A Man Called Tiger (1973) (Eureka Entertainment)

[MifuneFan]

Eureka will be releasing the Hong Kong Martial Arts film A Man Called Tiger (1973), which stars Jimmy Wang Yu, on August 27th.

A Man Called Tiger (Blu-ray)

https://diabolikdvd.com/product/a-ma...-ray-preorder/

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling
• Limited edition reversible poster featuring original poster artwork
• 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the rarely seen uncut Hong Kong theatrical release version of the film, making its home video debut in the UK (112 mins)
• 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the re-release version of the film (79 mins)
• Original Mandarin and classic English dub audio options on both cuts of the film (original mono presentations)
• Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
• Brand new audio commentary on the Hong Kong version by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and Michael Worth
• Brand new audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
• Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork
• Cutting Tiger, Hidden Subtitles – Brand new video essay by Brandon Bentley
• Do You Know What Sadness Means? + Because I Have Your Love – Music videos prepared exclusively for this release
• Textless opening
• Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork
• Trailer
• A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by writer and critic James Oliver, and a short essay by Brandon Bentley about the versions of the film presented on this release]

A MAN CALLED TIGER (Eureka Classics) New & Exclusive Trailer - YouTube

SYNOPSIS: Starring Jimmy Wang Yu (The One-Armed Swordsman) and directed by Lo Wei, the man behind the smash-hit Bruce Lee vehicles The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, A Man Called Tiger is a martial arts extravaganza released at the height of an international kung fu craze.

Chin Fu (Wang Yu) is a formidable martial artist who suspects his father’s apparent suicide was actually a cold-blooded murder. His desire for answers – and revenge – leads him to Japan, where he becomes entangled with the yakuza. With the aid of his fellow countryman Liu Han-ming (James Tien, Hand of Death) and a nightclub hostess (Maria Yi, Fist of Fury), Chin Fu sets out to infiltrate Tokyo’s underworld, expose a criminal conspiracy and uncover his father’s true fate by any means necessary.

Long rumored to have been planned as the third collaboration between Lo Wei and Bruce Lee before Lee made his directorial debut with The Way of the Dragon, A Man Called Tiger instead became a vehicle for another martial arts superstar in Jimmy Wang Yu. Eureka Classics is proud to present the film for the first time ever on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration.

[Danespina]

Export cut of Tiger is 33 minutes longer than the theatrical? Quite a difference.

[MegatronX]

Originally Posted by Danespina

Export cut of Tiger is 33 minutes longer than the theatrical? Quite a difference.

The longer version is the original theatrical version, the shorter cut is from the 1978 reissue. Fortune Star mislabled the versions.

[Danespina]

Originally Posted by MegatronX

The longer version is the original theatrical version, the shorter cut is from the 1978 reissue. Fortune Star mislabled the versions.

Ah, that clarifies things.
So it's kind of like the two New Fist of Fury cuts on Arrow's release.

[Walter Kafka]

Love Jimmy.

[DukeTogo84]

Never heard of this one, but placed a pre-order. The more HK cinema the better.

[MegatronX]

Well it was easy enough, but Eureka has the VHS cover beat!

[fred25_Ca]

Not by much, their new art is surprisingly pretty bad. I usually like their new art but this one feels a bit awkward. Anybody has seen this one? I love the Shaw brothers Jimmy Wang Yu films but not quite sure about his post-shaw films yet.

[MegatronX]

Originally Posted by fred25_Ca

Not by much, their new art is surprisingly pretty bad. I usually like their new art but this one feels a bit awkward. Anybody has seen this one? I love the Shaw brothers Jimmy Wang Yu films but not quite sure about his post-shaw films yet.

I've only seen the shorter version, and wasn't too keen - it's slow and stodgy, with surprisingly little flavour of Japan considering they shot it there (hopefully the longer version rectifies this).

[MegatronX]

Here is the kick-ass intro to the longer version

A MAN CALLED TIGER (1973) - YouTube

This scene is totally missing from the more commonly seen re-issue version, which opens with this show-stopper

A Man Called Tiger (1973) Opening Scene - YouTube

I'm a bit baffled why a film set in Japan has so many Mandarin songs, but I suspect the Japanese setting was only because Wang Yu was still contractually banned from working in Hong Kong.

[moviemaker]

Just pre-ordered this. It's nice that it's an Eureka US release to boot.

[Sommerswerd]

On the Eureka website, I noticed a few extras that aren't listed above:

• Cutting Tiger, Hidden Subtitles – Brand new video essay by Brandon Bentley

• Do You Know What Sadness Means? + Because I Have Your Love – Music videos prepared exclusively for this release

• Textless opening

[Danespina]

Good eye.

Another two differences I noticed are that:

• the audio commentary with Frank Djeng now also includes Michael Worth

• the booklet now contains a short essay by Brandon Bentley about the versions of the film presented on this release

[MifuneFan]

Thanks guys, I've updated the post with the updated extras.

[apollo828]

Very cool. Glad to see that the original cut was able to be fully reconstructed. IIRC, there are at least three four different cuts:

- 1978 re-release cut. 79 min.
- Unknown Mandarin cut, released on VCD in Hong Kong. 104 min. when adjusted for PAL speed-up, and starting with the nightclub song scene.
- The Taiwanese tape, which seems to be close to the full theatrical cut (or maybe it is the theatrical cut?) but is missing some footage. 105 min., and it seems to be a proper NTSC transfer.
- 2024 restoration, stitching together an uncut version, complete with some bits of footage that don't appear to have been shown in public in decades, if ever. Unknown runtime at the moment but presumably 112-113 min.

EDIT: Looks like there are at least four edits! OldPangYau pointed out that there's yet another edit! Hard to say precise which release has which edit but the Blu sounds like it'll have an uncut version, which is good enough for me.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by apollo828

Very cool. Glad to see that the original cut was able to be fully reconstructed. IIRC, there are at least three different cuts:

- 1978 re-release cut (79 min.)
- Unknown Mandarin cut, released on VCD in Hong Kong (104 min. when adjusted for PAL speed-up, and starting with the nightclub song scene)
- Original theatrical cut, in English and Mandarin (112 min., with only the Taiwanese tape having the complete Mandarin dub)

Funny enough, that Taiwanese tape wasn't complete either, lol. It actually COMPLETELY misses Han Ying Chieh's final fight, plus the cable car fight after. Oh, and all previous releases miss a bit of nudity only in the new restoration... totally important to the plot, I know, lol.

[Danespina]

I've been waiting to preorder this one for a while now, but Unobstructedview haven't listed it. I emailed them because they've already got later Eureka titles up like The Champions in September, but they responded "We haven't received any materials from MVD on this title yet".

[MegatronX]

My copy came today.

The longer version is visually a triumph - it's sadly a shame that some of the Mandarin audio could only be sourced from a very muffled and quiet sounding VHS. But these things can't be helped.

I'm baffled as always why when cutting the film down for reissue, Golden Harvest removed the kick-ass intro of Wang Yu...kicking ass, instead beginning with a slow musical sequence that suggests the film is going to be some sad tear-jerker.

Most of my complaints from watching the short version on VHS remain for the uncut version.

The film is meandering and lacking in focus, with four female leads with barely a character between them. I'm still not sure what Kasahara Reiko has to with anything, other than a brief nude shot exlusive to the longer version, and poor Maria Yi yet again is stuck with a nothing part.

The Japanese setting is very under-utilised, with a lack of the expected tourist's eye view of the country. With all the dialogue, names, and songs in Mandarin, it seems the only reason for shooting in Japan was because Shaw's injunction against Wang Yu working in Hong Kong was still in effect.

What the film does have going for it are some rather effective fights, which lack the artistry of Bruce Lee or Lau Kar-leung, but are convincingly brutal and effective - one or two shots make you wonder how they pulled them off without killing the actors! And Wang Yu is rather effective as a mean-spirited avenger who somehow has four girls chasing after him despite him seemingly having no interest in them! And he's still fairly good looking here, a year or so before he seemingly morphed into a Jo Shishido clone!

[HuggyBear73]

Anyone order this from diabolik?

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

Anyone order this from diabolik?

Yes. Mine has been saying shipping for about 4 days.