DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection (1 Viewer)

[Scott W.]

Nice review Michael. I'll be double dipping for this release. Seeing those movies in 5.1 and anamorphic is just gravy. Can't wait till this weekend when i get paid!

Scott

 

[Random Hero]

Are the mono tracks on the movies untouched? Or do they have the extra sound effects and such and are downmixed to mono to create the illusion of being the original soundtrack?

Also, are the English dubs new dubs? Meaning, not the cheesy 70s ones on The Master Collection?

 

[Matthew Brown]

I believe these to be the original mono, as in not a downmix. I had asked Peter Poon from Fortune Star about a few of the other Fortune Star movies that people have claimed to be downmixes and he said that Fortune Star uses the source materials that they have in their vaults. He isn't aware of any of the mono soundtracks being downmixes.

Matt

 

[Random Hero]

Cool!

I know a few people who e-mailed Peter, too, but they didn't get a response. I'm glad that these are the true mono tracks. Now I just need to find a local store that sells these!

 

[John Stockton]

So since these are basically the same as the Fortune Star reigon 3 discs, do they contain the Hong Kong cut of the films?? For instance:

Way Of the Dragon....There is a scene with Lee and the Italian girl where she takes him back to her place and takes off her top.


Big Boss.........The Hong Kong version has considerably more blood throughout for instance at the end when Lee shoves his fingers in the Boss's torso. There is also a scene where Lee goes to the whorehouse one last time right before going off to kill the boss, which explains why he is munching on some crackers before engaging the boss's thugs.

 

[Daryl L]

I haven't watched Way of the Dragon yet but what you ask about Big Boss is in my R1 version.

 

[Soah]

I went to Yes Asia to take a look at the Bruce Lee Ultimate Fully Re-Mastered DVD Collection & Collector's Tee (Deluxe Limited Edition). This seems to be the only version they're offering that is closest to the R1 release. The apparent differences between them are a missing t-shirt, 32 pg booklet, bonus disk, and Enter the Dragon.

Other than the above, are there any other differences between the two sets? All languages/subtitles seem the same. The PQ is identical too right?

Also, the individual disk covers are shown for the R3...are the R1 covers identical?

I don't have enough posts to show you guys the link so my apologies for those who need to search for it on YesAsia.com.

thanks.

 

[John Stockton]

Daryl

Thanks for your reply. I am glad that the whorehouse scene at the end is included in R1 DVD as well as the extra blood.


Now if Re: Way Of The Dragon if anyone can confirm about the scene with Lee and that gorgeous Italian chick
I will be a happy camper.

Soah

Everything you said is correct with the addtiton that the R3 recieved 5.1 DD and DTS tracks for Mandarin and Cantonese while for R1 they appear to be 2.0 mono.

The DVD covers seems to be identical as well as the transfers.

I am also very disappointed at how low of a grade the picture for "The Way OF the Dragon" is getting. Funny thing is that DVD Beaver does not mention how bad the picture is when they did the comparison to R2 disc.

 

[Michael Osadciw]

Also something that might be of interest to you guys:

The English subtitles are much more accurate translations than the English dub. I'm presuming this accuracy because in direct comparison they seem more sensible to what's happening on screen than what the English dub says.

I found myself listening to the English 5.1 soundtrack and watching the English subtitles. They are very different!!

Mike

 

[Soah]

are you saying it's lower than the R2 version or just low in general?

from what I hear way/return of the dragon has always been in poor shape. sad since that's my favourite of all his movies.



i'm still debating if i wanna pick this up or not...i don't want another set to come out right after i buy this one, for example a HKL equivalent

 

[Random Hero]

Soah, it's most likely that we will never see the Bruce Lee films look better than they do in this boxset.

However, in January (I think), HKL is coming out with a platinum edition of Fist of Fury. Possibly a platinum edition of The Big Boss sometime in the future...

Way of the Dragon looking poor is indeed due to photography problems and such. It may never look better than it does.

 

[Ravi K]

I just had a look at a couple of the movies in this set, and they are not encoded with the progressive flag, so the extra fields are on the disc.

I wish we could get a set that combined the Fortune Star transfers with the HKL extras. But I'll take good transfers over supplements any day, so I bought the Fox/Fortune Star box. They should have included the documentary Bruce Lee: The Legend instead of Game of Death II. That's the only way the Master Collection set had the upper hand over the Ultimate Collection. Is it available separately on DVD?

 

[Jason Kendrick]

mad

 

[Jason Kendrick]

madd