On DVD: My Young Auntie

Directed By Chia-Liang Liu

Starring Chia-Liang Liu, Kara Hiu

I've always loved Kung Fu movies, but only with in the last few years have I really had a chance to watch a lot of them. With the media costs of DVD being so low, it's now possible to buy three packs, four packs or even ten packs of Kung Fu movies cheap. These are great values since bad Kung Fu movies are often as entertaining as good Kung Fu movies. These value packs nearly always feature bad transfers and often unbelievably bad voice dubs, but now Dragon Dynasty is releasing a series of Shaw Brothers films and doing it right. Shaw Brothers made all kinds of  films in Hong Kong, but they are  known for their Kung Fu movies. If you've seen Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies you may remember that they were presented in Shaw Scope as a tribute to these great movies. It's a real treat to see these movies with extras and commentary tracks and with a beautiful transfer.

The Movie

My Young Auntie  is a Kung Fu comedy. It's got the physical comedy of a Jackie Chan movie, the zaniness of a Howard Hawks comedy or Blake Edwards with maybe a touch of the surrealism of Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle or   Shaolin Soccer.  It's even got a couple of musical numbers. On top of all that it's got some jaw dropping  fight scenes. There's no blood and gore, and several of the fight sequences are light and playful, but there is enough fast and furious action to satisfy any Kung Fu fan.

The plot. Yan Sang has willed his estate to the oldest son, Jing Chuen, of his late older brother and has married Dai Nan, a young attractive family servant, to ensure that his estate is protected until Jing Chuen can take possession. Dai Nan travels to Jing Chuen's town to hand over the deeds of Yan Sang's estate. Ah Tao, the son of Jing Chuen, is a student studying in Hong Kong who has come home on holiday, and finds his new grand aunt is an attractive young woman. Of course Yan Sang's evil brother can't let that stand and plots to steal the estate. Dai Nan, Ah Tao, Jing Chuen, and Jing Chuen's brothers won't let that stand. Confused? It makes more sense when your watching it, but I didn't really figure it out until the second or third time. Not that you really need to understand all the relationships or who is second brother or third brother.  In fact I wouldn't even try figuring it out, just let it wash over you.

It's an everything but the kitchen sink kind of movie. Fish out of water, mistaken identity, country bumpkin, recruiting a team, training montage, planning the heist, are just some of the tropes I remember off the top of my head. Kung Fu movies are always are little loose with reality during  the fight scenes, but in this case the whole movie is a little surreal. It's often self aware, with the actors all but winking at the camera. It's broad and often goofy but it works.

8/10

The Video

I've got to give the transfer a ten out of ten, it's the best looking Kung Fu DVD I've ever seen. The color pops, the wide screen or “Shaw Scope” presentation makes sure your not missing anything that the director,  Liu Chia-Liang, put there to begin with.  There are better looking modern films, but for the age of this film and for its pedigree this presentation is stunning.

10/10

The Audio

The audio is presented in mono on all three tracks, The original Chinese, English and the one commentary track. The English track is one of the best voice dubs I have heard for a Kung Fu movie, it often makes more since than the English subtitles, but be warned that you will miss some of the jokes without listening to the Chinese and watching the subtitles. The Chinese track is great. The dialog is clear and mixes well with the rest of the sound. The English track is a great voice dub but the dialog overpowers the rest of the soundtrack and the dialog itself is heavily compressed and sounds like somebody rolled all the bass off the EQ. I wouldn't even mention these if the voice dub wasn't so excellently scripted.

7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

The DVD comes in a standard case with the nice locking tabs (Editor's note: I hate those damn tabs). There are two interviews, one with the star Kara Hui and another with film scholars David Chute and Andy Klein. There is one commentary with Andy Klein and Elvis Mitchell who do a great job. There are also trailers of other Dragon Dynasty DVDs that are coming out, including other Shaw Brothers films. There are English, Spanish, and English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles and a stills gallery. Average for a contemporary film but way above average for a nearly thirty year old Hong Kong movie.

9/10

Kung Fu fan or not I think this is a great movie and worth picking up. If you are a Kung Fu fan then it's really a must have, if nothing else for the chance to see Gordan Lui in a cheesy wig. One word of warning, if you are a consumer of those cheap value packs of Kung Fu DVDs like me these releases from Dragon Dynasty may just spoil you. I'm going to take that chance, I'll be picking up more of these.

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

The Movie 8/10

The Video 10/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 9/10

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

-Mike Young