Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Media Asia/Hong Kong
Blu-ray: MegaStar (Media Asia/Hong Kong)
Disc:
Region: A
Runtime: 88 & 10
Chapters: 20
Size: 25 GB
Case: Sturdy gatefold case with slipcover
Release date: September 11, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: AVC
Audio:
Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1; Cantonese Dolby
Digital TrueHD 6.1; Mandarin DD EX 5.1
Subtitles:
Traditional & Simplified Chinese, English, Korean &
Japanese
Extras:
• Trailers in HD
• Director interviews in SD (12:41 & 8:02)
The Film:
A Chinese Odyssey, director Jeff Lau's epic two-part
retelling of the legend of the Monkey King, greatly
enhanced Stephen Chow's international profile. The role
as Monkey King earned Stephen Chow his first acting
award, from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, and
further demonstrated the existence of the actor beneath
the comedian. The two Chinese Odyssey films, Pandora's
Box and Cinderella, blend costume pageantry with
gorgeous scenery and some fabulous action sequences from
action choreographer Ching Siu Tung (Hero). Stephen Chow
turns in a hilarious and emotionally moving performance
to offer a costume comedy adventure unlike any you've
ever seen! - YesAsia
If you are familiar with Stephen Chow's recent work in
Shaolin Soccer or Kung-Fu Hustle then you have some idea
of how zany some of his characterizations can be. But
such movies pale before the incomparable goofyness of A
Chinese Odyssey. We're talking parody that would make
Austin Powers jealous. In one scene, Chow's character is
relentlessly jumped on by one of his gang in order to
put out a fire. Adding injury to insult and back again,
the fire is in Chow's pants. In another, Chow beats up
an immortal who had turned himself into a bunch of
grapes to save Chow, Why does Chow beat him: because he
wants his grapes back. Eventually the silliness gives
way to an engaging love story. The miracle is that it
works.
The Movie: 7
[more from YesAsia:]
A bold reinvention of the classic A Journey to the
West, the two films follow the adventure of Joker
(Stephen Chow), a scruffy ancient Chinese gang leader
who's really the reincarnated form of the Monkey King.
Two evil sister demons (Yammie Nam and Karen Mok) nudge
Joker in the correct direction and complete the Journey
to the West. Part 2 starts with Joker (Stephen Chow)
just discovering that he is, in fact, fated to be the
Monkey King. But he is much more concerned with
traveling forward in time to save his wife, one of the
sisters who used to be his enemy, from certain death.
Unfortunately, he's indentured to the beautiful, but
schizophrenic Zixia (Athena hu), who's bent on becoming
Joker's true love! But to finally become the Monkey
King, Joker must cast off all human desire. Can he
forsake human love to save his Master, the Longevity
Monk (Law Kar Ying)?
Excerpt of review from YesAsia editorial located HERE
Image:
7/8
The first number indicates a relative level of
excellence compared to other Blu-ray video discs on a
ten-point scale. The second number places this image
along the full range of DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Two years ago MegaStar came out with a much improved
rendering of what was until then a vague and lackluster
image on video. The remastered color was great and the
picture, at times, reasonably sharp. It's big problem
was in the red zone where the monkey King and Longevity
Monk live. "Bleeding" is hardly damning enough to
describe the result, which was worse yet in the earlier
video incarnations. So the big question is: Does the
Blu-ray still bleed? The answer is: Not exactly. But the
red filter is so pronounced that we are quite
overwhelmed by it. In fact, our first impression is that
the Blu-ray is identical to the remastered DVD image.
But this is only because the Blu-ray is struck from the
same remastered, yet compromised, source. In most all
other scenes, some strikingly so, the high-def image is
quite sharp and shows all the usual and expected
improvements.
The production constraints for both Part 1 and Part 2
were the same, so there is no reason to expect one or
the other to be any different. Outdoor scenes in the
desert suffer most, especially those done with long
lenses: they tend to be vague and absent any contrast to
speak of. However, all the staged scenes, of which there
are many, daytime or night, are superb. Blacks are deep,
colors are rich, flesh tones are natural – or not, as
required by the scene.
Audio & Music:
5/6
Ah, now here's the rub. One of the advantages of
subtitles is that we are unlikely to notice poor
dialogue sync, which, in this case is pretty brutal. I
don’t know if it's that these actors are not trained in
post-recording dubbing, or if the engineers who put the
loop in place weren't concerned with matching it.
Sometimes, so out of sync is the audio, I thought for a
moment the actors aren't even speaking the same language
as we hear, This is not the fault of MegaStar's blu-ray.
In fact it is a rather common fault with Chinese films
of this era and older. We don't see this problem much in
more recent films from Hong Kong or China.
That said, the audio, for all its uncompressed glory in
either DTS HD-MA or Dolby TrueHD, is dynamically
constricted to start with, so that, while clear, it lack
impact or lusciousness. On the other hand, it is
infinitely superior to the Mandarin DD EX 5.1, which is
not only very front-loaded and flat, it's in the wrong
language. My preference this time was for the Dolby
TrueHD mix, which evidenced more body. Surrounds don't
get much of workout in any case.
Operations:
7
Each disc of A Chinese Odyssey loads fairly quickly,
with just a couple of logos for MegaStar and Media Asia
but no promotional theatrical or video previews. My one
complaint is that the chapter thumbnails are small. The
English translation is the same as for the remastered
DVD, which means, except for the prologue, most of plot
and situations are clear, despite a great number of
grammatical spelling errors. The subtitles are white
with black borders making them easy to read regardless
of background.
Extras:
3
It's best to think of the interviews with Director Jeff
Lau, recorded about ten years after A Chinese Odyssey,
as a single 20 minute interview (which in fact they
are), divided at the point where he begins to speak of
his sequel, "A Chinese Tall Story". Lau's
discusses his own creative process from the original
source novel, A Journey to the West, to how he adapted
it for a movie and how he convinced Stephen Chow, known
primarily for comedy (as was Lau) to do a love story.
Despite the very poor translation (much more difficult
than the one for the feature film), it is evident that
Lau is a very thoughtful and self-effacing man with some
interesting perspectives on his own creative process. In
the first interview, be advised he speaks at length
about Part 2 and the love quadrangle.
Bottom line:
7
A Chinese Odyssey is not the place for a Westerner to
begin their investigation into Chinese movies, but you
should go there sooner or later. The movie is, by turns,
goofy, adorable, action-packed and heartfelt. The
effects are old-school and very stylized. The Blu-ray
image is, for most of its length, solid, sharp and
engaging. Less can be said of the audio, though it is
definitely clearer than I've ever heard it.
Indispensable for fans of the genre.
Leonard Norwitz
October 6th, 2008
