The Rebel (DVD – Dragon Dynasty)

Dragon Dynasty shows their strengths in this fantastic double-disc DVD release of THE REBEL that is loaded with entertaining and informative bonus material. They often call their releases the “ultimate edition” and for once I’d say they come pretty close to matching that claim. I also want to point out that this release should signal to the American public that Johnny Tri Nguyen is a world-class martial arts star on par with Tony Jaa and Donnie Yen.

Cover art uses original promotional materials for THE REBEL and is both eye-catching and representative of the film. What’s missing is an image of Dustin Nguyen who surprisingly doesn’t appear on the front or back despite his prominent role as the villain and his past fame here in the U.S. Looking at the contents of the discs, DD shakes up the usual menu layout with one of their more stylish interfaces.

The film is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, made anamorphic for 16×9 TVs. Image quality is good for what the film offers. The original print intentionally has low contrast and uses color-dampening filters to lend the film a SAVING PRIVATE RYAN-style period look.

Audio options are excellent. The original Vietnamese track is presented in 5.1 and DTS versions. What’s special though is the English dub track DD always provides but I usually ignore. They managed to get Johnny, Veronica and Dustin to dub their own voices for this release and it sounds decent.

Folks obsessed with translations will notice that the English dubs match the English subtitles, which generally leads the subs to being unfavorably called “dubtitles.” Not understanding Vietnamese or having an alternate translation to go by all I can say is that the subs look fine to me.

Bonus material for this release is fantastic. They have put together a killer commentary with Bey Logan and the three leads, while providing exclusive interviews, a martial arts demonstration with Johnny Tri Nguyen, lots of behind-the-scenes footage, and more.

Disc One

Audio Commentary with Johnny Nguyen, Veronica Ngo, Dustin Nguyen, and Bey Logan - I know as a writer that I shouldn’t use sports metaphors but I will anyway. Bey knocks this audio commentary out of the ballpark. Bey is a knowledge Asian action film insider who knows how to talk to fans, as he does consistently with all of film commentaries. However, he seems to be at his best when paired with film personalities, as opposed to going solo. In the case of THE REBEL, he snags the three principle cast members for a commentary that is laugh-out-loud funny, while always staying focused. Johnny, Veronica and Dustin are all very personable, interesting people who clearly had a lot of personal investment in this film. Regardless of what Vietnamese fans think about their personal lives, I have a lot of respect for the work they put into this film. They have every right to be proud of it. My only complaint is that Bey gets a little too gushy with Veronica for my tastes. Yes, she’s a model, hip hop star, martial arts star who does all her own stunts, and is gorgeous but that’s no reason to… oh to hell with it, he probably showed more restraint than I would have. This chat is very entertaining and well worth a listen, even if commentaries usually bore you.

Disc Two

Interview with Johnny Nguyen (32 minutes) - As the main force behind this production, Johnny is the guy to listen to when it comes to discussing it. He covers all major aspects while also revealing his own background in martial arts.

Interview with Veronica Ngo (33 minutes) - Veronica talks about how she got the role, the challenges in doing fight choreography for the first time and her experiences on the set. She elaborates on the injury she suffered to her foot and the emotional depth to which she got into her character and the plight of the Vietnamese rebels she was fighting to protect.

Dustin Nguyen (35 minutes) - Dustin covers coming to America after the Vietnam War, his broad training in martial arts, his early acting career in Hollywood, and working on this film. What I found most interesting is how he elaborates on his character and the black magic-fueled martial arts he uses. It’s something that is only hinted at in the film and for various reasons was left underdeveloped in the final cut. Now we know why his hair is turning gray and falling out.

Behind the Scenes Gallery (22 minutes) - Raw behind-the-scenes footage from the film is divided into eleven clips that unfortunately do not come with a “play all” feature. I’ve always felt that raw, unedited footage like this should be on every DVD release of a martial arts movie. As expected, the scenes show how some of the fight scenes were constructed in real time. It’s a great way for fans and aspiring stunt actors to see how professionals get it done and especially to see how difficult it is to do it right.

Martial Arts Demonstration with Johnny Tri Nguyen (3 minutes) - This is a short but superb demo where Johnny and two of his stunt team members walk the viewer through several of Johnny’s fight maneuvers in THE REBEL. This is the stuff that genre fans love to see. Major respect to Johnny for doing it.

Deleted Scene (1 minute) - This scene is only about 40 seconds but is very important. It shows Dustin’s character practicing his black magic katas. Watching this makes me realize what THE REBEL was missing. As good as it was, the film should have allowed the “iron jacket” style of Dustin’s character to be more defined. Seeing Dustin do his thing brought back great memories of watching legends like Carter Wong and Lee Hoi-san doing qigong exercises. Hopefully a sequel will do an even better job of defining its martial arts.

Making of THE REBEL (38 minutes) - I’m not sure why DD buried this in a “Promotional Gallery” except perhaps to suggest that it’s the only non-exclusive extra. Anyway, it’s a terrific behind-the-scenes featurette where cameras follow the crew through the production of THE REBEL. What I like about it is that it acts mostly as a production diary, rather than a promotional sales pitch as most “making of” featurettes turn out to be. Instead of hearing the actors rambling about their characters we get to see tired staff grumbling about waking up before sunrise, a drunk extra asking for one more bottle and low-tech solutions that work wonders on screen. The best example is where a crewman off camera simply spits red dye to simulate blood spatters from gunshots instead of using fancy compressed air guns. Good stuff.

Format: Region 1 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 16×9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: Vietnamese 5.1, Vietnamese DTS, English 5.1
Subtitles: English, English (SDH), Spanish
Length: 104 minutes
Release Date: 2008.09.30

Related Topics: Dragon Dynasty, Dustin Nguyen, DVD, gallery, Johnny Tri Nguyen, The Rebel (2006), Veronica Ngo