Look for a Star [Blu-ray]
(aka "Yau lung hei fung")
(Andrew Lau, 2009)
Review by Leonard Norwitz
Production
:
Theatrical: Media Asia & Huayi Brothers Media
Blu-ray: MegaStar (Hong Kong)
Disc:
Region: ALL
(as verified by the
Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)
Runtime: 1:57:10.000
Disc Size: 24,552,523,866 bytes
Feature Size: 22,283,390,976 bytes
Video Bitrate: 19.02 Mbps
Chapters: 20
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
Release date: April 8th, 2009
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.4:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Bitrate:
Audio:
Dolby TrueHD Audio Chinese 1899 kbps 7.1 / 48 kHz / 1899
kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio Chinese 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Chinese 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Subtitles:
Traditional & Simplified Chinese, and English
Extras:
• Making of
• Trailers & Promo
The Film:
Hong Kong mega-star Andy Lau teams
up with Infernal Affairs director
Andrew Lau again for the sleek
romantic comedy Look for a Star.
Andy Lau turns on the charm opposite
the always beautiful Shu Qi for a
modern-day fairy tale born in the
quaint colonial streets of Macau.
Drawing both laughter and tears with
a witty and moving screenplay from
James Yuen (Crazy N' The City) and
Ming Tang (Needing You), the film's
earnest portrayal of budding love
between a tycoon and a club dancer
easily strikes a chord thanks to the
easygoing humor and thoroughly
charming performances from the
leads. Golden Horse Best Actor Zhang
Hanyu (Assembly) and popular singer
Denise Ho co-star as Look for a
Star's second pair of hesitant
lovers, along with a supporting cast
that includes Lam Ka Wah (Invisible
Target), Zhang Xinyi (The Longest
Night in Shanghai). Shaw Brothers
star David Chiang, George Lam (The
Pye Dog), Maria Cordero, and comedic
regular Cheung Tat Ming. - Yes Asia.
The Movie: 7
While echoes of Pretty Woman and
Slumdog Millionaire dance in our
heads, Andrew Lau, the director of
Infernal Affairs (2002), The Storm
Riders (1998) and Initial D (2005),
pulls out all the stops for this
unabashedly romantic fairy tale.
Andy Lau plays billionaire developer
Sam, who comes to Macau for a stay
at the MGM Grand where he and his
two closest assistants (Denise Ho
and Lam Ka Wah) make a pact to not
walk away from love. It's a hard
contract to keep since each of them,
and their would-be counterparts have
the usual rationalizations handy to
keep them single and, in a couple of
cases, miserable. Sam meets Milan (Shu
Qi), a nightclub dancer and
croupier, and pursues her, keeping
his identity secret. When he finally
fesses up, she balks. The two other
pairings are not going so well
either until someone gets the bright
idea to enlist the aid of a popular
television show. Andy Lau and Shu Qi
sparkle, but it is the more knotty
relationship between Sam's #2 in the
company (Ho) and the hotel handyman
(Zhang Hanyu) that turns in the more
poignant story.
Excerpt of review from YesAsia
editorial located HERE
Image:
9/9
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were ripped directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
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.
Consistent with the romantic
storyline, the pictography here is
vibrant and clear. No gauzy imagery
for this time fairy tale. The high
definition image does the intent
justice with color, especially flesh
tones in the right light, the
cabaret dancers on or off stage, and
Macau at night. There may be a
judicious amount of DNR just to wipe
away the last vestige of reality,
but it seemed to work here. It
didn't seem to affect
dimensionality. I spied no other
artifacts or edge enhancement.
Blacks are super, and high values
are not washed out.
CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio & Music:
6/8
The audio mix is clear enough, it's
only that the recording and
sweetening of the dialogue fails to
agree with the location (indoors or
out, closed or open spaces, etc.)
and the looping is off just enough
to notice. The music is awesome,
both in content and spaciousness
when demanded. Hotel and casino
sounds make use of the surrounds for
ambience but there is no urgent
attempt to maintain accuracy of
direction except when cars and such
whiz by.
Operations:
4
The subtitles have more spelling
mistakes than I've seen in recent
years, but a more difficult problem
is that they sometimes are on screen
too briefly to take them in. There's
so little to the Making of piece
that it passes understand why it was
felt necessary to divide it into
three five-minute segments - without
a Play All.
Extras:
3
Very little here: a couple of
trailers in SD and one brief (like a
minute) promo piece in fancy-schmantzy
HD. The Making of featurette is all
of 15 minutes and lacks subtitles. I
suspect it doesn't say much. Image
quality is less than par.
Bottom line:
7
I rather liked this movie, and can
imagine revisiting it someday when
the mood is in the seventh house –
or is that moon. The image is
attractive and pops nicely in all
the right places. The dialogue, as
with many Chinese feature films,
isn't looped with care. Good thing
we have subtitles to distract us. Oh
well, this never stopped Fellini.
I'd like to have given this release
a more enthusiastic endorsement, but
the fine points make it not so. I
hasten to add, however, that the
price is not very steep for this
title – less than $20 at YesAsia.com
just at the moment.
Leonard Norwitz
June 27th, 2009