Originally posted by Cardiac161
Unfortunately, you need an all-region dvd player to experience more coolness.

Originally posted by cultshock
Not necessarily. There are tons of very cool Hong Kong DVDs that are region 0.

I haven't seen Naked Weapon yet either, but am planning to check it out.

Originally posted by devilshalo
Naked Weapon was ok.. I still say there wasn't enough naked to have that word in the title.

Originally posted by Pants
Is there a R1 release of So Close?

Twins Effect - Hong Kong

The film doesn't really know what it wants to be... HK films are like this quite often. They all try to be everything - comedy, drama, action, romance, and anything else you can think of. Since money is tight, people don't want to give up their coin unless they're sure they're gonna be entertained for 2 hours. The film starts out with some amazing stuff - I was ready to say it was better than Blade (the Wesley Snipes vampire flick), but then it got all silly - then back to serious - then silly - then dramatic... see where I'm going with this? Jackie Chan's appearance is more than a cameo - he even does a little fighting. Karen Mok also appears a few times and she's funny. Anyway - Overall, it's a pretty cute movie and the effects are great. It almost earns an 8, but not quite. 7.5 I guess.

Another thing to note - as you've been hearing - the DVD is mastered poorly. Yes, I experienced alot of problems with this disc. It stuttered every few minutes throughout the second half of the film and the sound dropped out frequently. I'd suggest waiting till it is released elsewhere or until Universe fixes this version... if you can't wait, some people have reported no problems, so it's possible you could get lucky. I didn't.

Naked Weapon - 6/10. Terrible acting, bad story and script. Tight fight choreography and wirework. Decent special effects. Minor nekkidness as well. I enjoyed it, but realize that it's a terrible movie. Daniel Wu's acting needs work.

Originally posted by thegame370
Whats the word on Returner, ive read some reviews, what do any of you think of it?

Okay - The Returner...

Plot: Aliens have landed in present day Japan... fast forward 80 years and the war is almost over between humans and aliens and the humans are losing. A girl gets sent back in time so she can kill the original alien and stop the war from ever happening. Kaneshiro plays a hired gun who moves like Neo from the Matrix and is bent on getting revenge on a Yakuza boss. Future girl and gun boy meet and team up to save the world.

It's basically Matrix meets E.T. meets TimeCop. Well, it's got cool gunfights, time travel and alien invasion. How can you go wrong with that? They manage to go wrong in quite a few places. Mostly where time travel is concerned. Plot hole so large I could throw myself through them. However, it still manages to dazzle and is compelling enough to hold my attention.

This film comes from the director of Juvenile. He seems to be a director that likes to appeal to kids. One of his major influences seems to be Spielberg. He's certainly talented.

Special effects-wise, the Returner is an awesome spectacle. Every effects shot manages to rival the best Hollywood has to offer. Unfortunately, action and special effects sequences don't take up nearly as much screen time as the trailer would have you believe. Even so, the film is nothing sort of brilliant in this department.

Overall, I think the film suffers from style over substance a little and it's evedent that they sacrificed a little in terms of realism and plausability in favor of action and dazzle. This wouldn't be such an issue if there was more action and special effects... however, too much time was devoted to other things. The characters are interesting though and as long as you don't ask yourself "could this happen??" you'll enjoy yourself.

I give it an 8/10 and recommend it.

I picked up the 2-disc R2 Japanese Special Edition DVD set. It's packaging is fantastic. Nice thick slipcover housing two gatefold cases - one holding both discs and the other holding a booklet and some image cards. The transfer and sound are top notch... I found nothing to complain about. Subtitles are clear and easy to read and they seemed to be fairly accurate. This is a DVD set worthy of a purchase. As for the price tag - this should make you think twice. This film will no doubt end up being released in HK and likely Korea. It might make sense to wait for this flick since it won't be the most amazing movie you've ever seen and the current DVD costs so much. That said though, I'm glad I picked it up.

Originally posted by thegame370
Whats the word on Returner, ive read some reviews, what do any of you think of it?

Originally posted by syphon00
I'm sorry games370 imo the movies you mentioned are just the avg turn of mill action crap HK churns out every year
both so close and naked weapon have some eye candy but the cheesy plot and acting runied them both