Thursday, August 28, 2008

Better Than a Dozen Die Hards

While the cinematic style of Stranglehold disappoints, i'm happy to report that the Hard Boiled movie included on the disc is the best i have seen of the film for some time. This includes multiple versions of the film on DVDs and also a cinema screening in an old cinema in Birmingham during my university years. The version here includes the original film credits where names are featured in both english and chinese, and Chow and Tony Leung shares the top billing.

The film mark the high point of John Woo career when the man in the top of his game and ready to move to the greener pastures of Hollywood. It also significant for me as it bridges the gap between my early infatuation with Woo and later admiration of the works of tony leung and wong kar-wai. I begin to admire the subtle acting method of tony as opposed to the often over-acting and dramatic style of chow.

This disc best demonstrate the true power of blu-ray, both the game and possibly best presentation of the movie on a single blu-ray disc! Seeing how good Hard Boiled look makes me glad that i lucked out on the earlier standard edition and got this instead. Afte rall, the movie is definitely the highlight of the disc despite being 16 years older than the game. However i find the cover of the standard edition more enticing than this collector edition, perhaps because Chow looks more like tony leung on that cover.

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