Product Details

• Actors: Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, Fennie Yuen
• Directors: John Woo
• Language: Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese
• Region: All Regions
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000GWOHME
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,792 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bullet Time, March 30, 2009

By 

Stephen Florentine - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bullet in the Head Two Dvd Collector's Edition (DVD)

This isn't so much a review on the Film itself as it is a review on the actual DVD. 'Bullet in the Head' has not been officially available on any US video labels so if you are a John Woo fan, especially of 'Hard Boiled' and 'The Killer' you should definitley seek this film out, it is easily one of his best. I keep hoping that Dragon Dynasy or Anchor Bay or Criterion will release it, but until then This is the Best that there is. so if you have seen 'Bullet In the Head' or own the Tai Seng DVD or VHS then this review is for you.

I first saw 'Bullet..' in the mid 90's after seeing 'The Killer' and 'Hard Boiled'(had to pay 40 bucks to special order it from Suncoast and wait over a month to receive it) this was a TAI Seng release and a little known thing about Tai Seng is that a lot of their VHS releases were in the Pan & Scan format. This is normal for a VHS release but the kicker was that these films were released theatrically with Chinese subtitles and English subtitles and when they put them on Video they didn't remove the subtitles from the print and digitally add them like they do for DVD so when they crop the sides of the screen to recreate the 1.33:1 image they are also chopping off some of the subtitles. Which is not too bad for a film in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio like this film but if you were to watch Tai Seng's Prodigal Son VHS which was shot in 2.35:1 you'd be lucky if you could make out most of the subtitles.

Now the Tai Seng VHS for 'Bullet..' was slightly letterboxed, not in the actual 1.85:1 aspect ratio however. I know this b/c in the opening credits it starred Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung and Waise Le, that's right it chopped off the second 'e' in Waise Lee's name, so the image was slightly cropped resulting in the loss of some subtitles but not nearly as bad a some of Tai Seng's other releases. Also since the subtitles were on the actual print you do lose a generation of film quality, so the picture quality was not too great. Also Unknown to me at the time was that the VHS was 6 mins shorter than the eventual DVD. I can only assume this was because the VHS could fit two hours and the movie was two hours and six or so minutes. You could tell watching it becuase some of the cuts in the film very, very abrupt at times and these were all areas where the DVD had more footage. None more noticable than the chase scene at the end. In the DVD there is a build up to the chase starting in the parking garage. On the VHS, however, they exchange looks in the garage and it immediately cuts to them speeding down the street and shooting at eachother. If you have the Tai Seng VHS, burn it and throw it away.

Tai Seng eventually issued the film on DVD (a fifty dollar special order this time) which had the film at 126 mins featuring a lot of little moments that were cut out on the VHS. The film was a non-anamorphic letterbox that was in the proper aspect ratio though. The subtitles were digital but the picture quality wasn't much better than the VHS. There were several instances of 'digital grain' throughout the whole film that is a result of a poor digital mastering for the DVD. There were no special features unless you count a theatrical trailer and some text bios.

The Two Disc 'Ultimate Edition' is by far the best of all the released I have seen. The film is anamorphic widescreen and the image is much cleaner than the previous DVD, not as good as Dragon Dynasty's remastered 'Hard Boiled' but what do you expect from a film that isn't readily available in The US yet? The film gives you the choice the watch the 130 min theatrical version, watch the theatrical version with deleted scenes 'seamlessly branched' in, or the alternate ending (sans car chase). I watched the version with the alternate ending and there was a slight pause when it changed over to the new ending and the film quality is noticebly different as is the sound quality, but it isn't so bad that it's unwatchable and makes for a different viewing experiecne.

The special features are nothing special, there is a bizarre special about different guns and their uses and best ways to stratergize their use intercut with clips from the film. This virtually has nothing to do with the film and is essentially a waste of time. There are deleted scenes and an alternate ending, the same that you can watch in the movie on disc 1, but it's nice to have them separate. They are also nothing too special, the alternate ending is dramatically interesting as it is so different from the one in there now, but most of the deleted scenes are VERY. VERY brief, aside from one where they are forced to drink piss at gun point in the bar, most are just some extra shots. Finally there is a brief but interesting interview with Waise Lee that is 10 mins. I wish it was longer and I wish there were more interviews with some of the others involved in the film but what's there in the interview is good. Most frustrating is the fact that Lee says the film was originally over three hours long and no, none of that footage is on the DVD.

If you don't own this movie this is the version to get, If you have the Tai Seng DVD this is worth uprading for the remastered, anamorphic video alone. Hopefully one day a master, deluxe version with participation from Woo will be released, but until then this is the best version available.