There we go! Finally a Hong Kong movie in a full anamorphic transfer. That works! Hope this is a new trend.

The image itself is beautiful. In fact the only real problem it has, is a surprising amount of grain. This grain is also present in the few all-out digital effect shot, so it appears that the cause lies in the print used, or perhaps the transfer process. The film has a cool monochromatic look in most of the scenes set in the high-tech buildings, but whenever strong colors are present they are solid, not too overstated, and they don't bleed. Blacks are equally solid, and contrast is good. The print is mostly free of specks. All in all this is a stunning transfer that - despite the grain issue - is gorgeous to look at.

Subtitles are in yellow font with a black edge. They seem identical to the ones on the VCD. The translation is fine.

The sound is also pretty amazing. Crisp and clear. Every shot hits you hard, and the mix between dialogue, music and effects is superb. Surround channels are used mainly for certain sound effects and ambient sound, but occasionally music as well. The result is a vibrant soundtrack that suits the pictures very well.<

The only additional material on the disc is the 4 trailers. I haven't seen this particular trailer for So Close before, but it's very good. The trailer for Double Vision looks very interesting as well. Also included are trailers for Charlie's Angels 1 and 2, These two trailers have Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and are in anamorphic widescreen. Very nice.

The Korean and the Hong Kong version of the DVD seems to be identical regarding the actual content of the disc. The covers are different though, as is the printed image on the discs. Also the Hong Kong disc seem to be a single layer disc (contrary to what the cover says), while the Korean version is dual layer. It shouldn't make much of a difference since the video material on this disc doesn't exceed two hours, and can easily fit on one layer. The cover for the Korean version is by far the best, and since the discs are almost identical I would recommend buying the Korean version, just for this reason.

One odd thing, though: Shu Qi has been dubbed on the Cantonese language track, while her original voice is included on the Mandarin track. Apparently part of the reason is that Shu Qi speaks with a very heavy Mandarin accent when she speaks Cantonese, but this does cause a dilemma. Should one listen to the original Cantonese track, where most of the actors original voices appear, or the Mandarin track where only Shu Qi's voice is "real"? I'm not sure why the producers dubbed her voice in this film, I don't recall that that's happened before. Strange. Specially considering how cute she actually sounds.

David Bjerre