M.I.A. Video Entertainment is a U.K. budget distributor that hasn’t been active since 2006 but previously released a small number of B-grade martial arts movies along with a smattering of “gangsta,” horror and softcore titles. Their 2003 DVD release of BIG BOSS UNTOUCHABLE has gone out of print and has since been replaced by Tai Seng’s Chinese-language version, which to date is only available as an import from Hong Kong.
If the thought of watching a really bad Bruceploitation movie isn’t enough to scare you away from this movie, here are two reasons why you might want to track down the M.I.A. version instead of Tai Seng’s Cantonese version. It’s the only version with an English-dubbed audio track and no imbedded subtitles. Also, HKFlix states that the Tai Seng version is only 73 minutes, while the M.I.A. version is 93 minutes. Personally, I believe that any version that cuts out the awful non-action scenes is superior. Tai Seng’s Cantonese/Mandarin version may also be more bearable without the horrendous English dubbing.
Image quality is adequate for such a low-budget movie and this does look like a licensed release. The fact that it’s full screen and clipping isn’t a problem suggests the film was originally shot for TV broadcast. However, the film appears to have been shot on a cheap digital camera and exhibits poor light diffusion during the film’s many outdoor scenes. The sky and other light-colored areas such as white shirts are over saturated with light and bleed onto surrounding objects which gives the whole film a hazy, depthless look.
The English voice acting on the disc’s only available audio track is poorly done. Voices often do not match the movement of actors’ mouths and it sounds like many liberties were taken with the translation. Dragon Sek’s character name frequently sounds like “Lion-O” or “Lionel” when spoken by other voice actors and at one point a voice actor jokes, “I’ve given you more breaks than a Kit-Kat,” in reference to a dated candy bar TV ad. What makes this dubbing worse than usual is that most of the film is comprised of static dialogue so unless you fast forward through 80 percent of the movie you’ll be stuck listening to this while no action is taking place on screen.
The Making of Big Boss Untouchable (2 minutes) – I wouldn’t exactly call this a “making of.” It’s just two and half minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, mostly of Karen Cheung fumbling with a three-section staff and joking around on set.
Trailers – Trailers for BIG BOSS UNTOUCHABLE and DRAGON THE MASTER.
• Format: Region 0 PAL DVD
• Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Full Screen (1.33:1)
• Audio: English 2.0
• Subtitles: None
• Length: 93 minutes
• Release Date: 2003.07.28
Related Topics:
Big Boss Untouchable (2002) • DVD • M.I.A. Video Entertainment
