Children
Of Huang Shi
(2008/Sony/Columbia)/Forever
Amber (1947/Fox)/Genghis
Khan
(1965/Sony/Columbia/all Twilight Time Limited Edition
Blu-rays)/Operation Red
Sea (2018/Well Go Blu-ray
w/DVD)
Picture:
B/B/B/B+ & C+ Sound: B/C+/B-/B+ & C+ Extras:
B/C+/C+/C Films: A-/C+/C+/B+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The three Blu-rays of Children
Of Huang Shi,
Forever
Amber
and Genghis
Khan
are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is limited
to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last from the
links below.
These
next films are set in history and mostly are meant to be historical
epics....
We
star with Roger Spottiswoode's underseen Children
Of Huang Shi
(2008)
set in 1938. British Journalist George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)
secretly sneaks into China to record and report the Japanese invasion
into China to the world. But he instead he finds his cover is blown
and he finds himself wounded and rescued by a Chinese resistance
fight Jack (Chow Yun Fat) and is sent to a remote boy's orphanage.
He meets an American nurse Lee (Radha Mitchell) who takes care of him
and he eventually becomes the boys teacher and they become family.
But as the war gets worst and closer to the village, the army
threatens to draft the boys who have already lost everything into the
army, George must find a new safe haven for the boys.
All
Hogg wanted to do was to enter China and report on the
Japanese/Chinese Communist/National civil war full of blood and glory
...but instead he find himself in charge of an orphanage where he is
an outsider and forced to become a 'teacher' for boys orphaned in the
war. At first, he is reluctant and doesn't care about the boys, but
in time they come to understand one another, that fighting a war is
also about keeping those boys alive ...and not just killing an enemy.
They eventually become a family and help give meaning and purpose to
their lives again. When the army wants to conscript the boys into
war, George decides take the boys out the war (and out of the
country) by following the ancient Silk Road trails. Michelle Yeoh
also stars.
Based
on a true story, it not as much of a tale of war but the story of how
a person can make a difference and not always by fighting. It is
story about understand the tragedies of the war and how the simplest
things can change the course of ones life.
Otto
Preminger's
Forever
Amber
(1947) is the director's costume melodrama with a big enough budget
as Linda Darnell pulls off one of the best roles of her career as the
title character, a young woman who finds getting together with
different men can wart off things like poverty, class division and
being looked down on. Things really take a big turn when she gets
involved with King George II (George Sanders) shocking some in the
know, but she is more interested in young Bruce Carlton (Cornel
Wilde), but can she handle such an unsustainable triangle?
Fox
really backed this with the production design, color and talent in
front of and behind the camera, making it a good, if long 138
minutes. Its not a film that stayed with me,. Though any doubt of
Darnell's talent and appeal vanishes after seeing her here if you
were not already convinced. It is also a great intro to her for
those who do not know her. Look for Jessica Tandy and Richard Haydn
in the supporting cast and what does work in the screenplay by Philip
Dunne and later legendary Ring Lardner, Jr. (M*A*S*H).
Henry
Levin's Genghis
Khan
(1965) wants to be the next Lawrence
Of Arabia
or Ben-Hur,
but starts by saying its fictional and to say it plays loosely with
history is putting it nicely. It also plays more loosely with
ethnicity as so many films did at the time, looking poorer and even
like a cheap B-movie for it, but as compared to these Chinese epics
we've been getting lately like the two in this set of releases, more
aged and problematic yet.
Taking
it as the entertainment from yesteryear it was also meant to be, I
was not too impressed back in the day by it and though Omar Sharif is
a a strong choice for the title role, it may still raise some
questions. Eli Wallach is a bad guy again, then great actors like
James Mason and Robert Morley trying to be 'Asian' gives the old
Charlie Chan films new credibility. Steven Boyd, Telly Savalas
(perfect for these kinds of films as well), Michael Horden, Woody
Strode and the under-appreciated Francoise Dorleac.
So
if you can get past those issues, what do you have? A gritty
widescreen Technicolor film that is still well produced and has some
decent action scenes, more involving since it is literally thousands
of extras and no digital imitations thereof. This is not going to be
as violent as such films today, but tries to be as realistic as
Kubrick's Spartacus
(1960) if not as effective. Thus, it is a mixed curio worth a look
that has its fans, but uneven overall an d long enough at 125
minutes. Those interested should consider getting it while its still
in print.
Finally,
we have Lin Chaoxian (aka Dante Lam) directing the other big Chinese
co-production, Operation
Red Sea
(2018)
with Morocco paying a big role. Terrorist and pirates in the Middle
East staged a violent coup taking over part of the country and the
government. The Chinese Navy/Special Forces are sent in to help
evacuate Chinese citizens, but when the terrorists takes hostages and
the Navy also discovers they have recently received the plans and
resources to make a dirty bomb. The Jiaolong Assault Team finds
themselves not only on a dangerous rescue mission, but must also stop
WMDs before they are delivered.
The
Chinese Navy/Special Forces are highly trained soldiers trained to
handle guarding international shipping and high profile rescues.
While their mission is protecting Chinese nationals, they rescue a
stubborn foreign journalist who discovered a conspiracy of a large
amount of nuclear material is being sold on the black market, enough
to make over 30 dirty bombs. Four soldiers after barely surviving a
rescue op are forced to make a choice to go behind enemy line and
into the heart of the terrorist stronghold to seize the nuclear
weapons.
This
movie was like the Chinese version of No
Man Left Behind
and/or Band
of Brothers,
it is a story of the modern Chinese soldiers who can do anything and
are the greatest soldiers alive. It is filled with epic gun, tank
and sniper battles along with dramatic sacrifices and death scenes.
In the end it is about how a Chinese soldier never gives up and how
one Chinese soldier is worth 1000 men.
Now
for playback quality. All four films look as good as they possibly
could on the regular Blu-ray format, with the
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Huang
looking nicely detailed and naturalistic from its 35mm shoot, plus
the 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Amber
and 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer
demonstrating the solid color you would have likely seen in 35mm
dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints of the films throughout
for the most part.
Director
of Photography Leon Shamroy, A.S.C., makes Amber
look as rich as possible, while the legendary Geoffrey Unsworth,
B.S.C., uses the very widescreen frame to its fullest extent despite
not shooting on a frame larger than 35mm to make Khan
look as large as possible.
That
leaves the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Red
Sea, an all-HD shoot (cameras range from 2160p Go Pro units to 3K
average Arri and 6K RED) usually in color, with a little black &
white (with limits) look as good as it can for this kind of
production. The anamorphically
enhanced DVD with its lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 is a comedown by
comparison.
Thus,
Red Sea has the best sound of the four films, as it should
being the only one made recently, but we get a lossless DTS: X 11.1
track that may not always be distinctive, but is loud, clear and
wide-ranging enough. The film was also issued in IMAX and with Dolby
Digital 11.1 theatrically, so this is meant to be big all around.
The
three Twilight Time releases offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless
sound mixes, with Amber
offering a 2.0 Mono presentation that shows its age is as good as can
be expected for a theatrical monophonic film 71 years old and
counting. Khan
also has a 2.0 Mono presentation and was never a stereo or
multi-channel stereo theatrical release, but the sound is still
richer and better than Amber.
That leaves Huang
with impressive
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and slightly lesser 2.0 Stereo lossless
mixes that place it in a solid second place for sonic quality.
Extras
on all three Twilight Time Blu-rays include nicely illustrated
booklet on the film including informative text and more, truly
excellent, underrated essays by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo
and Isolated Music Scores. Huang
and Khan
add Original Theatrical Trailers, Huang
a Behind The Scenes/Making Of featurette and Amber
a Biography profile of Darnell entitled Linda
Darnell: Hollywood's fallen Angel.
Extras
on Red
include Deleted Scenes and trailers.
To
order the
Children Of Huang Shi, Forever Amber
and Genghis
Khan
limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last at these
links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo and Ricky Chiang (Huang,
Red)