Fearless Hyena Blu-ray (Region A) (English Subtitled) Jackie Chan 1979 Kung Fu movie

[121212]

Fearless Hyena Blu-ray (1979)
(Region A) (English Subtitled)
Director: Jackie Chan
Producer: Xu Li Hua
Starring: Jackie Chan, Dean Shek, James Tien, Chen Tien Tze
Distributor: Kam & Ronson Enterprises Co., Ltd. (HK)
Release Date: 09 July 2013
Synopsis: In this directorial debut, Jackie plays Lung, a talented fighter but prefers to spend his time loafing around and picking fights, despite orders from his grandfather (James Tien) not to fight. Unknown to him, a brutal general (Yam Sai Kun) has been slaughtering all the people from his grandfather's clan. When the general recognizes Lung's style of kung fu during one of his street fights, he hunts down Lung's grandfather and kills him.

A grieving Lung plans his vengeance and is aided by crippled kung fu master who imparts to him a new kind of "emotional kung fu". Mentally and physically ready, Lung finally seeks out the wicked general to see justice done.

[Cactus]

Originally Posted by 121212

Distributor: Skam & Upscale Enterprises Co., Ltd. (HK)

There, I fixed it.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Cactus

There, I fixed it.

In all fairness, while we all used to harp on K&R about the transfers, we now know it's Fortune Star that's to blame, as other FS HD releases in other countries have had the same issue (aside from the real Bruce Lee movies).

That being said... yeah, this'll most likely be the same upscale that was used in Japan. The only thing that could save it are some really good extras, but I doubt there will be any.

[reason108]

Yeah, having extras on an K&M disc is like winning the lottery. haha. They do sometimes contain a trailer though. Only a couple of their releases that I have have any extras at all.

I almost want to get this but do you know if this is an extended cut or anything of that nature? I have the old Simitar and Sony dvd`s of it. And, at this point I can`t remember if those were edited or did not use the original mono. It`s getting to the point that I need an app for that just to keep things straight in my mind. Too many movies and too many non original versions to keep track of.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by reason108

Yeah, having extras on an K&M disc is like winning the lottery. haha. They do sometimes contain a trailer though. Only a couple of their releases that I have have any extras at all.

I almost want to get this but do you know if this is an extended cut or anything of that nature? I have the old Simitar and Sony dvd`s of it. And, at this point I can`t remember if those were edited or did not use the original mono. It`s getting to the point that I need an app for that just to keep things straight in my mind. Too many movies and too many non original versions to keep track of.

Unlike some of the other Lo Wei-produced Jackie Chan films, such as Dragon Fist and New Fist of Fury, Fearless Hyena has pretty much always had the same cut. Only difference usually just being how the opening credits look.

However, there's an 8 minute deleted scene that was used in the pseudo-sequel Fearless Hyena II.

[reason108]

Cool. Thanks for that info. This might be worth another purchase. I think I will watch the movie again and re-evaluate it.

And, if I remember correctly, that outtake was the only thing that Jackie had to do with FH2.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by reason108

Cool. Thanks for that info. This might be worth another purchase. I think I will watch the movie again and re-evaluate it.

And, if I remember correctly, that outtake was the only thing that Jackie had to do with FH2.

Watching it again, Jackie seemed to have filmed a couple of short scenes before finally getting out of it altogether. I used to think they were extra deleted scenes from the first FH, but his hair is much shorter than the restaurant scene. Even in "I Am Jackie Chan", he said he was basically forced to work on one more Lo Wei film before Jimmy Wang Yu saved him... it was probably FHII. It gets mighty confusing.

[reason108]

Just re-watched the Columbia/TriStar dvd of Fearless Hyena. Horrible! It almost looked like the movie was out of focus/ghosted. I haven`t watched the movie in years and did not realize how bad it looks on HD monitor. May end up getting the K&R blu after all.

[121212]

Originally Posted by reason108

Just re-watched the Columbia/TriStar dvd of Fearless Hyena. Horrible! It almost looked like the movie was out of focus/ghosted. I haven`t watched the movie in years and did not realize how bad it looks on HD monitor. May end up getting the K&R blu after all.

The HK classic movies were filmed with poor picture to begin with (no HD at that moment). The HK blu-rays are coming up now is with average quality, probably not much better than an upscaled remastered DVD.

[hazelwu]

Originally Posted by 121212

The HK classic movies were filmed with poor picture to begin with (no HD at that moment). The HK blu-rays are coming up now is with average quality, probably not much better than an upscaled remastered DVD.

Right, there was only film, which is better than HD. HK was using cheaper films though.

[reason108]

I think this is more of an issue of how Columbia/Tristar transferred the film to dvd(authored?). The quality is better than the Simitar dvd release. But, in some scenes, the image looks blurry; or with a ghosting effect of the image. But, back in the day, on an CRT TV, it was not something that I ever noticed. But, on HD TV, it looks like crap.

[benricci]

Originally Posted by hazelwu

Right, there was only film, which is better than HD. HK was using cheaper films though.

I'm a little tired if this misinformation. Hong Kong productions generally used the same 35mm film stock (mostly Fuji/Kodak) and anamorphic glass lenses available to the rest of the world at the time. They were lower budget productions, yes. But they weren't filmed on "inferior" or "poor" stock.

The main issue is preservation and restoration. When done right, HD masters can look stunning (see the Shaw Brothers catalog from this era, remastered from original negatives and other film elements). When you transfer crappy fifth generation prints (see most low-budget martial arts films from this era), your results are equally crappy.

And most HK films of this era have not been treated well over the years, further perpetuating this notion that they were filmed poorly to begin with. Quickly? Yes. Inexpensively? Yes. Poorly? No.

[hazelwu]

Originally Posted by benricci

I'm a little tired if this misinformation. Hong Kong productions generally used the same 35mm film stock (mostly Fuji/Kodak) and anamorphic glass lenses available to the rest of the world at the time. They were lower budget productions, yes. But they weren't filmed on "inferior" or "poor" stock.

The main issue is preservation and restoration. When done right, HD masters can look stunning (see the Shaw Brothers catalog from this era, remastered from original negatives and other film elements). When you transfer crappy fifth generation prints (see most low-budget martial arts films from this era), your results are equally crappy.

And most HK films of this era have not been treated well over the years, further perpetuating this notion that they were filmed poorly to begin with. Quickly? Yes. Inexpensively? Yes. Poorly? No.

Thanks. Internet is where all knowledge and rumors comes from, but takes time to tell them apart.

[benricci]

Originally Posted by hazelwu

Thanks. Internet is where all knowledge and rumors comes from, but takes time to tell them apart.

From what I've read, Jackie himself invested heavily in camera equipment when he first had the itch to direct in the late 1970s. There was also the popular rumour he used to by film by the ton from Fuji because of how many takes his action scenes took to film. From the amount of outtakes in some of those films, I believe it, lol.

Here's a promo shot of him directing with the camera crew members used to call "lucky number 4" - at least according to the caption. I think it's an ARRI, but I'm no expert on motion picture cameras.

[OldPangYau]

If you watch the outtakes to Police Story 2, you'll see how many cameras he had lined up for the grand finale of the factory explosion. Obviously it was a one-take only scenario

[benricci]

My copy just shipped. Should arrive next week - I'll post a quick a/v review then.

[aps42]

excited for this one to arrive (along with Young master and Dragons forever) we just need the original Drunken Master on blu too now.. one can dream.. anyone know if this is a possibility any time soon?

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by aps42

excited for this one to arrive (along with Young master and Dragons forever) we just need the original Drunken Master on blu too now.. one can dream.. anyone know if this is a possibility any time soon?

Well, the Columbia DVD said it was "remastered in high definition", so hopefully they still have said master. Perhaps they could give it to Twilight Time? Then again, while it's uncut, it has the English language opening credits due to being from a export print... not to mention the incomplete Cantonese, but that can easily be extracted elsewhere.

As for an HK release, it would most likely be Mei Ah, since they at least had DVD/VCD rights. Japan I think also was Sony/Columbia on DVD.

Either way, Fortune Star doesn't seem to have it, so at least an upconvert may be less of a potential issue ;-)

[hazelwu]

Confirmed to be an upscale.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by hazelwu

Confirmed to be an upscale.

No surprise, especially since the Japanese blu-ray was an upscale as well. The only upside was that the colors were a bit better than the DVD.