Dragon Dynasty provides a nice selection of audio options for the film - Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Cantonese DTS 5.1 Surround Sound, and English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Optional subtitles are provided in English and Spanish while closed captioning is available in English only.
The film plays considerably better in its original Cantonese but those who don't do well with subtitles should be pleased with the quality of the English 5.1 mix as it's pretty active and well balanced. The Cantonese DTS track is the best of the three options, however, as it has marginally stronger bass and just a little more punch in a few of the action scenes. Regardless of which option you go for, expect an active surround mix with nice directional effects, clear dialogue, and strong bass response. The score, which sometimes feels out of place in the film, also sounds fairly lively and is reproduced here with nice, sharp clarity.
The supplements for this release have been spread across the two discs in the set. The first disc contains animated menus, chapter selection, and an audio commentary with Donnie Yen and noted Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan, who has appeared on a few Dragon Dynasty releases at this point in the game. This is a pretty decent track with Logan prompting Yen with intelligent questions about the making of the film and keeping him talking and on topic. They cover some of the difficulties of the intricate fight scenes, the casting and location shooting used in the film. It won't change your appreciation of the film if you didn't enjoy it in the first place, but fans will probably want to give it a listen as it's quite informative.
The second disc starts off with a Behind The Scenes Gallery that is made up of three separate featurettes:
Collateral Damage - The Making Of Flash Point (18:09): This is mostly some random behind the scenes footage shown back to back with pertinent clips from the film but a few of the cast members do talk about their work on the film with Yen discussing his various injuries. The bulk of this is on set footage, however, and more interview bits would have helped give this more (and very welcome) context.
Flash Point Explored (28:27): Allows the film's writer to explain a bit about some of the character traits explored in the movie. The principal cast members all show up on camera here and talk about their various parts, what they liked about them, and why they were interested in the story, with Yen talking about how he wanted to bring out everyone's real potential with this film rather than let some of the performers just play typical screen idol roles. This is a much more substantial and interesting piece than Collateral Damage as it actually gives us some insight into things. There's also some interesting behind the scenes footage here that shows how the movie's climatic fight scene was put together.
Perpetual Motion (2:32): This is just a brief look at the training that the various players went through in order to get into shape and prepare for the film's fight scenes. It's marginally interesting, even if it is really too short.
Up next is a section that focuses on the cast and the martial arts used in the film, starting with a featurette entitled Gladiators (3:04) that is nothing more than some mildly interesting and very random behind the scenes fight footage. After that, check out Mixed Martial Arts On Display (7:03) where a cute woman named Kea Wong takes us into a gym where we get a look at some mixed martial artists training and competing.
The Promotional Gallery section a featurette called On Dangerous Ground: An Exclusive Interview With Leading Man And Action Director Donnie Yen (31:48). Yen sits in front of the camera and talks about a few of his recent films leading up to this one and then he talks about what he liked about the project and about his experiences working on it. This is a pretty interesting look back at some of Yen's work and it's interesting to hear from him about how he got to be where he is in the entertainment industry. Also in this section is Gala Premiere (2:38), which is simply footage from the film's opening night in Hong Kong. Finally, this section also contains three trailers and two teasers for the film.
Last but not least, Dragon Dynasty has included a selection of three Deleted Scenes running a combined 3:04 - Three Men And A Little Lady, Nowhere To Run and Dissention In The Ranks. These aren't particularly substantial and were probably cut for pacing reasons as they add very little to the film.
Final Thoughts:
Dragon Dynasty have gone all out with their release of Flash Point and given it a solid audio/video presentation with more extras than you can shake a stick at. The movie itself takes its time to really pick up steam but once it does, it proves to be a pretty enjoyable and intense action movie experience. Recommended.
Ian lives in NYC with his girlfriend where he writes for DVD Talk and for AV Maniacs. He spends a lot of time wandering around exploring and generally wondering what to do with himself.
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