Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
John Liu, the legendary Northern Kick expert is sent to investigate an antiques smuggling gang working out of Canton.
Starring: Ryong Keo, Lik Cheung, Lau Chan, Shao-Chia Chen, Ka-Sang ChengForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 49% |
Action | 20% |
Drama | 13% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol. 1.
When Severin Films released Kung Fu Trailers of
Fury
and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of
Fury
several years ago, I'm sure I wasn't the only one initially thinking, "Well, that's a stupid idea for a release", only to have the sheer
lunacy of the trailers assembled in both collections "fight back" against that assessment, as if to say in response, "Yeah, well who's stupid
now?" In fact, both Kung Fu Trailers of Fury and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of Fury were kind of deliriously enjoyable in
their
own slapdash way, and those releases evidently were one of the inspirations for a full on collection of so-called "Brucesploitation" films, this time
offering the actual films in addition to their trailers. The goofily affable Michael Worth, who has contributed so many fun commentaries
through the years to various kung fu films on Blu-ray, is your "host" of sorts here, offering introductions to all the films and commentaries for many
of
them. If none of these films is ever going to be acclaimed as an unappreciated masterpiece, and if both video and audio on many of the films in
this
set might be charitably termed problematic, merely having these films in high definition will be alluring, and an absolute glut of other supplemental
material is included as well, making this a probable "must have" for a certain demographic.
Enter Three Dragons is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Michael Worth states this was culled from an internegative from Transcontinental, and this transfer shows many of the same pluses and minuses of other films in this set. Once again there are some really noticeable anamorphic oddities where the rectangle of the frame almost looks like it's become a parallelogram, so that things are kind of weirdly tilted/skewed (see screenshot 4). There's also some kind of odd looking squeezing that tends to be further in toward the center of the frame than may be typical (see screenshot 6). There's some of the same kind of damage on tap in many of the other transfers, but as with this film's disc mate, The Clones of Bruce Lee , not nearly as bad as is seen elsewhere. The palette is somewhat variable, often kind of brownish and faded looking, but then at certain moments as in a long outdoor sequence shortly after the half hour mark, rather good and nicely suffused, at least relatively speaking.
Enter Three Dragons features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono that as with several other tracks in this set features some pretty bad high end distortion that creates sibilance in spoken material and a kind of metallic sound in some of the scoring, especially noticeable in some of the percussion. There's the same overall boxy sound that gives a kind of hollow ambience to the chop socky sound effects that is evident in many of the other tracks in this set. Optional English subtitles are available.
When Michael Worth mentions having "three drinks and three cookies" before watching this film, one might reasonably assume he is thinking of something like the cookie version of an Alice B. Toklas brownie, since being either chemically, alcoholically or herbally "enhanced" may be the only way to "understand" this film, even if you have no memory of it afterward. This is fun in a certain way, but can't help but compare unfavorably to the even more gonzo The Clones of Bruce Lee. Both video and audio encounter some major hurdles, but I'd still rate at least the video here as relatively better than some of the other transfers in this set.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Mission for the Dragon / Ying quan / Maegwon / 鷹拳
1979
Shen wei san meng long / 神威三猛龍
1980
Si wang mo ta / 死亡魔塔
1978
Bruce Against Iron Hand / Dai gau tau yue siu leung ji / Da jiao tou yu sao niang zi / 大教頭與騷娘子
1979
Za jia gao shou / 雜家高手
1979
The New Game of Death / Xin si wang you xi / 新死亡遊戲
1975
He's a Legend, He's a Hero / Yong chun da xiong / 詠春大兄
1976
Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story / Yi dai meng long / 一代猛龍
1974
San lung mang tam / Shen long meng tan / Mie jue qi qi / 神龍猛探 / 滅絕七七
1980
Cameroun Connection
1985
In the Line of Duty | Huáng jiā zhàn shì | Wong ga jin si | 皇家戰士 | 2K Remastered
1986
Deep Thrust / Tie zhang xuan feng tui / 鐵掌旋風腿
1972
Liu A-Cai yu Huang Fei-Hong
1976
新精武門 / Xīn jīng wǔ mén
1976
Chi jiao xiao zi / Chik geuk siu ji / 赤腳小子
1993
合氣道 / He qi dao / Lady Kung Fu
1972
Sì dà mén pài | 四大門派 | Limited Edition
1977
蛇鶴八步 / She he ba bu
1978
Zhui hun biao / Chui wan biu / 追魂鏢
1968
劍花煙雨江南 / Jian hua yan yu jiang nan
1977