Review of Mr X

Introduction

In Hong Kong, a merger of the Chinese Triads and the Japanese Yakuza is taking place. The hatred between the wider Triad and Yakuza members leads to numerous gunfights and martial arts action. Joe Lewis plays the titular Chuck Norris-like character who is sent to Hong Kong to help the merger go through and stop the bloodshed.

Video

A grainy and blurry transfer, together with variations in colour saturation shows that no effort has been put in to improving the original film for the DVD release.

Audio

The mono soundtrack is Cantonese and English with the Cantonese parts subtitled very well, although blurry due to the poor transfer. The horribly amateurish score sounds like it was done by someone in his bedroom on his Casio keyboard and quickly becomes irritating.

Features

A trailer for `Mr X`, a stills gallery of screenshots from the film and `Exciting Releases from 55th Chamber`, which shows 12 DVD titles from the 55th Chamber studio and weblinks to SoulBladeDVD.com and PrismLeisure.com.

Conclusion

`Mr X` begins with a John Woo-style shootout at a wedding - all the guests are wearing white and the mercenary army that attacks them are dressed in black to aid identification. The attack appears to be initiated by a well-dressed woman in reflective sunglasses (which show the cameraman!), yet it is not until over 20 minutes have elapsed that the plot (what there is of it) is explained.

If the characters and storyline were more sophisticated and the film had higher production values, then `Mr X` may be comparable with the films of John Woo. It seems that all of director Ed Woo`s efforts went into choreographing the huge body count and action sequences to the detriment of story, dialogue and characterisation. The Mr X character is clearly based on those played by the likes of Chuck Norris but Joe Lewis`s MDF performance makes Norris look like Marlon Brando at his best.
The RRP of £5.99 seems fair, particularly given film`s notable absence from the IMDb.

One footnote is that the disc has not one but TWO anti-piracy ads at the beginning: one from FACT and the other `You Wouldn`t Steal a Car...` warning. These warnings are irritating enough on legitimate DVDs on their own, but when you have two of them to contend with, I feel that the studio has gone into overkill.