Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Two of Asia's biggest martial arts stars team up in this excellent offering from Korea. Two sons swear to avenge their father's murder. They set off in search of the last man to see him alive.
Starring: Ryong Keo, Carter Wong, Jin-su Ahn, Kap-Sung Ra, Min-gyu ChoeForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 49% |
Action | 20% |
Drama | 13% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
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.
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 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 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.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Dragon on Fire / Kuai quan guai zhao / 快拳怪招
1978
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