If You Are The One Blu-ray Review

by AVForums
Movies & TV Shows Review

If You Are The One Blu-ray Review
MSRP: £17.04

Picture

'If You Are The One' is presented in 2.35:1 with MPEG-4 AVC coding.


Colouring is bold and lush throughout, with the deep purple of the Buddhist temple, the investor's opulent gold walled apartment, the various colouring in clothing and the greens of the foliage demonstrating the range of the colour palette. The colour palette also demonstrates some nice subtleties such as the pale colouring of upholstery in the various cafes and bars where Qin meets his dates. The contrast ratio is strong throughout with some nice solid blacks (such as the contrasting deep black of Smiley's hair and brilliant white of her lover's shirt). The level of detail, while never reaching reference levels, is very acceptable throughout and really enhances some of the more scenic shots. Skin tone presentation (which has ethnic variation) and shadow detail (such as the night time lake scenes) are also spot on, with grain present in some scenes but always organic and unobtrusive.


The cinematography, by Lu Yue ('Red Cliff'), is stunning with some very impressive city-scape and scenic still shots of the beautiful Asian countryside. While undoubtedly glorious and well defined, they never reach the pin-sharp detail levels of reference Blu-ray releases. Some of the scenes, such as the long shots in the avenues of Hokkaido and Hong Kong, demonstrate depth, although the brighter outdoor scenes do appear slightly over saturated at times. The print is in almost perfect condition with only a few instances of print damage noted. There were zero compression artefacts observed throughout. Subtitles are embedded, read well and are never difficult to follow.


'If You Are The One' does contain moments of high definition glory, especially during the majority of facial close-ups, but ultimately this is somewhat of a mixed bag as there is evidence of softness at various junctures throughout the presentation.


If You Are The One

Sound

'If You Are The One' comes with a Dolby True HD 7.1 lossless surround track, which frankly is somewhat wasted here.


As a largely dialogue driven presentation there is relatively little or no surround activity, aside from score bleed, in the majority of the scenes. The rain sequence in Hokkaido was the only point in the movie where I really felt immersed in this audio presentation. There were scant other instances of surround activity which spring to mind aside from some ambient effects during the badminton training sequence. In saying that there is good front separation (such as the bubbling of a spring from the front right speaker) and the dialogue is crystal clear throughout.


As surround track is dialogue heavy, the score plays an important role in ensuring that the soundstage sounds "full" when required. It has a wide repertoire ranging from orchesteral overtones to Asian pop offerings. In fact each of the major scenes in the movie has it's own specific theme, which are perfectly matched to the events taking place on screen. The power and weight that the score can produce is impressive, with nice treble and bass presence. There's decent score bleed, although this is somewhat lacking at times, with the score predominantly rooted front and center, as is the majority of the audio presentation. The laid back 80's style tunes with plonking bass and a solid bongo layer (coupled with violins), which gradually melt away into silence, demonstrates the impressive sound engineering on this presentation.


Ultimately the very fluid 7.1 surround lossless track does enhance the presentation but its full capabilities are not realised here and I feel that a 5.1 track would have been more than adequate on this release.


If You Are The One

Extras

Unfortunately this movie comes with almost nothing to offer in the way of additional extras. All we've got here are two trailers; one for 'If You Are The One' and one for 'Look For A Star'


If You Are The One

Xiaogang Feng continues his string of hits with 'If You Are The One', a charming tale of true love involving two people who are striving to forget their past. Qin is a retired entrepreneur who is seeking the perfect mate through an honest approach to dating. Smiley is also searching for someone special to make her forget the unrequited relationship which has ruined her life. These two very different people are brought together by fate to realise their true destinies in this engaging (and sometimes hilarious) romantic comedy.


The video presentation is at times impressive with some stunning cinematography. There are moments of softness throughout but the colour palette and clarity of facial close-ups make up for these shortcomings. The audio presentation, while boasting a very fluid and well engineered Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround track, is somewhat limited by the source material.


The extras are where this presentation falls down with only a couple of trailers available. With strong video and audio presentations this movie comes recommended to those looking for a refreshing romantic comedy alternative to the increasingly lame Western Cinema offerings.


If You Are The One

Scores

Movie

.
.
.
7

Picture Quality

.
.
8

Sound Quality

.
.
.
7

Extras

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1

Overall

.
.
.
7
7
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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