Set against a Hong Kong that never sleeps, a stolen police gun triggers a suspenseful chain of events. Tracking down his missing gun before dawn, Sergeant Lo first has his car vandalised and is then beaten up. Suddenly he finds himself edged between two gangs on the brink of a bloodbath, whilst at the same time staving off investigations by both Vice Squad and Homicide Units embroiled in their own turf war. His only lifeline is a maverick Police Tatical Unit squad who have one night to help him find his gun.
An atmospheric noir thriller from director Johnnie To, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present PTU in its UK debut on Blu-ray.
Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 units]
1080p presentation on Blu-ray
Cantonese audio (DTS-HD MA 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options)
Optional English dubbed audio
Optional English Subtitles and English SDH
Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
Archival interview with director Johnnie To
Archival interview with actor Simon Yam
Archival interview with actress Maggie Siu
Trailers
A collector’s booklet featuring new writing by David West (NEO Magazine)
The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 8:14 pm
I hope it’s a new transfer as the old HK Blu-ray oddly had a watermark for large portions of the film...
The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 8:14 pm
I hope it’s a new transfer as the old HK Blu-ray oddly had a watermark for large portions of the film...
I don't recall that.
I went back to check and its less obtrusive than I remember. It pops up a few times and only lasts a few seconds each time. I think when I last saw it, I was looking for it, but don't find it so bad now. Sort of reminds me of seeing film prints in the theater where a single frame will have a stamp in the middle of the movie about copyright ownership or it passing quality control.
Early Mei Ah blu rays all had some version of this watermark. Their discs of Mad Detective (still the best way to see the superior theatrical cut of the film) and Red Cliff also had these marks. But these were, Mad Detective somewhat excepted, pretty high-quality discs for their time.
This disc arrived tonight, and I've looked it over. Like Throwdown, the transfer looks incredible. Razor sharp, beautiful grain structure. The Mei Ah blu ray, and the CN Entertainment one that replaced it, were some of the best-looking HK blu rays (watermark aside), but this disc puts them to shame.
There are a few subtitle translations I miss. The main one is Ponytail's funny line: "Damn. I'm hit." It get's replaced with: "Fuck. He got me." It's not a terrible change, but the original translation has a funny sort of abstraction to it, like Ponytail has been imagining this fate for years, playing it through his head like a movie of his own glorious death. I think that valence gets at least muted a bit in the new translation, but, whatever. Later on, when the guy selling fake credit cards talks to the cops, the subtitles spell out much more clearly that the guy gives them a precise address for the abandoned building hideout. So there's always some give and take on these new translations. Altogether it's a great disc. Tons and tons of depth of field in the picture. The arcade scene demonstrates heretofore undreamed-of color separation. These Johnnie To movies work best when the image is absolutely pristine––the scale of the images, the subtlety of the actors' expressions––it only comes across when the image is being presented at a really high level.
Frank Djeng's audio commentary is somehow both more interesting and less interesting than his previous MOC commentaries. He spends a lot of time pointing out the visual subtleties of the movie, I guess in case audience members are missing the details. I does give us a lot about locations, about the structure of the police organization, so that's great. There's always some interpretation he offers in the commentaries which I end up disagreeing with pretty profoundly, but I haven't heard one on this commentary. In this one, he vehemently insists that in the scene where Ruby Wong's goons are pouring water down Soi Cheang's throat that they aren't torturing him. Djeng seems to think they're trying to sober him up really quickly, which sounds ridiculous to me. He does tell an unflattering story about Maggie Siu being forced to lose weight for the reshoots on this movie, which leads to literally nothing. But he supplies interesting info as well. He talks about how To has had a script ready for Election 3 since 2016, but that he is holding back from filming it because of the increasing pressure on films in China, the punishments for supposedly "controversial" content, which To apparently saw coming. And he mentions an interesting detail: he says the film has around only about 530 speaking lines, which I think is, what, about 1/6th of the average these days? pretty cool. Another thing I wasn't aware of: somehow, Running on Karma beat this film for best picture at the HK Film Awards that year? Insane.
Glad to see this movie in really barnstormingly great quality. There's probably no chance, but I hope the next To film MOC releases will be The Mission. We need a high-quality blu ray of The Mission!
feihong wrote:This disc arrived tonight, and I've looked it over. Like Throwdown, the transfer looks incredible. Razor sharp, beautiful grain structure. The Mei Ah blu ray, and the CN Entertainment one that replaced it, were some of the best-looking HK blu rays (watermark aside), but this disc puts them to shame.
There are a few subtitle translations I miss. The main one is Ponytail's funny line: "Damn. I'm hit." It get's replaced with: "Fuck. He got me." It's not a terrible change, but the original translation has a funny sort of abstraction to it, like Ponytail has been imagining this fate for years, playing it through his head like a movie of his own glorious death. I think that valence gets at least muted a bit in the new translation, but, whatever. Later on, when the guy selling fake credit cards talks to the cops, the subtitles spell out much more clearly that the guy gives them a precise address for the abandoned building hideout. So there's always some give and take on these new translations. Altogether it's a great disc. Tons and tons of depth of field in the picture. The arcade scene demonstrates heretofore undreamed-of color separation. These Johnnie To movies work best when the image is absolutely pristine––the scale of the images, the subtlety of the actors' expressions––it only comes across when the image is being presented at a really high level.
Frank Djeng's audio commentary is somehow both more interesting and less interesting than his previous MOC commentaries. He spends a lot of time pointing out the visual subtleties of the movie, I guess in case audience members are missing the details. I does give us a lot about locations, about the structure of the police organization, so that's great. There's always some interpretation he offers in the commentaries which I end up disagreeing with pretty profoundly, but I haven't heard one on this commentary. In this one, he vehemently insists that in the scene where Ruby Wong's goons are pouring water down Soi Cheang's throat that they aren't torturing him. Djeng seems to think they're trying to sober him up really quickly, which sounds ridiculous to me. He does tell an unflattering story about Maggie Siu being forced to lose weight for the reshoots on this movie, which leads to literally nothing. But he supplies interesting info as well. He talks about how To has had a script ready for Election 3 since 2016, but that he is holding back from filming it because of the increasing pressure on films in China, the punishments for supposedly "controversial" content, which To apparently saw coming. And he mentions an interesting detail: he says the film has around only about 530 speaking lines, which I think is, what, about 1/6th of the average these days? pretty cool. Another thing I wasn't aware of: somehow, Running on Karma beat this film for best picture at the HK Film Awards that year? Insane.
Glad to see this movie in really barnstormingly great quality. There's probably no chance, but I hope the next To film MOC releases will be The Mission. We need a high-quality blu ray of The Mission!
In no way is this age-old, noise-ridden transfer like that of Throw Down, which is from a recent 4K restoration.
Judging by the Beaver caps (which are worth what they're worth) but also the lack of more precise technical specs in Eureka's blurb, this most certainly indeed is sourced from a pre-existing HD master. Doesn't look to be a bad one though, especially considering what the Asian market sometimes sadly only has to offer, but still.
After viewing the film in its entirety I've got to say the transfer is quite serviceable despite the technical issues that come with a dated master. In my earlier post I might have confused this picture with another Hong Kong film, Time and Tide, released concurrently by Eureka, whose transfer is seriously lacking.
Viewed the new 4K restoration at HKIFF last week. I'd say the improvement is limited. Definitely not on par with something like Throw Down (a Ritrovata job), but slightly better than the mess that is the Infernal Affairs trilogy. I heard rumors that at least one Western label is interested in releasing this new transfer (on what format I don't know).
