Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

The Dragon Lives 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.

Bruce Li may have been a newcomer to films in general and to portraying Bruce Lee in particular in this film's disc mate Super Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, but as Michael Worth mentions in his introduction, by the time 1976 rolled around, The Dragon Lives was just one of five times Li played Lee that year. Quantity of course is no substitute for quality, but Li had certainly grown more confident in his action elements by this time, and on the whole, The Dragon Lives may be the more consistent "biography" of Lee between the two films offered on this disc. As Worth also mentions, this was the only Lee biography to cover his life from birth to death, though let's just say liberties are taken with both of those major events as well as a lot of what comes in between, in what Worth points out is a story focusing on the dialectic between Lee's "country of identity" and America. There's an interesting little aspect to the film that is well covered in the supplements, in that Caryn White kind of stumbled into this film, her sole movie role, almost by accident.

The Dragon Lives Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Dragon Lives is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. In his introduction to the film, Michael Worth states this transfer is scanned from the interpositive from Film Ventures International. This has some appealing detail levels and at least intermittent clarity, but there is also some noticeable softness almost verging on blurriness at times (see screenshot 2). As with many of the other transfers in this set, the palette is a definite strong point, and lot of this presentation pops very well, especially with regard to primaries (note the reds in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review). Once again, there are some anamorphic peculiarities, and I'd direct your attention to screenshot 9 for another example of the kind of weird tilting / skewing situation I've discussed in a number of other reviews of the films from this set. Grain can be a bit splotchy and yellow on occasion, even apart from any opticals like dissolves.

The Dragon Lives Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dragon Lives features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track, and as with many of the other films in this set, there can be noticeable boxiness in some of the fight sound effects in particular. Otherwise, though, this is a decently full bodied track that delivers dialogue and score without any real issues. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Dragon Lives Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary With Actress Caryn White Stedman and Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth


• Audio Interview With "He's A Legend, He's A Hero" Songwriter Anders Gustav Nelsson (HD; 1:27:33) plays like a kind of alternate audio commentary track which plays to the film. This lasts a little less than a half hour.


• The Taiwan Connection – Interview With Caryn White Stedman (HD; 15:20) has some nice Arizona scenery and a somewhat cinematic approach to this piece.


• Bruce Biopics – Roundtable Discussion With Martial Artists/Kung Fu Film Experts Tatevik Hunanyan, John Kreng, Ron Strong and Michael Worth (HD; 9:37) this time focuses on this sub-subgenre.


• Severin's Kung Fu Theater With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth (HD; 1:18) 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.


• TV Spots (HD; 00:43, 00:32)

The Dragon Lives Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Any connection to the actual historical record in The Dragon Lives may be only marginally more accurate than in Super Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, but there's still probably more "meat" to this version than the earlier attempt, and Li had certainly grown measurably in confidence as both an actor and fighter by the time he made this film. Judged on the curve of this set in its entirety, video and audio are both relatively solid, and the supplements, many of which focus on Caryn White Stedman, are quite interesting.