Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Rage of the Dragon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 23, 2024

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.

One of the kind of interesting sidebars to the whole Brucesploitation phenomenon is the fact that many of the most notable pseudo-Bruces, including Bruce Li, Bruce Le and Dragon Lee, all developed their own fan bases. Michael Worth's ebullient introduction to this film makes it clear that Dragon Lee is one of his favorites, and Lee's almost manic action skills are on fine display throughout this probably overheated enterprise which kind of reminded me in a way of a modern update on old Shaw Brothers films where varieties of fighting techniques are pitted against each other. Both Worth in his introduction and some other information mention that Godfrey Ho may not actually be the "real" director here as credited, but this freewheeling story offers Dragon Lee as Lei Lung, a character out to avenge the death of his father, who ends up in an unwilling alliance with Wong Kwok (Martin Chui), whose father has also perished. Carter Wong is on hand in a none too subtle characterization that probably tips its "twist" way too early. Worth mentions one of the film's highlights, with an emphasis on the "light" part of that word, as Dragon dons a vest made of mirrors to exploit a light sensitivity suffered by the villain.

Rage of the Dragon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rage of the Dragon is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Michael Worth mentions that this was scanned from an internegative from Transcontinental in his introduction and says it looks "fantastic", which some may find at least a little debatable. There's a somewhat "dupey" look to this transfer that tends to emphasize blues, so that even blacks can be a little on the "shiny" side, but there is color here, even if it frankly looks a bit more like a CRI source than an internegative (interestingly, the film Worth mentions had a CRI source element,Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death , boasts pretty accurate looking color). There's still quite a bit of damage on display, including some noticeable scratching (some of which can be seen in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review), and some other anomalies like damage toward the edge of the frame (look on the left side of screenshot 2, though there are other moments, as in an early scene where the two fathers are killed, where there's considerable damage running down the right side of the frame).

Rage of the Dragon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rage of the Dragon features a decently boisterous sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. There's some of the worst dubbing of this entire set, for what that's worth, and while there's the same boxy, hollow quality to a lot of the effects I've mentioned in other reviews of films from this set, there's decent midrange which helps to keep some of the sound effects nicely resonant.

Rage of the Dragon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth with contributions from Chris Poggiali, Co-Author of These Fists Break Bricks


• Kung Fu Theaters – Roundtable Discussion With Martial Artists/Kung Fu Film Experts Tatevik Hunanyan, John Kreng, Ron Strong and Michael Worth (HD; 8:12) is another fun conversation, this time focusing on movie houses.


• Severin's Kung Fu Theater With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth (HD; 1:36) offers a brief introduction. This is accessible as either a standalone supplement or under the Play Menu, where it's authored to lead directly to the feature.


• Trailer (HD; 1:38)

Rage of the Dragon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rage of the Dragon may frankly not be going out with a bang in terms of the movies offered in the wide release from Severin, but it's still goofily enjoyable and gives Dragon Lee a chance to show off his own particular style, even if he's obviously emulating Bruce Lee at times. Both video and audio encounter the typical hurdles that are seen throughout the entire Severin set, but the supplements are very enjoyable.