Dragon Fist (88 Films)

[OldPangYau]

Release Date: 10th December
Jackie Chan
artwork tbc
final specs tbc

Helmed by the iconic and groundbreaking director Lo Wei (who called the shots on the Bruce Lee masterworks THE BIG BOSS and FIST OF FURY), Jackie Chan was at his martials art peak by the time he took on the leading man role in DRAGON FIST (1979). Avenging the death of his master, Chan is in fine form as he gets tangled up in the sort of convoluted and carnage-packed plot that golden age kung-fu classics do all-too well. Make no mistake, DRAGON FIST is Chan at his hard-fisted best - ready for action and jacked to the ears... Only 88 Films could have brought a 2k restoration of DRAGON FIST to UK BluRay as part of our ever-expanding and acclaimed Asian cinema collection!

Extras:
Interview with NEO Magazine writer and journalist David West

[spannick]

our Eureka Helpers better get fast over there with Audio Info & Sources... they said on Facebook they have "original Mono from Fortune Star" but we all know by now these are Downmixes from the 5.1 Trash in most Cases.

[Indiana Jonezzz...]

Why is Jackie spelt “Jacky” on the cover?

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jonezzz...

Why is Jackie spelt “Jacky” on the cover?

Apparently that's how his name was spelt at that time and it may be a requirement of the license to retain that spelling on any cover or promotional material for the release

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Apparently that's how his name was spelt at that time and it may be a requirement of the license to retain that spelling on any cover or promotional material for the release

IMO, that's pretty unlikely.

I think they've just copied the spelling from the poster for the mock up.

They would be wise to change it to 'Jackie' for the finished product.

Or else, they'll have to put Chen Yuan-Lung on the sleeve for his earlier efforts.

[Liersi]

Originally Posted by Markgway

IMO, that's pretty unlikely.

I think they've just copied the spelling from the poster for the mock up.

They would be wise to change it to 'Jackie' for the finished product.

Or else, they'll have to put Chen Yuan-Lung on the sleeve for his earlier efforts.

What's funny is that Chen Yuan-long is on the cover...in Chinese. Bottom right, as Martial Arts director or choreographer, I can't quite make out the character. Before you posted I had this weird feeling that that was the name he used previously.

[springjack]

Originally Posted by Markgway

IMO, that's pretty unlikely.

I think they've just copied the spelling from the poster for the mock up.

They would be wise to change it to 'Jackie' for the finished product.

Or else, they'll have to put Chen Yuan-Lung on the sleeve for his earlier efforts.

That´s how it appears on the actual movie.

[Irongod2112]

Originally Posted by spannick

our Eureka Helpers better get fast over there with Audio Info & Sources... they said on Facebook they have "original Mono from Fortune Star" but we all know by now these are Downmixes from the 5.1 Trash in most Cases.

I just posted in the 88 Films thread warning them they better double check the audio.

Everything Fortune Star provides as original audio is horrible.

Trust me, I know this from helping Eureka.

I have first hand experience listening to what FS provide for original audio and I haven't heard a good one yet.

Although Eureka did luck out with Iron Monkey that one sounds pretty good.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Irongod2112

I just posted in the 88 Films thread warning them they better double check the audio.

Everything Fortune Star provides as original audio is horrible.

Trust me, I know this from helping Eureka.

I have first hand experience listening to what FS provide for original audio and I haven't heard a good one yet.

Although Eureka did luck out with Iron Monkey that one sounds pretty good.

I'd love to help them, at least on this one, but I feel they may not be as welcoming as Shout was with me or Eureka was with you. As I mentioned in the 88 Films thread, I do have pretty good quality Cantonese and Mandarin mono from the Ocean Shores laserdisc in the event that what FS provides bottoms out. English mono is trickier thanks to many releases using the 75 minute Aquarius Releasing cut of the film.

I'd also love to see the Japanese cut on there as a bonus with English subs. Yes, it's also a shorter cut (not nearly as bad as the Aquarius version though), but half of the music score in that cut is exclusive to it.

But we'll see what happens I suppose.

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by OldPangYau

I'd love to help them, at least on this one, but I feel they may not be as welcoming as Shout was with me or Eureka was with you. As I mentioned in the 88 Films thread, I do have pretty good quality Cantonese and Mandarin mono from the Ocean Shores laserdisc in the event that what FS provides bottoms out. English mono is trickier thanks to many releases using the 75 minute Aquarius Releasing cut of the film.

I'd also love to see the Japanese cut on there as a bonus with English subs. Yes, it's also a shorter cut (not nearly as bad as the Aquarius version though), but half of the music score in that cut is exclusive to it.

But we'll see what happens I suppose.

There is a full English mono track on the 2001 Eastern Heroes DVD, but it's rather muffled.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Killer Meteor

There is a full English mono track on the 2001 Eastern Heroes DVD, but it's rather muffled.

I thought there was, but haven't heard it... Could composite the Aquarius version and try to EQ the Eastern Heroes version. Could be moot if 88 Films is "nah, we're good" 😅

[Markgway]

Yeah, it's curious that for a while he used two different names on the same film.

[Shingster]

Jackie Chan would be his stage name and I don't think they usually used their stage names for crew member credits back then, did they? I'm sure I've seen Sammo credited as Hung Kam Bo in the crew credits of films before.

[Killer Meteor]

The Jackie Chan/Lo Wei films are huge nostalgic faves of mine, but the DVDs that got me into them, from Eastern Heroes, were awful - 4:3 masters cropped to fake widescreen. Still love the promo trailer though...

Jackie Chan - Eastern Heroes Collection - YouTube

I hope we can get a restoration of the full uncut New Fist of Fury at some point. The previous Fortune Star version was missing 40min (mind you, the full film is padded to high heaven) and even the mostly uncut 2002 Columbia DVD was slightly cropped and squished, with a truncated credits sequence.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Jackie Chan would be his stage name and I don't think they usually used their stage names for crew member credits back then, did they? I'm sure I've seen Sammo credited as Hung Kam Bo in the crew credits of films before.

Other way round. Sort of. Yuan Lung was Jackie's stage name (actually it was Sammo's, but he used Chen instead of Chu).

Jackie Chan is the closest to his real name we've seen (in Cantonese he uses the nickname Sing Lung to this day).

Sammo started out using Chu Yuan-Lung but then switched to Hung Kam-Bo. His nickname 'Sammo' was added soon thereafter.

[Shingster]

Yessss! Masters that were 2.35:1 cropped to 4:3 which they then cropped further to 16:9. Every midshot suddenly became a closeup of Jackie Chan's nipples!

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Every midshot suddenly became a closeup of Jackie Chan's nipples!

Better stop there. You'll get Dallywhitty excited.


BTW. Who's David 'the Claw' West?

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Markgway

Better stop there. You'll get Dallywhitty excited.


BTW. Who's David 'the Claw' West?

Apparently that extra has been cleared up as "Interview with NEO Magazine writer and journalist David West "

I'd still love to see a subtitled version of the Japanese theatrical cut, a la what Eureka did for Police Story, but I don't see it happening. To be fair, most of the additions in this cut are new music cues, but would still be fun to have as a bonus.

[OldPangYau]

Btw, looks like 88 Films showed the work-in-progress artwork on their Instagram story:

[Killer Meteor]

I really hope 88 Films follows Eureka's lead and lets fans help with verifying the mono tracks and checking the subtitles. Please don't screw this up!