Breaking News (Dai si Gein) (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Q & A With Director Johnnie To At MIFF 2004 Gallery-Photo-Stills Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Eastern Eye And Madman Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	85:55
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (42:17)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Johnny To
Studio Distributor	Media Asia Madman Entertainment	Starring	Chan Hing-Kai Tin-Shing Yip Kelly Chen Nick Cheung Siu-Fai Cheung Shiu Hung Hui Suet Lam Richie Ren Maggie Siu Simon Yam Yong You
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Ben Cheung Chi Wing Chung

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Cantonese dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.30:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Breaking News is a Hong Kong crime thriller which includes a story based around the role that the media plays in modern crime and policing. To my mind it is a high quality crime thriller, however, its message about the media is a little confused and does not really make any strong statements. It points out that the media does not always have the full picture of a situation, or may choose not to show the full picture, however, does not really take this message anywhere. Conversely, the action is taut and exciting and very well directed, keeping the pace high and including some interesting stunts and ideas. There are lots of gunfights and explosions and the film begins with a 7 minute one-take tracking shot which covers the initial conflict between the police and a group of criminals.

    The plot involves a group of criminals who are just leaving their hideout to do a job when two beat policeman walk up and notice that their car is illegally parked. Unbeknownst to either the police or the criminals, a stakeout crew led by Inspector Cheung (Nick Cheung) are watching the action unfold. When the policemen ask one question too many, a gunfight erupts in which some police are killed and the gang escape. During the gunfight one of the criminals is caught on film killing police and shooting an unarmed policeman with his hands up. The police chief decides to send in the Organised Crime Squad led by Deputy Commander Rebecca Fong (Kelly Chen) who has the dual tasks of capturing the gang and putting on a good show for the media in order to restore the police force's reputation. Meanwhile, the gang have holed up in an apartment building with some hostages, followed by Inspector Cheung's squad. Despite the order of Commander Fong to the contrary he engages the gang and tries to capture them, wanting to avenge the death of some of his team. Commander Fong, on the other hand, focuses on how the siege is reflected in the media, giving them prepared film which only show police successes. When the gang manage to send photos from their mobile phones to the news networks, the media begins to realise that they may not be getting the whole story.

    If you don't try to read too much meaning into the media subplot, this is an entertaining and fast moving action film which would be enjoyed by fans of the genre. Some of its elements reminded me of Hollywood films such as 15 Minutes, Die Hard, Phone Booth & Cellular but it certainly has its own feel, especially due to the quirky moments such as when the whole siege, police, criminals and media all stop for lunch. Interestingly, the rights of this film have been sold for an American remake, which may or may not be a good thing. Recommended for fans of Hong Kong crime thrillers.

Video

    The video quality is very good with one major problem.

    The feature is presented in a 2.30:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is very close to the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Unlike other AV Channel productions this does not seem to be an NTSC to PAL conversion as the NTSC running time in other regions is approximately 4 minutes longer.

    The picture was very clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. The bitrate was uniformly high, generally hovering around 8 Mbps. Shadow detail was fine, however was restricted by the realistic natural light style of the film.

    The colour was very good but due to the realistic natural light approach taken by the director was not overly vibrant. The colour present was well rendered and had no issues.

    The major problem with this transfer is aliasing. There is too much of it for my liking. It is pretty constant throughout the film, and is especially bad at 12:20 where all the walls of a conference room alias at once. Outside of that scene all the usual suspects alias including car grilles, signs, verandas on buildings and lots of other stuff. Usually it is fairly mild but not always. I also noticed some moire at 60:27 on a TV screen. There were also some minor specks of film artefacts here and there.

    There are subtitles in English. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read and in yellow. Sometimes the English grammar was a little questionable..

    The layer change occurs at 42:17 and was not noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent.

    This DVD contains two audio options, both of high quality, a Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and a Cantonese DTS 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 768 Kb/s. I watched the whole film using the DTS soundtrack and it was great including excellent separation, clear dialogue (even though I couldn't understand it) and some great sound effects. The Dolby Digital version was also excellent, but lacked a little bit of oomph compared to the DTS.

    Dialogue seemed clear and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this film by Cheung Chi Wing & Ben Cheung is excellent, greatly assisting the feel of the film and launching into quirkiness as required by the onscreen action.

    The surround speakers were alive for most of the film with explosions, gunfire and the sound of bullets hitting metal. Great stuff.

    The subwoofer was used regularly for music and explosions but did not reach the heights (or lows, tee hee) of other modern films.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    A small collection of extras is included.

Menu

    The menu was formatted to appear like a television screen, however the writing was quite small which was a little annoying. Functionally it was fine.

Making of Breaking News (3:03)

    A strange name for what is really just a short collection of behind the scenes footage interspersed with scenes from the film.

Q&A with Director Johnnie To at Melbourne International Film Festival (18:26)

    A largely uninteresting discussion with the director at the Melbourne Film Festival when the film was shown. He answers questions from a host and the audience about the film and his directing approach.

Stills Gallery

    30 stills from the film.

Theatrical Trailer (1:54)

    Good quality trailer presented 16x9 enhanced.

Trailers for 12 other Madman titles

    This movie has been released in Hong Kong as a Region 0 release in NTSC. The differences are as follows:

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Deleted Scene
• Text cast & crew in Chinese

    The Region 0 version of this disc misses out on;

• English subtitles on the extras 
• Q&A session at MIFF

    On this basis I think our local release has the edge, although it's really a choice between a deleted scene or the Q&A, so there's not much in it.

    The video quality is very good but has one major issue.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The set has a small collection of largely pointless extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall