{"id":29034,"date":"2024-07-23T23:59:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T06:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=29034"},"modified":"2024-07-23T23:59:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T06:59:16","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-double-crossers-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=29034","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE DOUBLE CROSSERS (1976)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray is currently available from Eureka! Entertainment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the tragic passing of martial arts movie star Bruce\nLee in 1973, there was a period in the following years that involved producers\nattempting to discover his replacement. Companies like Golden Harvest in Hong\nKong were certainly taking part in the process, producing movies with fresh\nyoung performers hoping to make their big break. Sadly, no one was able to\nreplicate Lee\u2019s success during this era and a lot of these pictures vanished\nnot long after their releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Double Crossers<\/em> was one such attempt, featuring a\nyoung South Korean talent named Shin Il-ryong. Truth be told, the picture\nitself is pretty fun. It is a revenge story that doesn\u2019t focus on extended\nmartial arts battles, instead detailing the lead\u2019s overly elaborate attempt to\nscam and destroy the criminal boss responsible for the death of his father. One\ncan see how the film may not have delivered what audiences at the time were\nexpecting, thus causing it to quickly fade into obscurity. However, it is an\ninteresting effort with some fun flourishes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eureka Entertainment have done an excellent job restoring\nboth the Hong Kong and English-language export versions of the film in 2K for\nits worldwide Blu-ray debut. It will definitely entertain anyone looking for an\nAsian action movie with an unusual spin.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After his father is slain by a mysterious group of criminals, Detective Lung (Shin Il-ryong) returns home to investigate the scene (with his dad\u2019s body outline right there on the floor in front of him). It turns out that the protagonist\u2019s well-intentioned dad was a businessman who had tried to raise him after the passing of his mother. After some time apart, Lung\u2019s pop and business partner Chang (Chan Sing) got in with the wrong crowd, specifically a deadly mobster named Wang (Chao Hsiung). Chang removed himself from the outfit and vanished, but the lead\u2019s dad was ultimately murdered. Lung doesn\u2019t have a lot of trouble locating Chang and convinces him to help locate the villainous Wang. They track the mobster through Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia and come up with a, well, absurdly elaborate oil drilling plot to get the better of him. But of course, the bad guy has a set of dangerous henchmen, including one familiar and flamboyantly dressed fighter (Sammo Hung).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The big plus with this project is its beautiful settings.\nThis picture was shot on location and jumps around Hong Kong, Singapore and\nIndonesia, with much of the action occurring outdoors. For someone used to\nseeing most martial arts characters square-off on a soundstage, this is a nice\ncontrast. The modern day setting also allows the film to try and take a more\nrealistic approach to these confrontations. The fight scenes are quite brief,\nbut well performed and nicely edited. There are some enjoyable camera angles,\nincluding POVs of characters swinging at the camera. And the benefit of not\nspending five minutes at a time throwing punches and kicks is that the pacing\ndoesn\u2019t really lag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Il-ryong and, in particular Sing, are likable heroes of\ndifferent backgrounds who play well off of each other. As for the oddball\nscheme, it is extremely amusing, if completely unbelievable. Lung and Chang\nliterally spend a few days building an oil well refinery and dig into an\nexisting pipeline to create a cover to lure Wang to meet with them for a\nbusiness proposition. The final fight does make a strong impression as the\nheroes and several memorably eccentric bad guys do battle. There are some\nunexpected twists in the finale as well. In fact, the international version of\nthe film has an entirely different and much more upbeat close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a great film, but it is an entertaining one with\nsome novel and original elements that distinguishes it from others of its ilk.\nThe picture quality is quite good. Naturally, this title was likely not taken\ncare of as well as other, more famous features from Asia, but it is quite clean\nand the exteriors (of which there are many) look attractive on a big home\ntheater screen. The camera lenses used are also very wide, lending a unique\nlook when the camera pans and moves around. This is a good transfer of an\nobscurity and the image quality won\u2019t disappoint viewers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are also two fun commentaries included. The first is\nfrom Frank Djeng and is an informative discussion on why and how the movie was\nmade. He does note several interesting aspects of the production and pokes a\nbit of fun at some of the over-the-top aspects of the plot. There are some\nplants who help the heroes during business meetings with the mobster, but it is\nbizarre to see that they all remain in character with each other even when Wang\nisn\u2019t present. Plenty of details about the cast and crew are also given. The\nspeaker notes that this really is a crime picture and that the action scenes\nare shorter for the sake of authenticity (at least, when it comes to fighting).\nHe also suggests that while no choreographer is credited for the fight scenes,\nSammo Hung must have played a major role in staging them. There\u2019s no way he\ndidn\u2019t plan out the moves in the climactic battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second track is from historians Mile Leed and Arne\nVenema and it\u2019s a looser and more informal track. They joke a lot and many of\ntheir little jabs at the story and its inconsistencies are amusing. The pair do\ngrouse more about the film needing longer fight scenes and not being everything\nthey personally would want from this type of picture. They also have some\ntrouble with the Hong Kong ending, which to this reviewer is simply an\nacknowledgement of brotherhood between the heroes and that they have ultimately\naccomplished their main goal, even if things didn\u2019t quite go according to plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A lengthy trailer for the movie is also included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is always wonderful to see a film get rescued and Eureka\nEntertainment should take some pride in having saved a picture that could\neasily have been lost. Sure, it\u2019s a silly action film, but an enjoyable one\nthat is briskly paced, features wonderful locations, has a few memorable\nmoments, and an interesting cast (including that very early appearance by\nHung). The image quality is generally strong and most fans of Asian cinema will\ndefinitely enjoy what they see. I\u2019m glad to have been given the chance to view The\nDouble Crossers<\/em> for the first time and look forward to checking out more\nBlu-rays from this distributor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray is currently available from Eureka! Entertainment. After the tragic passing of martial arts movie star Bruce Lee in 1973, there was a period in the following years that involved producers attempting to discover his replacement. Companies like Golden Harvest in Hong Kong were certainly taking part in the process, producing movies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[107,697,2923,2928,4910,6160,7101,9288,13303,20537,20538],"class_list":["post-29034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-107","tag-action","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-crime","tag-double-crossers-blu-ray-review","tag-eureka-films","tag-hong-kong","tag-martial-arts","tag-the-double-crossers","tag-the-double-crossers-blu-ray-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}