of this, the film is sharper than your average import VCD of an older film and is definitely watchable. The original Mandarin audio is flat, but otherwise fine. Imbedded English subtitles are clear and have black borders, but contain minor grammatical errors and fail to appear at all for several minute's worth of dialogue, including the last 20 minutes of the film. But since most of the movie is action, this does not present a major problem. |
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