Why So Blu?

The Tiger Cage Collection (Blu-ray Review)

Shout! Factory has really been coming in hot with their set releases of classic Hong Kong action films of the 70s and 80s. Touting a few Jackie Chan collections and a Sonny Chiba one, their next set features the early work of Donnie Yen. The Tiger Cage Collection features three films more known as cult classics of their “heroic bloodshed” era, sitting in the shadows of the John Woo/Chow Yun Fat epics. Armed with brand new interviews, commentaries and other goodies, this three disc set will be available on May 9th. You can pre-order yourself a copy now using the paid Amazon Associates link following the review at the bottom of the page.

Tiger Cage (1988)

A team of cops get brutally exposed to violence after raiding a drug operation and discovering a link between few members of the police force and an American crime syndicate dealing with drug trafficking.

I can’t really call it a blind spot, as I didn’t know of these films’ existence before the set was announced. So, probably more of a great big surprise upon popping this in for review. The first Tiger Cage film had me hooked right from the jump with a breakneck paces, pulse pounded, wow’ing stunts, imaginary pain inflicting opening sequence. Just impressive film and stunt work right off the bat has you hooked from the start will continue to wow you as it goes.

Sure, there are some breaks in this action to give you some semblance of character and plot, but once the film gets back to the action you’re move to the edge of your seat begging for more and almost flinching at the power with which every kick, punch or gunshot transmits off the screen. There are many impressive performers here, but Donnie Yen certainly steals the show in this. Plot is pretty solid even if a bit convoluted. You’re here for the action and this over-delivers.

Video

Encoding: MPEG4-AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Tiger Cage features 2K Restoration by Fortune Star. All 3 films really carry a pretty identical look here. They are all pretty clean with a good crisp picture that showcases plenty of detail. There’s a some pretty solid depth and a healthy layer of grain, certainly more present in the nighttime sequence.

Depth:  Depth of field is pretty solid with good pushback and a nice sense of scale. Movement is smooth and fluid with no issues coming from motion distortions like blur or jitter during the rapid action scenes.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and rich. A hair on the grayer side. There’s good saturation and you can definitely make out finer points in the darker areas of the frame. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Color are a little washed and well saturated. Neon signs and displays tent to showcase the most burst and best looking color. Blood shows off a bit bolder red.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are a little on the colder side and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures are easily discernible in close ups and most reasonable distances in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): Cantonese 2.0 Mono DTS-HD MA (Cantonese Cut Only), English Dub 2.0 Mono DTS-HD MA (English Cut Only)

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: Tiger Cage features a rock solid mono track. For a little, aged track, it does pack enough of a punch to be pretty effective. The gunfire, punching, kicking and explosion stuff all its pretty well, while its lighter on low end material.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals have a bit of an analog hiss and muffle to them, but they get the job done and feel perfect for this kind of film.

Tiger Cage II (1990)

An ex-cop and divorce lawyer team up with a gangster to clear their names after getting involved in a dirty money scheme led by a vicious money launderer, who plans to expand his business and wipe out anyone who stands in the way.

The Tiger Cage movies play more of an anthology style. Characters and stories don’t carry over, its just delivering these police action movies. Case in point, Tiger Cage II has Donnie Yen is back in the fold as the lead here and if you saw the last movie, you’d be like “How?”. Well, he gets to show off quite the skill set in this sequel. The stunt squad also showcases more impressive set pieces as well. This movie adds a bit more humorous kinds of stunt work to go along with the “ouch” violence that happens. There’s a segment in particular where are leads are handcuffed together for a long portion and they really run wild with it.

Donnie Yen and Rosamund Kwan have some terrific chemistry in this and really eat up the scenery even when the guns are ablazin’. Perhaps one of the cool things about the movie is that while it “feels” like the first one in terms of a certain aesthetic, its a rather different affair. Tiger Cage II delivers the same kind of action in different ways to give you exactly what you’d be hoping for in a follow up that isn’t some retread of the first movie, and feels as fresh and trailblazing as the first.

Video

Encoding: MPEG4-AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Tiger Cage II also features a 2K Restoration by Fortune Star. The results yield pretty identical to the previous feature. Its a clean image with great clarity and a nice layer of grain. Pretty bold and full picture with good depth and movement in the image. A higher resolution scan would certainly yield better results, but this looks pretty swell.

Depth:  Depth of field is pretty solid with good pushback and a nice sense of scale. Movement is smooth and fluid with no issues coming from motion distortions like blur or jitter during the rapid action scenes.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and rich. A hair on the grayer side. There’s good saturation and you can definitely make out finer points in the darker areas of the frame. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Color are a little washed and well saturated. Neon signs and displays tent to showcase the most burst and best looking color. Blood shows off a bit bolder red.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are a little on the colder side and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures are easily discernible in close ups and most reasonable distances in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Dynamics: Tiger Cage II features a very similar sounding mono track to the first film. There’s of course no subwoofer assist here, but it does hit well enough with the action and has some good depth and balance in the mix itself.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals have a bit of an analog hiss and muffle to them, but they get the job done and feel perfect for this kind of film.

Tiger Cage III (1991)

Two detectives chase down leads in a case that might bring down the biggest gang boss in the city.

The third Tiger Cage film again is a welcome standalone affair. Though probably the least wow’ing in terms of the action, it wants to focus more on character and story. There’s a bit of a Phantom of the Opera homage here in it and it carries some fun touches on that story as it goes. It has a pretty wicked lead character for us to follow which definitely makes for a pretty interesting affair in terms of this kind of film and how we should feel through it all.

Overall, when watching the films in a row, in consecutive days, its easy to find this one as the least impressive. Though it has a very memorable looking mask and some nice fights and stunts, this one doesn’t quite feel as go for broke as the other ones. Sure, people definitely look to be doing very dangerous things, but in terms of me jumping out of my seat at the miraculous stunts and death defying acts they do, Tiger Cage III is on the more lighter end of things.

Video

Encoding: MPEG4-AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Tiger Cage III again has a 2K Restoration by Fortune Star. Make it 3 for 3 on the look of this image’s presentation. And I hate to keep repeating the same stuff, but this really is a uniform look and restoration across the board on these three films. This last one is no different.

Depth:  Depth of field is pretty solid with good pushback and a nice sense of scale. Movement is smooth and fluid with no issues coming from motion distortions like blur or jitter during the rapid action scenes.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and rich. A hair on the grayer side. There’s good saturation and you can definitely make out finer points in the darker areas of the frame. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Color are a little washed and well saturated. Neon signs and displays tent to showcase the most burst and best looking color. Blood shows off a bit bolder red.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are a little on the colder side and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures are easily discernible in close ups and most reasonable distances in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): Cantonese 2.0 Mono DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: Tiger Cage III‘s audio, just like the video has been, is in the league with the first 2 films. They play pretty much about the same. The only difference here is that there is no English dub track available on the final film in the trilogy.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals have a bit of an analog hiss and muffle to them, but they get the job done and feel perfect for this kind of film.

Extras

The Tiger Cage Collection is a 3-Disc set with each film getting their own dedicated disc and extras.

Tiger Cage

Audio Commentary

• with David West, critic and author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film (English Cut)

Cantonese Cut

English Cut

An Apex Predator (HD, 17:52) – an interview with actor Vincent Lyn

A Tiger’s Tale (HD, 19:56) – an interview with Frank Djeng of the New York Asian Film Festival

Original Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3:23)

English Trailer (HD, 4:46)

Additional Shots From the Taiwanese Cut (HD, :36)

Tiger Cage II

Audio Commentary

• with David West, critic and author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film (Cantonese Cut)

Cantonese Cut

Malaysian Cut

Clawing A Living (HD, 30:06) – An interview with action choreographer Bill Lui. He talks how things were when he got into the industry and how stuff used to be. Lui discusses Donnie Yen a bit (“very fit and charismatic” as well as the other fighters in the movie, and goes into details on the fights in the film. He’s very well versed in film history and where things come from and where they go, referencing plenty of other movies.

Hunting High and Low (HD, 18:31) – An interview with academic and author Victor Fan. He gives a little bit of dissertation on the “Golden Age” of Hong Kong action. There’s a lot about the approach to sequels, how scripts were put together and about what stood out about Donnie Yen in this time.

Original Theatrical Trailer (HD, 4:00)

Tiger Cage III

Audio Commentary

• with David West, critic and author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film

A New Wave of Violence (HD, 19:57) – An interview with film critic James Mudge. Talks about the “Heroic Bloodshed” era and what came before, the impact and the legacy it has. He does tie the Tiger Cage films in here, though they fall in a weird spot of sort of doing their own thing unintentionally that went along with what else was rising from this subgenre.

Inventing an Icon (HD, 8:12) – Film critic Ricky Baker discuss the emergence of the “Heroic Bloodshed” term. He doesn’t fully take credit for it, but says he was one who certainly had the spotlight to spread it. Baker goes over other terms floating before that took hold, how he discovered this “Gun Fu” cinema and about a conversation he had about Tarantino with it and the influence it had on Reservoir Dogs.

Original Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3:48)

English Trailer (HD, 4:01)

English Credits (HD, 2:53)

Summary

The Tiger Cage Collection was quite a discovery for me here. I am fully a convert after being quite wow’d by the first movie. This set is a very well put together release by Shout! Factory with great presentations of the Fortune Star restorations as well as loading up plenty of quality new extras to really make this one worth the drop. Those who have never seen should check them out and maybe do so by picking up this awesome set.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link