Bulletproof Monk (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Paul Hunter (Director), Charles & Douglas Segal (Producers) Featurette-5 - The Tao Of Monk Featurette-Behind The Scenes-The Monk Unrobed Deleted Scenes-5 Alternate Ending Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Photo-Behind The Scenes Trailer-I Spy, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Men In Black 2
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	99:35
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Paul Hunter
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Chow Yun-Fat Seann William Scott Jaime King Karel Roden Victoria Smurfit Marcus Jean Pirae Mako Roger Yuan
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Eric Serra

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Bulletproof Monk is another movie that started life as a comic book. That's not to say that this movie is faithful to the comic — the producers admit that about the only thing they insisted on retaining was the name (they did keep a few more parts...).

    When I saw the advertising campaign for this movie, one image really stuck in my mind: Chow Yun Fat standing on top of a car, with a 9mm automatic in each hand. That rang true with many of his other (John Woo) films, including The Replacement Killers (one of my favourites). Cool, I thought. Well, that image was included in the advertising precisely to have that effect. It is, I think, the only moment in the film when Chow Yun Fat is seen holding a gun. This is not a gun-play action movie; it's much more of a martial arts action movie.

    The film opens in Tibet in 1943, as a monk (Chow Yun Fat) gives up his name and assumes the responsibility of guarding the Scroll of the Ultimate. There's some necessary exposition during this transfer of responsibility; we learn that reading the scroll aloud grants ultimate power to the reader. We also learn that the monk guarding the scroll has that task for 60 years, during which time the scroll protects him, and he must find his successor by looking for someone who fulfils the three prophecies. Just as Chow Yun Fat takes the responsibility, a group of Nazis appear (remember that this part is set in 1943) and attempt to take possession of the scroll. They fail, and only one of them survives (Karel Roden). Slam cut to 2003 (yup, 60 years later...) and we meet a slick pickpocket (Seann William Scott) calling himself Kar, who is on the run from the cops. The monk is also on the run, from a bunch of nasties in suits. As they run past one another in a subway station, a young girl gets knocked onto the rails. Her foot is stuck, and our two heroes have to work fast to save her before she's turned into a statistic.

    There are an interesting variety of combatants in this film, including the beautiful Bad Girl (Jaime King, who gets to wear some really cool outfits, most especially her final one), the blonde b**** Nina (Victoria Smurfit), and the sadly-named Mr Funktastic (Marcus Jean Pirae) — his part was rather larger in the original cut of the film, judging by the deleted scenes.

    Some background colour is provided for Kar's life by Mr Kojima, played by Mako. He's quite a character. Mako is rather an experienced actor, considering that we saw him in The Sand Pebbles, made in 1966 (OK, it's not 60 years ago, but it's a heck of a long time). The director mentions that they got praised for casting a Japanese actor to play a Japanese role, and Chinese actors to play Chinese roles.

    This is a martial arts film, and there's plenty of wire-work. This is also a mentor / protιgι film, a mystical fantasy film, and, most importantly, a comedy, although not a Jackie Chan type of comedy — the comedy is quite separate from the action. I expected Seann William Scott to be the focus of most of the comedy, and Chow Yun Fat the focus of the martial arts and mysticism. That's not a complete picture of how it works out. Chow Yun Fat shows something of a gift for comedy, while Seann William Scott shows more talent for the martial arts than I expected.

    They pay homage to a number of films. The homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably the most obvious, but this film is no copy.

    If you like martial arts action, and comedy, then you might enjoy this film. If you loved Raiders of the Lost Ark, then you might really enjoy this film. Definitely recommended.

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. That's the right aspect ratio.

    The image is beautifully clear, and rather sharp. Shadow detail is excellent. There is no film grain and no low-level noise.

    Colour has been carefully managed by the filmmakers (it's discussed in a number of the extras) — their efforts have been superbly rendered in this transfer. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are next to no film artefacts, as you would hope for a movie released this year. There's very little aliasing, no obvious moirι and there are no MPEG artefacts.

    There are no subtitle tracks. There are subtitles (in English) burned into the image for the lines spoken in Tibetan.

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered; there is no layer change during the movie because the entire movie is located on the second layer of the disc. The extras fill the first layer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English Dolby Digital 5.1 — it's an excellent example of surround sound, but it seems to be recorded a bit too loud. I had to turn it down at least 5dB to make it comfortable.

    The English dialogue is clear and comprehensible. The fragments of Tibetan sound clear enough, but I cannot assess their comprehensibility.

    The score is special, and excellently tailored to the film. Eric Serra is proud of it, and he should be.

    There is plenty of directional sound; this is a truly enveloping soundtrack. The subwoofer gets plenty to do, too.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is static with music.

Commentary: director and producers

    This commentary isn't to be found on the Special Features menu — look in the Audio menu. It features director Paul Hunter (this is his first film — he has been directing commercials), and producers Charles Rovan and Douglas Segal. It is not a bad commentary — they have a lot to tell us and they don't repeat themselves or get boring. There are a few short pauses, but they start talking over the opening logos and don't stop until part way through the credits.

Featurettes: The Tao of the Monk

    Five featurettes which you can play individually, or all at once. They are not time-coded, so I can't give exact times

• Enter the Monk — an above-average "making of" piece, but full of spoilers (reasonably long)
• Zen Palette — a discussion of the colour palette used (about 10 minutes)
• Smoke and Mirrors — special effects and stunts (not quite 10 minutes)
• The Art of Score — discussing the music (under 10 minutes)
• Fists of Fury — the training needed for the fights (over 5 minutes)

Featurette: The Monk Unrobed

    Talking about the comic book origins of The Bulletproof Monk. Runs about 6 minutes.

Deleted Scenes

    These are longer scenes than usual — they show the original ending and a whole plot thread that was removed from the finished film. I'm glad these are gone — their absence really helps. They aren't time-coded, so I can't give exact lengths.

• Alternate ending
• Crew battles Monk and Funk
• Crew plan
• Monk flashes car
• Crew at Human Rights Organisation
• Tugboat

Theatrical Trailer (1:39)

    Rather a good trailer — I can see why I was keen to see this film.

Gallery — Photo

    Nineteen behind-the-scenes photographs.

Trailers

    Before the menu appears we are exposed to trailers for:

• I Spy
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
• Men In Black II

    The Region 1 release of this movie is scheduled for September — I haven't seen a review of it, but as far as I can see, it is unlikely to be any better than this disc.

    An entertaining martial arts / comedy / action film presented well on DVD.

    The video quality is quite good.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The extras are interesting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall