Found Magnificent Butcher, Naked Killer and others.Do I buy? Quality? (1 Viewer)

Hi,

I love HK flicks and have long been resisting ordering online from HK or other countries to get these movies.

My dream come true would be to be able to have all the Bruce Lee, Jet-Li, Jackie Chan, John Woo and many other movies in Original Aspect Ratio, Original Language and English subtitles all with nice anamorphic transfers and extras would be, well, extra.

I recently saw at my local Wal mart some HK flicks in the bargain bin. tempted but bargain bin brought memories of what happened to so many cool Jet Li movies. title changed, dub only, re-edit. how depressing.

I saw Found Magnificent Butcher, Naked Killer, Hong Kong 1941 and at least one movie that had Jackie Chan and was tempted. I mean at least it's Fox. They have rarely let me down. The titles at least are the original so it's a good start. What else do I need to know about these?

Should I just keep waiting?

How long can I guy wait? I broke down and got the Fist Of Legend VCD because it was the best OAR and original language presentation available. But it's VCD!

I need the Bruce Lee movies in Cantonese! Drunken master and OUATIC movies uncut and original aspect ratio and language.

What to buy?

Rolando -

Here are some links to my reviews of the Fox titles.
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxprodigalson.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxgod2.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxroyalwarriors.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxitlod4.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxeasterncondors.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxduel.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxheartofdragon.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com./foxmyluckystars.htm
http://www.loveandbullets.com/foxmagnificentbutcher.htm

The first thing to mention is that NAKED KILLER is slightly cut. All the other movies have been uncut and these are the best they have ever looked for region 1. They also look better than the Hong Kong Legends counterparts.

The Fox Fortune Star releases don't always have extras but they look great.

They have the Cantonese soundtracks but they are 5.1 Dolby and DTS only. For the most parts, I have found the mixes to be acceptable. The only one that isn't all that great is EASTERN CONDORS. The rest are very good. These aren't the original mono mixes but no music has been changed.


If you have a region free player, there is a great Bruce Lee Box set that was just released with 6 or 7 DVD's. These do include the original Catonese sound mixes but only DTS or 5.1 for the Mandarin one.

On a side note, these titles are being released by Fortune Star around the world. Each region can be slightly different in what it contains. While all should have the same transfer, some regions have the original mono mixes while Region 1 doesn't.

Matt

cool. about the Bruce Lee set, what region is it? is it PAL or NTSC? Is it a Fox release? is the original language Cantonese or Mandarin?

thanks!

Rolando, for an in depth look at Asian films, joins us at HTF Asian DVD thread

The last few pages have some discussion on the Bruce Boxset.


Chris

Matt,

I noticed the distortion in Magnifichent Butcher HKL as well, but it turned out to be my monitor. When converted from PAL to NTSC the film exhibited the same distortion you described. This was fixed by telling my dvd player to output PAL with no conversion (my projector can display PAL as well as NTSC). I don't think the problem is necessarily with the film, I think it has to do with PAL conversion. I've heard of other PAL anamorphic films suffering in NTSC conversion, and I have a suspicion that the distortion is an example of this.

Rolando

The fantastic BRUCE BOX is Region 3, NTSC, 7 Discs and distributed by Fortune Star (possibly through IVL, can't remember), so all-region compatibility is a must. Fortune Star, as Matthew noted, has provided the stunning prints for the FOX U.S. DVDs, and the prints in this box are equally impressive, probably the best you'll ever see them. I'm sure FOX might eventually release these in a new box set, which MIGHT contain original audio tracks, but do you really wanna wait that long to find out when this Bruce Box might no longer be available?

It goes for, on average, $80 US from most places.

As Chris Morris mentioned, there is some better thought on the box in the Asian Cinema on DVD thread, probably around page 12 or 13.

OH WOW!

That Bruce lee box sounds great. man gonna go check that thread.

By the way Brian, I see you are a fellow Canadian. Might I inquire where you got this set from or a good place to order these movies from that will ship to Canada without completely emptying the bank account?

Max, the HKL transfer of Magnificent Butcher is distorted on my native PAL set-up, so I don't think it's anything to do with PAL->NTSC conversion. Thankfully I can go into the service menu and squash the screen slightly to rectify it.

As for the Fox transfers being better than their HKL counterparts, I wouldn't totally agree with that. I recently got a look at the Fox DVDs of Prodigal Son and Young Master, and both transfers feature a heck of a lot of grain and lots of print damage. Prodigal Son does have more detail than the soft HKL version, and is also brighter and much more colourful, but Young Master is second best to the HKL DVD. There's a chronic lack of shadow detail and a really gritty look to the Fox version, compared to the smoother, brighter appearance of the HKL transfer.

HKL comparisons aside, can anyone give me some concrete info on these Fox HK titles? Are the transfers the only thing supplied by Fortune Star, or did they remix the audio and do the subs as well? Thanks.

Geoff -
Fortune Star also remixed the audio to 5.1 and DTS.

I didn't see the HKL versions of PRODIGAL SON or YOUNG MASTER. The others that I have both of I prefer the Fox titles for the transfer. When doing a comparison of both, the HKL versions look soft and almost like they are airbrushed.

Matt

The Fox HK DVD's I've seen so far look great. The remixed audio isn't too bad except for, as mentioned, EASTERN CONDORS. That DVD unfortunately sounds terrible, I found it very distracting. (too bad because its a good film and the picture quality is the best I have ever seen for this film, it looks fantastic).

Fox's MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER is the definitive DVD release for the film. NAKED KILLER unfortunately has some of the sexier scenes edited out (I don't think Fox did this, I think they were given the slightly edited print by Fortune Star).

BTW, Walmart in Canada currently has the first wave of titles for $4.98 Canadian. Great price.

There is another thread going about the Fox Young Master DVD being misframed, so that is another issue.

I'll soon be doing a comparison review of Young Master over at dvddebate.com so I'll address all of those issues in that review, although I'm sure Matt will air his thoughts before then. In the meantime, I've completed a Prodigal Son Fox/HKL comparison review which should be up any day, although my info on the audio/video sources now needs correcting (thanks for the info Matt!).

Geoff-

I'm not sure if it was mentioned before, but in December IVL/Celestial is releasing a box set that includes YOUNG MASTER. While it will almost certainly have teh same transfer, it should have teh original mono sound mix.

If you need sceen captures from the Universal version of Young Master, let me know.

Matt

Many thanks for the offer Matt, but in the interests of objectivity I can't use screen caps for a title that I'm not able to judge on my setup. The Young Master review is intended to be a straight HKL vs. Fox comparison, and it'll be pretty long if my Prodigal Son review is anything to go by! (I like to be thorough, y'see.) Adding any other discs to the Young Master review would lengthen it to the point of boredom, with people just scanning through it for comparison screen caps. They'll probably do that anyway, so I don't want to slave over this review for even longer! But I am genuinely grateful for your offer Matt, and hopefully we can correspond in the future.