To Hell With the Devil

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "To Hell With the Devil" or "Mo deng tian shi" )

directed by John Woo
Hong Kong 1981

Unable to impress the woman he has fallen madly in love with. An average Joe agrees to give his soul to the devil, who promises that he can make the average Joe's wish come true.

To Hell with the Devil was co-written and directed by John Woo, who is mostly known for his operatic action films like The Killer and Hard Boiled. Even though Comedy is present in many of John Woo's films. To Hell with the Devil is one of few films in his filmography in which he made a all out comedy film. Of course when examining the plot for To Hell with the Devil, it quickly becomes clear that this film was likely inspired by Bedazzled. Two other possible inspirations for this film that I picked up on are The Exorcist and Faust. The standout moment in this film is a scene where Bruce (the average Joe) dresses in drag and tries to kill the pop star who stole his song. Preceding this scene, the pop star becomes handicapped because of something that one of the devil's henchmen did to him. Even though the pop star has become handicapped, it doesn't make Bruce's quest to kill him any easier. The end result is a fun film that holds up well, despite the familiarity of the subject matter at hand.

Michael Den Boer

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Theatrical Release: 1981

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DVD Review: Joy Sales Films and Video Distributors (Legendary Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Michael Den Boer for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Thinking of buying from YesAsia? CLICK HERE and use THIS UPDATED BEAVER PAGE to source their very best...
Distribution	Joy Sales Films and Video Distributors Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:29:39
Video	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono), Mandarin (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles	English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Joy Sales Films and Video Distributors Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical Trailer (16:9; 3:00) • Photo Gallery (11 Images) DVD Release Date: March 18th, 2009 Chapters 18

Comments

To Hell with the Devil is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film's original 2.35:1 scope aspect ratio. This transfer is an interlaced source and as the first screenshot shows that there are issues with ghosting / blurring of the image. Especially during scenes with a lot of movement. Colors and flesh tones for the most part fare well even though there are some instances where colors like red look blown out. The image ranges from a tad to soft and generally crisp. Also there is mild print debris that crops up throughout the film.

There are two audio options, Mandarin and Cantonese. Both are presented in a Dolby Digital mono. There are three subtitle options, English, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese. The English subtitles (like many of the titles released by Joy Sales on DVD) have spelling and grammatical errors. The Mandarin track fares better of the two audio mixes. The Cantonese track sounds muffled.

Extras for this release are limited to a trailer for the film and a brief photo gallery. Also like previous Joy Sales DVD release. There are two cover options.

- Michael Den Boer

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