Martial Arts Fans Rejoice: Definitive Shaw Brothers DVDs Out This Week

[Woochifer]

The Weinstein Company's Dragon Dynasty series has been an absolute godsend to fans of martial arts and Hong Kong action pics in North America. They've been putting out one definitive DVD release after another.

Great combination of classic Hong Kong titles like Jackie Chan's Police Story and newer titles like the Infernal Affairs series (which inspired Scorsese's The Departed) and The Protector. And they do it right -- cleaned up video quality (far superior to most of the DVD versions I've seen coming from Asia), original language tracks, great bonus features, and very informative commentary tracks.

This week and next month though, they are starting to work their way into the crown jewels of the genre. This week, the first four Shaw Brothers releases in the Dragon Dynasty series come out (they promise that these are the first of many). Three of these pictures, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, King Boxer (aka Five Fingers of Death), and The One-Armed Swordsman, are bona fide A-list martial arts classics. I'll admit my ignorance on the fourth title, My Young Auntie, but if it's coming out alongside those other heavyweight titles, I would have to deem it a worthy look.

I'm about to pick these titles up, so I'll report back on whether they maintain the stellar track record that the Dragon Dynasty series has established so far.

As for next month, the series will unleash John Woo's 1992 action tour de force Hard Boiled. IMO, one of the greatest action pics ever made, but thus far has lacked a definitive DVD release (the releases so far have botched either the edit, the video quality, the subtitling, or a combination thereof). The DVD release will be a two-disc special edition, so hopefully this will be the version that John Woo fans deserve.

The July releases will also include Jackie Chan's 1993 release, Crime Story, a change of pace for Chan in that the movie has a very serious tone. But, IMO it's one of his weaker movies with only one really good action set piece.

[Woochifer]

:thumbsup:

Got through The One-Armed Swordsman and I am absolutely floored with how that genre classic has been restored!

The movie itself is still the same -- a great benchmark in the martial arts genre. But, the video quality is incredible, and almost miraculous compared to how these HK martial arts pics typically look on home video. The bonus features are also very worthy. It includes a brand new interview with Jimmy Wang Yu (I would never have recognized him, geez he looks different!), biography of director Chang Cheh, and a very informative commentary track (however, the commentary does NOT feature Quentin Tarantino, as indicated on the box cover).

Anyone who's a fan of classic martial arts pics, or who wants to trace the development of the genre, these newly released titles are IMO must haves. I read that the Dragon Dynasty series is restoring the Shaw Brothers film library, and if this is at all indicative of the work that they're doing, then I'll be adding a lot more of these titles to my collection. These are indeed the DVD versions that I've been waiting for.

[Smokey]

Wooch

Thanks for info. I love martial arts movies from 1970's periods. Especially martial arts movies with swords. The video quality of most martial art movies form that era I seen on DVD is just awful.

Where did you pick up a copy?

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lH6ktmA-L._SS500_.jpg

[dean_martin]

Thanks for the heads-up on this. My copy of Five Fingers of Death looks like it was homemade. The art work looks like it was done on a cheap ink-jet color printer that blurred and the paper insert is not even cut to fit the dvd case.

BTW- watch what you can now. When the kid approaches 2, the naps get shorter and shorter.

[Woochifer]

Thanks for info. I love martial arts movies from 1970's periods. Especially martial arts movies with swords. The video quality of most martial art movies form that era I seen on DVD is just awful.

Where did you pick up a copy?

That's the primary reason why I avoided adding a lot of these martial arts pics to my collection. The ones released domestically looked awful and primarily included only the gawdawful English dubbing. Plus, you don't always know for sure if you're getting the original movie, or one of the many knockoff sequels or remakes. I have some imported DVD versions that feature the original language tracks, but the video quality has been consistently subpar. The shoddy treatment of the martial arts genre in general on DVD has kept me from buying a lot of my personal favorites. A decent version of the Bruce Lee HK classics (http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=15480) did not come out until late-2005.

Something like the Dragon Dynasty series is long overdue. It respects the genre, and delivers sorely needed attention to detail that has been missing on previous releases.

These titles are readily available. I got mine at Fry's, but have seen them at Best Buy, Borders, and all the other usual places. Doubtful that they've made their way into the WalMart bargain bins yet ... :ciappa:


Thanks for the heads-up on this. My copy of Five Fingers of Death looks like it was homemade. The art work looks like it was done on a cheap ink-jet color printer that blurred and the paper insert is not even cut to fit the dvd case.

BTW- watch what you can now. When the kid approaches 2, the naps get shorter and shorter.

Would not surprise me if it was homemade or a bootleg of some kind. But, even legit copies of various martial arts films can look horrible. I'm glad that someone's finally doing the necessary legwork to clean up and restore the Shaw Brothers library. Film preservation has been long ignored in Hong Kong, and a lot of home video releases got transferred straight from faded and otherwise damaged and worn out theatrical prints.

And thanks for the heads up on naptime! Right now, Kayley has her own ideas about when and for how long she naps -- getting into a routine in the first place would be nice at this point!

[Smokey]

These titles are readily available. I got mine at Fry's, but have seen them at Best Buy, Borders, and all the other usual places. Doubtful that they've made their way into the WalMart bargain bins yet ... :ciappa:


LOL...you might know too much about my shopping habbits :incazzato:

[Rich-n-Texas]

Kill Bill & Vol. 2 look great on DVD!!! :thumbsup:

[PeruvianSkies]

Thanks for the heads-up on this. My copy of Five Fingers of Death looks like it was homemade. The art work looks like it was done on a cheap ink-jet color printer that blurred and the paper insert is not even cut to fit the dvd case.

BTW- watch what you can now. When the kid approaches 2, the naps get shorter and shorter.

One reason for that is that the original camera negatives from these films are in either poor condition or lost altogether, making it difficult to work with a clean print in order to perform a good restoration. Many of Japanese films (especially the work of Kurosawa) were never really taken care of and were stored in poor conditions, sometimes fires destroyed many of the original prints. Each generation that you move away from the original negative greatly reduces the films pristine condition, color depth, fidelity, and soundtrack. DVD (if anything can be said about this format) is that it has opened up eyes to the world of restoration, thanks in great to The Criterion Collection, who began in the Laserdisc era, but has flourished in the DVD market with some of the most amazing and detailed restorations to date! Because of DVD, people are expecting a clear, sharp picture, even if the film is older and because of that restorations are in order, which is awesome for cinephiles like myself.

[O'Shag]

Dish Network HD Kung Fu Channel is great. I love some of the older movies with Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung etc. such as Dragons Forever, Meals on Wheels, Drunken Boxer etc. Also think Stephen Chow is great. The only martial arts DVD that I own currently is "The Prodigal Son" with Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung, Frankie Chow, and Lam-Ching-Ying (aka Mr. Vampire) - its a great movie and really funny! Also am a bid fan of the Zatoichi movies with Shintaro Katsu. I hope to increase my DVD collection of the kung-fu classics, and really appreciate your suggestions.

[Woochifer]

One reason for that is that the original camera negatives from these films are in either poor condition or lost altogether, making it difficult to work with a clean print in order to perform a good restoration. Many of Japanese films (especially the work of Kurosawa) were never really taken care of and were stored in poor conditions, sometimes fires destroyed many of the original prints. Each generation that you move away from the original negative greatly reduces the films pristine condition, color depth, fidelity, and soundtrack. DVD (if anything can be said about this format) is that it has opened up eyes to the world of restoration, thanks in great to The Criterion Collection, who began in the Laserdisc era, but has flourished in the DVD market with some of the most amazing and detailed restorations to date! Because of DVD, people are expecting a clear, sharp picture, even if the film is older and because of that restorations are in order, which is awesome for cinephiles like myself.

In the case of the Shaw Brothers, I read that the original film elements were actually well preserved (which has not been the case for Hong Kong films in general). But, for whatever reason, decent prints were never made available for home video until the Shaw Brothers film library was acquired a few years ago, and restoration efforts began in earnest. Until the restored official versions became available, the Shaw Brothers movies that I'd seen were obviously transferred from worn out theatrical prints, with plenty of subpar (and likely bootlegged) versions circulating abouts.


Dish Network HD Kung Fu Channel is great. I love some of the older movies with Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung etc. such as Dragons Forever, Meals on Wheels, Drunken Boxer etc. Also think Stephen Chow is great. The only martial arts DVD that I own currently is "The Prodigal Son" with Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung, Frankie Chow, and Lam-Ching-Ying (aka Mr. Vampire) - its a great movie and really funny! Also am a bid fan of the Zatoichi movies with Shintaro Katsu. I hope to increase my DVD collection of the kung-fu classics, and really appreciate your suggestions.

Lots of great stuff there. I've got a lot of HK movies in my collection because those are such entertaining films. But, for DVD collecting, you really need to watch out because there are so many inferior versions out there (as I sometimes found out the hard way). This is why I'm so big on the Dragon Dynasty series -- because you know that it will provide decent video and audio quality, and include some worthwhile supplementals. Thus far, no U.S. releases have consistently done this good a job with the martial arts/HK action genre.

For domestic releases, you have to cross off all of the Dimension Films DVDs (which sadly includes several great movies from Jackie Chan and Jet Li) because they inexcusably reedit these movies, only include the dubbed English track, and don't include any supplementals. You also need to watch out for various knockoff sequels with soundalike titles, and just plain bad movies that were made on the cheap before stars like Jackie Chan became stars.

With the Bruce Lee titles, you also need to first make sure that the DVD even features the real Bruce Lee rather than one of the many imitators that emerged after his death. And once you verify that it's a bona fide Bruce Lee movie, you then need to make sure that you avoid the original American DVD releases that once again exclude the original edit and the original language tracks (and don't even include the original movie titles, i.e., Bruce Lee's first three movies were originally called The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and Way of the Dragon) The Fox/Fortune Star boxed set is the only U.S. release that gets it right. All the others are to be avoided at all cost.

For overseas releases, you first need to get past the horrible video and audio quality on most of those versions. Then for more recent remastered versions (including overseas releases of the Shaw Brothers titles), there's the fact that a lot of them are regionally coded.