Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection - 10/22/13

[OldPangYau]

News about new mono audio fix




Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection Blu-ray

Bruce Lee Revised Set Blu-ray Review



Reviews....

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Bruce.../72434/#Review
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-B.../48195/#Review
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Fist-.../72587/#Review
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-W.../72586/#Review
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-G.../72585/#Review





Okay, so, I didn't think this would qualify as "wish list" since, well, this seems to be a relatively concrete rumor (which sounds like an oxymoron). But apparently not only does Shout! Factory have the rights to the non-Enter-the-Dragon Bruce Lee films, but will also release a blu-ray box set in July, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Bruce Lee's passing. Here's the current info:

http://www.cityonfire.com/shout-fact...-chan-in-2013/

Shout! Factory has already confirmed the acquisition of these four titles (Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, and Game of Death), but not the box set. Supposedly there will be double feature blu rays in March, but this could be something bigger.

I've already bugged them, via Facebook, to allow me to be a volunteer consultant on these discs

[Kentai]

Couple of things off the top of my head that could be improved upon compared to the various import releases kicking around:

* FIST OF FURY and WAY OF THE DRAGON have decent HD masters, but the HK / DE releases have a weird greenish tint, not to mention elevated black levels. The Fortune Star "HD Remaster" DVDs (made from the same masters as the BDs) had a more neutral color push and look "right", lower resolution aside - not sure why, but the German BDs look the same, so the HD masters themselves must be the problem.

* Far as I can tell, all the import BDs of GAME OF DEATH are upscales of a 16:9 NTSC master. If you're going to go down that road, do a new 35mm scan... it needs it. Badly.

* Please, please include the original Mandarin MONO tracks! I know, people love 5.1 remixes of 40 year old post-dubbed movies for some reason, but c'mon, it barely takes up any space, and it'd be a great selling point, as even the HK BDs only had the 5.1 remixes (and once again, the previous HK DVDs had mono tracks).

I'd also love the Cantonese DUB for BIG BOSS... yeah, I know it's not the original track or anything, but it's got a completely different score and it's kind of kick-ass.

If they can top the HK releases - and to be honest, that wouldn't be hard - I'll happily pick up the box set. If it includes GAME OF DEATH 2 like the R1 DVD box set did, groovy! If not, I won't lose any sleep over it - just put in a nice booklet or something and we'll call it a day.

[drees5761]

Agree these must have mono...not the awful 7.1 or whatever that the other releases have, with added sound effects which were not there originally...we can but hope.

[OldPangYau]

The least we can hope for are proper mono (2 channel stereo for Game of Death) tracks! I mean, they do exist and probably would take up very minimal room!

I don't know if Shout! would go the extra mile to have new transfers struck, which would be nice, at least for Game of Death. I already informed them that Fortune Star's "HD" transfer of Game of Death is only an upconvert, so hopefully they get the message.

[Blu Titan]

Wow, this would be a tremendous release. A day 1 purchase for me. An absolute MUST!

[cmac]

Originally Posted by OldPangYau

The least we can hope for are proper mono (2 channel stereo for Game of Death) tracks! I mean, they do exist and probably would take up very minimal room!

I don't know if Shout! would go the extra mile to have new transfers struck, which would be nice, at least for Game of Death. I already informed them that Fortune Star's "HD" transfer of Game of Death is only an upconvert, so hopefully they get the message.

Fortune Star says none of the masters are upconverts.

[bluballer]

How many copies of these must I acquire?

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by cmac

Fortune Star says none of the masters are upconverts.

Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and Way of the Dragon aren't upconverts, but Game of Death (as well as Game of Death II/Tower of Death) has been proven to be an upconvert, unless Fortune Star had a new transfer created. Seriously, if someone would take a DVD capture of the Fortune Star based Game of Death DVDs, blow it up to 1920x1080, it would look *exactly* like Fortune Star's alleged "HD" master.

Fortune Star is notorious for providing companies with "HD" masters that are simply their standard def masters blown up from 720x480 to 1920x1080. Only those three Bruce Lee films mentioned above have been true HD, while Game of Death and their Jackie Chan and Jet Li "HD" masters have all been upconverts.

It even got to the point where Fortune Star even used the Dragon Dynasty DVDs of Police Story and Police Story 2 to create "HD" masters! This was given away by the fact that the color scheme of the Hong Kong blu-rays matched that of the Dragon Dynasty DVDs, frame for frame.

So, I hate to say it, but if someone at Fortune Star says that none of their masters are upconverts, they are telling a HUGE lie. Upconverts are unfortunately the rule as opposed to the exception for them. It has even become an in-joke around here that if we see a blu-ray that shows the Fortune Star logo, we correctly predict it to be an upconvert. Mosquito noise opposed to fine grain, haloed black bars on the top and bottom, and just a general overall soft image all immediately give away the fact that they're upconverts.

[Kentai]

Originally Posted by cmac

Fortune Star says none of the masters are upconverts.

Tell that to these COMPARISON SHOTS, then.

[TheBully]

Any of these movies have fake Bruce Lee actors filling his role in some parts?

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Kentai

Tell that to these COMPARISON SHOTS, then.

Thanks for swinging in with that It's just too bad it's a comparison with the HKL DVD, as opposed to one of the Fortune Star ones, as you'd REALLY see the minimal difference.

Please, Cliff, take our word for it... Fortune Star's "HD" master of Game of Death is an upscale from a standard definition source. Right now, the only legit HD transfer was the bonus Japanese theatrical cut of Game of Death on the recently released Japanese blu-ray.

[ulri4651]

About time, and hopefully these get the respect they deserve. Absolute must own for me...

[First Blood]

I’d jump on this release the first chance. But even if Shout! Factory releases those four titles before an eventual box set, I am getting them.

[The Dragon]

[newgen2005]

Great news for Bruce Lee fans! Lets hope they produce something special, I don't care about special features, I just want pure HD picture on these!!

Just pre-ordered The Protector/Crime Story from Amazon.com, about £15 delivered to the UK!!

[metsfan1545d]

these studios are killing it with box sets lately

[Dragon Lee]

to speculate whether or not FS will deliver true HD transfers for these blus is pointless becuz we already know that they wont. What I would like tho is for Shout to put some badass cover art on these, certainly better that the crap that is the Protector/Crime Story cover.

[BeWaterMyFriend]

Shout has put out some great cover art for They Live, the Halloween films, etc. so I hope they get a little creative with the BL films. The possibilities are endless.

I agree the Protector/Crime story cover is pretty uninspired.

[drees5761]

Do companies always take the word of the distributor?
Most Fortune Star Hong Kong blu rays that i have seen are definitely upconverts, isn't there a way for people like Shout Factory to check and if they find there not proper HD reject them?

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by drees5761

Do companies always take the word of the distributor?
Most Fortune Star Hong Kong blu rays that i have seen are definitely upconverts, isn't there a way for people like Shout Factory to check and if they find there not proper HD reject them?

Someone who responded to me about Crime Story and The Protector said they reviewed the transfers and said, almost too enthusiastically, that "they're definitely not upconverts!" There are easy signs of an upconvert that I've mentioned before (haloed black bars at the top and bottom, mosquito noise instead of fine film grain, etc), aside from the general lack of detail. It just irks me that these movies aren't going through the proper process!