Tweet
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: November 25th, 2022.
Director: Ringo Lam
Cast: John Ching, Willie Chi, Chun Lam, Carman Lee, Kam-Kong Wong, Sheng Yang
Year: 1993
Purchase From Amazon
Burning Paradise – Movie Review:
A criminally underrated Fong Sai-yuk film from late action director and megalomaniac extraordinaire Ringo Lam (may he rest in peace), 1993's Burning Paradise had been long overdue for a proper DVD release in North America until the kind folks at Discotek/Eastern Star offered up a respectable presentation of the film in 2010. For its small but loyal fan base, this was very much a good thing, but Vinegar Syndrome does fans one better with this new special edition Blu-ray release.
When the picture begins, in the Ching Dynasty, the Chinese government has decided to thwart the Shaolin monks by destroying their temple and enslaving and/or killing off as many disciples of Shaolin as possible. Martial arts folk hero Fong Sai-yuk (Willie Chi Tian-sheng) and his 'uncle,' a monk named Hung Hei-kwun (Yang Sheng), have avoided capture when we meet them. However, that soon changes when they, along with an innocent if remarkable foxy former prostitute named Dou-Dou (Carmen Lee), are captured by the nefarious General Crimson (John Ching Tung). They are subsequently imprisoned in his Red Lotus Temple, run by a psychopathic painter named Elder Kung (Wong Kam-kjong). Hung-Hei-kwun is murdered and Dou-Dou is turned into Kung's concubine while Fong Sai-yuk is left to his own devices to figure out how to get out of this remarkably crappy situation.
His journey will take him to a pit of corpses, through countless deadly traps and eventually team him up with his former nemesis, but not before testing both his martial arts ability and his Buddhist faith.
Borrowing a bit from the Shaw Brothers' House Of Traps, Lam's Burning Paradise is pretty great stuff. Loaded with some surprisingly gory violence (a horse has its head cut off, a body is cut in two, there's plenty of arterial spray scattered throughout the film and more icky corpses than you can shake a stick at), the picture is a deftly entertaining blend of wushu style sword play and kung-fu and Temple Of Doom style adventure with a few horrific tinges thrown in to keep things interesting. While it's certainly a genre hodge-podge, Lam keeps things moving at a breakneck pace, throwing in enough kung-fu, action, comedy and, yes, creepy sexual twists, that if the film is all over the place, hey, it's never dull, not even for a second.
While not the most lavish of productions, the picture makes the most of its sets and locations, the primary one being the Red Lotus Temple itself. Filled with more traps than even Indiana Jones would be able to navigate, you never know when spears will shoot from walls, floors will open up over treacherous pits or Buddha himself will open fire. That's half the fun right there, the unpredictability that the very premise itself lends the story. The action is solid and the acting all fine in its own right, if a bit corny at times, but it all plays second fiddle to a location both memorable and impressive. Lam made better movies before this (with no disrespect meant to the fun Van Damme movies he'd make after, and 1999's The Victim is pretty impressive), but Burning Paradise holds fast as the last of his truly 'great' Hong Kong films and one of the stand outs in his impressive eighties and nineties filmography.
Burning Paradise – Blu-ray Review:
Burning Paradise arrives on a 50GB region A Blu-ray disc with the feature presented in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen taken and using 30.9GBs of space. The movie begins with the following disclaimer:
"The following presentation of BURNING PARADISE was sourced from a restored 2k master provided by the studio. Unfortunately, many imperfections were present in the provided master. Vinegar Syndrome restoration artists were able to fix the vast majority of these imperfections by re-restoring numerous sections of the film from the raw film scans. We hope you enjoy this brand new presentation of BURNING PARADISE."
Picture quality is good, if not reference quality. Detail definitely surpasses what DVD would have been able to provide while never really reaching the best that the format can provide. The image can also look a little too smooth at times, as if some digital noise reduction may have been applied resulting in some waxy looking skin. That said, colors and black levels generally look really strong and there’s considerably more depth to the image than we’ve seen in the past. There’s really no print damage here to note at all, and if this isn’t perfect, it’s still a nice step up from the existing DVD release which looks dark and murky by comparison.
The only audio option for the feature is a Chinese language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 track with optional English and English SDH subtitle options provided. Audio quality is solid. There are no problems with any hiss, distortion of sibilance and the track is properly balanced throughout. The score sounds quite strong and the sound effects used throughout the movie are appropriately punchy, without ever burying the performers in the mix.
Extras start off with a commentary track with film historian and author Samm Deighan where she talks about the horror movie elements inherent in the film's sets and action set pieces, where the film fits in his career and how it fits with Hong Kong fantasy cinema and the historical contexts that is important to better understanding the movie. She talks about Tsui Hark's career and work with Lam, the Fong Sai Yuk character, the prevalence of Shaolin monks in wushu cinema, biographical details on the various cast and crew members from the production, the influence of both Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark on the Hong Kong new wave, some of the themes that the film explores, influences that worked their way into this movie, gothic elements that appear in the film and lots more.
The disc also includes a new sixteen minute interview with actor Wong Kam Kong titled A Rare Confidant. He talks about moving to Hong Kong and meeting and then collaborating with Ringo Lam, how they were happy to cast him in his role in the film because of his experience in painting and calligraphy, some of the painting work that he did on the movie, what Lam was like as a director and as a friend, how the movie was received upon its original release, doing his own action scenes and stunts in the film, what was improvised during the shoot, thoughts on his character and quite a bit more.
Up next is an archival interview with producer Tsui Hark which clocks in at just under five minutes. Here Hark talks about working with Ringo Lam on the project, how he came on board as producer, how he feels about the movie in hindsight, and what it was like being involved in the film.
A twenty minute video essay from filmmaker Chris O'Neill goes over Ringo Lam's life and career, discussing the four decades that he spent making films and City On Fire brought him to prominence on the international film scene. It also goes over his penchant for directing urban crime thrillers but also how he worked in different genres throughout his career quite successfully, how productive he was during the nineties boom years of Hong Kong cinema, box office highs and lows and details on the making of Burning Paradise. From there, the piece goes over the specifics of Burning Paradise, exploring the themes, the legacy of Fong Sai Yuk and more, tying it in thematically to some of Lam's other movies. It's well-done and quite interesting.
Finishing up the extras is an original theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection.
As far as the packaging goes, Vinegar Syndrome offers this release with a nice embossed slipcover limited to 5,000 pieces and designed by Tony Stella if purchased directly from their website, as well as with some cool reversible cover sleeve art. Includes inside the keepcase along with the two Blu-ray discs is an insert booklet containing an essay by film historian and author Grady Hendrix titled Paradise On Fire that goes over the history of the movie and the people involved in its making with an emphasis on Ringo Lam.
Burning Paradise - The Final Word:
Burning Paradise holds up really well, an exciting and tense mix of action and horror shot with plenty of style and featuring some fantastic martial arts set pieces. The Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome doesn’t provide a perfect transfer but it does offer a pretty nice upgrade over what we’ve had before as well as quite a few new extra features of worth, making for a really strong package overall.