Yann Muller
|
|
by Yann Muller |
|
|
These are all Video CDs that I brought back from Hong Kong. The quality of a VCD is not very good but they are very cheap. The MPEG compression is awfully bad when there is a lot of details on screen or when there is a lot of movement. Also the right and left sound channels are often separated for Cantonese and Mandarin languages.
| Godzilla 2000 |  
|
|
This new film in the Godzilla series is pretty good. The storyline makes more
sense than most of the other movies but still has enough of the silliness
that is required of a Godzilla film. For the first time (I think) the attempt by
the army to kill the monster are not completely inefficient. On the other hand
Godzilla is not really the star of the film as most of it is concentrating on
the alien creature. The VCD is in letterbox format (zooming to 16:9
unfortunately makes the artifacts of the compression even more visible) with the
original Japanese soundtrack and a Cantonese dubbing on the other channel.
(09.2000)
|
| The Ring 2 |
|
|
Unfortunately I haven't seen the original movie and because of that I had a few
problems to understand the story. Otherwise The Ring 2 is a very good
horror flick. As the film progresses the atmosphere gets more and more tense and
this without the use of special effects. The ends opens the door for another
sequel. The picture quality is rather high for a VideoCD. (10.2000)
|
| Young Master |
|
|
This is a good Jackie Chan movie (he wrote and directed it) but the quality of
the CD is not very satisfying: it is panned to 4:3 and the English subtitles are
often cut on both sides, they are also often in white on a white background.
This makes the plot difficult to follow (even though I wouldn't say it is a very
complicated story). (09.2000)
|
| Who Am I ? |
|
|
The usual Jackie Chan film. The picture quality is incredibly low. (09.2000)
|
| Gorgeous |
|
This looks boring but I haven't watched more than a few minutes of it
because I couldn't read the subtitles. :-(
|
| New Fist of Fury |
|
Not subbed! :-(
|
| Fearless Hyena Part II |
|
|
Not having seen the first film is a real problem here. (10.2000)
|
| Police Story Part II |
|
|
This is exactly what I want in a film with Jackie Chan, at least in the first
half of the film. The story is almost decent, the comedy parts are not too
stupid and the action is great. Unfortunately the pace doesn't hold until the
end and it becomes a big long. The picture quality is good for a VCD but the
sound is average. More annoying is that the subtiles are tiny and difficult
to read. (10.2000)
|
| Mr Canton and Lady Rose |
|
|
When a comedy is not funny it is boring. That is exactly what this
film is. There is two interesting fights that kept me awake but it
is not very interesting stuff. Sure it doesdn't help that the picture
quality is poor and the subtitles exceedingly difficult to read.
(11.2000)
|
| A Chinese Ghost Story II |
|
|
Comedy, fantasy and cheap looking ghosts. A very successful combination.
(09.2000)
|
| A Chinese Ghost Story III |
|
|
More of the same. More beautiful ghosts and a very special kind of bouddhism.
Just as enjoyable as the previous one. The picture quality is reasonable if
not great. (12.2000)
|
| Conspiracy |
|
|
This is worst than the average made for TV film. (11.2000)
|
| Violent Cop |
|
|
An unimaginative and rather messily directed thriller.
|
| High Risk |
|
|
The story is rarely the high point of the Hong-Kong action comedies but this
time it goes very low. (10.2000)
|
| Tian Di |
|
|
An almost single handed struggle to stop the drug trade in Shanghai in the
thirties (at least I think so). A couple of the dialogs have unreadable
subtitles (white on white) but it is not a problem to understand the film.
(10.2000)
|
| A Better Tomorrow III |
|
|
Directed by Tsui Hark, this prequel to A Better Tomorrow is quite good.
The style is different from the other two films. The story takes place in Hong
Kong and Vietnam during the the Vietnam war, with a perspective on the situation
that is very similar to A Bullet in the Head. Anita Mui plays a very
strong character as Kit; in her first gunfight scene she even looks out of
The Heroic Trio. (12.2000)
|
| Prison on Fire |
|
|
Prison on Fire is a rather unoriginal prison film. But the two
main characters are quite good, especially Chow Yun Fat.
|
|