Heart of Dragon (1985) (Arrow Video)

[MifuneFan]

Arrow Video will be releasing Heart of Dragon (1985), which stars Jackie Chan, and Sammo Hung, on Blu-ray on April 11th.

https://www.arrowvideo.com/blu-ray/h.../14249990.html



Original Art Edition (Arrow Store exclusive)

https://www.arrowvideo.com/blu-ray/h.../14249991.html

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

- 2K restoration from the original negative by Fortune Star
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of the 91-minute Hong Kong Theatrical Cut and the 99-minute Extended Japanese Cut via seamless branching
- Original lossless Cantonese and English mono audio on both cuts, plus Mandarin on the Theatrical Cut and Cantonese with alternate score on the Extended Cut
- Optional English subtitles for both cuts
- Brand new commentary by Frank Djeng & FJ DeSanto on the Extended Cut
- The Making of The First Mission and The First Mission: Pre-Release Event, two extended featurettes made to promote the Japanese release by Shochiku
- Archive interview with star Jackie Chan
- Archive interview with star Rocky Lai
- Two archive interviews with director/star Sammo Hung
- Archive interview with cinematographer Arthur Wong
- Alternate English credits as The First Mission
- Trailer gallery, including the ‘music video’ trailer by Su Rui
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Gilbey

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Dylan Cheung and David West

IF YOU EVER GET IN THIS MUCH TROUBLE, YOU’LL WISH YOU HAD A BROTHER LIKE JACKIE CHAN.

Lifelong friends since they met as boys at Peking Opera school, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung conquered the Hong Kong film industry side-by-side in the 1970s and 1980s. One of their greatest collaborations sees the two ‘brothers’ playing actual brothers for a change: 1985’s Heart of Dragon, a film that combines heart-rending drama with pulse-pounding action!

Tat (Chan) is a hotshot cop with more stresses than he can bear: if he’s not on the verge of getting beaten up on his day job, he’s looking out for his mentally handicapped brother Dodo (Hung), who needs constant supervision in case his naïve, kind nature gets taken advantage of. Tat wants nothing more than to escape his obligations and see the world; but when Dodo accidentally winds up in the line of fire, Tat must run into danger and make the ultimate sacrifice to save his brother.

More serious and emotionally driven than many of their prior films, Hung and Chan made sure not to skimp on jaw-dropping stunts and high-velocity violence while showing a broader depth to their talents than audiences had seen before. The result is one of the jewels of 80’s Hong Kong action cinema, now restored with additional fight scenes filmed especially for the Japanese market!

[CaptainYoda]

Wow!!! After all this time all these classic Jackie movies getting the Blu-ray treatment they deserve!!!

[hanshotfirst1138]

If only John Woo and Jet Li could get the same treatment…

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

If only John Woo and Jet Li could get the same treatment…

Well, once Sammo and Jackie have most of their movies released, who knows what will happen after that.

Either way, very excited for this release. It's pretty crazy how many of Jackie Chan films are getting released right now. If only Criterion would release a boxset of all of their Jackie Chan films.

[Doc Samson]

Never seen this one! But I'll gladly pick up anything Jackie Stars in and Sammo Directs.

[fred25_Ca]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

If only John Woo and Jet Li could get the same treatment…

I mean, it only took 18 years or so in the format for Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung to get the treatment they deserved in North America and even then, there is a long way to go before we get close to having all of their best films out on the format.
I'm really hoping 88 films or Arrow pick up the Project A films and Wheels on meals, those are the biggest two missing, imo.
Hopefully Shout factory's volume 2 includes heavy hitters like Mr. Miracle and Crime story.

[fred25_Ca]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Well, once Sammo and Jackie have most of their movies released, who knows what will happen after that.

Either way, very excited for this release. It's pretty crazy how many of Jackie Chan films are getting released right now. If only Criterion would release a boxset of all of their Jackie Chan films.

What do Criterion own? I remember reading Young Master, which is a pretty big one but what else?

[Brown Jenkin]

To be honest I never liked this film, but will probably buy as a "completest," for the extras and because of the excellent restorations Arrow has been doing for these KF Klassics. Hopefully I'll enjoy the Japanese cut.

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

If only John Woo and Jet Li could get the same treatment…

You should call the licensors and see if you can make something happen.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Originally Posted by bergman864

You should call the licensors and see if you can make something happen.

Apparently it's a rights limbo thing. I listened to a podcast interview recently with Dylan Cheung, who does the subtitles for a lot of the UK Blu-rays of these Hong Kong films, and at one point it was mentioned that Golden Princess sold off the domestic rights for John Woo's big movies to Fortune Star, but retained the international rights through an oversight, but they no longer want to deal with anything related to those movies and don't respond to inquiries about international licensing.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Originally Posted by fred25_Ca

I mean, it only took 18 years or so in the format for Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung to get the treatment they deserved in North America and even then, there is a long way to go before we get close to having all of their best films out on the format.
I'm really hoping 88 films or Arrow pick up the Project A films and Wheels on meals, those are the biggest two missing, imo.
Hopefully Shout factory's volume 2 includes heavy hitters like Mr. Miracle and Crime story.

I haven't actually heard anything to suggest this, but I think Arrow is going to release Armour of God in the US at some point. On a recent rewatch I noticed that the subtitles on 88 Films' BD are styled/formatted exactly like Arrow's. I noticed the same thing in DVDBeaver's screenshots of Eureka's Angela Mao double feature, and sure enough, Arrow released the same films a little while later on almost identical discs. It looks like some of the UK labels combine efforts behind the scenes when they're prepping the same films for different territories.

On the other hand, 88 Films' Heart of Dragon didn't have subtitles that looked like Arrow's, so that doesn't necessarily indicate that Arrow won't release a film. Just something to watch out for.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Originally Posted by fred25_Ca

What do Criterion own? I remember reading Young Master, which is a pretty big one but what else?

Half a Loaf, Spiritual Kung Fu, Fearless Hyena, Young Master, Fearless Hyena 2, and My Lucky Stars are all on the Criterion Channel. I wouldn't take that as a sure sign that discs are coming, but it's possible.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by fred25_Ca

What do Criterion own? I remember reading Young Master, which is a pretty big one but what else?

Someone else beat me to the punch, but yeah. I'm guessing the Project A films are almost a sure thing, either from Shout or Arrow.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Hopefully Arrow. Despite a lot of the same talent working on the actual content, it sounds like Shout's recent box is still not completely exempt from their usual QC issues.

[MobFu72]

I am just happy we are getting these in the States! Sammo is my favorite and his films and performances and choreography are top notch! Salute to Big Brother!
Hopefully we see Prodigal Son, Warriors Two, Encounters of the Spooky Kind & Eastern Condors this year! Add my vote for Young Master as well!

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by MobFu72

I am just happy we are getting these in the States! Sammo is my favorite and his films and performances and choreography are top notch! Salute to Big Brother!
Hopefully we see Prodigal Son, Warriors Two, Encounters of the Spooky Kind & Eastern Condors this year! Add my vote for Young Master as well!

I'll take all of those, but Eastern Condors and Encounters of the Spooky Kind are my top two Hung's I want in the in US.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by omgitsgodzilla

I noticed the same thing in DVDBeaver's screenshots of Eureka's Angela Mao double feature, and sure enough, Arrow released the same films a little while later on almost identical discs. It looks like some of the UK labels combine efforts behind the scenes when they're prepping the same films for different territories.

The Eureka/Arrow Angela Mao releases are the exact same discs, you get Arrow logos and menus if you're region A, and Eureka logos and menus for region B.
It was done with that Running Out of Time set too.

[MifuneFan]

Original Art edition:

https://www.arrowvideo.com/blu-ray/h.../14249991.html

[Mushi Minion]

Arrow/Eureka is the relationship standard all boutique labels should strive towards.

[Telemachus]

Is this good? Is Jackie in the yellow jumpsuit a lot? Cover looks cool, but eh, looks can be deceiving on some of these. Is Sammo seriously playing Simple Jack in this? I'm gonna guess this is below the level of things like Project A, Dragons Forever etc. '85 is a great year so I'm tempted.