jtkv

Sharp Guns

Directed by Billy Tang
Stars: Alex Fong, Ken Chang, Anya, Ken Wong, Moses Chan, Eric Wan, Lok Tat-Wah, Lam Lap-San, David Lee, Danny Summer, Serena

Movie synopsis:
A Triad boss invites his trusted friend, On, to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Upon arriving in Macau, On recruits two professionals (Wood, a sharp-shooter, and Rain, an S&M torture expert) to assit him in this task. They are informed that Sargent is behind the kidnapping, and start a game of cat-and-mouse in rescuing the kidnapped daughter. But all is not what it seems...

Movie review:
Let me start by saying that this movie rocks! The characters, although not very developed, are fun and interesting. Production value is quite good also. The Cinematography really shows off some of the beautiful scenery that is Macau.
This is an old fashioned action drama, with the action and drama evenly split and complementing each other nicely. There's no flashy CGI to get in the way of the story telling. The action scenes, while not overly intense and over-the-top, really serve to move the story along. The action mostly consists of gunplay and car chases. No wire-fu here....
The plot is very tight, with really no gaps that I could see. As I mentioned in the synopsis, all is not what it seems.
The plot twists will keep you on the edge of your seat! Saying anymore will spoil all the fun for the first time viewer... Also, there is a trick drinking game to use on your unsuspecting friends!
The speech sounds like it's looped in at the studio during post production, as it sometimes do not sync up with the on-screen lips movement.
The music is standard action themes, orchestra and techno mixed together. Not bad...
Alex Fong is cool and calm as On, Ken Wong is playfull as Wood, and (YOWZA!) Anya is stunning as Rain. Guys, believe me, go get this DVD if not for the excellent movie, but to see Anya.. She is a total babe!
But the footage of Rain and Wood that plays during the end credits totally baffle me... I don't know what the point is.. it's like a deleted scene that does not fit anywhere in the movie. Totally pointless, but the more footage of Anya, the better!

I highly recommed this movie. A hidden gem, for sure!


DVD info:
released by Mei Ah
Catalogue: DVD-458
DVD-5 (Single Layer/Single Side)
NTSC
All Region
1.85:1 Letterbox (non anamorphic)
running time: 86 mins
Audio: Cantonese and Mandarin DD 5.1
Subtitles: optional Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and English

DVD review:
Oh my god! This is a Mei Ah DVD?? Is Mei Ah's DVD production team under new management?
This is an absolutely gorgeous DVD!!! Where do I start...
The print is nearly flawless! There are only very few instances of white speckles, and they are tiny and barely noticeable. I only saw them because I was looking for defects... even the Golden Harvest logo screen is clean!
The detail is excellent, scenes are very sharp, including night shots. But I do see jaggies on horizontal lines.
The colours are beautiful.. bold, vivid and nicely saturated. They really bring this movie to life.
This is one of the nicest looking DVD to come out of Hong Kong. Only thing that would make this better is for this to be 16:9 Enhanced (Anamorphic). But one step at a time, although this is a huge leap for Mei Ah.
Average bit rate runs between 5MBits and 6MBits, which explains why the image is so good.

The subtitles are white with black border, and thus very easy to read. The spelling and grammer are very good, even though the English translation does not always equal the Cantonese dialogue. The text is on the image, and should have been placed in the black bars instead.

Audio is good. Clear and loud. There isn't much surround effects that really stood out.

Extras: Nothing, not even a trailer. The usual menu options are Start movie, Chapter select (9), Language select, Subtitle select and Databank which contains the Synopsis and Cast & Crew info.


DVD rating: 8/10 ( I like extras, but the movie presentation is more important to me)
Movie rating: 8/10
Highly recommended.

J.T.

jorbles

Thanks for the review. You've sold me! I've been trying to decide whether to incluce this title in my next order from DDDhouse. Keep up the great work.

jtkv

This is just *MY* opinion... Maybe someone else with post his thoughts too. But I think most people will like this movie and DVD.



J.T.