1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#1 Post by domino harvey » Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:31 pm

Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

Image


In the early 1970s, a kung-fu dynamo named Bruce Lee side-kicked his way onto the screen and straight into pop-culture immortality. With his magnetic screen presence, tightly coiled intensity, and superhuman martial-arts prowess, Lee was an icon who conquered both Hong Kong and Hollywood cinema, and transformed the art of the action film in the process. This collection brings together the five films that define the Lee legend: furiously exciting fist-fliers propelled by his innovative choreography, unique martial-arts philosophy, and whirlwind fighting style. Though he completed only a handful of films while at the peak of his stardom before his untimely death at age thirty-two, Lee left behind a monumental legacy as both a consummate entertainer and a supremely disciplined artist who made Hong Kong action cinema a sensation the world over.

SEVEN-DISC SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

4K digital restorations of The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Game of Death, and The Way of the Dragon, with uncompressed original monaural soundtracks
New 2K digital restoration of the rarely-seen 99-minute 1973 theatrical version of Enter the Dragon, with uncompressed original monaural soundtrack
2K digital restoration of the 102-minute “special-edition” version of Enter the Dragon
Alternate audio soundtracks for the films, including original English-dubbed tracks and a 5.1 surround soundtrack for the special-edition version of Enter the Dragon
Six audio commentaries: on The Big Boss by Bruce Lee expert Brandon Bentley; on The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Game of Death, and The Way of the Dragon by Hong Kong–film expert Mike Leeder; and on the special-edition version of Enter the Dragon by producer Paul Heller
High-definition presentation of Game of Death II, the 1981 sequel to Game of Death
Game of Death Redux, a new presentation of Lee’s original Game of Death footage, produced by Alan Canvan
New interviews on all five films with Lee biographer Matthew Polly
New interview with producer Andre Morgan about Golden Harvest, the company behind Hong Kong’s top martial-arts stars, including Lee
New program about English-language dubbing with voice performers Michael Kaye (the English-speaking voice of Lee’s Chen Zhen in Fist of Fury) and Vaughan Savidge
New interview with author Grady Hendrix about the “Bruceploitation” subgenre that followed Lee’s death, and a selection of Bruceploitation trailers
Blood and Steel, a 2004 documentary about the making of Enter the Dragon
Multiple programs and documentaries about Lee’s life and philosophies, including Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend (1973) and Bruce Lee: In His Own Words (1998)
Interviews with Linda Lee Cadwell, Lee’s widow, and many of Lee’s collaborators and admirers, including actors Jon T. Benn, Riki Hashimoto, Nora Miao, Robert Wall, Yuen Wah, and Simon Yam and directors Clarence Fok, Sammo Hung, and Wong Jing
Promotional materials
New English subtitle translations and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by critic Jeff Chang

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
Contact:

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#2 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:38 pm

I didn't see this coming

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#3 Post by domino harvey » Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:40 pm

It was one of the four box sets teased in the New Years clue

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#4 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:42 pm

The commentaries on each film in the set pique my interest enough to sell a copy

User avatar
chatterjees
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:08 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#5 Post by chatterjees » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:05 pm

Surprising that nobody cared to do a 4K restoration of Enter The Dragon :-k

albucat
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:06 am

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#6 Post by albucat » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:13 pm

Yeah I'm super excited about this, but weirded out about the lack of a 4k restoration on what is arguably (at least, I'd argue it) his best movie. Wonder about the story behind that.

User avatar
Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#7 Post by Ribs » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:16 pm

It’s just a number - considering these aren’t being released in 4K there’s no theoretical loss so long as the restoration is done well. I’d still say releases like Arrow’s 2K of Long Good Friday are among the best looking I’ve seen.

User avatar
perkizitore
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:29 pm
Location: OOP is the only answer

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#8 Post by perkizitore » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:26 pm

Except for Enter the Dragon, how will the rest compare to the restored Shout releases?

FlickeringWindow
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:27 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#9 Post by FlickeringWindow » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:41 pm

chatterjees wrote:
Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:05 pm
Surprising that nobody cared to do a 4K restoration of Enter The Dragon :-k
The Fortune Star library has been getting full restoration and preservation work, while it's unlikely Enter the Dragon was needing that sort of work. Warner usually does 4K only if working from the camera negative or if it's part of a major preservation project (i.e. The Thin Man) while it's 2K if they're using interpositives or duplicate negatives.

User avatar
dwk
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#10 Post by dwk » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:43 pm

perkizitore wrote:
Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:26 pm
Except for Enter the Dragon, how will the rest compare to the restored Shout releases?
Same masters as the Shout Select releases, but it is still unknown if Criterion was allowed to alter the color timing (as Shout did) or if they have to use the masters as is (ala the two Police Story movies)

User avatar
L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#11 Post by L.A. » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:46 pm

An early Mandarin-language print of The Big Boss with the missing scenes is rumoured to exist. :-k

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#12 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:12 pm

I know it is rather an unloved film even in its so called 'finished' state but I do wonder which version of Game of Death they are going to use: the one with the Cantonese opening credits or the very Maurice Binder-esque (if not actually done by him, it is very close) International version of the opening credits with a John Barry score to make the whole thing feel extremely James Bond-influenced! I presume its going to be the International one, since that is tied in with the English language track. And to be honest those opening titles are the best part of the film.

Game of Death might be in the running for the title of worst film in the collection for all sorts of reasons, but I kind of have a soft spot for it and the way that the whole production is (overly?) hastily trying to mitigate the death of its lead actor with an entirely new plot, body doubles, terribly unconvincing special effects and the old Seconds-style plot about faking your death (Using footage from Bruce Lee's own funeral. And in the staging the death in the form of an accidental shooting on a film set moment it feels horribly premonitory of the accidental death of Brandon Lee in The Crow decades later) and having plastic surgery before coming back for revenge to explain the absence of the main character for the bulk of the film until it all syncs up again with the actual Bruce Lee footage of him fighting his way up the various levels of the tower (or in the case of the Robert Clouse film, the levels of the bad guy's Chinese restauarant!) for the final showdown. Instead to compensate for that absence we get Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao providing the very impressive martial arts scenes on the one hand, and on the other a smattering of Hollywood names in Gig Young and a worryingly frail Dean Jagger regularly looking bewildered at just what they have stumbled into. Its a bit of a mess, made mostly because the rights to the film had been pre-sold to Japanese television before Bruce Lee's untimely passing so they were contractually bound to have to produce a film of some kind with the title of Game of Death, but it is a really fascinating one too.

And yes, as with the Police Story films or the Godzilla films, this is another set of more popular leaning fare that contains films that have multiple different legitimate versions which are all worthy of note, but which seems to be picking out just the main version to preserve for posterity. Which might be an issue especially because I think that a couple of the films have some mandatory endings for specific territories added where after committing his violent revenge on the bad guys, Bruce's main character has to get arrested to show the authorities coming in to put everything in order, no matter how justified the revenge was!

Amazing that they are throwing in Game of Death II as well though. That's really obscure! But it will most likely tie in with the extra feature going into all the 'Brucesploitation' titles with actors going under the name of Bruce Li and Bruce Le being presented as the real thing.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:29 am, edited 9 times in total.

User avatar
captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#13 Post by captveg » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:15 pm

Great to have all the films together in one set for the first time. Game of Death Redux is easily the most appealing thing about this release for me. I wish they'd go ahead and "redux" the entire film with modern effects to fix the very poor still photos of Lee in certain scenes as well, but it sounds like it's just Lee's ending presented in a different manner yet again.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#14 Post by Calvin » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:22 pm

The four Fortune Star films have been released on 4K UHD in France, but consensus seems to be that the slight bump in detail wasn't worth the sacrifice of the Shout colour correction. It looks like Criterion have put a great package together, so hopefully they don't let themselves down either on that front or the encoding.


ftsoh
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:59 am

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#16 Post by ftsoh » Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:05 pm

Hope that they can include the Cantonese soundtrack and the documentary I watched on AMC in the late 90's/early 2000's. I can't remember its title though.
Last edited by ftsoh on Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#17 Post by tenia » Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:05 pm

From the caps on the Criterion page, it looks like Criterion will use the restorations untouched, unlike Shout who color-corrected the whole things.

I'll be interesting to see the differences, because from the specs alone, and with no UHD nor color-corrections, it doesnt seem Criterion will justify a double dip here.

All 4 movies were slightly but visibly grain-managed so Criterion's encodes shouldnt struggle too much there.

User avatar
dwk
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#18 Post by dwk » Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:35 pm

Weirdly though, the colors in the trailer mostly appear closer to the Shout Select releases. (I suppose it is possible that Jonathan Keogh pulled the video for the trailer from the Shout Select Blu-ray.)

As far as justifying a double dip, the inclusion of both cuts of Enter the Dragon from new 2k scans is a pretty big plus.

User avatar
Cash Flagg
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:15 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#19 Post by Cash Flagg » Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:55 pm

I wonder if we might see a solo release of Dragon down the line, a la Last Picture Show and Easy Rider from the BBS box?

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#20 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Apr 13, 2020 7:26 pm

I think we only started seeing those solo releases once Head’s rights shifted the the box was on the verge of going OOP, but it’s possible one had nothing to do with the other

Also, The Last Picture Show never got its solo release. I know because I bought the BBS box set in the B&N sale last fall even though I already own the standalone Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces after growing impatient for it.

User avatar
Close The Door, Raymond
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 11:33 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#21 Post by Close The Door, Raymond » Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:10 pm

They kept a few of the special features from Warner's Enter the Dragon: Special Edition release: audio commentary Paul M. Heller (with Michael Allin - not mentioned in the Criterion listing); "Blood and Steel" and "Bruce Lee: In His Own Words" featurettes; and the Linda Lee Cadwell interviews (unless Criterion did their own).

Criterion seems not to include the documentaries "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey" (2000, 100 minutes), which was only available in the original Warner blu-ray release (not re-releases) and "Curse of the Dragon" (1993, 87 minutes).

It looks like they also included Mike Leeder's audio commentaries on The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Game of Death, and The Way of the Dragon that was available on the Shout Factory "The Bruce Lee Legacy" blu-ray/DVD box set. This box set also included "Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend" (1973) on DVD.

User avatar
TheRanchHand
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 3:18 am
Location: Los Angeles

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#22 Post by TheRanchHand » Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:52 pm

colinr0380 wrote:
Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:12 pm
I know it is rather an unloved film even in its so called 'finished' state but I do wonder which version of Game of Death they are going to use: the one with the Cantonese opening credits or the very Maurice Binder-esque (if not actually done by him, it is very close) International version of the opening credits with a John Barry score to make the whole thing feel extremely James Bond-influenced! I presume its going to be the International one, since that is tied in with the English language track. And to be honest those opening titles are the best part of the film.

You can bet it is the US version. There is an added scene or two in the Hong Kong version that may actually be on GAME OF DEATH 2, depending on which version they use.

Game of Death might be in the running for the title of worst film in the collection for all sorts of reasons, but I kind of have a soft spot for it and the way that the whole production is (overly?) hastily trying to mitigate the death of its lead actor with an entirely new plot, body doubles, terribly unconvincing special effects and the old Seconds-style plot about faking your death (Using footage from Bruce Lee's own funeral. And in the staging the death in the form of an accidental shooting on a film set moment it feels horribly premonitory of the accidental death of Brandon Lee in The Crow decades later) and having plastic surgery before coming back for revenge death to explain the absence of the main character for the bulk of the film until it all syncs up again with the actual Bruce Lee footage of him fighting his way up the various levels of the tower (or in the case of the Robert Clouse film, the levels of the bad guy's Chinese restauarant!) for the final showdown. Instead to compensate for that absence we get Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao providing the very impressive martial arts scenes on the one hand, and on the other a smattering of Hollywood names in Gig Young and a worryingly frail Dean Jagger regularly looking bewildered at just what they have stumbled into. Its a bit of a mess, made mostly because the rights to the film had been pre-sold to Japanese television before Bruce Lee's untimely passing so they were contractually bound to have to produce a film of some kind with the title of Game of Death, but it is a really fascinating one too.

If you haven't seen GAME OF DEATH 2 you may change your mind. Though GAME 2 is a better all around action film, it is not quite as well made as GAME 1. The same fight double from GAME 1 is used and plays both the character in GAME 1 and his brother. It's a wild one but happy they have it in here.
There are two distinct versions of it as well, but only one is included and no doubt is the US version which does not have the outtakes from Enter The Dragon. It features clips from his other films but the ENTER stuff was used in the international version of it, TOWER OF DEATH


And yes, as with the Police Story films or the Godzilla films, this is another set of more popular leaning fare that contains films that have multiple different legitimate versions which are all worthy of note, but which seems to be picking out just the main version to preserve for posterity. Which might be an issue especially because I think that a couple of the films have some mandatory endings for specific territories added where after committing his violent revenge on the bad guys, Bruce's main character has to get arrested to show the authorities coming in to put everything in order, no matter how justified the revenge was!

Amazing that they are throwing in Game of Death II as well though. That's really obscure! But it will most likely tie in with the extra feature going into all the 'Brucesploitation' titles with actors going under the name of Bruce Li and Bruce Le being presented as the real thing.
There is a future Bruceploitation Box Set coming out from some rare 35mm masters from Michael Worth, Tarantino, etc.. This set will be a good doorway to those for new fans. In fact the doc on this THE MAN, THE LEGEND if released in its 2.35 aspect would be amazing as it was the first doc of Lee shot and was made literally within days of his death. Has footage in his office at home, in the yard, etc., days after he passed away. Just showed how his life was such a fascination to everyone

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#23 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:59 am

I only just now realized the pun in the title

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#24 Post by swo17 » Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:14 am

Yeah, whoever wrote that has some serious chops!

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 1036 Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits

#25 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:18 am

Still no idea who Star-Burns is

Post Reply