Available on Blu Ray May 28th, 2024, from Eureka Entertainment
As Queen Elizabeth II is coming for a visit to Hong Kong, a mysterious man hires a varied group of specialists to have her assassinated. While they plan and scheme, a small group of cops with a socialite work on stopping them.
Written and directed by Shan-Hsi Ting, A Queen’s Ransom is not her best work. Hear me out, the film is not entirely terrible, but it has enough issues to make it not a great film. It’s not the worst, but it’s not all that good. Now, for those who may still be with us here, the film has its interesting moments and sequences, it’s always fun to see Bolo Yeung and Sammo Hung, so the film has something to offer to a pre-established audience, mainly fans of these two and of George Lazenby. This is a film that has good moments, odd moments, and truly bad moments (some requiring a trigger warning). The film has some good writing and some questionable writing, with direction that isn’t bad, but feels a bit generic.
The cast here works with the script and direction given, so they are ok mostly. Some of the performances do feel a bit phoned in, but for the cast members who gave it a good go, it’s fun to watch them here. There are some scenes with great acting and some that are just bad. Both Yeung and Hung give performances as their fans are used to seeing, good with some particular skills, while folks who are coming to the film for Lazenby, they may agree that this is not Lazenby at his best. He may be top billed, but his importance in the film is debatable.
The cinematography by Ching-Chu Chen and the music by Shao-Lung Chou are decent and work with the film as best they can. Most of it is a bit generic, but there are moments of beautiful images and lovely music, helping the film along and helping the pacing which has moments that are a wee bit off and some that feel like they go on forever. Overall, A Queen’s Ransom feels a bit generic on all fronts, making it a film with unattained potential, one that will be a must own for fans of the film itself and fans of some of the cast members.
This new release is a new 1080p transfer that looks good here, with some artifacting which should be expected give the age of the source material. The option to watch in original Mandarin or English on the Hong Kong theatrical cut is a great one and the English dub on the international version is decent but will make some want to see this in Mandarin with subtitles instead of dubbed. This new release has some good features with a few standing above the others including the new documentary with Michael Worth and the new commentaries from film experts. There are few more features or extras here including new English subtitles, limited edition slipcase, and new artwork (the latter two for the first pressing only).