The Bodyguard (Blu-ray Review)
The legendary Sammo Hung directs and stars in The Bodyguard. Ding (Hung), a retired officer from the Chinese Central Security Bureau, befriends a little girl who’s father’s criminal connections have put them both in danger. While at the same time suffering from dementia, Ding must use his incredible combat skills to defend his neighborhood and his new found friend.
Film
The film opens with narration that explains just about everything that we’re seeing onscreen. Fortunately, that comes to an end at around fifteen minutes into the movie. Which is JUST before it’s starts to get annoying. You can tell that the decision to use narration was something that came about after the film was finished. There are a couple early scenes where the narration is absent, and to be honest, they’re a little hard to follow. So we can attribute this odd choice as a means to fix some bad editing.
Sammo Hung is an icon among the Martial Art film community. Though he never quite reached the mega-stardom of Jackie Chan, his abilities in hand to hand combat put him right up there with him. So it’s shocking to see him in such a lack luster story. Especially considering he DIRECTED it! Looking at the poster for The Bodyguard you would expect an action packed thriller with intense emotional content. Sure, the performances might be a little exaggerated in these types of films. But those performances only serve to heighten the sense of adventure! We get one small fight scene at the start of the film, and then the next time we see someone throw a punch isn’t until 40mins minutes later!
You can tell that the priority here was to establish Ding’s relationship with the little girl. Which is something that is usually lost in Martial Art films. But you can totally have your cake and eat it too! There’s no reason at all that we couldn’t have had a few small fights pop up in between the quiet moments. It would’ve given the film so much more energy, and intern, propelled us through the slower scenes. There is a brief scene where Cherry Li’s (Jacqueline Chan) father Li Zheng Jiu (Andy Lau) is on the run from some Russian gangsters. He’s about to escape through a fence when suddenly the film cuts back to Ding and Cherry Li having a snack. Meanwhile I’m yelling at the TV, “Go back! I want to see where he’s going!”
To top it off, the film comes to a “climatic” ending with a battle royale between Ding and the nefarious Chinese and Russian gangsters. The fight choreography itself is pretty good. But it pails in comparison to what we know Hung is truly capable of. They even slow the film down to some weird frame rate that gives a blurred effect to all of their movements. This has to be some kind of bizarre attempt at recapturing the groundbreaking effects of The Matrix. Because there is just no conceivable reason as to why someone would think this would be a good idea. Instead of enhancing the action and intensity, it actually serves as a distraction from Hung’s incredible hand techniques.
Resolution: 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
- An All-star Cast with All-star Support – Instead of the usual interview in a room, they’ve opted to stylize this featurette with a black and white 1920’s motif. It resembles a silent film from the time of Charlie Chaplin. Among the behind-the-scenes footage we also see a few shots there were cut from the film. There’s a scene where a woman who was most likely going to be Cherry Li’s mother is arguing with her father. If they had kept scenes like thing in the movie, it would’ve been a much more well rounded story. One thing that is nice about this particular extra is that each of the actors seem to have a genuine love and appreciation for Sammo Hung. They each go on to explain that the main reason they said yes to working on The Bodyguard was because of him and how much he’s done for Chinese cinema.
- About the Characters – A few of the actors give brief descriptions of their characters and their motivations. Even though some of the characters didn’t make the final cut, it’s still nice to think of what the The Bodyguard would’ve been like if their scenes hadn’t been cut.
- A View of a legend, On and Off the Screen – The cast discuss what it’s like to work with Sammo Hung. They shower him with praise as they talk about his directing style, and general demeanor as a kind and generous person.
- Sammo Hung: Kindness is his Calling Card – The cast and crew discuss their own personal experiences with the legendary actor and filmmaker. That his kindness and generosity really seem to know no bounds. Considering how much of an icon he is, it’s refreshing to hear that he is so open and generous with the people he works with.
- About the Action – This featurette explains Sammo’s commitment to both perfection and safety when it comes to making fight and action scenes. Again, we see a few scenes that didn’t make it into the film. I truly believe that if they had kept these scenes IN the film, it would’ve made for a much more exciting experience.
- About the Girl (Jacqueline Chan) – Jacqueline Chan, who plays Cherry Li, discusses her acting background and what it was to act opposite Sammo Hung in The Bodyguard. She also goes into what it was like to be one of the only children on set and her overall experience.
- Trailer
The Bodyguard is now available on Blu-ray and DVD!
