The Canton Godfather (Qiji): Special Collector's Edition (1989) |
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The Canton Godfather (Qiji): Special Collector's Edition (1989) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Bey Logan (Hong Kong Cinema Expert) Biographies-Cast-Jackie Chan - Animated Biography Showcase Gallery-Photo Theatrical Trailer-UK Promotional Trailer, Original Theatrical Trailer Interviews-Cast-The Art Of Filmmaking Jackie Chan Style Trailer-Once Upon a Time in China 3, Zu Warriors |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1989 | ||
| Running Time | 121:36 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (88:20) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Jackie Chan |
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Studio
Distributor |
Fortune Star Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Jackie Chan Anita Mui Ah Lei Gua Chun Hsiang Ko Ma Wu Bill Tung |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music |
Siu-Tin Lei Peter Cheung Eddie Ma |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
Originally released as Mr Canton and Lady Rose, then later as Miracle and Black Dragon, The Canton Godfather is one of Jackie Chan's greatest achievements in film. Chan starred in, directed and wrote The Canton Godfather at the height of his popularity in his homeland. It took 9 months and cost more than $64 million Hong Kong dollars (a bit more than US$9 million at the time) to produce, both records at the time, only to fail at the box office - not dismally, but its profit margins were slim enough that Jackie wound up doing several quick money making projects for his financiers as a result.
Despite its middling box office, The Canton Godfather is far from a failure as a movie. Jackie Chan has frequently cited it as his favourite of all his films. It is elaborately produced, looks fantastic and features some of Jackie's most entertaining stunt sequences (winning the 1990 Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Choreography). In particular, the slapstick humour of an action set piece in a rope factory comes off equally hilarious as it is breathtaking.
The story itself is more or less a remake of Frank Capra's A Pocketful of Miracles. Set to a noir 1930s backdrop, Jackie plays Charlie, a country bumpkin who winds up the head of a organised crime gang after buying some lucky roses from an old lady on the street. Each day he buys another rose and more good fortune comes his way. This continues until the day comes that he is able to repay the rose seller for all the luck she has brought him.
Charlie isn't a criminal at heart and tries to turn the club he runs, and his gang, legitimate. This all goes to pot when he tries to repay the old lady for the luck she has brought him. He is inadvertently led into kidnapping, extortion and assault as he tries to make everything right for the rose seller, all the while battling a rival gang who are trying to invade his turf and avoid a conniving, but bumbling, police inspector.
The film is more a comedic drama than the action fare that most Jackie Chan fans usually expect. The action scenes are generally few and far between, but lengthy and elaborate when they do come. The Canton Godfather may not be quite what you expect, but it is well worth checking out.
The video quality is excellent for a Hong Kong film its age. The image has been digitally restored and remastered and only suffers a few fairly minor flaws. Side by side to a new release, you would be hard pressed to tell which was the older film from the quality of the transfer.
The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer is quite sharp and free from noticeable grain or film artefacts. There is an excellent level of detail in shadows and darker scenes. This is particularly pleasing as a number of the action scenes play out amidst dynamic lighting (e.g. at 103:50 as a fight is partially lit by reflections on water).
Colours are bold and even throughout the film, although the brightness levels change at an uneven rate as scenes fade out in at the end of a handful of scenes (e.g. at 22:50).
In a number of scenes, such as at 10:50 and 44:29, a series of distracting moire patterns appear on a sharp black and white suit that Jackie Chan is wearing. These patterns move around quite a bit and are rather distracting in the few scenes in which they are noticeable. There are no noticeable instances of MPEG artefacts such as macro blocking or aliasing.
The white subtitles are quite legible, but the language in them represents a slightly too literal translation of the Cantonese in some places. The English dub, though it dumbs down the wordiness of the script somewhat, provides a far more fluid translation of the dialogue.
The layer change occurs part-way through a scene at 88:20, but was not particularly noticeable on my equipment.
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Two language tracks and a commentary are available. The language tracks are English and Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps).
The dialogue on the Cantonese language track is quite poorly synced throughout the feature, even by the standard usually accepted for entirely ADR recorded Hong Kong fare. The wordy nature of the script makes this even more painful. On the other hand, the English dub is a cut above the standard usually expected of this sort of movie. It is rather over the top, but fits the whimsical nature of the movie and does a good job of fitting in to the lips of the characters. Alas, for reasons unknown, the dub does change the names of a number of characters, who are referred to by the Cantonese language track names in the subtitles
The music is quite a mixed bag. It varies wildly, and inconsistently, from appropriate 1930s style big band orchestral pieces to painfully 1980s synthesizer mashes. At times it is quite awful, particularly as it goes from stylishly accompanying the film one scene to distracting in the next.
Both language tracks feature very clear dialogue that overpowers the audio effects a little more than it should. Although the soundtracks have been remastered in 5.1, there is very little surround usage. Most of the audio fills the front speakers, particularly the dialogue, with only a proportion of the music and a handful of sound effects reaching the rear speakers. Some of the sound effect levels are inconsistent, such as at 56:00 when a crowd of people sound like they're all off in the rear right speaker but are all over the screen.
The subwoofer channel adds a little bass to a handful of explosions and gunshots, but was generally underused in the mix.
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A fairly stylish collage of clips from the film lead into the menus as the theme tune plays.
Bey Logan is an Englishman who has spent most of his life working in the Hong Kong film industry and is himself an avid Hong Kong film buff. He delivers a non stop barrage of trivia about the film, its production and distribution, the actors in it, their biographies and everything you may not have noticed the first time you watched the movie. This is an incredibly well researched and interesting commentary.
This is a little like a book-on-tape biography, only the text being read scrolls up the screen as it is read (and a handful of mug shots rotate on the left of the screen). This is an interesting biography that covers a little bit on each of Jackie's movies, including one that was in pre-production when the biography was made in which Jackie was to play a window washer who foils a terrorist plot to blow up the World Trade Centre (I can't imagine why that one never saw the light of day...).
This featurette is a little slow, but anyone impatient could comfortably read the text when played on 2x or 3x fast forward.
30 production and promotional stills. Ho hum.
Two very different trailers. The Original Theatrical trailer is the pick of the pair as it is both over the top and features a bunch of behind the scenes clips.
A down to earth and memorable interview with the legend himself, Jackie Chan. The video is full frame and appears slightly distorted, but the interview itself more than makes up for this. Jackie covers his film-making style, bags out Hollywood action direction, bags out digital editing, and shows off all his old fashioned film production toys. This featurette is somewhat brief, but is a fan's dream come true.
Two trailers are included for other titles in the Hong Kong Legends range, each specially cut for the DVD releases, along with descriptions of the discs and a list of what extras they include. This is some of the better advertising I've seen, largely because it tells you what you'll get on each disc.
There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The film has been released in Region 1 as Black Dragon on a dual sided disc with the uncut Hong Kong version on one side (with Cantonese and Mandarin mono audio) and the 106 minute US version on the other (with a mono English dub). That release contains the following features not found on the Region 4 version:
The Region 1 version misses out on:
Unless you have a burning desire to see a significantly truncated version of the film, the local release (and identical Region 2 release) is the clear winner.
One of Jackie Chan's best films, though not quite the action-fest casual fans may expect, with a decent package of extras.
The video restoration is excellent. The remastered audio is reasonable.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | LG V8824W, using S-Video output |
| Display | LG 80cm 4x3 CRT. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Pioneer VSX-D512. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-D512 |
| Speakers | 150W DTX front speakers, and a 100W centre and 2 surrounds, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub |