Criterion has then recorded new interviews for each film in the set featuring Lee biographer Matthew Polly, who talks about each film and their importance regarding Lee’s career. They last 10-minutes or less each and provide decent intros for each film to newcomers. There is then a couple of trailers and a collection of alternate sequences, including one alternate opening credits sequence and then three alternate endings. That leads into some deleted scenes which includes another alternate ending where Billy Lo gets arrested, and with a fight scene that would show up in Game of Death II. Then for fun there are some bloopers and outtakes. But the second-best supplement on the disc is a great interview with Robert Wall, who recalls the production while also trash-talking director Robert Clouse as best he can. Two new documentaries on Lee’s fighting and working methods, featuring interviews with Golden Harvest producer Andre Morgan, martial arts experts Michael Worth, John Kreng, Andy Cheng, Frank Djeng and David Yeung, film historian Courtney Joyner and others Enter a legend. Bruce Lee’s return to the Hong Kong film industry after a decade in America proved to be his big breakthrough, launching him to superstardom and setting a new standard for kung-fu heroics. In The Big Boss, he commands the screen with his gravitas and explosive physicality in the role of a Chinese immigrant working at a Thai ice factory and sworn to an oath of nonviolence. When he discovers that the factory’s ruthless higher-ups are running a secret heroin ring and offing their own workers, his commitment to pacifism is put to the test. With his undeniable charisma and fluid, lightning-fast martial-arts style, Lee is a revelation, streaking across the screen with a speed and power the likes of which had never been seen before.

Bruce Lee to Get Definitive Criterion Collection Blu-ray Box Set

At the height of his stardom in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee was called to Hollywood to make the film that, perhaps more than any other, defines his legacy. His electrifying fighting style and the deeply personal philosophy that guided it received their fullest expression yet in this thrilling tale of a Shaolin fighter who goes undercover to infiltrate an island presided over by a renegade monk turned diabolical criminal mastermind. Released just days after Lee’s tragic death, Enter the Dragon went on to become his greatest international success and one of the most influential action movies ever made, with its famed hall-of-mirrors finale bringing together the physical and intellectual dimensions of his artistry in one dazzling set piece.Bruce Lee’s cinematic legacy may already be secure, but it’s about to be boosted by impressive Blu-ray releases, courtesy of The Criterion Collection, that will see his five legendary, genre-transformative Hong Kong action films in a way we’ve never before imagine, digitally restored in 4K resolution. Considering Game of Death’s unorthodox production (made after Lee died to make use of footage he had begun shooting for a film of the same name) it should be no surprise that this disc, disc five, ends up offering some of the more interesting features in the set. The big one would be Game of Death Redux, which is a new edit (Shout! included something similar on their releases) of the footage Lee shot, running 34-minutes. It’s an impressive edit, expertly dubbing in dialogue and making excellent use of John Barry’s score. But what’s most impressive about it is that it does feel like, at the very least, a complete section of a film. The context is missing, obviously, as it only shows three of the five planned fight scenes and is only able to explain the basic plot through a text intro, but it’s well put together all the same.

Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits Review :: Criterion Forum

Multiple alternate cuts on most films, including the extended Mandarin Cut on The Big Boss, English export cuts of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, the Japanese cut of The Way of the Dragon and Hong Kong cuts of Game of Death and Game of Death II (aka Tower of Death) Newly uncovered deleted scenes from The Big Boss, plus a video essay by Bentley about scenes still missing such as the ‘saw-in-the-head’ killThe Final Game of Death, a brand new feature-length video essay by Arrow Films on Lee’s original vision for The Game of Death, featuring a new 2K restoration of the footage directed by Lee in 1972 UHD Blu-ray presentations in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of The Big Boss, The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon and Game of Death

Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits | The Criterion Collection

Brand new 4K restorations of The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon and Game of Death and brand new 2K restoration of Game of Death II New interview with producer Andre Morgan about Golden Harvest, the company behind Hong Kong’s top martial-arts stars, including Lee Multiple programs and documentaries about Lee’s life and philosophies, including Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend (1973) and Bruce Lee: In His Own Words (1998)Disc two holds Fist of Fury, which also comes with its own set of alternate opening credits, which either present different titles (like the alternate The Chinese Connection title) or a slightly different opening, like the Japanese version (which seems to try to lessen the anti-Japanese sentiment found in the film through the opening title card). This disc also features interviews actors Nora Miao, Riki Hashimoto, Jun Katsumura, and Yuen Wah. It closes with four theatrical trailers. Following this are a few interviews. Andre Morgan talks about the impact Golden Harvest had on the Hong Kong film business, while Grady Hendrix talks about the “Bruceploitation” genre that exploded after Lee’s death (which he considers Game of Death to be a part of). This is accompanied by a collection of trailers for a few notable films in the genre, though only a radio spot for Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death. Another interesting interview segment called Match the Lips features professional dubbers Michael Kaye and Vaughan Savage talking about the art of dubbing. The disc then closes with The Grandmaster & the Dragon, which features Wing Chun Grandmaster William Cheung talking about Lee.

Arrow Video announces world exclusive definitive Bruce Lee

Released five years after Bruce Lee’s death, this eccentrically entertaining kung-fu curio combines footage from an unfinished project directed by and starring Lee with original material shot by Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse to create an entirely new work that testifies to the actor’s enduring place in the pop-culture imagination. Using stand-ins, doubles, and archival footage to compensate for Lee’s absence, Game of Death follows a martial-arts movie star who, when he is threatened by a cutthroat crime syndicate intent on controlling his career, must take his skills from the soundstage to the streets. It all builds to an exhilarating climax that is pure Lee: a tour de force of martial-arts mastery in which the legend himself, clad in an iconic yellow jumpsuit, fights his way up a multilevel pagoda, with the towering Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among his formidable opponents. Featuring exclusive 4K restorations, hours of brand new bonus features and previously unreleased footage, the set will include the extended Mandarin Cut of The Big Boss, now ten minutes longer than any version ever released on video worldwide, and the never-before-seen ‘log fight’ from the original Game of Death shoot. New program about English-language dubbing with voice performers Michael Kaye (the English-speaking voice of Lee’s Chen Zhen in Fist of Fury) and Vaughan SavidgeNewly translated optional English subtitles, plus subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing on the English dubs Bruce Lee is at his most awe-inspiringly ferocious in this blistering follow-up to his star-making performance in The Big Boss, which turned out to be an even greater success than its predecessor. Set in 1910s Shanghai, Fist of Fury casts Lee as a martial-arts student who, after his revered master is murdered by a rival dojo of Japanese imperialists, sets out to defend the honor of both his school and the Chinese people, with his fatal fists as his weapon of choice. Elevating Lee to a hero of near folkloric proportions, this historical revenge fantasy blends its stunning action set pieces with a strong anticolonialist statement and a potent dose of the fierce cultural pride that the actor embodied. The Criterion Collection presents their 7-disc Blu-ray box set, Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits, which, for the first time ever, brings together Lee’s five feature films The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, the theatrical version of Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death. Each film is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and appear on their own respective Blu-ray discs. This set also includes the Special Edition version of Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death II, each of which appear over the last two supplement discs. The theatrical version of Enter the Dragon comes from a new 2K restoration, taken from the 35mm interpositive. The other four films are sourced from 4K restorations, with The Big Boss and most of Fist of Fury scanned from the 35mm original camera negative (the opening credits for Fist of Fury come from the 35mm interpositive) and the other two films sourced from 35mm internegatives. All five films are presented with 1080p/24hz high-definition encodes. Brand new interviews with actors Malisa Longo and Colleen Camp, plus hours of archive interviews with Lee’s former co-stars, colleagues and friends, including Nora Miao, Dan Inosanto, Bob Wall, Yuen Wah and many others New program about English-language dubbing, featuring performers Michael Kaye (the English-speaking voice of Lee’s Chen Zhen in Fist of Fury) and Vaughan Savidge