Blu-ray Review: Millionaires’ Express (Limited Edition)

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

Sammo Hung has the body of Benny Hill and the moves of Bruce Lee. He is the perfect blend of the comic and the action. You might think all martial arts superstars were lean and packed with muscles. Sammo proved you could have amazing martial arts skills even with a few extra pounds. In an era of studios looking for clones of Bruce Lee, Sammo wasn’t being passed off the new Dragon. He fought Bruce in Enter the Dragon and did star in a movie called Enter The Fat Dragon. He gained notoriety in Hong Kong films as a top fight choreographer with spectacular exchanges featuring his Peking Opera School pal Jackie Chan. He eventually worked his way up to being a director and leading man along. He had success in America with the late ’90s cop series Martial Law that starred Sammo and Arsenio Hall (Coming to America). In 1986, Sammo wrote, directed and starred in Millionaire’s Express. The movie brings a taste of an American Western to a Chinese setting.

Ching Fong-tin (Sammo Hung) is crossing a deep snow covered part of the Soviet Union when he encounters a troop of dead soldiers. As he grabs a few items, he learns quickly that they aren’t dead. They grab Ching and drag him back to their headquarters where they dress him up in a makeshift bikini and wig and force him to dance. Before things go completely Deliverance, Ching pulls off an elaborate and explosive escape. He gets busted again by a Chinese agent (100 Ways to Murder Your Wife‘s Kenny Bee). He once more escapes after getting trapped in a giant snowball. Ching returns to his small hometown of Hon Sui with a plan how to help the place revive economically. The Shanghai Express train will be cutting past the remote town. Ching will get the train to stop for a while so that the rich passengers came stay overnight on the town and spend cash. He has a group of prostitutes come to the town to fix up the rundown hotel. All looks good except he doesn’t count on other criminal element being attached to attacking the train. This includes bandits who knew of passengers with a map to locate the famed Terracotta Army. Plus the Chinese agent is still on Ching’s trail. There’s a lot of trouble coming down the tracks.

Millionaire’s Express is a strange mix of elements, but Sammo understands that as long as he fills the screen with comic action, the audience is going to eat it up. There’s plenty of action between major stunts and serious martial arts battles. In one scene, a woman leaps out of a burning building and lands in the dirt. Even if they super padded the stunt person, it had to hurt. The train stunts appear to be extremely risky. Quite a few famous names pop up in the film including Lau Kar-wing (Master of the Flying Guillotine), Jimmy Wang Yu (One-Armed Boxer), Bolo Yeung (Bloodsport) and Cynthia Rothrock (China O’Brien). Sammo and Rothrock have a big battle during the finale that has her get a few good high-flying kicks.

The film that was cut in various ways over the years and four of those cuts are part of the Millionaires Express: Limited Edition boxset. Included is the Hong Kong Theatrical Cut (97:11), Extended Cut (101:42), English Export Cut (92:40) and the Hybrid Cut (108:57). You can spend the entire weekend checking out the various cuts. It’s hard to say which one is the best although you might want to start with the Hybrid to see all the footage. Sammo really brings the Western flavors of the railroad, the remote town and a horde of outlaws to China. Millionaires Express rolls across the screen in an out-of-control fashion without letting up.

The video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The transfer looks great as you see quite a bit of detail in the clouds and the snow. The audio is Cantonese LPCM mono on three versions excluding the English Expore. The English Export and Extended cuts also include an English dub track in LPCM mono. All four versions include English subtitles.

Audio commentaries include Frank Djeng on the theatrical cut, Mike Leeder & Arne Venema on the extended cut and Cynthia Rothrock & Frank Djeng on select scenes. This makes sense since she’s not in the entire movie.

Interviews with Cynthia Rothrock includes her talking about Millionaire’s Express (16:35) gets into how she started marital arts at 13 and found herself making movies in Hong Kong. Behind The Express (14:25) was from her official website. She made Express after Yes, Madam was a major hit. She hurt herself during training. She talks about working with Sammo and working with horses. Trailblazer (23:59) is an interview from 2007.

Interviews with Sammo Hung includes A New Frontier (10:58) from 2005 and Express Delivery (14:46) from 2007. He gets into what influenced the script and how he approached the action.

Way Out West with Yuen Biao (20:51) was made in 2007. The actor talks about playing the lead of a small town’s fire brigade. He was happy that Sammo brought him along for this mix of kung fu and truth. He says a lot of actors wanted to work with Sammo and never cared about the money if they could land a small role.

On the Cutting Edge with Yukari Oshima (30:16) sits down with the actress in 2007. She talks about the various names she has used in various movies depending on the market. She’s from Japan. Watching a Jackie Chan movie made her want to be an action actress and not a PR teacher. Her mom was cool with her learning various martial arts since it helped with her concentration.

Alternate English Credits (4:16) is how the movie played in America.

Trailer Gallery includes Hong Kong Theatrical Trailer (3:55), Shanghai Express Export Trailer (2:11) and Tai Seng Video Promo Trailer (1:45). There’s a lot of focus on the action and comedy.

Arrow Video presents Millionaires Express Limited Edition. Directed by Sammo Hung. Screenplay by Sammo Hung. Starring Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Rosamund Kwan, Kenny Bee and Cynthia Rothrock. Boxset Contents: 4 version of the movie on 2 Blu-ray discs. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: February 28, 2023

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.