When Taekwondo Strikes (Eureka Classics)

[The Mole]

Coming from Eureka on January 22nd 2024:

https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/when-taekwondo-strikes/




SYNOPSIS

The Queen of Kung Fu Angela Mao and the King of Taekwondo Jhoon Rhee join forces in this action packed Hong Kong classic!

In Japanese occupied Korea, resistance leader Lee (Rhee) is captured by the Japanese occupying forces. To rescue him, his pupil Jin (Carter Wong, The Skyhawk) must get help from a Hapkido expert (Mao) and together they fight there way through an army of Japanese villains played by a number of genre favourites including Hwang In-shik (Way of the Dragon), Kenji Kazama (The Streetfighter) and Sammo Hung (The Millionaires’ Express).

Eureka Classics is proud to present When Taekwondo Strikes on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK from a brand new 2K restoration.



SPECIAL FEATURES

Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling [2000 copies]
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of the original Hong Kong theatrical cut from a brand new 2K restoration
Original Mandarin mono audio
“Classic” English dubbed mono audio
Optional alternate English audio track with different music cues
Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release
Brand new feature length audio commentary by film historian and author Samm Deighan
The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1990, dir. Sandra Weintraub. 91 mins) – feature-length documentary presented by John Saxon
Trailers
A Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver [2000 copies]


Great, that they finally managed to get Fortune Stars permission to release THE BEST OF THE MARTIAL ARTS FILMS. Hope it will be in HD and all film clips will be in the correct aspect ratio.

[cooey]

Originally Posted by The Mole

Great, that they finally managed to get Fortune Stars permission to release THE BEST OF THE MARTIAL ARTS FILMS. Hope it will be in HD and all film clips will be in the correct aspect ratio.

See posts from the Eureka thread -

Originally Posted by Labor_Unit001

https://twitter.com/OldPangYau/statu...250268787?s=20

Preview footage from Brandon Bentley showing that The Best of the Martial Arts Films on When Taekwondo Strikes has been updated to include remastered footage as well as the correct aspect ratio for all previously cropped movies. The vinegar syndrome edition just used upscales or bad HD transfers.

Originally Posted by OldPangYau

Yup

So, the best way I can put it is that any of the previously remastered 1.85 films will now retain that ratio and in true HD. China O'Brien is a weird outlier, as I believe it *should* be 1.85, but unfortunately we didn't have access to those clips in true HD *and* 1.85. So at least those clips will be in HD, even if the 2.35 ratio may be incorrect.

Definitely no fault on Vinegar Syndrome's part on the Righting Wrongs bonus disc, but rather just being all they had access to at the time. And it goes without saying the virtually all of the 2.35 footage will be in true HD as well (with literally one under-one-minute exception that we couldn't source).

Also, the audio is no longer the "muffled PAL-pitched" version that was attached to the master, so there's that as well.

[The Mole]

Originally Posted by cooey

See posts from the Eureka thread -

Ah, now that should be another fantastic release. I also like the choice Brandon made to re-frame all the 1,85:1-footage to fill the TV screen instead of it being windowboxed within the 2,35:1 frame.

[Orlac]

My main memory of WTS is seeing fresh-out-of-college Golden Harvest exec Andre Morgan playing an old priest!

Ann Winton, the second female lead, came to a tragic end - https://popcultmaster.com/2018/02/26...f-anne-winton/

And not for the first time, Bernard Hermann wasn't above self-plagarism, was he?

Sting of the Dragon Masters (1973) - Trailer - YouTube

[Parsifal]

Too bad no Frank Djeng/Michael Worth and/or Bobby Samuels commentary this time around so there can be a deeper analysis on the cinematography and the fight choreography from those who actually worked in the industry.

[Ben_C]

The inclusion of The Best of The Martial Arts Films makes buying this a no-brainer for me. Haven’t seen that for absolutely ages, so it’ll be great fun to watch it all these years later having now seen a heck of a lot more of the featured films than last time I saw it.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Ben_C

The inclusion of The Best of The Martial Arts Films makes buying this a no-brainer for me. Haven’t seen that for absolutely ages, so it’ll be great fun to watch it all these years later having now seen a heck of a lot more of the featured films than last time I saw it.

For a lot of US fans, it definitely showed the golden era of 80s HK films (with a dash of 70s) before many of those films would finally get released here thanks to Tai Seng. I remember as a kid, seeing this around '91 or '92, wondering where I could rent/buy these movies, lol.

[Bes30]

Originally Posted by Parsifal

Too bad no Frank Djeng/Michael Worth and/or Bobby Samuels commentary this time around so there can be a deeper analysis on the cinematography and the fight choreography from those who actually worked in the industry.

Yes, though I thought Samm Deighan's commentary on Chinese Boxer was excellent so I'm happy to hear more from her.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Orlac

Ann Winton, the second female lead, came to a tragic end - https://popcultmaster.com/2018/02/26...f-anne-winton/

Jesus, that's tragic!

[Drunksnake]

Originally Posted by OldPangYau

For a lot of US fans, it definitely showed the golden era of 80s HK films (with a dash of 70s) before many of those films would finally get released here thanks to Tai Seng. I remember as a kid, seeing this around '91 or '92, wondering where I could rent/buy these movies, lol.

Any more archive footage you can muster up for this?

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by OldPangYau

For a lot of US fans, it definitely showed the golden era of 80s HK films (with a dash of 70s) before many of those films would finally get released here thanks to Tai Seng. I remember as a kid, seeing this around '91 or '92, wondering where I could rent/buy these movies, lol.

I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again — thank you SO so much for continuing to go WAY above and beyond for us fans — all your painstaking reconstructions and NEW hybrid constructions are just amazing, film versions I never thought I’d ever get to see or own, and some I hadn’t even thought about! This new spiffed-up reconstruction of the vintage documentary sounds absolutely epic, and I’ll be seeing it with fresh eyes, never ran across it before. You are THE MAN.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by WaverBoy

I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again — thank you SO so much for continuing to go WAY above and beyond for us fans — all your painstaking reconstructions and NEW hybrid constructions are just amazing, film versions I never thought I’d ever get to see or own, and some I hadn’t even thought about! This new spiffed-up reconstruction of the vintage documentary sounds absolutely epic, and I’ll be seeing it with fresh eyes, never ran across it before. You are THE MAN.

Thank you very much! It's not perfect (I'll explain more down the road, though my quote above sort of mentions some of it), but it's far better than the initial master that inexplicably used upscales and cropped 90% of the 1.85 footage to 2.35. This has been a long time coming... can't give all the details as to what took so long, but the stars finally aligned for this release, lol.

[saltysam]

Just got this today, nice transfer.Angela Mao is a badass in this one. Good booklet and a double sided cover featuing choice of original HK Poster or the USA Sting of the Dragon Masters one. And Best Of The Martial Arts Movies as a bonus, some extra that one,could've been a solo release on it's own.

[Pochacco]

I got round to watching this last night and I enjoyed it. I then watched the Best Of The Martial Arts Movies since it's been a while since I saw it and noticed that John Saxon incorrectly refers to a scene in Dragons Forever (where JC is facing off against Benny) as being from Meals on Wheels!

[Ben_C]

Originally Posted by Pochacco

I got round to watching this last night and I enjoyed it. I then watched the Best Of The Martial Arts Movies since it's been a while since I saw it and noticed that John Saxon incorrectly refers to a scene in Dragons Forever (where JC is facing off against Benny) as being from Meals on Wheels!

I noticed that mistake when I watched it the other week. Probably wouldn’t have caught it back in the day, as I had no idea what any of the films were

[Blu2u]

Originally Posted by Pochacco

I got round to watching this last night and I enjoyed it. I then watched the Best Of The Martial Arts Movies since it's been a while since I saw it and noticed that John Saxon incorrectly refers to a scene in Dragons Forever (where JC is facing off against Benny) as being from Meals on Wheels!

C'mon, you just incorrectly referred to the film as Meals on Wheels. It's Wheels on Meals.

[Pochacco]

I'm getting to that age! Lol

[Markgway]

I think John Saxon actually says "Meals on Wheels".

[chen lung]

Originally Posted by Markgway

I think John Saxon actually says "Meals on Wheels".

For the 'Dragons Forever' clip, he says 'Wheels on Meals' (and does so again in the actual clip from the film minutes later).

There are a handful of errors throughout (see this).

[Batterdammerung]

The advertised second version of the English dub isn't on the disc.