Running
Time: 169
minutes |
MPAA
Rating: Not rated, probably
R |
Format:
1.83:1 Widescreen |
Audio:
Dolby
Digital 5.1 |
Languages:
Cantonese and Mandarin |
Subtitles:
Japanese, Korean, Chinese-Simplified
Characters, English, Bahasa-Indonesia, Thai, Bahasa-Malaysia,
Chinese-Traditional |
Region:
All |
MSRP:
$19.95 |
|
Theft
Under the Sun (1997) (Import)
Ka-Ho (Cheung Chi Lam) is
a young undercover cop deep inside a gang run by Dan (Michael Wong),
a charismatic American. When a bust by the police goes wrong and Dan
escapes, Ka-Ho takes the heat. While he's on leave, he realizes that
the police are watching him as if he were a criminal, so when he runs
across Dan, Ka-Ho decides to join him in his newest venture. But has
Ka-Ho actually turned to life of crime, or is he engaging in some unauthorized
undercover work in an attempt to clear his reputation? That is the question
Ka-Ho's superiors must answer as Dan prepares to smuggle a truckload
of missiles into the city.
Deftly plotted and supported
by a wonderful performance from Cheung Chi Lam, Theft Under the Sun
is one of the most satisfying HK action films I've seen produced in
recent years. The script makes more sense than most HK action films,
even if there are some hard-to-swallow plot contrivances. The film also
has to survive a horrible turn by a puffy looking Michael Wong, whose
character is supposed to able to inspire people in three languages,
yet he sounds wooden no matter what language he's speaking. There are
also some awful special effects, notably the helicopter at the end of
the film that is played by a cheap model in some shots, and a cardboard
cutout in another! But the film does such a good job of building suspense
about where Ka-Ho's loyalties lie that I can forgive it all of this.
The transfer on Media Asia's
disc looks quite a bit sharper than most of their films, possibly because
this was a much more recent film than most of the ones they've been
putting out. Even so, the disc could have been mastered more carefully,
as there is a lot of line structure evident. The sound is a hard to
judge. Unlike most HK movies, Theft was shot with synch sound, though
on the disc some of the sound effects sound jarringly artificial, either
because the Foley isn't very good, or because the sound has been subjected
to one of Media Asia's infamous remasterings.
The subtitles are large and
easy to read, but they are haphazardly translated. No matter how many
times Wong says, "Hang in there" (in English), the subtitles
manage to translate it differently every time. Some of the more involved
conversations between Ka-Ho's superiors (a lot of which seem to involve
the Stockholm syndrome for some reason) are practically incoherent.
You get the film's trailer
and Media Asia's coming attraction amalgamation trailer. There are also
bios and filmographies for Michael Wong, Cheung Chi Lam, and director
Cha Chuen-Yee.
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