ACF 282: DOA: Dead or Alive

Ayane (Natassia Malthe) faces off against Princess Kasumi (Devon Aoki)

I'd hoped to see this 2006 release, directed by the great Corey Yuen, at a theater. I'd been a big fan of the video game upon which it was based. The first version, which was for the original PlayStation video game system, had the terrific option of "Bouncing Breasts: On or Off." And the breasts were of Russ Meyer film proportions! I loved subsequent releases through those for the PlayStation 2, and was really upset when the franchise became exclusive to Microsoft's X-Box gaming system (hisssssss).

But DOA 's theatrical run lasted only about a week in New York. (Recently, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li lasted about as long in theaters.) Entertainment Weekly gave it a pretty decent review at the time, but that was the exception. The film has a metascore of 38 out of 100 based on 8 reviews at metacrictic.com, although 28 users gave it an overall rating of 6.3 out of 10. IMDb users are even toughter on it: a rating of 4.9/10 based on 13,424 votes.

All-American wrestler Tina Armstong (Jaime Pressly)
climbs on to her yacht

I finally decided to check it out when J&R had one of their periodic sales on all DVDs. (J&R is the fantastic electronics emporium near where I work in lower Manhattan. You can also order by phone or on the web @ jr.com.) DOA is by no means a great film, but I found it pretty damn entertaining. Although none of the female stars are as opulently endowed as their video game counterparts, they're all great-looking and pull off the requisite martial arts moves quite nicely.

Bass Armstrong (Kevin Nash), Tina's father, is one of her opponents

Dead or Alive is about an invitation-only martial arts competition that brings together the greatest fighters throughout the world. Only the tournament is really being held not to determine who's the best fighter, but to satisfy the nefarious plans of Dr. Victor Donovan (Eric Roberts), the event's organizer.

While there are some male competitors and supporting characters, make no mistake about it, this film is all about the luscious eye-candy provided by the babes. Think of it as "Charlie's Angels Enter the Dragon."

Christie Allen (Holly Valance) has a great move for donning her bra

The DVD is available on the Dimension Extreme label with a first-rate video transfer. Aside from the Theatrical Trailer, the only other extra is an above-average featurette entitled "East Meets West: Behind The Action Of D.O.A."

The babes of D.O.A. square off for some slicin' & dicin'

I enjoyed D.O.A. and found it to be more than decent for an action film based on a fighting video game. Let's face it, video fighting games don't have much of a story line or arc. Hence they've tended to not translate that well into film. It may not be saying a lot, but Dead or Alive has a better than normal story for the sub-genre.

I give it an overall ACF rating of 2.5 out of 4 stars. [For comparison with the ratings I mentioned earlier in this column, my score is roughly equivalent to 7.5 out of 10, or 75 out of 100.] Call it fairly good for what it is. It's absolutely worth a rental. It's also not a bad acquisition for your collection if the material and treatment really interest you. I know I'll be going back to watch it every once in a while.

ACF 226: "The Enforcer" DVD streets tomorrow, February 10th, 2009"

As I first wrote in ACF 210, The Enforcer is coming out in a single disc Dragon Dynasty "Special Collector's Edition" tomorrow, Tuesday, February 10th, 2009.

Directed by Corey Yuen, the film stars Jet Li as Kung Wei, an undercover cop in Beijing, who somehow has managed to keep his job a secret from his asthmatic wife and adorable young son Johnny (Xie Miao), who like is father is adept at martial arts.

Arrested as part of a new assignment, Kung Wei busts out of jail with G-Dawg, and together they travel to Hong Kong, where G-Dawg arranges for Kung to join the gang that he belongs to. Pretty soon they're ripping off some Latvian (!) arms dealers in a high-octane set-piece at a glass walled restaurant.

At this point Inspector Fong (Anita Mui, at right in the photo above) becomes involved. She travels to Beijing to get info about Kung, whom she knows only as a criminal involved in the shoot-out. Under false pretense, she meets and befriends his family, and winds up bringing Johnny back to Hong Kong.

The two Kungs, father and son, are united in a very satisfying final confrontation with the bad guys. Some truly innovative martial art stunts are employed, and a couple of comic elements are thrown into the mix.

I was astonished to find that the DVD has only a dubbed English soundtrack. The lack of a Cantonese soundtrack is addressed in this statement released by Genius Products (which, along with The Weinstein Company puts out Dragon Dynasty) after the initial P.R. release and the sending out of screeners:

"Dragon Dynasty strives to provide fans with only the highest quality DVD releases, including restored video and audio and extensive never-before-seen bonus features created exclusively for the label.

Though no usable version of the original Cantonese-language track was available in time for this release, every effort was made to bring together the best elements in the world in creating the greatest version of The Enforcer ever experienced on DVD in the U.S."

I'm sorry but I find this hard to swallow. The give-away is the phrase "in time for this release," which indicates there is/are original Cantonese-language tracks available.

Last fall, in response to a generally positive comment about Dragon Dynasty releases that I made at Grady Hendrix's Kaiju Shakedown (since dropped by Variety), I took considerable grief from some others for my views. I still have a generally positive view of the Dragon Dynasty releases, especially the bonus features they provide. But they've really dropped the ball with this one.

The Enforcer has some problems as it is. Jet Li has never been a great actor, and the drama inherent in the plot are beyond his skills. But everyone's performance suffers more because of the invariable disconnect between the actors in the film and the voice actors doing the English-dubbed soundtrack. This even though it's at times clear that some decent effort has been made to match the movement of the actor's mount to the English being spoken.

I like having an English-dubbed soundtrack as an option, either for a change or when I'm too tired to read subtitles. But only as an option to the original soundtrack.

I can't in good conscience recommend this DVD as anything more than a rental. I can only judge the film through the filter of the dubbed dialogue. It's not top-drawer Jet Li, but it does have some great action sequences. Also the film benefits from the presence of the late Anita Mui, a multi-talented star who died in December, 2003 from cervical cancer. She was only 40 years old. So the movie gets 2.5 out of 4 stars, fairly good.

Despite the decent extras (a commentary by Bey Logan and three interviews), I can only give the DVD package a rating of 1 out of 4 stars, poor. The lack of a Cantonese soundtrack prohibits a higher rating.

So rent it, find a version with the Cantonese soundtrack on the Internet, or wait until Dragon Dynasty decides to do right by the film and its customers.

ACF 210: The Enforcer due out on DVD

I feel that announcements of upcoming DVD releases is one type of news that fans of Asian films would be interested in. So here's some information about another Dragon Dynasty release. I hope to receive my review copy with enough lead time that I'll be able to put up a review before the February 10th, 2009 release date.

An honest cop goes undercover to infiltrate a hardcore Hong Kong crime syndicate in the Special Collector’s Edition of The Enforcer, arriving on DVD February 10th from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company’s heralded Dragon Dynasty label.

An exciting combination of action-packed crime thriller and family drama, The Enforcer stars action legend Jet Li (Forbidden Kingdom, The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) as an undercover Chinese agent sent to Hong Kong to bring down one of the region’s most nefarious criminals. When another officer is taken hostage, his cover begins to unravel, exposing him and those closest to him to grave danger.

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Corey Yuen Kwai (The Transporter, DOA: Dead or Alive) and also starring the late Anita Mui (Heroic Trio, The Executioners, Rumble in the Bronx), The Enforcer is considered one of Li’s best films and picked up a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for Best Action Choreography. Loaded with all-new bonus features, The Enforcer will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.97.

Synopsis:
A Chinese police officer goes undercover in an attempt to bring down a dangerous and highly regarded Hong Kong crime ring. When his cover is blown and his family is put in harm’s way, the stakes become much higher.

Special Features:
Crowd-pleaser: an exclusive interview with legendary producer, Wong Jing
Like Father, Like Son: an exclusive interview with star and former child prodigy, Tse Miu
Born to be Bad: an exclusive interview with super-kicking nemesis, Ken Lo
Feature-length audio commentary with Hong Kong Cinema expert Bey Logan

Basics
Price: $19.97
Street Date: February 10, 2009
Catalog Number: 81787
Rating: R
Run Time: 104 minutes
Languages: English Dolby 5.1
Subtitles: English and Spanish
Closed Captioned