Fear Of Intimacy DVD Review (Region 3)

Seth Gecko

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<P STYLE='text-align: center'><FONT STYLE='font-size: 18px'><IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/FearOfIntimacy/FearOfIntimacyR3.jpg' ALT='FEAR OF INITMACY DVD cover artwork' ALIGN='RIGHT'>FEAR OF INITMACY</FONT><br>Reviewed August 2005 by <A HREF='search.php?do=process&query=Craig Snell&showposts=1&forumchoice[]=107&forumchoice[]=197' target='_top'>Craig Snell</A>.</P><P><B>The Movie : 2</B></P><P>Fai (Tony Leung) is a paparazzi Photographer looking for scandals to expose in Hong Kong society. Tortured by the fact that his girlfriend, Po disappeared years ago on their beach home he quit being a celebrated photo journalist and now prowls the streets looking for a good picture for his employers’ celebrity magazine.</p><P>His magazine teams him with ambitious new girl, Suet (Michelle Saram) to partner him on his quest for photos in the Hong Kong elite. Suet is a fan of Fai’s work and a bond quickly develops. One morning however, a body of one of Hong Kong’s elite, Mrs Leung is found. A murder hunt is in progress for the local police, Fai and Suet instigate their own investigation and along with an estate agent, Anson, the past comes back to haunt Fai.</p><P>Having never heard of this film, I decided to some investigation of my own. Fear of Intimacy has been showing in festivals around the world for about a year now. Made independently of the Hong Kong film industry it showcases a terrific tortured lead performance from veteran, Tony Leung. Leung portrays the world weary Fai as a man desperately clinging onto the past. Haunted by the fact that his girlfriend has gone and he never had the chance to ask her to marry him, his emotional range is frankly faultless. One minute he is enjoying a fun moment with his new assistant and then he is a madman, wanting to the find the truth at all costs.</p><P>Reading the back of the DVD cover, you would expect this film to be a thriller. It is not. It is really a character study of a man with battling with his demons. The editing is excellent with the story switching back to past events to explain what is happening in the present. Sometimes this can ruin a film, but in this case it works extremely well.</p><P>However, at times the film can get bogged down by excessive ‘talky’ moments which could have been left on the cutting room floor. To the average viewer, the film could be way too confusing with the flashbacks and the fact that the film just ties up the loose ends too quickly. It is however, a well made piece of cinema but it just left me cold. I couldn’t really care about any of the characters apart from Fai and Suet. In fact, it was somewhat of a strain to watch the film in one sitting. </p><P><B>Picture : 4</B></P><P>Fear of Intimacy’s picture can be at times quite horrible. For a start, the picture is non-anamorphic and loses clarity when blowing up to a full 16:9 ratio on my television. The picture is totally unpredictable. One minute it is fairly clear and stable then some scenes are invaded by the dreaded artefacts. The film also has print damage through-out, speckles flick onto the screen and become very annoying. As a low key drama, this doesn’t really spoil the show, but after some faultless visual presentations from Hong Kong discs I am a bit disappointed. </p><P STYLE='text-align: center'><IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/FearOfIntimacy/FearOfIntimacyR3_1.jpg' ALT='FEAR OF INITMACY'></P><P><B>Sound : 3</B></P><P>Two soundtracks are available on the disc, Cantonese and Mandarin. Both are recorded in Dolby Digital 2.0 and both sound pretty good. As mentioned above, the film is fairly talky and the dialogue is clear through the left and right speakers. The incidental music is however, truly horrible and some of it sounds like it was recorded at home on a kid’s organ. Saying that, it is mixed well into the soundtrack but it is grating on the ears and I wish there was an audio option to watch the film with dialogue only, it is that bad.</p><P STYLE='text-align: center'><IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/FearOfIntimacy/FearOfIntimacyR3_2.jpg' ALT='FEAR OF INITMACY'></P><P><B>Extras : 2</B></P><P>Fear of Intimacy has a number of text based extras, unfortunately all written in Chinese. The Director’s message, character info and production crew details are all in Chinese (with some English names) so unless you can read Chinese they won’t be much good to you I’m afraid. The trailers and TV spots sell the film as thriller, which it isn’t really, but they are well put together. Finally, there is a selection of production photos, which frankly are not too bad at all.</p><P STYLE='text-align: center'><IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/FearOfIntimacy/FearOfIntimacyR3_3.jpg' ALT='FEAR OF INITMACY'></P><P><B>Trivia</B><br><P>For user information we use Bitrate 1.4 to scan the disk for the video bitrate, which also calculates the average bitrate. Below is a graph illustrating the bitrate of the disk, including the average bitrate reading. This disk averaged at 5.81 Mbps.</p></P><P STYLE='text-align: center'><IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/FearOfIntimacy/FearOfIntimacyR3_BR.jpg' ALT='FEAR OF INITMACY'></P><P><B>Verdict : 3</B></P><P>Not a thriller, more of a drama and a well acted and directed one at that. It isn’t a bad film but one I found boring for a majority of the running time, therefore not one I would recommend. I will again mention Tony Leung’s performance, it is that good. It’s a shame you can’t lift it and put it in a better film. It is Mr. Leung’s performance that garners the film an extra point overall.</p><div ALIGN='CENTER'>Review Disc Supplied by <a href="http://global.yesasia.com/assocred.asp?W7QIPXOV+/en/prdTransfer.aspx/pid-1004021509" target=”_blank”><img src="http://www.wvip.co.uk/images/dvd/SuppliersLogos/YesAsia.jpg" Align="absmiddle"></a><br>Please support us by using our review sponsors.</div><TABLE border='0' CELLPADDING='0' CELLSPACING='2' WIDTH='100%'><TR><TD COLSPAN='2'><B>FEAR OF INITMACY (2004)</B></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Genres</TD><TD><A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=exact&searchfield=genre&search_for=ROMANCE' target='_blank'>ROMANCE</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=exact&searchfield=genre&search_for=THRILLER' target='_blank'>THRILLER</A></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Director</TD><TD><A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=director&search_for=VINCENT CHUI' target='_blank'>VINCENT CHUI</A></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Stars</TD><TD><A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=CHEUNG WING HONG' target='_blank'>CHEUNG WING HONG</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=MEI CHING LAM' target='_blank'>MEI CHING LAM</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=TONY LEUNG KA FAI' target='_blank'>TONY LEUNG KA FAI</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=CARL NG' target='_blank'>CARL NG</A></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65'><B>Region</B></TD><TD><B>3</B> <FONT>(HONG KONG)</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Supplier</TD><TD><FONT>Asia Video Publishing. Released Thursday 7th July 2005</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>SRP</TD><TD><FONT>$12.99</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Discs</TD><TD><FONT>1</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Format</TD><TD><FONT>DVD5</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Time</TD><TD><FONT>96 mins.</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Chapters</TD><TD><FONT>12</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Picture</TD><TD>Non Anamorphic Widescreen 1:85:1&nbsp;</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Sound</TD><TD>Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0<BR>Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Subtitles</TD><TD>Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Case</TD><TD>Amaray with Slipcase</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Extras</TD><TD>Director’s Message<BR>Production Crew details<BR>Charctaer’s info<BR>Photo Gallery<BR>Trailer and TV spots</TD></TR></TABLE><P STYLE='text-align: center'>If you would like to comment on this review, please reply below.</P>
 

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