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Dom Robinson reviews
Hong Kong Legends
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MDV 367
- Running time: 113 minutes
- Year: 1996
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 30 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital SR
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Trailers for other Hong KongLegends films, Photo Galleries, Interviews,Biographies and filmographies, Deleted Scenes, “The Force Behind The Storm”documentary, Animated Menus, Audio Commentary with Steve Wang, Koichi Sakamoto,Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison
Director:
- Steve Wang
(Drive, The Guyver, Guyver 2: Dark Hero, Kung Fu Rascals)
Producer:
- Michael Leahy
Screenplay:
- Scott Phillips
Music:
- David Williams
Cast:
- Toby Wong: Mark Dacascos (American Samurai, The Base, Crying Freeman, DNA, Drive, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Martial Law, The Wolf Brothers, TV: The Crow: Stairway To Heaven
Malik Brody: Kadeem Hardison (Blind Faith, Drive, Gunmen, Renaissance Man, Vampire in Brooklyn, White Men Can’t Jump, TV: The Crow: Stairway To Heaven, A Different World)
Deliverance: Brittany Murphy (Clueless, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Falling Sky, Girl Interrupted, The Prophecy 2, TV: Drexell’s Class, King of the Hill, Sister Sister)
Driveis a buddy-buddy comedy partnering athletic, martial arts master Mark Dacascos, as chinamanToby Wong, with wisecracking comedian Kadeem Hardison as Malik Brody. Similies could bedrawn between this film and the Jackie Chan / Chris Rock comedy-actionerRush Hour
, but this film differsbecause it succeeds in being both funny and entertaining. The version on this DVD is also thedirector’s cut which includes 16 minutes of additional footage.
Essentially, this is one long chase film. The target is what’s located in Toby’s body.He used to work for the Chinese government but left in 1987, with a condition to have abiological energy module implanted in his chest – a device that enables you to increase yourstrength and reaction time. All he has to do is deliver it to Contac,an American corporation that will pay him $5million for it. Sounds easy, but not when all andsundry are out for his blood and will shoot on sight – no questions asked.
Malik’s story is that, having been dragged into the race for their lives after frequentingthe bar in which he meets Toby, life hasn’t been too kind to him, leaving him jobless, wifelessand homeless. Things will change though if he helps Toby get to his destination as he’s beenpromised half the cash.
The love interest is portrayed by Brittany Murphy as Deliverance,the daughter of a motel owner, who comes on strong with Malik and provides them with free boardand lodgings as long as he ‘returns the favour’ later on. However, the one thing that reallyputs me off her, despite her alluring breathy Jennifer Tilly-esque performance, is thatshe is the absolute spitting image of a supervisor I used to know who made Hitler seem like the mostreasonable ruler on Earth.
The important thing though, is that as the film progresses when the action flies forward there’sso much going on at once that you can’t take your eyes off it for a second. Also worthy of noteis a performance from James Shigeta as chief bad guy Mr. Lau – he’s better known asTakagi, the big wig of the Nakatomi Plaza building in Die Hard who wouldn’t spill thebeans, so Alan Rickman spilled his blood. Of the many other baddies after our two heroes,one is a distinct dead ringer for film critic/oddball Kim Newman.
While Hong Kong Legends made a disastrous cock-up withSnake in the Eagle’s Shadow,by cropping it from 2.35:1 to 16:9, thinking that’s what the customers wanted when anyonewith a brain knew it wasn’t, they’ve restored the balance by releasing this film in itsoriginal 2.35:1 theatrical ratio and it’s an anamorphic print to boot.
Mostly it looks excellent too, with just the occasional trace of artifacts during smoky-lookingscenes, but this is a rare sight. The average bitrate is a so-so 5.34Mb/s, hovering justover 6Mb/s for most of the film.
A tense score, gunfire, explosions and lots of profanity ooze out of the speakers witha glorious soundmix, available here in both a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and Dolby SR (SpectralRecording, which basically equates to Dolby Surround in the home).
Extras : Chapters :There are a welcome 30 chapters to the disc over its near-2hr running time. Languages & Subtitles :Just the original English language, but sadly no subtitles, save for the odd non-English-speakingoccasion. There’s no reason why we couldn’t have had English subtitles as far as I can see. And there’s more… :First off is a series of theatrical trailers for, not only Drive, but alsoDrunken Master, The Black Sheep Affair, The New Dragon Gate Inn and theaforementioned Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow.
There are three sets of Photo Galleries with scores of production pics, Interviewswith the two male leads, director Wang, Stunt/Fight Coordinator Koichi Sakamoto andWyatt Weed. The Biographies and filmographies section gives details for mostof the aforementioned plus Brittany Murphy.
Add to this six Deleted Scenes including two extended versions of scenes alreadyin the film, “The Force Behind The Storm”, a 48-minute Making of Documentaryand a feature-length Audio Commentary from Steve Wang, Koichi Sakamoto,Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison and there’s a great wealth of supplemental material ondisplay here.
Menu :Brilliant animated menus with excerpts from the soundtrack and action clips behind theoptions, plus cool screen wipes from each menu to the next.
Overall, for me this film succeeds where Rush Hour failed miserably.Drive is a cool film with action and comedy that blend well together and actuallyworks. Add to this a great picture, top-notch sound and stacks of extras and you have aheartily-recommended DVD.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.