Review of Master, The

Introduction

The Master is a Jet Li film that people haven`t been raving about. I`d never heard of this one, but thought I`d like to take a look. So is it an undiscovered masterpiece or a best forgotten piece of dross?

Jet Li plays Jet (10 out of 10 for originality), who travels to America to search for his master, Uncle Tak, who has taken up herbal medicine as his martial arts days are over. When he arrives, he finds Tak`s pharmacy in ruins, with no sign of the man himself. He starts out to seach for him, bumping into May, who is also looking for Tak. She is interested in the financial side of Tak`s business, whilst Jet knows it`s all about honour.

They do manage to find Tak, and then it`s time for revenge, powered by fists and feet.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer greets us on this disc. It`s not quite up to the usual Hong Kong Legends standards, but then this isn`t really an A list title, so that might be expected. It`s still pretty good given the age of the print - largely free from dust and dirt, but with quite a bit of grain evident in many shots.

If you`re looking for some great Jet Li fights, then you might want to look elsewhere. Most of the battles here are over very swiftly, and you`re often left wanting more.

Audio

A choice of soundtracks, from the original Cantonese mono, through to the DD5.1 Cantonese remix and the dubbed English track.

The mono track is actually not bad, although it does have its moments of distortion. I preferred the DD5.1 Cantonese track, as the sound has been cleaned up a bit, and it`s only a very subtle remix (i.e. they haven`t done very much with it).

The English dub track is one of those tracks that has been praised by many, but I`m afraid it didn`t win me over. I`ll stick with the Cantonese every time.

Features

Another Hong Kong Legends DVD almost inevitably means another commentary track from Bey Logan. He is his usual "full of information" self, and it`s yet another of his commentary tracks that`s well worth listening to. Excellent as ever. He has a lot to say about this film, and not all of it good (rightly so too!)

Supporting the commentary track are interviews with stuntman John Kreng, actress Crystal Kwok and actor/fight choreographer Yuen Wah. Each of them talk about their experience on the film, again, not all of it is positive. There is quite a bit of background about the making of the film, and they are all worth listening to.

You can also find trailers for the film, and trailers and information about other DVDs from Hong Kong Legends and their spin-off Premier Asia.

Conclusion

This film apparently languished in some film company vaults somewhere for several years. A shame it didn`t stay there really as no-one involved can be that proud of it. There are some awful stereotypes on display here, some truly comedy villains, and a terrible plot. Jet Li does what he can, but he`s still a better fighter than actor, and as there aren`t nearly enough fight scenes for him in this film I think that says it all.

It`s not as bad as some of the films that have sneaked out of the "Old Skool Kung Fu" range from another DVD producer, but you might still find yourself laughing for all the wrong reasons. The DVD itself is the usual quality effort from Hong Kong Legends - very good considering that this is not a great title, but nowhere near as good as some of their other efforts. If you wanted to buy it, then the disc won`t put you off. The film should though!

If you want a good Jet Li DVD, go and check out the "Once Upon A Time In China" series. If you`re after another bad Jet Li film like this, check out "The Evil Cult", with some of the funniest subtitles I`ve ever seen. Whatever you do, avoid this film.