Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
Hong Kong Legends
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MDV 352
- Running time: 100 minutes
- Year: 1998
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 30 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
- Languages: Cantonese, English (dubbed)
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.78:1
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Photo Gallery, Jet Li biography and filmography, UK music promo, Interviews with producer Ng See Yuen, Kicking Showcase with Hwang Jang Lee
Director:
- Tung Wai
(Hitman)
Producer:
- Gordan Chan
Screenplay:
- Chan Heng Ka and Vincent Kwok
Cast:
- Tai Feng: Jet Li
Kwan: Simon Yam
Sam: Eric Tsang
Kiki: Gigi Leung
Hitman, aka King of Assassins, stars Romeo Must Die‘s Jet Li as Tai Feng, a man assigned to target the “Angel of Death”, the ultimate hitman who kills because he deems necessary, even if there is no price on someone’s head. He presumes the guilty must be punished, basically.
A Mr. Tsukamoto, the 88-year-old founder and manager of the Tsukamoto Enterprises in Hong Kong is murdered and a $100 million reward is the prize on offer to the person who can capture his killer and the mastermind together, or $50 million apiece. The total will apply if they are one and the same.
It’s not quite that simple though. Also joining the hunt is the understandly-pissed-off grandson of Tsukamoto. He’s been promised to have inside info leaked to him by the organiser of the operation, but each request is highly-priced at $100 million a time.
Tai is assisted by Sam (Eric Tsang) who acts as his agent and puts up his $5 million share of the booty which will go into the $100 million prize fund. As Tai gets more deeply involved, he encounters Sam’s daughter Kiki (Gigi Leung) and falls in love (aah!), but what is he to do when all the available evidence of the killer starts to point towards Sam as the guilty culprit?
The picture is presented in an anamorphic 16:9 ratio, so close to the 1.85:1 cinematic release – and there was me thinking we might have another cropped transfer like Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow – which is mostly free of artifacts and the only downsides are the infrequent print flecks and a dirty camera lens. The average bitrate is a steady 6.60Mb/s, hovering around that mark for the duration of the film.
While the Region 1 DVD was apparently released in Dolby Digital 5.1, we only get a standard surround soundtrack, although all the basic sound effects may as well be in mono for all the difference it makes. Both the original Cantonese language and a dubbed English version are included, the latter sounding a lot more clear when it comes to dialogue and background music than the former which sounds too harsh.
Extras :
Languages & Subtitles : Both Cantonese and English-dubbed languages are available and, with an option to turn the subtitles on/off so they’re not burned into the print.
The English dubbing follows to the subtitles quite closely, although 17 minutes in when Jet Li is hired, he asks the man, “I don’t even know who you are, sir”, to which the man replies, “Just call me Norman. Let’s go.”
However, the subtitles just show Li asking, “Can you repeat that in Chinese?”, to which the reply is: “And in Japanese, if you like.” Pardon?
And there’s more… : The UK music promo is 90 seconds of nameless drumbeats to a backdrop of clips from the film. There’s an 18-strong Photo Gallery, a 2½-minute Trailer, a Jet Li Biography with plenty of pages of information split into different topics and 32-minutes of Interviews split between Jet Li, Simon Yam and Heiji Sato.
Menu : Animated with sound, clips of the film are used here behind the options.
Overall, this is a very entertaining film and a well-presented one too, which would even appeal to those not normally found spinning a martial arts 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.