The Martial Arts Essentials: The Films of Yuen Wo Ping

[Michael L.]

I picked this box set (the first of two on Yuen Wo Ping's films from this company) today at FYE new for $4.99. I haven't had a chance to crack it open yet so I am unsure about the quality of the DVDs, or even if the titles listed are actually the movies included, but it says it holds:

Awaken Fist

Kung Fu Massacre

Dance of the Drunken Mantis

Invincible Armor

Born Invincible

Taoism Drunkard

They were having a huge DVD sale. After finding this I dug around to try to find other boxsets in the series. They were still listed at $15-$20, which still isn't unreasonable but didn't seem like such a great deal. I ended up with a copy of Jet Li's Wong Fei Hong 2, to replace the one that ran away from home, for only $4.

[dionbrother]

That's a perfect price for it. It has good (but non-anamorphic) ports of the UK dvds for DANCE and INVINCIBLE ARMOUR, and both movies are must-haves. The BORN INVINCIBLE is the best version available and watchable.

[Michael L.]

Are all the Martial Arts Essentials boxsets hit and miss with some good and some not-so-good copies? My new Blu-Ray machine should arrive tomorrow; I'd like to say I am leaving the world of standard def DVDs behind, but I know it'll be a while before I can A) get everything I want on Blu-Ray and walk past 6 decent films for $5!

[dionbrother]

Every Vidasia package is hit or miss, but its a cheap way to see what were once scarce movies. You will not see these films on BluRay anytime soon, if ever.

[Michael L.]

Believe me, I know.... and for stuff that only exists in versions cut down for TV broadcast (or created for TV), I don't really care. Heck, I found a stack of VCDs the other day and would have bought them but they didn't have anything I didn't already have... they didn't have prices, though. I don't think the used record store that had them quite knew what they were!

[TripMasterMunky]

Is there any better legit R1 DVD release of Dance or Invincible Armor? Or is this basically it?

It's hard to tell on Amazon with all the boots out there. If this is the only release though then I'll have to pick this up.

[The Silver Fox]

The Mei Ah version of 'Dance of the Drunk Mantis' is Region 0. It is Anamorphic Widescreen with Cantonese and Mandarin Audio with English subs. The print is a little rough but certainly watchable and it can be had pretty cheap too.

If there was ever a classic kung fu movie that needed a special edition DVD it is Invincible Armour. I have the Video Asia version,Pan Media(arghh) and FarEastFlix custom DVD which is the best. I wish some company would get the rights to IA and get it remastered,Mandarin audio option,maybe some interviews with Hwang, John Liu,Phillip Ko etc. just a pipe dream I guess..

[Pai Mei]

If there was ever a classic kung fu movie that needed a special edition DVD it is Invincible Armour. I have the Video Asia version,Pan Media(arghh) and FarEastFlix custom DVD which is the best. I wish some company would get the rights to IA and get it remastered,Mandarin audio option,maybe some interviews with Hwang, John Liu,Phillip Ko etc. just a pipe dream I guess..

A lot of collectors also go for the New Entertainment World (Germany) version. It has Mandarin audio and English and German dubs. Not to mention it is uncut. However it only has German subs which I think are just dub titles.

[The Silver Fox]

Yeah, I remember looking into trying to get the German version too, but it was going for too much cash since it is OOP. The Vengeance version is OOP as well but I think it is the same print as the Video Asia.

[Sheng]

What speaks for the German version first & foremost is its VERY pleasing picture quality! (the colours appear a bit dull though) I've yet to see a better looking print.

If I remember correctly the German subs are in fact dubtitles, taken from the ENGLISH dub. Mandarin track is incomplete though, there are roughly ten minutes in the middle of the movie where the audio switches to English. Since they're out of business some of the New / Eyecatcher titles are getting somwhat scarce. Just seen sealed copies of INVINCIBLE ARMOUR ("Die Stahlfaust") for a tenner though...