The funniest part is I don’t intend for these to be so long. Between me and Daisuke I think every stone of this set has been covered on UA-cam.😂 Ooh are there perhaps UHDs on the horizon or a UK label taking a stab at doing the filmography? I think there’s still massive room for improvement on the Ritrovata masters.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Maybe… (just wait and see, even I don’t know everything, but we should be getting something insane later this year if it isn’t delayed) Additionally, something I noticed on the Mandarin mono track for Fist of Fury was some pretty awful NR during the bit where Lee is hiding out in the cemetery. I don’t know what happened, but I really only noticed it in that one scene, as it was very distracting and stood out from the rest of the film sounding quite good.
@@professorwh042 it would be something to see even more releases. My guess with that bit would be they had to substitute a different source for that scene or try to cover up major damage. I guess I’m a little used to things like that from seeing a lot of old prints being screened and watching a lot of Laserdisc transfers where that can happen. The biggest one I can remember off the top of my head is the LD of Ice Station Zebra which is full Dolby surround until a whole reel collapses to a noisy sounding mono.
Nicely done review. It's a shame this set did not include a re-mastering of the 1974 "feature" 'Kato in The Green Hornet'. It consisted of some episodes haphazardly stitched together from the Green Hornet tv series (1966-67, abc) but is an important artifact in Bruce Lee's film career and would have given some fans a glimpse of his days as Kato.
I keep hoping the series can get a beautiful new scan and release like Batman 66 did. The crossover episodes there are tantalizing as if it’s being dangled in front of you.
I grew up with Bruce Lee on TV that when he did his movies that things had changed for him that movies did a lot for him just from doing two movies that when enter the dragon came out it shows that Hollywood changed their minds and he was a big star in Hong Kong that he gone to the top that he made a difference
I’m glad I held off from buying the films all these years because of inconsistencies in picture quality and no proper restoration done until recent times. The Criterion is probably the best edition available.
I agree. The Criterion set is the best overall release currently available-most especially for its proper treatment of Enter the Dragon. Unless some does new transfers or a UHD upgrade here in the US it will remain so for the time being. WB might do a 50th anniversary Enter the Dragon release but if it was for UHD it would have to be an upscale of this new 2K scan or entirely new 4K work.
Great rundown! I have the Premiere collection from Shout! Factory but really want to get this set too. My main question is: how does the Game Of Death Revisited edit of the original GoD footage compare with the Warrior’s Journey edit and the Game Of Death Redux edit? The only version I’ve seen is Game Of Death Revisited.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I’ve only seen the Game Of Death Revisited one. From what I’ve read it has different voice dubbing, music and effects. Bey Logan dubs Bruce in it, pretty well too. I’d love to see a video comparing all three variants (hint hint)…
Did you ever come across the only surviving full TV interview which was done in December 1971 after the major success of "Big Boss" in which Canadian journalist Pierre Berton interviews Bruce ? There you get to see the man as himself, which you mentioned you wanted to experienced.
by the way, the reason whey "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey" is not in any Blu-ray bonus feature (in 1080p) - and not in this Criterion box set - is that John Little made the original master of this documentary in DVD quality, so he would have needed to re-make it from ground. I tried to get John to do it for the Criterion box, but they were not interested in funding that process, so they dropped John's documentary and went with that terrible Redux cut (with a push from Polly Matthews, which I thought was a ridiculous move and which one of the main points why I did not get the Criterion box - including the other Polly input....).
...also, it was John Little who dubbed the special monk scene as they did not have access to the audio and Warner Bros. did not want to bother looking for it in their archives. This was back for their 25th. Anniversary release in 1998. However this dialog - or parts of it - was on a rare Japanese and a separate UK (vinyl) record, though that was difficult for John to get hold of, so he took the task of being the voice actor for that particular extra scene in "Enter the Dragon"
Wow, thank you for this information!! I had no idea he did the scene redubbing for the extended ETD cut! I figured the docu was likely completed in SD only but it works far better than the fan edit that Criterion went with. I'm excited to see what Arrow has done with their upcoming UHD boxset though due to rights and Warner making them reuse the WB ETD disc the Criterion set is still important for the set exclusive 2K ETD scan with original mono for both cuts.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I think the Criterion set has most of Bruce's voice re-inserted into that monk scene by the way. It is not complete, but something around 95% - I think these are still not from the Warner Bros. archive, but from the Japanese and English vinyl record I mentioned.
@@GungFuIsGungFu they definitely did because I sat bolt upright with this new mono mix restoration at that moment and was like: “did they restore Lee’s voice?!”
Digging around it seems they use the straight 4k transfers without color grading adjustments and are SDR discs. I don’t know how well they may be encoded. Apparently the Japanese release has correct Japanese theatrical dubs and the Japanese cut of Way of the Dragon. I’m not sure if all have the original Mandarin and a Cantonese mixes. It seems some also have a different cut of Game of Death.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Replied yesterday to this and now it is missing very strange it's like my comment was deleted? Now trying to remember what I wrote lol. The Japanese set doesn't have the original Mandarin tracks but the French set does. Not sure which one looks better as far as picture but I'm assuming the Japanese does as it came out later. Neither set has English subtitles but do have English dubbed tracks.
@@eddylex4921 That makes sense. I dug around on the Blu-ray forums and everything seems to indicate they used the 4K masters without adjusting color timing on anything.
This is the greatest one done to have enter the dragon with the rest of his movies for the first time to buy it that way to get it that way that you have been waiting for to happen it never came that way before to have the all thing put together has part of it
I think the exclusion of the Bey Logan commentaries has less to do with rights issues, and more to do with the multiple serious allegations against him.
That’s what I saw some reference to when looking them up. I’m not sure what happened but from some comments on various forums I assumed it must’ve been pretty bad.
Haha you should’ve seen the original cut of me clearing my throat, dropping things and making goofs. At least I’m getting better. I sat down to record what I thought would be a short overview and review. Oh well it’s almost 2 hours.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I'd love a completion blooper reel video. I'm 50 minutes in while also hammering out Indicatortitles. Very captivating and comprehensive as ever sir.
Yet another feature length epic review.
I’d keep my eyes peeled for more Bruce Lee releases this year.
The funniest part is I don’t intend for these to be so long. Between me and Daisuke I think every stone of this set has been covered on UA-cam.😂
Ooh are there perhaps UHDs on the horizon or a UK label taking a stab at doing the filmography? I think there’s still massive room for improvement on the Ritrovata masters.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Maybe… (just wait and see, even I don’t know everything, but we should be getting something insane later this year if it isn’t delayed)
Additionally, something I noticed on the Mandarin mono track for Fist of Fury was some pretty awful NR during the bit where Lee is hiding out in the cemetery. I don’t know what happened, but I really only noticed it in that one scene, as it was very distracting and stood out from the rest of the film sounding quite good.
@@professorwh042 it would be something to see even more releases.
My guess with that bit would be they had to substitute a different source for that scene or try to cover up major damage. I guess I’m a little used to things like that from seeing a lot of old prints being screened and watching a lot of Laserdisc transfers where that can happen. The biggest one I can remember off the top of my head is the LD of Ice Station Zebra which is full Dolby surround until a whole reel collapses to a noisy sounding mono.
Great episode. Also my favorite transfers of the films compared to the Shout Factory discs in regards to color grading.
Very good analysis of The Big Boss 💕
Nicely done review. It's a shame this set did not include a re-mastering of the 1974 "feature" 'Kato in The Green Hornet'. It consisted of some episodes haphazardly stitched together from the Green Hornet tv series (1966-67, abc) but is an important artifact in Bruce Lee's film career and would have given some fans a glimpse of his days as Kato.
I keep hoping the series can get a beautiful new scan and release like Batman 66 did. The crossover episodes there are tantalizing as if it’s being dangled in front of you.
Great video! Would love to see an update comparing this set with the new Arrow boxset as well as the upcoming WB 4K of Enter the Dragon.
It is a very good box set for a reasonable price if you wait for the 50% off sale. I’ve given this to a good friend as a birthday present.
In the half off sale when it’s about $60 it’s a steal for the wealth of material included.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Yes indeed!
I grew up with Bruce Lee on TV that when he did his movies that things had changed for him that movies did a lot for him just from doing two movies that when enter the dragon came out it shows that Hollywood changed their minds and he was a big star in Hong Kong that he gone to the top that he made a difference
I’m glad I held off from buying the films all these years because of inconsistencies in picture quality and no proper restoration done until recent times. The Criterion is probably the best edition available.
I agree. The Criterion set is the best overall release currently available-most especially for its proper treatment of Enter the Dragon.
Unless some does new transfers or a UHD upgrade here in the US it will remain so for the time being.
WB might do a 50th anniversary Enter the Dragon release but if it was for UHD it would have to be an upscale of this new 2K scan or entirely new 4K work.
Great rundown! I have the Premiere collection from Shout! Factory but really want to get this set too. My main question is: how does the Game Of Death Revisited edit of the original GoD footage compare with the Warrior’s Journey edit and the Game Of Death Redux edit? The only version I’ve seen is Game Of Death Revisited.
I didn’t realize there was a third version of the footage. I’ve only seen the Warriors journey and redux versions.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I’ve only seen the Game Of Death Revisited one. From what I’ve read it has different voice dubbing, music and effects. Bey Logan dubs Bruce in it, pretty well too. I’d love to see a video comparing all three variants (hint hint)…
@@WaverBoy oh man there goes another idea onto my never ending list of video ideas…😂
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader DO IT…YA KNOW YA WANNA…
The other Game Of Death Kareem had Snake Eyes compared to the Warriors Journey where he had red eyes!!!! Facts
I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies 🎬how can anyone claimed to be a movie historian and not have seen the Bruce Lee movies 😏
Did you ever come across the only surviving full TV interview which was done in December 1971 after the major success of "Big Boss" in which Canadian journalist Pierre Berton interviews Bruce ? There you get to see the man as himself, which you mentioned you wanted to experienced.
by the way, the reason whey "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey" is not in any Blu-ray bonus feature (in 1080p) - and not in this Criterion box set - is that John Little made the original master of this documentary in DVD quality, so he would have needed to re-make it from ground. I tried to get John to do it for the Criterion box, but they were not interested in funding that process, so they dropped John's documentary and went with that terrible Redux cut (with a push from Polly Matthews, which I thought was a ridiculous move and which one of the main points why I did not get the Criterion box - including the other Polly input....).
...also, it was John Little who dubbed the special monk scene as they did not have access to the audio and Warner Bros. did not want to bother looking for it in their archives. This was back for their 25th. Anniversary release in 1998. However this dialog - or parts of it - was on a rare Japanese and a separate UK (vinyl) record, though that was difficult for John to get hold of, so he took the task of being the voice actor for that particular extra scene in "Enter the Dragon"
Wow, thank you for this information!! I had no idea he did the scene redubbing for the extended ETD cut! I figured the docu was likely completed in SD only but it works far better than the fan edit that Criterion went with. I'm excited to see what Arrow has done with their upcoming UHD boxset though due to rights and Warner making them reuse the WB ETD disc the Criterion set is still important for the set exclusive 2K ETD scan with original mono for both cuts.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I think the Criterion set has most of Bruce's voice re-inserted into that monk scene by the way. It is not complete, but something around 95% - I think these are still not from the Warner Bros. archive, but from the Japanese and English vinyl record I mentioned.
@@GungFuIsGungFu they definitely did because I sat bolt upright with this new mono mix restoration at that moment and was like: “did they restore Lee’s voice?!”
The movies are already available 4k UHD in French and Japanese box sets. But not Enter the Dragon. Not sure how the transfers are on these though.
Digging around it seems they use the straight 4k transfers without color grading adjustments and are SDR discs. I don’t know how well they may be encoded. Apparently the Japanese release has correct Japanese theatrical dubs and the Japanese cut of Way of the Dragon. I’m not sure if all have the original Mandarin and a Cantonese mixes. It seems some also have a different cut of Game of Death.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Replied yesterday to this and now it is missing very strange it's like my comment was deleted? Now trying to remember what I wrote lol. The Japanese set doesn't have the original Mandarin tracks but the French set does. Not sure which one looks better as far as picture but I'm assuming the Japanese does as it came out later. Neither set has English subtitles but do have English dubbed tracks.
@@eddylex4921 That makes sense. I dug around on the Blu-ray forums and everything seems to indicate they used the 4K masters without adjusting color timing on anything.
This is the greatest one done to have enter the dragon with the rest of his movies for the first time to buy it that way to get it that way that you have been waiting for to happen it never came that way before to have the all thing put together has part of it
I think the exclusion of the Bey Logan commentaries has less to do with rights issues, and more to do with the multiple serious allegations against him.
That’s what I saw some reference to when looking them up. I’m not sure what happened but from some comments on various forums I assumed it must’ve been pretty bad.
Hey Damn Fool , man u have to review Jet li's greatest films .... Did u....???
1hr and 50 minutes? Where is the missing 10 minutes?
Haha you should’ve seen the original cut of me clearing my throat, dropping things and making goofs. At least I’m getting better. I sat down to record what I thought would be a short overview and review. Oh well it’s almost 2 hours.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I'd love a completion blooper reel video. I'm 50 minutes in while also hammering out Indicatortitles. Very captivating and comprehensive as ever sir.
Game of death not orginal bruce