The Unity of Heroes - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Unity of Heroes



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

Movie
Period piece epics about Wong Fei Hung have been a staple legend of China for some time, with their interpretation of him bordering on how we treat The Lone Ranger, Robin Hood and George Washington all rolled into one. He’s been covered by legends like Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time in China series (and a few side ones), along with Gordon Liu of Shaw Brothers fame, and even Jackie Chan in the Drunken Master films. Each take on the legend has been different and unique, but the icon of Chinese history has kind of faded from the limelight over the year, with the only film in recent history to bring him back was True Legend, which happened to star Vincent Zhao, who was most notable for playing Wong Fei Hung back in the 80s during the 4th and 5th Once Upon a Time in China movies after Jet Li departed. Now he’s back once again, and Zhao returns as the infamous martial arts master one more time in Unity of Heroes.

Unity of Heroes feels like a much older movie than it is, hearkening back to the older days of Chinese cinema where wire-fu (Wuxia) was the norm, and ancient story lines about Wong Fei Hung protected the Chinese population from the evils of the western world world. Wong (Vincent Zhao) is now an established and older martial artist living in the dawn of a new era for China. The East India trading company has come to the world of China already, and the Chinese people have been opened up to the evil that is Opium as a result of the trade. Locked in his own world as martial arts master, Wong Fei Hung is trying to live peaceably after years of fighting other school for power. However, his peaceful life comes to and end when a zombified man stumbles into his school sporting inhuman strength and a mindless demeanor.

Delving into it with the help of Aunt 13 (Wei Ni), a westernized Chinese doctor who has come back to her homeland the infamous martial artist reveals that there is something dastardly going on in his little town. More and more of these hyped up monsters show up in masks, and the only trail leads right back to a brand new modern hospital started by foreigners. Foreigners who twist their mustaches in glee while they perfect their super soldier serum (seemingly based off of Opium) upon the hapless victims in the city seeking help from their drug addiction. Foreigners who will push Wong Fei Hung farther than he has ever gone before in his search for justice.

The Unity of Heroes is a fun little return to the 80s and 90s of Hong Kong action films, and is full of old classic Wong Fei Hung cliches. The wirefu is top notch, and Vincent Zhao is still an incredibly talented martial artist some 20 years later after playing the famous martial artist the first times. The film has a myriad of tangents which develop the stories of a competing martial arts headmaster, several flunkies who want more than just honor, a female doctor working the the megalomaniac in charge of making the drug, and several sidebar characters throughout the near 2 hour movie. Sometimes the film is a bit overstuffed with these side bars, but they work out in the end as we’re really here to watch the butt kicking and high flying martial arts more than anything.

Zhao is excellent as Wong Fei Hung, and Wei Ni works perfectly as the romantic interest/westernized doctor character (you know, the typical damsel in distress for Fei Hung to open up a can to protect). The rest are typically over acted (a staple of Chinese period piece dramas), and while it’s a solid movie, has a few flaws. The major one being reliance on just a bit TOO much comedy. That is made up for in spades by some well done action sequences throughout the film, and the cinematography is absolutely jaw dropping. Gorgeous back drops, and some of the best wire-fu choreography I’ve seen in years.




Rating:

Not Rated By the MPAA




Video:

I’ve heard by several sources that The Unity of Heroes was theatrically shown at 1.85:1 framed overseas, but then re-cropped to 2.30:1 (a weird aspect ratio) for the home video release. However, there were just rumors as I haven’t been able to pull up any solid information on the original aspect ratio. That being said, the 2.30:1 framed AVC transfer from Well Go USA is near perfect. The gorgeous landscapes are crystal clear and show stunning detail, with lovely looking period piece costumes and a slightly dusty and yellowed look to the color grading. The darks are deep and inky and fine detailing in the shadows is mostly fantastic. My only issue with the film that keeps it from getting a 5/5 rating is the banding that is most obvious in the darker shots (scenes with smoke, dust or flame lighting seem to be the worst). The opening scene of the movie as the drug fueled “monsters” make their escape shows you what I’m talking about, but cleans up really quickly. However, it does come back quite often in the darker night time shots and is quite noticeable then. Had it not been for the banding this truly would be a demo worthy disc.





Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track in Mandarin is quite impressive as well, showcasing great surround capability in the fights and the city streets, and also an incredibly POWERFUL (I can’t emphasize that enough) amount of bass throughout the film. The fights hit like a ton of bricks, with deep wallops of LFE accompanying the hits, and the vocals are well placed up in the front of the sound stage. Action is wild and frenetic, while the more nuanced dialog moments show restraint and crystal clarity. Some of the dialog is obviously ADR’d (the foreigners speaking English is blatantly obvious), but otherwise this is an excellent sounding disc.






Extras:

• Theatrical Trailers
• Trailers for Well Go USA films

Final Score: ​

While it’s not a perfect story about Wong Fei Hung (the 80s and 90s are HARD to beat in that aspect), but The Unity of Heroes is a very solid action film that hearkens back to my childhood when I used to sit around the TV and wait for my parents to bring home the VHS from blockbuster and watch Jet Li, Vincent Zhao or Jackie Chan kicks some serious butt as Wong Fei Hung. From what I can tell this is actually a recurring character for Zhao, as he’s scheduled to play 2-3 more films I the next couple of years as the famous martial artist. Are we seeing a resurgence of classic Hong Kong Wuxia? Well, I certainly hope so as this is one of my favorite sub genres in the marital arts cinemascape and I for one welcome more of it. Well Go USA’s Blu-ray is amazing with great technical specs, but sadly hampered with a near bare bones approach on extras. Definitely worth a fun watch.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Vincent Zhao, Bingyuan Li, Michael Tong, Wenzhou Zhao
Directed by: Zhenzhao Lin
Written by: Yuhao Gao, Zhenyi Li, Xinyao Niu, Ning Yang
Aspect Ratio: 2.30:1 AVC
Audio: Mandarin: DTS-HD MA 5.1,
Subtitles: English, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional)
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 108 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 28th, 2019

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will check this one out.