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DVD Rating:
Blu-ray Rating:
Movie Review
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The Killer
Presentation This 2-DVD set comes packaged in a cardboard slip case that highlights the simple, yet effective, cover art. The menus also have this aesthetic, offering nothing all that exciting visually, but being easy enough to navigate through. And, finally, we have a Dragon Dynasty release that doesn't auto-play a bunch of trailers before you get to the main menu. The Movie
In general, Dragon Dynasty's re-mastering of the picture is nice, with an image that is noticeably sharper than previous standard-definition versions put out in the US. The video is MPEG-2 anamorphic widescreen 720x480 at 29.9 f/s at an average bitrate of 5.56 mb/s, with a running time of 1:46:18.
Fox Lorber
Dragon Dynasty More screen captures can be seen here.
Unless you're a total audiophile, though, you're probably not going to find any fault with the sound transfer. There's the same English dub that's been floating around for years included, as well as a new Cantonese mix that corrects the audio errors on the Fox Lorber version. Both audio tracks are presented in Dolby mono.
The Extras
Deleted scenes (7 min.): Containing five short scenes, this section highlights footage previously only seen in the US on the now out of print Criterion DVD. While there is nothing story-changing present here, the video quality isn't the greatest, and the dialogue is dubbed over in Mandarin with "burned-in" subtitles, this is still a very cool extra, since not a lot of people have seen the footage. One particular part of note is an alternate take where Li, not Jeff, is the one who initally saves Jenny. Unfortunately, there is no option to watch the movie with these scenes in it.
Blu-ray Information Unfortunately, Dragon Dynasty's Blu-ray is not a major step up in audio/visual quality. In fact, it is neglible if there is really any difference at all watching the Blu-ray versus using your player's upscale function to watch the DVD. There has been no noticable remastering done here, with the picture being presented in a very soft 1080i that still has the faded colors and slight wear present on the DVD. Audiowise, the soundtracks have been remixed into stereo (5.1 for the English track and 2.0 for the Cantonese) and sound boomier than the mono ones on the DVD. The extras are exactly the same as the DVD. Screen captures from VLC Media Player are below.
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