The Magnificent Butcher Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

The Magnificent Butcher Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 21, 2019

Yuen Woo-ping’s "The Magnificent Butcher" (1979) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include two archival interviews with Sammo Hung; new audio commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema; and vintage trailer. In Cantonese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The troublemaker

The chubby martial arts student Lam Sai-wing (Sammo Hung) can’t stop screwing up, which is why he is constantly punished by his master. However, eventually the old man’s patience runs out and the student is shown the door.

Not too long after that, however, the student gets trapped in a murder case, which a member of a rivaling martial arts school sees as the perfect opportunity to destroy the reputation of his master. The student attempts prevent the damage, but instead becomes a murder suspect and then ends up complicating things even more. While trying to prove his innocence and regain the sympathy of his master, the student then begins confronting all sorts of shady characters with impressive fighting skills.

There isn’t a shortage of people that consider Yuen Woo-ping’s The Magnificent Butcher a great classic of the martial arts genre, but its brilliance is exaggerated. Here’s why:

The film is based on a script by Wong Jing whose work as a writer, producer and director has had a gigantic impact on the evolution of Hong Kong action cinema. Regrettably, virtually all of the serious flaws in this film can be traced back to the script that he delivered, which is very inconsistent, and in some parts perhaps even incomplete. For example, even though the title of the film highlights the student’s experience as a butcher, the narrative quite simply does not incorporate it -- not even in a flashback that explains why it is actually relevant for his identity. The expansion of the narrative is also done in cycles whose tempers are routinely out of sync, causing different segments to appear as if they have been extracted from different films. This is the main reason why from start to finish it feels like the film is struggling to choose an identity -- half of it looks like a martial arts parody while the other half remains immune to the silly humor.

Seasoned connoisseurs of martial arts cinema will easily spot inconsistencies in the management of the action as well – not in the choreography of the acts, but the manner in which they are staged to strengthen the main characters and expand the narrative. For example, in the second half of the film where the bulk of the action is, there are quite a few fights without the student that unintentionally do plenty to shift the focus of attention elsewhere. As a result, secondary characters begin competing with him for the spotlight, but the script does not supply the necessary material to justify the shift. Of course, this does not make the film unwatchable or disappointing, but it is quite easy to see these inconsistencies and realize that the script could have been polished better.

Sammo Hung’s biggest rival is a terrific Mei Sheng Fan ,who plays the spirited drunkard Beggar King. He has incredible athletic skills and his seemingly endless facial expressions make his performance truly a special one. In one of the funniest sequences in the entire film, the drunkard enters an old inn, gets in a nasty fight, and starts ‘saving’ as much of the expensive wine that previously he hasn’t been able to afford as he can.

The Magnificent Butcher Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Magnificent Butcher arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

Like the other two films in Eureka Entrenchment's box set, this film has been fully remastered in 2K. It looks good. The one area where I see room for additional improvements is density, which during some of the darker/indoor footage tends to fluctuate a bit. Also, in the same darker/indoor footage from time to time delineation tends to struggle a bit, which is why some flatness can be observed as well (you can see examples in screencaptures #4 and 17). Fluidity is good. Colors are stable, but ideally saturation should be even better, plus some nuances can be even healthier. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. However, during some of the darker/indoor footage the grain has a tends to appear noisy. Image stability is very good. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Magnificent Butcher Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are four standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese: LPCM Mono. Cantonese: LPCM Mono (alternate track), English: LPCM Mono (classic dub), and English: LPCM 2.0 (modern dub). Optional English subtitles are provided. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I tried to view the film with the original Cantonese track but had a very hard time with the English subtitles. Some appear and disappear so fast that they are practically unusable. I had the same problem with Eastern Condors, but here there are parts of the film that I just could not view. So, I switched to the modern English dub. i don't have any complaints about the quality of the audio tracks, but I found the subtitling problematic.

The Magnificent Butcher Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - an original vintage theatrical trailer for The Magnificent Butcher. In Cantonese, with optional English subtitles. (5 min).

• Interview with Yuen Woo-ping - in this archival video interview, Yuen Woo-ping discusses the evolution of his career, his training and the role his father played in it, and his work on The Magnificent Butcher. In Cantonese, with optional English subtitles. (21 min).

• Two Interviews with Sammo Hung - in these archival interviews, Sammo Hung remembers how he decided to enter the Peking Opera School and how he later on he established himself in the Hong Kong film industry. There are some interesting observations about the films he made as well. In English, not subtitled. (21 min).

• Commentary - this audio commentary was recorded by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. There is good information here that addresses the stylistic appearance of The Magnificent Butcher, the significance of its title and the proper context in which it should be placed,Yuen Woo-ping and Sammo Hung's careers, and the evolution of Hong Kong martial arts cinema. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Eureka Entertainment.

• Booklet - an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on all three films by James Oliver.

The Magnificent Butcher Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some very serious talent made The Magnificent Butcher and I think that this is the main reason why it has been overhyped by fans of martial arts cinema. No, it is not a bad film, not even close, but it is pretty easy to see that there is a lot in it that could have been managed better. There is still plenty to like, especially if all that you require to be entertained is old-school action, and let's be honest here, this is exactly what pretty much everyone that seeks this film will expect from it. Eureka Entertainment's recent release of The Magnificent Butcher is sourced from a good 2K remaster. RECOMMENDED.