7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A Chinese immigrant working at a Thai ice factory has sworn to an oath of nonviolence. When he discovers that the factory's ruthless higher-ups are running a secret heroin ring and offing their own workers, his commitment to pacifism is put to the test.
Starring: Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Marilyn Bautista, Ying-Chieh HanForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 50% |
Drama | 36% |
Crime | 29% |
Action | 16% |
Thriller | 7% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital Mono
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Cantonese: Dolby Digital Mono
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Note: This film is currently only available as part of Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection.
For hordes of baby boomers, Bruce Lee will probably forever be Kato. In the wake of the insanely popular Adam West
Batman series, ABC greenlit another superhero in the hopes of lightning striking twice, but The Green
Hornet had neither Batman’s campy sense of humor nor, ultimately, its popularity (though truth be told, by
the time The Green Hornet aired, Batman was probably already at its all time peak in popularity and was
soon to begin losing its audience, ultimately
following its sibling into the purgatory of cancellation and endless reruns via syndication). Bruce Lee made such an
impression as Van Williams’ sidekick in The Green Hornet that the series was actually known colloquially in many
international markets as The Kato Show. Many Westerners at least were unaware that Lee had toiled in film for
years as a child actor before his breakout role in American television. Though The Green Hornet was not in itself
a success, it raised Lee’s profile to the point where he at least could find occasional work as a guest star in other
American television series, but perhaps surprisingly it took a few more years until Lee’s tragically brief adult film career
finally took hold. Over the course of a mere two or so years, Lee made only five films, but he established himself as the
leading martial arts star of his generation and due perhaps at least somewhat to his untimely death at the age of 32 in
1973, Lee rather quickly became even more legendary, part of that cadre of stars who, rather like James Dean,
experienced a post-mortem reassessment of their contributions that only grew with the passing years. The
international market has seen several Blu-ray releases of Lee’s first films over the years, both singly and in deluxe
boxed sets, but fans were overjoyed to hear of this new Shout! Factory set, which includes four of Lee’s five films (Enter the Dragon is a Warner
property and has been released on Blu-ray by that studio). Joy turned to shock, however, when early recipients of this
extravagantly packaged set started complaining that Fortune Star, who had provided the masters to Shout! for this
release, had “cheated” viewers by supplying upscaled standard definition transfers rather than native high definition
properties.
. . .and now, for the rest of the story. Paul Harvey used to tease his radio audiences with that famous introductory phrase,
and it’s more or less perfect for “what happened next”. After comments from consumers who received early versions of the first release, and
(if I might be less than perfectly humble for a moment) the original Blu-ray.com review, Shout! realized there was something wrong with the
release.
While they remained a bit circumspect on what was happening, with original reports seeming to focus only on the mislabeled discs I had
identified in my original review, Shout! ultimately evidently uncovered newer high definition masters for three of the films and went back to
the drawing board to recreate and reissue the set. There have been a lot of accusations flying around the internet (what else is new?)
alleging all kinds of nefarious behavior, but I for one find this neither helpful nor ultimately of much importance. What matters is that Shout!
has tried to address concerns and has probably gone to considerable expense to recall the first set and reissue this “new, improved” one.
Their official statement detailing the differences in this new set reads:
Some fans have thrown brickbats at Shout! for supposedly not “coming clean” about whether the first set contained upscales or not, and to them I’d simply ask two questions, the first of which is: what difference does it make, now that Shout! has corrected the problem? The second, perhaps tangential, question is whether this is simply a matter of terminology. As lovers of FUNimation anime releases are well aware, that label regularly lists releases as HD native when what they really mean is that they have been provided (pre-existing) upscaled HD masters of native SD content. That may in fact be what has happened here, but again, I find the brouhaha a relatively moot point, now that corrected masters have been provided.Correct pairing of disc label art and media for discs 10 and 11, which had inadvertently been swapped on the original release.
New Blu-rays for The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon. Contrary to speculation circulating on the internet, the original set did contain hi-def masters of the first three feature films. However, after comments from fans who had received early copies of our set, we discovered that our sources were not the recently restored transfers used for the Blu-rays in Hong Kong and Japan, but rather the original masters done a few years ago in Canada. We therefore acquired the improved masters (the master for Game of Death was no appreciably different), and have included them on this new set, for a truly definitive Bruce Lee collection.
Note: Screencaps 1-10 are taken from this new release. Screencaps 11-20 are from the original recalled release. I have included at
least a couple of "similar" frames for comparison as well as other moments from the film for a general overview of the changes.
The Big Boss is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1 (you'll note that the
original release was in 2.34:1, and if you compare screenshots, there's a very slight but noticeable anamorphic "stretching" in this
release). This was (in my
estimation) one of the better looking outings in the original set (upscale or not), and that continues with this new version. Colors are quite nicely
saturated and generally very accurate looking. Shout! had stated that the first release had undergone color correction, and it's notable therefore
that this new release has quite a noticeably different palette than the first release. Toggling back and forth between the screenshots taken from
similar frames reveals what to me looks like a red tint on the original release that is not present in the newer release. The ringing artifacts that
hobbled the first release are largely absent now. The transfer boasts
decent if not overwhelming sharpness and acceptable levels of fine detail in close-ups, but one has to keep in mind the source elements and
relatively paltry budget of this effort. The one thing that may bother some videophiles is the relative paucity of grain. The grain here is quite
natural looking, but it's extremely fine, noticeable mostly in darker sections of the frame. I won't go so far as to say DNR was utilized, but
this is easily the least grainy presentation of the films in this set.
Shout! Factory has included several different audio options, but their menu listings either don't always match what's actually present or fail to disclose whether the tracks are lossless or not. The following list offers the menu listings followed by actual audio specs in parentheses, if those differ from the menu listing or if further clarification is needed:
The Big Boss simply isn't prime Bruce Lee, but there are some fitful pleasures to be had here, including a couple of exciting fight sequences, though even these are hobbled by some unsure direction and editing. This revised release offers substantially better looking video, though grain seems rather minimal. The audio options here are quite lengthy, though again high definition purists will complain about the lossy mixes. The supplements are quite extensive and feature a well done commentary, though that, too, has its own audio issues.
The Big Boss | 唐山大兄 | Collector's Edition
1971
唐山大兄 / Tang shan da xiong / Fists of Fury
1971
(Still not reliable for this title)
Fist of Fury | 精武門 | Collector's Edition
1972
The Way of the Dragon | 猛龍過江 | Collector's Edition
1972
死亡遊戲 | Collector's Edition
1978
死亡塔 / Si wang ta / Tower of Death
1981
警察故事 / Ging chaat goo si
1985
Dou fo sin
2007
警察故事續集 / Ging chaat goo si juk jaap
1988
Sun King Chaat Gu Si
2004
その男、凶暴につき
1989
Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken / 激突!殺人拳
1974
殺破狼 | SPL: Kill Zone | Saat po long | Ultimate Edition
2005
In the Line of Duty II | Huáng jiā shī jiě | Wong ka si jie | 皇家師姐 | 2K Remastered
1985
用心棒 / Yôjinbô
1961
龍爭虎鬥
1973
Dak ging to lung / Te jing tu long / 特警屠龍
1988
1984
精武英雄
1994
給爸爸的信 / The Enforcer
1995
アウトレイジ / Way of the Yakuza
2010
殺破狼2 / SPL II: A Time for Consequence / Saat Po Long 2
2015