I don't why Palisades Tartan decided to group these three films in a trilogy one disc set.   TRIAD UNDERWORLD has nothing to do with the other two films.  It is an inferior film to Johnnie To's ELECTION and TRIAD ELECTION (the sequel aka ELECTION 2).   TRIAD UNDERWORLD has a neat roundabout twist which is revealed in the end, but it unfortunately takes too long for the film to get interesting while the character development and details of Johnnie To's films are much more interesting.  TRIAD ELECTION improves on the first film, ELECTION.  However, these two films were my introduction to Johnnie To as a director and I think some of his other movies like EXILED, PTI, and others outshine the ELECTION films.

TRANSFERS: 

 the movies tend to be a little dirty and grainy at the beginning of each film especially when the Palisades Tartan Asia Extreme logo plays.  TRIAD UNDERWORLD seems to run a little slow video-wise for the first few minutes.  I compared the transfers of ELECTION and TRIAD ELECTION with their single discs for each film.  Each has the same weaknesses and strengths of those transfers with the black values sometimes being a little muddy and the colors being very vibrant.  However, the single disc transfer of TRIAD ELECTION wins out over the transfer of TRIAD ELECTION on this trilogy set.   The single disc of that film has better image detail.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

None.   I don't know why they include a disclaimer for interviews and commentaries at the start of the disc.   If you want the extras that came with each movie, go buy the individual discs.

FINAL ANALYSIS:    Look for the single disc releases of ELECTION and TRIAD ELECTION.   Skip this release.  It might have worked if it was a two disc release or put on a two sided DVD-18 disc.

this DVD review is (c)3-19-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com