God of War (Dang kou feng yun) (Blu-ray) (2017)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2017
Running Time	128:44
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Gordon Chan
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo Sammo Hung Wan Qian Yashaki Kurata Keisuke Koide Ryu Kohata Wang Ban Hung Tin-Ming
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Shigeru Umebayashi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Mandarin DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Ming Dynasty China 1557: Japanese pirates are pillaging the villages along the coast, going so far as to establish fortified camps at strategic locations. General Yu (Sammo Hung) and his Ming soldiers have been attacking one such pirate camp for five months without success, and without much strategy either, launching frontal attacks at the same time each day. The attacks are repulsed easily by a group of ronin led by the undisciplined Kohata (Ryu Kohata) but masterminding the defence is a group of samurai led by the wily Kumasawa (Yashaki Kurata) and the younger Yamagawa (Keisuke Koide); while pretending to be pirates they are in China with another agenda entirely.

     Tired of Yu’s failure to dislodge the pirates Commander Hu (Wang Ban) in the region’s capital Taizhou brings in the young and inspirational General Qi Jiguang (Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo) who quickly finds an alternative strategy and defeats the pirates, but not before the samurai and the majority of the ronin retreat from the battle. While Qi trains a new, more disciplined army drawing his troops from the village of miners led by Chen Dacheng (Hung Tin-Ming, son of Sammo) the pirates regroup and are reinforced, launching simultaneous attacks on Taizhou and Xinhe, where Qi’s feisty wife (Wan Qian) is trapped with only a small number of soldiers. Qi has to come up with a plan to safeguard both his duty and his family.

     God of War (Dang kou feng yun) is directed by veteran Gordon Chan who has some decent films on his resume including Fist of Legend (1994) with Jet Li and, one of my favourites, Painted Skin (2008) starring Donnie Yen, although his more recent work has been patchy. God of War is certainly spectacular; the action sequences are loud, frenetic, chaotic, colourful and gory featuring muskets, hand held cannons, bows and arrows, pikes and spears, swords and daggers, banners, glinting armour, explosions, severed heads and blood. There are battles in the open, in the wooden fortified camp, on city walls, in alleys and on building and, in the climax, in a group of moored wooden ships. In a film entitled God of War, it is appropriate that the battles are impressive and they are certainly well worth watching.

     The scripting of God of War is less impressive. There are a lot of characters in God of War and a number of storylines that go nowhere. There is a suggestion that the pirates had been led by a Han Chinese, there is dialogue that Commander Hua had conspired with political rivals and had obtained his post by having the previous official executed while General Yu is imprisoned on the orders of the Court and disappears from the film a quarter of the way through. There is also a strange bit of business between Qi and his wife involving her possible killing; later she turns out to be a decent fighter as she leads the defence of Xinhe, although where she got her martial arts skills is not explained. This means that God of War jumps around and feels fragmentary although it runs a tad over two hours. I thought that maybe this was another case of Well Go USA cutting Chinese action films as they have occasionally done in the past to make them more acceptable to a US audience, but apparently not. I came across a review of the film in the South China Morning Post which said that God of War is like an “extended highlight reel sampled from a season of prime-time TV”. That has it in a nutshell; I’m just sorry I didn’t write it!

     It is possible that a Chinese audience would know more about the period and these characters, some of whom are based on real people, and fill in the gaps. For the rest of us, if you just settle down to enjoy the spectacle and the action God of War delivers on a grand scale.

Video

     God of War is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     This is a great print which shows every detail of the costumes and the armour, the wounds, blood, the dirt and mud. Sets, including the pirate fort and the quay and ships at the end, or Commander Hu’s residence, are impressive. Colours have that glossy digital look without a lot of depth but the reds of the blood and the costumes and the greens of the landscape are bright. CGI yellow and red explosions, the flares of cannons firing are also bright. Blacks and shadow detail is excellent, skin tones natural, contrast and brightness consistent. The picture was stable even during the frenzied action sequences.

     The white English subtitles are burnt in. They are on the small side and are sometimes difficult to read against bright backgrounds.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Audio

     The audio is Mandarin DTS-HA MA 5.1 (although there are extensive sections of dialogue in Japanese).

     This is an excellent audio track especially during the battle sequences with the clash of blades, musket and cannon fire, explosions, impacts, the whizz of arrows overhead and their impact on shields or into bodies, the yells of battle. Outside of the battles the audio featured rain, ambient effects and music. The subwoofer gave excellent support to the sounds of battle and the explosions.

     The music was by Shigeru Umebayashi who has currently 86 credits on the IMDb including scores for House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He knows how to score action films appropriately and this one is fine without being memorable.

     This is a film where the Japanese speak Japanese and the Chinese, Chinese although I suspect that while the film has Mandarin audio some of the actors were speaking Cantonese on set which shows up in the lip synchronisation.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
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Overall

     No extras. The silent menu offers only “Play Film / Chapters”

     The video of our Blu-ray release of God of War has the Well Go USA logo; the video is the same but in the US Region Free release they get Mandarin DTS:X and DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio as well as a trailer (1:45) and a making of (1:33) that is really another trailer. If you have a 7.1 set up, that would be the way to go. If not the extras are minimal so our release is fine. The Hong Kong Region A release has the trailer and making of, a photo gallery and 7.1 audio, but Yesasia gives the aspect ratio as 1.78:1.

     If you are unfamiliar with this period of Chinese history there is no point in trying to keep up with who is who or the various subplots of God of War. Instead, just settle back and enjoy the frenzied, colourful, loud and spectacular action sequences. With battles in the open, in a fortified camp, on city walls and alleyways, on a quay with wooden ships, there is a lot to enjoy.

     The video and audio are very good. No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall