Tournament, The (1974)/ The 8 Master: German DVD (MiG)

[John]

If MiB is my nefarious archnemesis, MiG is my superhero. Or at least my home doggy dog. This movie started out really slow, despite the fact it began with an abduction. Once Angela Mao has to smack a bitch however, that is when this film gets a-rollin'. I think I read something about Mao not being a martial artist per se, but more of a Michelle Yeoh just buffing-up for her roles. Ho. Lee. Shieeeeet. Possibly a city in Vietnam, but more pertinently my reaction to her robust performance. Hwang Jang Lee, EAT YOUR HEART OUT! This is the real fox right here! I am simultaneously joyous and depressed at how amazingly she outclasses Carter Wong in this; Mao even kicks it with Hwang In-Sik pretty good! This film also has a young, punkass Sammo Hung that needs to be put in his place.

Although The Tournament is definitely among the ranks of HK films with bizarre plotting and pacing, in this case I find it largely to the film's detriment. The names, their talent, and the quality choreography are good reasons to check this out; but it is a shame that they couldn't come together a little more cohesively.

The DVD is my first experiment with MiG; I find it servicable but nonetheless have some issues: the source materials show some rather nostalgic video artifacing; somewhere along the line, I guess, this was on a tape. The resulting image is lacking in fine detail and has a smattering of print damage as well; otherwise it appears stable and there doesn't look to be any incompetance on the encoding end of things. Mandarin audio (2.0) was also extremely quiet and I found myself reaching for the headphones. Subtitles were fine; keep in mind I'm not too picky.

The Tournament comes as a double feature with The 8 Masters. I might give it a look and update sometime. Overall, at 16 Euro plus shipping this is pretty steep compared to the Joy Sales version. I'm not sure if this disc is progressive or not, but I didn't notice any combing errors; can anybody comment on that disc or point me in the direction of some pics?

[Killer Meteor]

Joy Sales is likely a PAL-NTSC standards conversion therefore worse. The process causes locking in ghosting and blurriness.

The picture quality for The Tournament is typical of the non-remastered transfers used by Fortune Star for their second tier titles. Oldish video transfers, some are better than others.

I wish MIG has released more GH films. I'd rather have say, LADY WHIRLWIND or STONER on the other part of this disc then the heavily cut print of 8 Masters.

Here's a review I did for Asian DVD Guide -

A formulaic but nevertheless very entertaining offering from Golden Harvest, this has Angela Mao avenging the disgrace of her family’s kung fu school, and the suicide of her father, by travelling to Thailand to take part in the country’s boxing tournaments.

The fight choreography, naturally the point of the film, is very vigorous and exciting, just what we expect from Sammo Hung. The acrobatics and stunt work is top notch; and Hung manages to keep the Thai boxing bouts from being too repetitive.

On a similar note, the film thankfully keep the gratuitous travelogue footage of Thailand to a minimum, thus keeping the pace up and making this film instantly better then the similar Duel Of Fists and The King Boxer, which seem to have been funded by the Thailand Tourist Board to make up for their presentation as an impoverished slum in The Big Boss.

The direction is nothing special, but there is a rather entertaining emphasis on OTT melodrama, especially in the scene where Mao’s father is driven to suicide by the hallucinated taunts of his fellow kung fu masters. It’s probably meant to be harrowing, but it’s so wonderfully hammy you’ll be in hysterics!

Mao is excellent as always, very lovely and with a good deal of force in her performance – and looks excellent in short shorts! Carter Wong is stuck to being second fiddle as usual, but does well enough under the circumstances and I quite enjoy his screen presence. Whang In-sik is a rather contrived Japanese villain but still gets to strut his stuff in fine style. Maria Yi has one scene and that’s so brief you’ll forget she’s even in the film – indeed, one review thinks she plays the well endowed Thai babe seen near the end of the film! Lee Quin’s cameo is pointless in the extreme, and probably rather freaky to non kung fu fans.

Well paced and fun, the film goes a little bit off the rails in its finale, which features Mao fighting a gweilo played by George Yirikian who was probably cast because he looks like Bob Wall, but frankly he looks rather silly and his fighting skills look rather drab, but having said that the scene is still fun to watch. The closing resolution is rather odd, considering what occurred earlier in the film, and ends things on an awkward note, but overall this is one of the most entertaining kung fu films I’ve seen in a while.

DVD

The DVD is a 2 film set from German company MIG, co-billing The Tournament with the Joseph Kuo directed Carter Wong vehicle The 8 Masters. The latter is presented in a good German print, with German, Mandarin and English options, but is cut by 10 minutes. Not much of a film anyway.

Picture:

Anamorphic 2.35:1 and true PAL (NOT the NSTC derived picture one odd person keeps claiming), this is not bad but does show its age, not as a film print, but as a video master, showing poor resolution and weak contrast. Watchable, ticks all the boxes, but it sure does make you appreciate the newer transfers done for the HD transfers of GH films. The transfer is fine; it’s just limited because it used an old beta master. An improvement over the PAL-NTSC Joy Sales though, for sure.

Sound

The Mandarin language option sounds rather boxy and with limited range, something that seems to affect a lot of 70s Golden Harvest and Shaw films when they reach DVD. It’s listenable though, and the subtitles are a lot better then usual.

The English dub track is an original of sorts, it seems to date from the early 80s with that particular group of GH dubbers, and some of the music is late 70s synth. One section of the English track reverts to Mandarin with English subs. There’s also a German dub.

Extras include a Hong Kong theatrical trailer for The Tournament, plus a trailer gallery for the following Mao titles: Hapkido, The Himalayan, Lady Whirlwind, When Taekwondo Strikes, Stoner (this looks awesome!), The Fate Of Lee Khan and Broken Oath. 8 Masters is accompanied with a German theatrical trailer

[John]

Interesting; I think I read that review yesterday and someone commented on the Joy Sales being better? In any case, I wasn't aware at all that Joy Sales was doing PAL remasters, I thought that was exclusively a Celestial nuisance! Does this mean that The Big Heat, City War, The Himalayan, Lady Whirlwind, The Skyhawk, and When Taekwondo Strikes are all ghost-ridden messes?!?

[Sheng]

Since I had the Joy Sales of THE TOURNAMENT already I never bothered to invest in this MiG double-feature. Guess I was still kinda sceptical about the possibility to “upgrade”... When I picked up the German Eyecatcher DVD of THE FAST SWORD to upgrade on my Joy Sales copy, I was stunned when I realized that the latter offered a markedly better print quality (still very far from perfect, mind you).

The extra feature on the MiG DVD is a bad joke, though. The (admittedly quite pretty) print is so mindlessly chopped that I found it virtually impossible to understand the story. Interestingly, I also realized that the German and the English dialogue sometimes deviate from each other to the point that you could almost believe you’re watching two different movies. Irrespective of the picture quality, I’d advise not to waste a minute with this “bonus” bullshit!

The DVD of THE 8 MASTERS that was previously available on New at least offered the full uncut version, cropped-as-fuck though it was. If one bothers about this rather weak Kuo film at all, this version at least allows you to follow the plot.

BTW, With the exception of CITY WAR (which I don’t have) I remember all the other JS DVDs you mention as halfway decent, definitely, er… “watchable”. In any event a hell of a lot better than most of the blurry and dubbed garbage that floated (and probably still floats) around on the “trading scene”.

[John]

Awe Sheng, you shouldn't be doing that to yourself! Cropped transfers? I think that goes against some UN convention.

I've been really satisfied with my Eyecatcher discs too. I have The Sword, Eastern Condors, and The Beach of the War Gods. I haven't really watched the former yet, but the last two were very good. I think this is the only version of The Sword in Cantonese on DVD, in addition to being OAR, anamorphic, original mono, AND English friendly! Now if only we could get the Frenchman to show a little love...

[Sheng]

They must have hacked off a good third of the picture… I remember one duel scene where Carter was facing his opponent and not one inch of their bodies was visible. All you saw in the frame was the empty space between them… But even this cropped mess of a movie is better than some pretty looking "Kino version" butchered by some moron. At least it is to me...

No issues with the three Eyecatcher discs you acquired, they’re all good. Just make sure to stay clear of THE FAST SWORD !

[Killer Meteor]

Since I had the Joy Sales of THE TOURNAMENT already I never bothered to invest in this MiG double-feature. Guess I was still kinda sceptical about the possibility to “upgrade”... When I picked up the German Eyecatcher DVD of THE FAST SWORD to upgrade on my Joy Sales copy, I was stunned when I realized that the latter offered a markedly better print quality (still very far from perfect, mind you).

I though the German FAST SWORD DVD was awful. Chroma trail ghosting on everything, and tons of missing and frozen frames.

[Killer Meteor]

Interesting; I think I read that review yesterday and someone commented on the Joy Sales being better? In any case, I wasn't aware at all that Joy Sales was doing PAL remasters, I thought that was exclusively a Celestial nuisance! Does this mean that The Big Heat, City War, The Himalayan, Lady Whirlwind, The Skyhawk, and When Taekwondo Strikes are all ghost-ridden messes?!?

There is someone on the forums trolling the German releases, claiming them to be NTSC-PAL in this case. Very odd.

I'm told the Joy Sales dvd of KUNG FU GIRL is proper NTSC but I've not seen it yet.

[Sheng]

I though the German FAST SWORD DVD was awful.

Yep, absolutely horrible, that's what I'm saying.

I'm told the Joy Sales dvd of KUNG FU GIRL is proper NTSC but I've not seen it yet.

Not sure if its proper NTSC. All I know is that its one of the worst prints that Joy Sales dished up in their Legendary Collection so far. Shame, since KUNG FU GIRL is definitely one of the best Lo Wei films I've seen.

[chen lung]

I've been really satisfied with my Eyecatcher discs too. I have The Sword, Eastern Condors, and The Beach of the War Gods. I haven't really watched the former yet, but the last two were very good. I think this is the only version of The Sword in Cantonese on DVD, in addition to being OAR, anamorphic, original mono, AND English friendly! Now if only we could get the Frenchman to show a little love...

I'd get the SunFilm double-feature (with 'Last Hurrah For Chivalry) as it includes re-translated subtitles.

Deltamac and HKVideo released it in Cantonese as well.

[John]

I'd get the SunFilm double-feature (with 'Last Hurrah For Chivalry) as it includes re-translated subtitles.

Deltamac and HKVideo released it in Cantonese as well.

Interesting. The double feature has an FSK 16, whereas the Eyecatcher has FSK 18 and also boasts that it is "uncut" on the box. I wonder if it just got re-certified or if it's actually cut?

[chen lung]

Interesting. The double feature has an FSK 16, whereas the Eyecatcher has FSK 18 and also boasts that it is "uncut" on the box. I wonder if it just got re-certified or if it's actually cut?

Think it was certification - perhaps Eyecatcher wasn't actually rated, so it wasn't allowed into general stores (unlike SunFilm).

Could be wrong?

[Sheng]

Think Eyecatcher and New never actually bothered to get an FSK rating for their films. Meaning they were automatically treated as FSK 18 product. Saves you money but makes your product almost invisible in stores...

[chen lung]

Think Eyecatcher and New never actually bothered to get an FSK rating for their films. Meaning they were automatically treated as FSK 18 product. Saves you money but makes your product almost invisible in stores...

Thanks for articulating that better:smile:.

[John]

OOOH! So the red box that reads "keine vermietung oder verkauf an kinder und jugendliche unter 18 jahren" which I guess is something like "not for the consumption of kids and juveniles under 18" is not actually FSK! Now I'm full of questions. Who's got the best transfer and how does Last Hurrah compare to the Dragon Dynasty?

[Killer Meteor]

The German Last Hurrah is superior to the Dragon Dynasty and HKL dvds.

[John]

So it's two discs then? I was thinking there was no way if it was all on one...

[chen lung]

So it's two discs then? I was thinking there was no way if it was all on one...

It might be one disc? Dual-layer is no problem for that.

[John]

Well you've twisted my arm! Now to justify ridiculous shipping costs...are there any other holy grail sort of German discs I'm not aware of? I've got Prodigal Son, The Tournament, Duel to the Death, Beach of the War Gods, and Eastern Condors.

[chen lung]

Well you've twisted my arm! Now to justify ridiculous shipping costs...are there any other holy grail sort of German discs I'm not aware of? I've got Prodigal Son, The Tournament, Duel to the Death, Beach of the War Gods, and Eastern Condors.

'Seaman No 7', 'Once Upon A Time In China And America', 'The Invincible' and 'Fast Sword' (despite the reported quality of the latter) all have remastered subtitles.

There might be more.

[John]

Yeah, I'll probably just put it on the back burner. I still haven't grabbed half the Media Blasters and FUNi catalog. I love these discussions though, it's like DVD Pokemon. Thanks, guys.