The Corruptor

The Corruptor is the second of the Chow Yun Fat vehicles after the less than impressive 'Replacement Killers'. Yun Fat is a very popular Chinese actor, well loved by both Western and Asian audiences. I'm sometimes quite surprised by how passionate Western English speaking audiences are towards Yun Fat's wholy Cantonese language back catalogue. That is testament to his universal appeal which transcends language barriers.

Yun Fat is perhaps best known for his partnership with director John Woo and his portrayal of suave, cool yet compassionate 'heroes' - be they policemen or honourable rogues. In The Corruptor, Yun Fat plays a policeman in the AGU - the Asian Gang Unit. New York Chinatown is under the grip of rampant gang violence - a struggle by the young and ruthless 'Fukienese Dragons' against the older established Asian syndicates.

On the surface, The Corruptor looks like a typical 'mismatched partner/cop film' - and it is; however the setting in crime ridden NYC Chinatown makes it a cut above others films in its genre. Of note is the sometimes uneasy partnership between principles, Yun Fat and Mark Wahlberg and their questionable, perhaps even unethical interractions with the local crime bosses. Add the element of the FBI and Internal Affairs and there is plenty of intrigue that elevates The Corruptor above other 'cop/buddy' films.

Perhaps Oliver Stone has exercised some leverage in his role as Executive Producer? Terrence Chang is also likewised credited.

Video quality is very fine, just what you'd expect from the New Line/Roadshow mastering. It is 2.35:1 anamorphic with zero compression artifacts. Colours are usually drab except for occasional flashes of colour from bright coloured automobiles and neon signs. I was rather impressed with the exceptional details from many of the streetscapes of NY Chinatown. Combined with the impressive cinematography, the rendition of bustling city streets is very complete. You are presented with the archetypal scenes of butcher shops and kitchens complete with poultry and whole suckling pigs. You could almost smell the food!

The only things I could fault would be a very slight graininess in some scenes and not-so-great black details. Unlike past NTSC to PAL conversions, The Corruptor is free from any framerate or glaring speedup issues. Director James Foley is fond of 'NYPD Blue' style wild pans and zooms - whether you like this style or not (I don't), they are all smooth and fluid. There are quite a number of idiotic pans that pulls away from the scene and focus into nowhere. What is that? This isn't a music video.

There are a lot of New York skyline shots by helicopter. I don't know what that's about because a lot of them are not NYC Chinatown. Be that as it may, they look perfect. I've seen PAL transfers treat this style poorly. Roadshow did a fine job here.

There are two tracks; Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 surround. The 2.0 track sounded fine. There was good rear ambience cues from my DPL processor. The 5.1 is the focus of the review. There is generally good intelligibility although in certain situations, Yun Fat can be hard to understand with his reasonably strong accent.

Dynamic range is good, from the deep bass lines of the rather obnoxious hip-hop soundtrack and deep explosions to the sharpness of gunfire scenes. The various gunfire sequences are well handled - I noted that the bullet hits had different signatures depending on what they hit, sheet metal and glass hits were distinctly different.

Yun Fat fans hoping for wildly stylised shooting flourishes will be slightly disappointed - they are all fairly realistic. Of note are certain fire scenes where the sounds pans from front to rear, following the camera. The non hip-hop music scoring also shows excellent fidelity with tracks reaching CD quality.

The extras presented are of good quality and quantity - however they might sustain only variable interest. Expect the usual cast biographies, theatrical trailer and an obscure and fairly unlistenable hip-hop music video.

The directors commentary is rather interesting in places however I doubt anyone other than the director's mother could listen to the whole thing in one sitting. There is also a fairly lengthy and well produced 'Making of' that consists of cast and production staff, even marketing droids (!)

Of note is the stills gallery and an unedited car chase sequence which is markedly bloodier than the theatrical edit.

On the whole, the extras are on level with other New Line/Warners releases however there is nothing that would really attract secondary viewings.

I feel this is a must buy for Yun Fat fans. Most people find this movie quite worthwhile, much more so than other 'breakout' films by transplanted Asian actors and directors. Compared to 'Replacement Killers', it's a veritable Shakespearean tale of intrigue. However it's quite easy to say that we have not seen the best of Yun Fat in Hollywood - which this clearly is not. It is extremely easy to recommend any of Yun Fat's work with John Woo which better showcases of his talent. Obtaining the Criterion releases of them is another story.

Wahlberg is competent in his role. He does seem to look better when he's interracting with Yun Fat. His relationship with anyone but Yun Fat are merely to establish plot turns. The supporting players are pretty much 'paint-by-numbers'. I often felt that there were certain stereotyped roles and I don't mean restricted only to the Asian actors. The FBI characters are especially 'one note'. The members of the Fukienese Dragons are superficial 'bad guys'.