As the Light Goes Out

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Year of release: 2014

Genre: drama

Director: Derek Kwok

Action director: Jack Wong

Producers: Catherine Hun, Jue Ga-Yee

Writers: Derek Kwok, Jill Leung, Philip Yung

Cinematography: Jason Kwan, Jimmy Kwok

Editing: Wong Hoi, Matthew Hui

Music: Teddy Robin Kwan, Tommy Wai

Stars: Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yu, Andy On, Hu Jun, Simon Yam, William Chan, Deep Ng, Patrick Tam, Bai Bing, Jackie Chan

Rated IIA for mild violence

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While As the Light Goes Out won't exactly set the Hong Kong movie world on fire (insert groan here) it is a very entertaining piece of pop cinema from young director Derek Kwok, who is making himself into a film-maker to keep your eyes on after a string of hits that includes Gallants and Journey to the West.

The film follows your standard disaster movie playbook. Sam (Nicholas Tse), Chill (Shawn Yu), and Yip (Andy On) are friends and rising stars in the Hong Kong Fire Department. But a tragic accident drives their friendship apart. A year later, on Sam's last day working at his station, a catastrophe at a power plant forces the trio to put their differences aside to save a group of trapped people.

The script (which was co-written by Kwok) doesn't offer much in the way of surprises, besides maybe the use of Jackie Chan in a cameo playing himself. Most of the characters are of the stock variety, but the actors handle their roles well, giving them at least some idea of dimensionality -- especially Simon Yam, who anchors the film as the grizzled "I'm too old for this shit" veteran Pui. Even Andy On, who is normally not reknowned for his acting skills, with his Michael Wong school of acting mix of Chinese and English delivery, comes off looking good (or at least not totally horrible) as the slightly smarmy Yip.

Like most of these types of films, the emphasis is on bombast rather than thespianism, and the kineticism works for the most part. The level of special effects in Hong Kong films is still lagging behind their Hollywood counterparts, so there is some too-obvious looking CGI employed here at points. But, for the most part, the practical pyrotechnics and stunt work displayed are very solid and remind viewers where the strength of these productions often still lies in this increasingly digital medium.

RATING: 7

Blu-ray Information

Well Go USA's disc is uncut, running at 115 minutes. The picture is in 1.85:1 1080p and the soundtrack is available in Cantonese 5.1 and Cantonese 2.0 with English subtitles; the subtitles are generally easy to read and free of grammatical errors. Extra wise, there is the trailer for the film and some other recent Well Go releases.

Screen captures are below. They were taken using Leavo Blu-ray Ripper and VLC Media Player. Click on each picture for the full resolution version.

As the Light Goes Out

As the Light Goes Out

As the Light Goes Out

As the Light Goes Out

The Blu-ray and DVD are available from Amazon.