Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

The Dragon, the Hero 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.

They say that "real" movie watching should be a communal experience with other audience members present, and in that regard Michael Worth's loving introduction to this film recounts him seeing it "on the big screen" in San Francisco's Chinatown when he was young, and how the audience responded rapturously to this 1979 Godfrey Ho effort. And that rapturous response may once again be tethered at least somewhat to the fact that this film's perceived Brucesploitation connection may be at least a bit tangential. And in fact as Worth also mentions in his introduction, the fact that what is arguably the most overt Brucesploitation aspect, the involvement of Dragon Lee, is not even really central to a plot that includes everything from a kind of quasi-Fight Club to nefarious racketeers to some absolutely scenery chewing antics by Chan Lau, often matched by Philip Ko as the other main villain. John Liu and Tino Wong are the focal heroes, which pushes Dragon Lee even further down this particular echelon.

The Dragon, the Hero Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Dragon, the Hero is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Michael Worth's introduction states that this was sourced from an internegative from Transcontinental Films. The actual presentation begins with this prefatory text card:

The following presentation was scanned from the internegative of Transcontinental Films' US Theatrical Version entitled Dragon on Fire.

Because no film element could be found for the pieces that were removed for this release, they are included in the Special Features as Deleted Scenes.

This is one of the better looking transfers in this set, though it can be fairly highly variable at times. A lot of the palette pops extremely well, with things like the deep orange-red backgrounds of the title sequence resonating extremely well. Outdoor material looks very good a lot of the time, if admittedly just slightly faded, and in fact densities and general suffusion can ebb and flow from scene to scene and sometimes within scenes. Detail levels are typically decent if never really outstanding. There's some of the same kinds of damage seen in many of the other transfers in this set, in this case mostly smaller scratches, nicks and blemishes, but also a few passing more troublesome spots where there are skips and some brief flashes or disruptions.

The Dragon, the Hero Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dragon, the Hero features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that unfortunately shows some obvious distortion in the opening music (which kind of hilariously sounds like an Asian riff on some of Les Baxter's stuff for Yma Sumac) and really boxy narration, but the good news is things improve at least marginally thereafter. While the entire track is once again on the boxy, hollow side, something that's apparent here in both effects and dialogue if perhaps a bit less so in some of the post-credits scoring, everything is delivered in a relatively problem free manner. Dubbing is once again almost comically inept. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Dragon, the Hero Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary With Director Godfrey Ho and Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth


• Godfrey, The Hero – Interview With Director Godfrey Ho (HD*; 18:06) features a tour of sorts with Ho.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 23:14)


• Severin's Kung Fu Theater With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth (HD; 1:54) 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; 1:49)

*720

The Dragon, the Hero Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another pretty much completely lunatic enterprise that has so many plot strands it ultimately may rely mostly on its action elements to deliver the goods, and in that regard it's surprisingly effective. On the sometimes iffy scale of this entire set, this features above average video and audio, and the supplements are very enjoyable.