| Picture: Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart was presented in a 1.85:1 ratio widescreen color as originally shot over twenty years ago. The colors were sometimes a bit saturated and there were numerous minor scratches on the print used for the DVD transfer but overall it looked much newer (except for the tell tale styles of the 1980's) than it was. There were some issues with the DVD transfer other than that though; the rainbows, some minor video noise, and some routine compression artifacts being the most noticeable. Overall, the visual presentation of the movie was pretty good all things considered but not as pleasing as I had hoped for.
Sound: The audio for the movie was presented in a 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo (at least that's how it registered on a friend's equipment) but I heard no separation between the channels and the minimalist nature of the show carried over to the sounds employed to tell the story. The music was intermittent and less of a factor than in most modern movies but served to punctuate the rare moments music was used. The vocals all seemed to come from the center channel on the 5.1 set up and from both channels equally on a 2.0 system.
Extras: The extras on the DVD included the usual trailers but also three fine little features such as the precursor to the movie itself, the previously mentioned Dim Sum Take Out, a 14+ minute interview with actress Laureen Chew, and a very brief introduction of the film by the sound engineer Curtis Choy and actress Laureen Chew. Each of the better extras added a new dimension to my understanding of the movie, with Laureen's anecdotes proving to be the most amusing. I appreciated the extras more than a little bit since they helped me understand much of the context of the obvious (and some not so obvious) metaphors and cultural comments made.
Final Thoughts: ...I would've preferred director Wayne Wang participate more in the extras, that the print be cleaned up better, and that the DVD transfer was better but the movie itself seemed almost timeless in terms of how it addressed certain concepts that I'm all too familiar with... |