Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The Region 4 is a port of the UK Region 2 release, with different trailers and additional Dutch subtitles.

    The US Region 1 release has surround tracks, in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts 5.1. The transfer is grainy but does not have the smearing of the Region 4. The dts track is reported to have a mastering fault, with the front channels collapsed into the left front channel, though this fault does not extend to the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. There are also additional sound effects used to add weight to the existing effects. It has trailers but no other extras. The English subtitles are apparently very poor, with the sort of grammar normally associated with older Hong Kong releases.

    Speaking of Hong Kong releases, the Mega Star All Regions disc is not 16x9 enhanced, though it does have Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. The only extras are trailers and cast and crew biographies. Another Hong Kong release from Universe is similarly specified, but without the English soundtrack. Both releases have cuts, with the Mega Star missing one scene.

    None of the available releases seem ideal, but the Region 4/Region 2 editions would be preferred given that they present an unadulterated (and uncut) version of the film.