Paradox (Kill Zone 3) - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Paradox

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Paradox may seem like it’s own film with no prior connections to other films, but in fact, it is actually the 3rd in the Kill Zone (Sha Po Lang….or SPL for short, in the original Chinese) series. Kill Zone was arguably one of the better Hong Kong action films at the turn of the century (ish), starring Donnie Yen and a very young Jacky Wu. A couple years ago they decided to continue the series on, but they decided to make the sequel stand on its own, without any connection at all to the first besides the name. Jacky Wu came back and teamed up with Tony Jaa to kick some butt, and was a rather entertaining police action/thriller. For some reason, this 3rd film was re titled to Paradox for English speakers instead of being called Kill Zone 3. Not a big deal in the long run, but it does create some confusion for people who were looking forward to the 3rd entry into the franchise and were not aware of the name change in English. Paradox continues on the tradition of bringing back actors from the previous films, and recasting them to be completely different characters that has no ties to the films that come before. The high flying action film is a bit lighter on action than I expected, but makes up for it with a gritty story of corruption and betrayal that is more akin to a tragedy than your typical action movie.

Keeping right in line with the first couple of movies, Paradox deals with different shades of black, white and gray in the moral subterfuge that is the film’s premise. We’re introduced to Hong Kong police officer Lee Chung Chi (Louis Koo) and his daughter Lee Wing Chi (Hanna Chan) during a birthday gift exchange. Sadly the familial moment is brought short when Lee Wing Chi tells her father that she has a boyfriend. But not ONLY a boyfriend. It seems the two want to get married because he got her knocked up. In a fit of rage, Lee Chung Chi calls his fellow officers on the boy for sleeping with a minor and ostracizes his daughter, who ends up going to Thailand to meet up with some friends. While she’s there Lee Wing Chi gets kidnapped by a group of organ traffickers. Lee Chung immediately heads over to Thailand when he gets the phone call about her being missing, where he has to wade through a host of criminals, corrupt police officers, and hookers who seem to stand in his way

Once he gets to the scene of the crime, he’s greeted by detective Chui Kit (Yue Wu, playing a Thai national) and his partner Tak (Tony Jaa) who assure the grieving father that his case will be handled appropriately. However, Lee Chung is not about to sit around and wait for the cops to uncover a dead body, so the father with a particular set of skills (all these kidnapping stories seem to have dads who can tear through goons like paper mache), sets out on his own to find his daughter’s killers. Chui Kit takes this as a standard missing person’s case until he starts to dig a little deeper. What he finds is death, betrayal, corruption of the highest level, and his own family’s life on the line in what turns out to be the biggest sucker punch of them all.

Paradox relies a bit too much on happenstance (a subject which is actually broached on a philosophical level in regards to the random kidnapping of Lee Wing Chi), but is an intriguing story that actually surprises you more often than not. We have Tony Jaa coming back as another Thai character (a police officer instead of a prison guard this time), and we also have the organ harvesting and kidnapping plot line of the 2nd Kill Zone movie. However, the police corruption and shades of gray that permeated Donnie Yen’s Kill Zone is intertwined to create a dark and brutal crime drama that is less an action film, but a deeply disturbing thriller with some great action sequences. A bit too many of the differing plot lines use happenstance to connect the dots, and it gets a bit overly complicated at times (typical of many Asian films), but they actually do a really good job of tying them all together by the end of the film, instead of letting us try and connect the seemingly random dots all by ourselves.

What I was really impressed with was how the film deviated from the typical hero mantra. There was no good guys (except maybe detective Chui Kit), and the movie had no problem killing off main characters at a moment’s notice. The most shocking one comes right at about the 45-50 minute mark, with a character you never expected to get axed just being murdered in front of our eyes. And the trend doesn’t get any better as the film goes on. By the time the credits roll only one or two main characters actually remain, and I personally like the gutsy move which keeps the viewers o their toes. The action is brutal, bloody and absolutely vicious, deviating from the typical martial arts fare. Don’t get me wrong, there’s several GREAT action pieces in the film (the one with Tony Jaa and the mercenary is excellent, as is the final fight between the merc and the detective), but this is not a real ACTION movie, per se.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Paradox’s 2.39:1 framed AVC image is exactly what you would expect from a Well Go USA action film. There’s the obligatory issues of banding that is well known to Well Go USA fans, but other than that it is a well detailed looking film that really does look sharp. Supposedly shot on a set of Arri Alexa cameras, Paradox looks appropriately glossy and shiny, with a sort of urban grittiness that offsets the smooth camera look. The film’s color grading system seems to switch between the typical “Asian grey” and a slightly bronzed look that gives faces a more golden tone to them than normal. Black levels are satisfactory, though the darkness is where most of the actual banding takes place. Fine detailing across the face and clothing is intimately done, and the blood and grime don’t look as fake as most Asian CGI makes them look. It’s a solid looking transfer for sure, and is indicative of Well Go USA’s typical quality.





Audio:

Like usual, we get a pair of differing language tracks in 5.1 DTS-HD MA, with the Cantonese being the original one, along with an English dub. Personally I go for the original language track every time, but the English mix is quite good as well. Even though they SAY it’s a Cantonese track, it’s really a mixture of Cantonese, English (for a couple baddies) and Thai, so it’s really more of a “mixed” track than pure Cantonese. You can see this early on as the film has a sort of loose lip sync going on, which is indicative of not everyone speaking the same language during the filming process, and some post dubbing work done to even it out. Still, the voices are clean and clear, and the sound stage is wide and spacious. The action sequences really allow for a boisterous activity level, and the bass is simply amazing. Deep waves of LFE wash over the listener during the battles, as well as a few key points for dramatic effect. Dynamic range is wide and active, but I never once was raising and lowering volume at all.







Extras:

• Making of Featurette
• Trailers

Final Score: ​

Like the other two Kill Zone films, Paradox doesn’t come with any major connection to the two that came before it (besides some shared actors), but it is still an exciting entry into the franchise. The shifting to a bleaker and more tragic story line, rather than relying completely on martial arts, makes for an intriguing twist. Not to mention Louis Koo’s performance elevates the film past its meager ambitions. Well Go USA gives us a typically very strong looking/sounding Blu-ray with the STILL typical meager special features array. It’s a fun action thriller and definitely recommended from this Asian cinema buff.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Louis Koo, Tony Jaa, Yue Wu, Ka Tng Lam
Directed by: Wilson Yip
Written by: Nick Cheuk, Lai-Yin Leung
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Cantonese: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Cantonese, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, Mandarin (Simplified)
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 100 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: May 8th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Interesting Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will catch this on amazon prime/netflix once available.