The Water Margin – Season 1 – DVD – Kei Satô, Sachio Sakai

The Water Margin is a sprawling Chinese television series from 1977 that tells the story of a group of legendary heroes who battled corruption at the time of the Sung dynasty 1,000 years ago. Made in two seasons of 13 episodes and shown on BBC television in a dubbed version narrated by Burt Kwouk, the central figure is Lin Chung (Atsuo Nakamura), an army officer who comes, Robin Hood-style, to lead a rebellion against the evil Kao Chiu (Kai Satu). The result plays like something somewhere between Seven Samurai and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Though not without humour, this is a much more serious saga than Monkey (1978), adapted by the same team and similarly a hit for the BBC. Bolstered by wirework in the excellent fight scenes, this is traditional Kurosawa-influenced adventure, a saga of rebels against an oppressive empire with as much appeal to Star Wars fans as to martial arts devotees. Each episode tells a self-contained tale within the wider framework and the strong production values and compelling storytelling are not too compromised by the dubbing, which is carefully done to a high standard. This is a lavishly made TV epic that remains hugely entertaining a quarter-century after it first aired. On the DVD: The Water Margin is presented in a beautifully designed fold-out package with a small poster and an episode guide leaflet. The 13 43-minute-long episodes are spread across six DVDs. The extras are identical throughout, apart from episode-specific photo galleries, reflecting the fact that each disc is also sold separately. There are 16 character profiles, synopses of all 26 episodes, production notes and previews of the Monkey DVDs and Blake’s Seven videos. Other than the restoration of some violence, the episodes are exactly as they were shown on the BBC; there’s no option to watch the original Chinese versions. The sound is unexceptional mono, the picture grainy, a little soft and shows some print damage. Unfortunately the 4:3 transfers also demonstrate obvious pixilation in fast moving and visually complex scenes, the quality being more like digital TV than state-of-the-art DVD. –Gary S Dalkin