NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Masters of Cinema Blu-ray (January 2025): Masters of Cinema have transferred Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai's Running on Karma to Blu-ray. It is cited as "on Blu-ray for the first time outside of Asia". It looks pristine on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. The film has many scenes (cinematography by Siu-Keung Cheng, Election) that look marvelous in 1080P with beautiful lighting, detail and effective shots mostly in 35mm. It's a clean and extremely pleasing HD presentation. Beyond the prosthetic suit, the film has some pretty cool and seamless effects that look effective in this format.

NOTE: We have added 72 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Masters of Cinema use a linear PCM 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original Cantonese language. Running on Karma has plenty of aggression / violence and a supportive bass response. The score was by Cacine Wong (Peace Hotel, Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 and My Left Eye Sees Ghosts.) Also included in the film's music is Keith Leung's Beyond Love performed by Anthony Yiu-Ming Wong. Like the video the sound is clean with audible dialogue and consistent in the lossless transfer. Masters of Cinema offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Masters of Cinema Blu-ray offers two commentaries. The first is by East Asian film experts Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and Producer F.J. DeSanto (Constantine, The Spirit) and a, second, supplementary commentary from, Djeng by himself where he covers the films themes and deeper Buddhist parable meanings. Reap the Whirlwind is a new 25-minute interview with Gary Bettinson, editor-in-chief of Asian Cinema journal and Senior Lecturer in Institute for Contemporary Arts. Also included is a 20-minute archival “making of…” featurette and a theatrical trailer. The package has a collector’s booklet featuring a new essay by David West of NEO magazine and a limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Time Tomorrow. 

Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai's Running on Karma was a big success both commercially and critically (13 nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards - winning three.) Andy Lau, Hong Kong's "No.1 Box office Actor 1985–2005" plays, Biggie, a gifted, and muscular (sporting an audacious prosthetic suit) Buddhist Monk who can see a person's past life. Because of the ancient concept referring to action, work, or deed aka 'Karma' - he can also see their future. He develops a strange buddy-cop relationship with Inspector Lee Fung-yee (Cecilia Cheung - Dangerous Liaisons) in the investigation of a homicide. Running on Karma is not genre-specific - kinda humorous, fun fantasy, action-filled, and contemplative at the same time being a Buddhist parable about the nature of karma. So, it is far more layered and nuanced than it appears with offbeat superficiality like Biggie running around for 10-minutes totally naked while evading police. I enjoyed the film way out of proportion to what I was anticipating. The Masters of Cinema Blu-ray is top-shelf - excellent a/v of a very visual film, two commentaries, interview, booklet and more. This is a hard film not to enjoy. Absolutely recommended!

Gary Tooze