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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Chinese Heroes (2001)

Chinese Heroes (2001)

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Released 30-Jun-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Martial Arts Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-The Undiscovered Tomb, Sex Medusa, Snake Charmer
Trailer-The King Boxer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 99:40
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Douglas Kung
Studio
Distributor
My Way Film Co Ltd
Beyond Home Entertainment
Starring Shi Xiao-Long
Chin Ka-Lor
John Zhang
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $14.95 Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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Plot Synopsis

    I have a soft spot (possibly in my head) for Hong Kong action films and I decided to give one of these recently released films from the My Way Film Co a try. Well, to be fair, Chinese Heroes is pretty lame, full of HK martial arts film clichés, overacting and dodgy special effects. According to the cover it is:

"The Masterpiece from the famous action choreographer of The Matrix 1 & 2"

    The man in question, Yuen Wo-Ping, is credited as an executive producer on this film, which could mean just about anything. Certainly, there is nothing in this film that comes anywhere near other work he has been involved with such as The Matrix trilogy, Crouching Tiger or Kill Bill. Having said that there are some reasonable fight scenes, which is when this film is at its best.

    The plot, such as it is, involves a young man who gets caught in a trap while walking through a forest. A family comes to his assistance, however, they are quickly set upon by a group of ninja who seem to be after something specific. The father, just before being killed, tells the young man, Chow Hao-Yin (John Zhang) to take his daughter away from the fight and protect her. Her mother, despite being quite a talented fighter is also attacked by the ninja but is rescued by an unknown man. Chow and the girl, Sakata, get to a small town where Chow agrees to represent one of the local fighting schools in a competition, up against another recent arrival in Rocky Tung. Rocky & Chow become friends but continue to compete against each other. The ninja continue to reappear regularly attacking various characters. Chow also hooks up with a group of Kung-fu trained children and their master, Master Way (Chin Ka-Lor). They team up against the ninja. Some of the plot didn't make a lot of sense to me, but you expect that in low-budget Hong Kong action films such as this.

    Even fans of the genre will find this film a struggle because of the bad acting and the clichés, but they would probably enjoy the fight scenes.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality is a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly.

    The feature is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced.

    On the good side, the picture was generally clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was average with night scenes showing some detail. There was some light grain in some scenes.

    The colour was pretty good but a bit washed out.

    Artefacts include both the bad and the ugly. The worst thing was that the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen jumped every few seconds. The picture itself did not seem to move with them. This became very distracting and it occurred throughout the program. Beside that, there was some quite obvious edge enhancement, macro-blocking in walls and clothing and some occasional specks and flecks.

    There are no subtitles.

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

Audio

    The audio quality is reasonable but only available in dubbed English.

    This DVD contains only one audio option: a dubbed English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s. The sound does not stray far from the centre speaker.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand.    

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were essentially not used at all.

       

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

Extras

Menu

    The menu includes access to trailers from other My Way Film Co movies but no scene selection function.

Trailers

    Trailers are included for the film itself, Undiscovered Tomb (a dumb looking action film), Sex Medusa (a film seemingly about a woman who grows snakes out of her head when she has sex), Snake Charmer (a film about a woman who turns into a snake) and The King Boxer (a martial arts film starring one of the guys from this film).

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This movie is available in Region 1 and seems to be a bare bones affair, like the local release.

Summary

    This disc contains an ordinary recent Hong Kong action film.

    The video quality is reasonable but has one significant flaw and a number of more minor ones.

    The audio quality is reasonable.

    The disc has no extras except trailers for other films.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 1200, using Component output
DisplaySony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersBose 201 Direct Reflecting (Front), Phillips SB680V (Surround), Phillips MX731 (Center), Yamaha YST SW90 (Sub)

Other Reviews NONE