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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: April 9, 2013.
Director: Gordon Chan/Janet Chun
Cast: Deng Chao, Liu Yi Fei, Collin Chou, Ronald Cheng, Anthony Wong
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Co-directed by Gordon Chan and Janet Chun, 2012's The Four is the first in a planned trilogy, each of the three films an adaptation of a popular series of books published in its native China entitled The Four Great Constables. Set during China's feudal past, the film introduces us to Emotionless (Liu Yifei), Iron Fist (Collin Chou), Life Snatcher (Ronald Cheng) and Cold Blood (Deng Chao). These four characters are employed by The Divine Constabulary and they've got some pretty cool superpowers. They're lead by a mysterious man named Zhuge Zhenwo (Anthony Wong) and they're tasked with tracking down the source of some mysterious counterfeit coins that have been making their way en masse into the local economy and screwing things up for hard working folks left, right and center.
The members of The Divine Constabulary are not particularly popular with Department Six, however. The members of Department Six aren't superhuman, they're just regular guys and they're out to fight the same battle - stop those counterfeit coins from doing even more damage. Rather than work together for the common good, Department Six does what they can to make the other guys look bad. They just flat out do not get along - and when it appears that there is a double agent working both sides of this scenario, things get complicated.
Story wise, this movie is pretty much a complete disaster and at roughly two hours in length, some more judicious editing really would have gone a long way towards making this a better movie than it is. With that having been said, as lopsided and disjointed as this film is, The Four is still enough big, loud, dumb fun that less discriminating fans of superhero movies might want to give it a shot. The effects are done almost entirely with wire work and CGI, more of the latter than the former, but they at least suit the over the top world in which our characters live. There's not a whole lot of background information given to anyone, so when Cold Blood turns into a wolf, we don't question it, we just go with it. He turns into a wolf because turning into a wolf is cool. Maybe the two pending follow up features will improve on this so when viewed as a trilogy and not a standalone story, things will make more sense.
As far as the cast go, Anthony Wong is fun in his supporting role here and Liu Yifei sure is easy on the eyes. Deng Chao is brooding and sometimes cranky while Collin Chou is a bit more noble and likeable. The action scenes come at you quickly and frequently so there's always something going on here - at least the movie is never dull, even if it stands as proof positive that sometimes less is more.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen 1080p high definition picture on this disc is excellent. Detail is strong, colors are reproduced beautifully but keep in mind that this is not a film concerned with realism and that plenty of color tweaking is evident. Black levels are nice and deep throughout the presentation. Some questionable use of CGI looks a little off, but that's an issue with the effect itself and not the transfer which is otherwise rich in both detail and texture. There are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc is well authored, showing no noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Outside of some slight shimmer here and there, the movie looks excellent in high definition.
Chinese language audio options are provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with removable subtitles available in English only. The lossless track here is an impressive one from start to finish that does a remarkable job of putting you right in the middle of the action. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent in its power but never to the point where it buries anything that it shouldn't. It's hard to think of anything negative to say here, this is pretty much a reference quality mix.
The main extra on the disc is a twenty-four minute Making Of featurette that includes a bunch of randomly assembled fly on the wall style footage shot while the movie was in production. It's moderately interesting but some more formal interviews might have helped give it more worth. Aside from that, there's a trailer for the feature and trailers for a few other Well Go USA properties.
The Final Word:
While it may frequently dive headfirst into style over substance shenanigans, but this is entertaining enough in a completely superficial way. The movie looks and sounds great on Blu-ray from Well Go USA, though it's light on extras. Not the best Chinese action film to land on these shores recently, but a fun, if ultimately disposable, time killer.
