REVIEW: ‘Triangle’ (DVD – Magnolia Home Entertainment)

Magnolia Pictures’ DVD release of TRIANGLE, a rollercoaster of a crime drama featuring the combined direction of Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To, is adequate for viewing but lacks explanatory bonus material that would have been especially welcome on this particular release. It features original Cantonese and English audio with optional English subtitles and two short featurettes containing behind-the-scenes footage with only limited interview snippets. What is sorely missing is any kind of explanation for the significance of three of Hong Kong’s top filmmakers coming together or how they divvied up the duties of directing one movie. It’s releases like this that make me wish that distributors would at least invest in producing a page or two of film notes. As for their cover art, Magnolia should have used the original Hong Kong poster as their influence. It was cleaner, more stylized and distinctive whereas the Magnolia cover is just plain ugly.

“The Making of Triangle” (6 minutes) - Promo featurette provides a brief preview of the film with behind-the-scenes footage and comments from cast members and each of the directors.

“Behind the Scenes” (14 minutes) - This video is entirely made up of behind-the-scenes footage from the final portion of the film which was directed by Johnnie To. There are no interviews but it shows the cast and crew in action.

Trailers – There are several trailers for other Magnolia releases.

Format: Region 1 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: Cantonese 5.1, Cantonese 2.0, English 5.1, English 2.0
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Length: 93 minutes
Release Date: September 15, 2009