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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: September 17, 2013.
Director: Jing Wong
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Sammo Hung, Francis Ng, Li Yuan
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Jing Wong's The Last Tycoon begins in China in a village circa 1913 where we meet a young man named Cheng Daqi Huang Xiaoming) who falls in love with an opera singer named Ye Zhiqiu (Feng Wenjuan). Before he can make his aspirations with her a reality, he messes up and after being framed for a murder, he winds up being put in prison where he meets Mao Zai (Francis Ng). Through this connection he winds up out of prison and shipped off to Shanghai where he winds up working for a mobster named Hong Shouting (Sammo Hung).
Fast forward twenty-four years to 1937 (where Cheng is now played by Chow Yun-Fat) and we see that Cheng has remained very loyal for Hong. In fact, he's really taken to organized crime and climbed the ladder to the point where he's now a major player. He's quite wealthy and fairly powerful and he, along with his lovely wife Bao (Monika Mok), seem to be living the good life. In fact, everything seems to be on the upswing for him until Zhiqiu and her husband arrive in town. Of course, when Cheng sees Zhiqiu again, his old feelings for her are rekindled. Around the same time, Japanese forces start moving in on Shanghai. As this becomes an area of grave concern for all in Shanghai, loyalties will be tested and blood will be shed…
This is a pretty solid mix of action, adventure, romance and drama. Like a lot of Chinese period films, The Last Tycoon pulls at your heart strings, often times in ways that feel contrived and nationalistic, but you can't help but get sucked into all of this. We get action during a few intense scenes of combat and crime, we get adventure in the scenes where the Japanese forces are moving in, we get romance in the relationships that exist between Cheng and both his wife and his old flame and we get drama pretty much consistently throughout the entire movie. It's one of those films where it seems like those behind it wanted to include something for everyone, and in this case, they more or less succeeded.
On top of that we get loads of seriously impressive visuals. Jing Wong and his team do a great job with color here, using lots of ornate costumes and sets to bring pre-war China to vibrant life and, in some of the darker scenes, toying with shadows to make for some impressive scenes of stark visual contrast. There are a few spots where the pacing gets a bit sluggish and where the melodrama gets to be a little much, but for the most part this one sets out to entertain and does just that. On top of that we get a few first rate action scenes, some of which conjure up memories of some of Chow's eighties era classics. His performance here is top notch and he fits the role very well. Throw in some excellent supporting performances the always awesome Sammo Hung and the gorgeous Monika Mok as the completely sympathetic bride of the gangster and you wind up with a movie that looks great and which features an equally great cast. Just a fun mix of action and drama all around and although it's a little long for what it is, the visuals ensure that even when it slows down it always looks fantastic.
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 really nicely, with some interesting emphasis on primary colors to nice effect in a few scenes. Black levels are nice and deep throughout the presentation. Generally the transfer excels in areas of both detail and texture. There are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc (the movie was shot digitally) 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.
The main audio option on the disc is a Chinese language (some parts are spoken in English) track provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles available in English and in Chinese. The lossless track here is a good one, though there isn't quite as much rear channel activity as you might expect. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent tight and strong. All in all, this is a nice, well directed mix that does a fine job with the movie. An optional Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix is also included.
There aren't a ton of extras here but aside from menus and chapter selection we also get a trailer for the feature and an eleven minute long behind the scenes featurette that includes some brief comments from the cast and crew as well as some footage shot on the set during production. A few previews for other Well Go USA properties play before the main menu loads and the Blu-ray case comes housed inside a cardboard slipcase featuring identical cover art.
The Final Word:
It might be consistently over the top and ridiculously melodramatic at times, but damn it, The Last Tycoon is seriously entertaining and it's great to see Chow back as a pistol packing ladies' man. There's a lot of style here, and maybe not as much substance as you might want but as far as pure, unadulterated cinematic fun is concerned, this definitely fits the bill. Well Go USA's Blu-ray isn't stacked with extras but it looks very nice and sounds great too.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
