Reversible sleeve and double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Six postcard-sized reproduction artcards
Collectors' perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the film by critics Priscilla Page and Sean Gilman, archival writing by critic Arnaud Bordas and an excerpt from an interview with John Woo conducted by Stéphane Moïssakis
DISC ONE - THEATRICAL CUT (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
4K Ultra HD (2160p) Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the Hong Kong Theatrical Cut
Original lossless Cantonese mono and Dolby Atmos audio, and lossless English mono audio
Optional newly translated English subtitles for the Cantonese audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English audio
Brand new audio commentary by film critic and Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng
Deleted and extended scenes
Alternate boardroom ending
Alternate English opening and closing credits
Cantonese and English trailers
Image gallery
DISC TWO - FESTIVAL CUT (BLU-RAY)
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the Festival Cut
Original Cantonese lossless mono audio
Optional English subtitles
Extended Festival Cut, including footage previously exclusive to the Theatrical Cut
Option to play with the alternate boardroom ending
DISC THREE - EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
Brilliance with a Bullet, a brand new interview with director John Woo
The Long-Suffering Siu-Chun, a brand new interview with actor Fennie Yuen
Head Case!, a brand new interview with actor Waise Lee
Army of One, a brand new interview with regular John Woo collaborator Terence Chang
Apocalypse Woo, a brand new interview with editor David Wu
Tumultuous Times, a brand new interview with associate producer Catherine Lau
Hong Kong Confidential: Inside Bullet in the Head, a brand new interview with author and Hong Kong film expert Grady Hendrix
Apocalypse How, a brand new interview with author and historian Dr Lars Laamann
Archival interviews with John Woo, David Wu, actors Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, stunt coordinator Lau Chi-Ho and associate producer Patrick Leung
Deleted and extended scenes
Extended festival cut
Option to play festival cut with alternate boardroom ending
Archival interviews with John Woo, David Wu, actors Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, stunt coordinator Lau Chi-Ho and associate producer Patrick Leung
A really interesting non-American take on the Vietnam war. Though of course the title is alluding to the key scene in the film, which is a Russian roulette sequence that is obviously lifted straight out of The Deer Hunter. Though there is a bit of a twist on the outcome!
This movie is nuts. Woo essentially plays the narrative like a road movie that churns through every type and trope of crime pic before turning to The Deer Hunter, and we're only halfway done by then! It's as if Woo wanted to make ten different short films and spliced them together with violence as the glue. At certain points the heightened melodrama wears thin, but these moments are short-lived in the margins of indulgence. Hard Boiled has more memorably choreographed set pieces, but this might be even more impressive on a technical level of filmmaking excess
I saw the movie in theaters last October and the big action scene in its middle ended up getting the whole crowd laughing, because it's just an endless barrage of escalations. By that time, the movie is only halfway through and has already changed 5 times of tone and genre. I can only imagine how many more shifts the 2h45 cut had.
I found myself liking the movie more than when I first saw it 20 years ago though, but I forgot how shifting it was.
I remember the POW scene being pretty harrowing. My order of this and Magellan and Ping Pong is being held up by Ping Pong (I briefly forgot not to add 88 Films' titles to a bundle and of course they delayed it by a month) so I'm not getting a chance to revisit for a few more weeks. It's always been a favorite of mine, second perhaps only to The Killer.
Oh Bullet in the Head is nuts even for this director. It’s a crime film, a war film, and, somehow, a Hollywood musical (with the songs elided or replaced by violence). It’s exhausting to experience, freely plagiarizes from popular films, is barely coherent, yet somehow makes virtues of those flaws. I don’t know how to explain it. Woo seems on a mission to test the limits of his own vitality, layering themes, stories, characters, and genres overtop each other until the film becomes a palimpsest of Hollywood as seen through the cracked lense of Hong Kong. The movie never even tries for authenticity, like it’s about how Woo sees how Hollywood sees the world. I can’t say it’s my favourite Woo just because it’s so punishing to watch, but I’d never dispute someone who thought it was his best. It’s a masterpiece.
The movie was originally planned as the third Better Tomorrow film before Woo and Tsui fell out. In a fit of pique, Tsui decided to make that movie himself, preempting Woo. I don’t think A Better Tomorrow III is one of Tsui’s best, let alone better than the first entry, but it’s fascinating to compare it to Woo’s version of the same basic story. And while Tsui does a poor job aping Woo’s style, he does make his film into a rebuke of Woo’s hypermasculinity even as he plays the action movie conventions to exhausting extremes.
