It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest martial arts films ever made. It is certainly a high point in the careers of both star Jet Li and legendary fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping. It is Fist of Legend and it has never existed for purchase in any decent - by which I mean proper ratio, non-dubbed, decent transfer - edition. But that changes September 2nd with the arrival of Dragon Dynasty's two disc release. It's available for order now. And you really should.
Dragon Dynasty is really p*ssing me off with the lack of Blu-ray. Their releases are top notch and they certainly have a deep reverence for the material but why no blu-ray?????????????????????????????
I don't agree with the vitriol for Dragon Dynasty. I like their stuff. I have almost all of them, and I'll continue to collect them. There are a lot of companies who put far less work into creating proper releases for films people want to see. They still have to sell DVDs, and if sticking Brett Ratner in an extra on a disc sells more DVDs and makes more films available, then it does me no harm.
SEE!?!?!?
oh but Swarez, there are lots of people who want good subtitles on their DVDs. what good are commentaries if the movie itself is incomprehensible?
anyway, i also have Fist Of Legend on VCD lying somewhere in my storeroom. and yes, the pork seller at my town market knows more about Jet Li movies than Brett Ratner. definitely.
GZA has a much deeper knowledge and understand of the martial arts world, whereas Ratner and co only see it on a superficial level. Look for his films to see the evidence. But I'm pretty sure people want coherent subs over any commentary.
Definitely the best Jet Li flick (except for perhaps Shaolin Temple), and one of the top ten martial arts films for me. Hope they do it justice.
Rhythm-X, I'm glad I'm not the only one that truly dislikes and mistrusts the Dragon Dynasty operation. Yes, it's probably better than previous Weinstein shenanigans BUT it's still not up to what these films deserve.
And judging by "Bey's Blog" on their website, am I to believe that they have acquired the rights to Chocolate? That would explain why the HK DVD did not have English subtitles. Basically anything Bey posts about is probably his version of soft marketing about something they are trying to get their tentacles around.
But there are people who do not know shit and will buy stuff in Best Buy based on what it looks like or Tarantino's name on a box. I talked to some guy in Best Buy raving about The Restless (!) and yet he wouldn't listened when I tried to convince him to buy Come Drink With Me.
So I understand the marketing behind the DD label.
I just wished HK Legends would pick up their game cause they really lost it when Logan left them. His commentaries are always fun to listen to.
Now I hope DD will release Drunken Master 2 in its original version.
Trust me, Dragon Dynasty is like Criterion compared to the shitty R4 releases we get over here (Mexico) in the martial arts/asian cult vein. Fullscreen, prints of films in awful conditions, poorly done subtitles, terrible covers, zero extras and the list goes on and on.
That ought to be their slogan - not "The Greatest Martial Arts Library In The World", but "Dragon Dynasty: Better Than Region 4 DVDs From Mexico". Ironically, the only place you'll see Miramax owned martial arts films is on Spanish-language TV, unless you have Kung Fu HD. I just barely missed the remastered MISION TIGRE (TIGER ON BEAT) yesterday afternoon. Not that I can speak Spanish, but I can speak
"Gordon Liu waving a chainsaw around" fluently.
Stepping aside from Dragon Dynasty for a second, I just had to add that this is probably my favorite martial arts film of all time. Solid story, amazing fighting sequences and Jet Li being Jet Li.
Hasn't HKL went under? Or something close to under along with Premier Asia? Heard a rumbling about it. I know Contender seems to be the more prominant name on the discs now. What a shame too, I own tons of discs and they're all lovely.
I don't know if they've gone under but they started to fade pretty quickly after Logan left.
Wasn't Premier Asia an Optimum label? Optimum remain strong...hopefully.
This my favorite martial arts movie. The best version so far (and a very good one at that) is the "Fist Of Legend - Édition Collector Limitée 2 DVD" by HK Vidéo available on Amazon.fr. I believe it has french and english subtitles but I watch it in the original cantonese.
[quote]Retranslated subtitles would move more discs than Brett Ratner, because it is a legitimate selling point, instead of just being some guy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about running his mouth[/quote]
Really? I'd like to beleive that too but it simply isn't true. How do I know? Because I'm a pretty hardcore fan myself and I don't give a damn about "retranslated subtitles"; I feel we're lucky enough that we're getting subtitles to begin with. Ratner may have made a complete fool of himself on the Tai Chi Master DVD but I actually didn't mind having him on the Police Story DVDs. Atleast he's actually worked with Jackie Chan.