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Dom Robinson reviews

Return of the God of Gamblers

The Ultimate Gamble...
The Deadly Game...

Distributed by

Cat.no: DV 1003
Cert: 18
Running time: 128 minutes
Year: 1994
Pressing: 1999
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 19 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
Languages: Cantonese
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.66:1
16:9-enhanced: No
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 5
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Original movie poster

Director:

City Hunter, God of Gamblers, Hard Boiled 2, Legend of the God of Gamblers, Return to a Better Tomorrow

Producer:

Jimmy Heung

Screenplay:

Music:

John Carpenter

Cast:

Ko Chun: Chow Yun-Fat

Anna and the King, A Better Tomorrow 1-3, City On Fire, The Corruptor, Full Contact, God of Gamblers, Hard Boiled, Hong Kong 1941, The Killer, Once A Thief

Hoi Tong: Chingmy Yau

City Hunter, Naked Killer 1 & 2, Return to a Better Tomorrow, Satan Returns, Young and Dangerous 2

Siu Fong-fong/"Little Trumpet": Tony Leung

Ashes Of Time, The Lover, New Dragon Gate Inn, Prison on Fire, To Live And Die In Tsimshatsui

Return of the God of Gamblers sees established Hongkong action star Chow Yun-Fat, as Ko Chun, brought out of retirement after his pregnant wife is murdered - and you really don't want to know what happened to the foetus. He is challenged to a showdown with the man who proclaims that he is the God of Gamblers, but wait a minute - that's Ko Chun, surely?

He rescues the son of gang boss Hui - someone else who gets killed - and on the way to a showdown gamble between the two major players, we see them pursued by the police, kidnapping their chief into the bargain and then there's Hoi Tong (played by the gorgeous Chingmy Yau, below) who high-kicks her way around the casino in the middle of the film and wears a red raincoat very well :)

This film has some very entertaining action scenes, but seems to get too comedic at times as parts of it descend into slapstick - seeming rather out of place considering that it's barely a year since Ko Chun's wife was left for dead while coping with a rather hasty abortion - plus the Chinese equivalent of the Keystone cops making an appearance.

film pic

Delectable...

The print looks rather good in the main and is framed at 1.66:1. I have a couple of reservations though. Firstly, the subtitles are part of the print so cannot be turned off. Also, they're placed partly in the black bar at the bottom of the screen, so even trying to zoom this into 14:9 on a widescreen TV results in the subtitles being cropped.

You have to compromise, depending on your TV's setup, by zooming in to fill the screen and squashing the bottom of the picture up to retain almost all of the subtitles while utilising the full width of the TV. The average bitrate is a very good 8Mb/s.

The sound quality is fine and in surround, but nothing particularly outstanding.

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 19 chapters to the disc. The case lists 18 but as the first one covers the company logo and film title for the first 30 seconds, the chapters marked 1-18 actually serve as 2-19. The original theatrical trailer is included.

Languages & Subtitles :

The film is in released in the original Cantonese language with English subtitles as part of the picture.

Original movie poster :

is what you get inside the case, the size falling somewhere between A4 and A5.

Menu :

It's static and silent and can be seen on the back of the box. A shot of Chow Yun-Fat concentrating hard on his cards.

Overall, this is an entertaining film for most of the time but the over-the-top slapstick does get in the way of the film's flow. An anamorphic picture would have been nice, with the 1.66:1 picture placed within a 16:9 frame and those watching on a 4:3 TV wouldn't really notice the thin black bars at the side due to overscan that occurs on most TVs.

That said, I don't think this film has been released in the USA yet so this version will be worth a look, especially for Chingmy Yau.

One final note, when booting up this disc on my DVD-ROM, it never worked properly with no picture at first and lots of sound breaking up for what sounded like the company logo's music. I had to press STOP and then access the menus manually. I don't know what's caused this though.

FILM	 		: ***½
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ***
SOUND QUALITY		: **½
EXTRAS			: *
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: **½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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