An ancient land ruled by a cruel empress (Ying) is a place where men are subservient to women. Despite her ruthlessness, the empress and her chief eunuch, Chiu Ngai (Wu) live in fear of a prophecy that says a boy shall rise to become emperor and restore the reign of men. To prevent this, the empress sends out her warriors to kill any child who fulfills the terms of the prediction... (Tricia Spears)
Special features include a behind-the-scenes featurette (SD 12:02), a music video (SD 03:27), the original trailer, an additional trailer, and up-front ads. The set includes the Blu-ray Disc and the DVD.
The 1.78:1 1080p AVC picture is bright and crisp looking, with beautifully saturated colors. Hues are rich and vivid, with excellent tonal definition. Fleshtones are perfectly natural in appearance. Contrast is generally excellent with deep, solid blacks and revealing shadow delineation, though, at times exhibits a "cloudy" characteristic. Resolution exhibits fine detail throughout, especially in clothing and object textures. The CGI effects are not quite as satisfying, with an overall softness to the imagery. Overall, this is a bright and vivid picture that is pleasing. (Gary Reber)
The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel's soundtrack offers two language tracks, the original Cantonese and an English dub. As is usually the case, the English dub is faulted with poor spatial integration and pronunciation. The Cantonese soundtrack is dynamic, spatially enveloping, and immersive. The sound effects and atmospherics are often directionalized, for an engaging enveloping experience. Bass energy is supported in the .1 LFE channel, which provides an enhanced foundation to the sonics. The music score lacks an emotional presence and sounds a bit bright and strident overall. (Gary Reber)