Legend of a Fighter (1982) Deleted Footage

[TheKungFuRobber]

For years now, I've always placed Legend of a Fighter as being among the best of Yuen Wo-Ping's directorial work, and a great example of Leung Kar-Yan's mimicry skills, and also for Yusuaki Kurata's character as I've always viewed it as his finest onscreen work.

Of course, something I've always found fascinating is the missing footage from all currently available prints. In the theatrical trailer, which is presented in a much wider scope than my DVD edition from Hong Kong Legends (one of the widest I've seen for a martial arts epic), there is footage of a fencing dual at around the 2:40 mark, played for comic releif.

If anyone has any information about this missing footage, or if there are any wider complete prints anywhere (look at all your VHS tapes) then I'd be fascinated to hear about it. Even an explaination as to why there are no DVDs available in the original scope and whether or not there are any intentions of any company releasing the film on Blu Ray along with the other classics in the Seasonal archive, such as Dance of the Drunk Mantis, Ring of Death, The Head Hunter, Raging Thunder and Bloodmoon. 

 

[Ah_Tao]

One of the greatest martial arts movies of all time. I would be so excited if someone has the "uncut" version of this. This deserves nothing less of a true, and glorified HD remaster

[Killer Meteor]

The DVD was cropped because the company Hong Kong Legends assumed their target audience of teenagers didn't like black bars on their TVs

 

And no, I am not joking

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

That's a whole new level of retardation....

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Some might say Ric Meyers levels.....

 

Always wanted to see that fencing scene though.

[TheKungFuRobber]

3 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

That's a whole new level of retardation....

From whom? Me or Hong Kong Legends? Either way you're not far wrong, mate. I'm not sure though.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

This.... "The DVD was cropped because the company Hong Kong Legends assumed their target audience of teenagers didn't like black bars on their TVs" 

Who did their market research?

[TheKungFuRobber]

1 hour ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

This.... "The DVD was cropped because the company Hong Kong Legends assumed their target audience of teenagers didn't like black bars on their TVs" 

Who did their market research?

Yeah I thought that it had something to do with the BBC's guidelines for aspect ratio at the time, which HKL followed along with. Honestly I think it's disgraceful though. Later on HKL listened to fans though.

[Killer Meteor]

https://dvd-fever.co.uk/snakein/

Quote

 

Why crop and result in such a missed opportunity? The following comes courtesyof the DVD Debate,which answers the query and it comes straight from Brian White,Head DVD producer at Medusa :

• “The reason we decided to re-master this movie into 16:9format was to cater for the widest possible commercial audience. The hard-core collectors may all prefer 2:35:1, but we have found that many kids with 14, 17 and 21” television sets are amongst the most regular buyers of Jackie Chan movies.

   

  Unfortunately, due to the tiny viewing area offered with the 2:35:1 format on smaller TV sets, we often get asked by this target audience to provide ‘pan & scan’ versions of our movies. As the hard-core collectors detest ‘p & s’ with a passion, I thought the 16:9 anamorphic/1:85:1 widescreen ratio, would be a good compromise that would appeal to both markets.

  In addition, had we conformed the feature to 2:35:1 anamorphic standard, most of the nation’s DVD players, are currently not equiped to handle this ratio correctly, and therefore the image would be stretched.”

So – a well-judged decision or an incredible lack of foresight? You decide.Every single DVD player can handle a 2.35:1 anamorphic feature film and ifhe’s worried about small TVs, what about putting both a 2.35:1 and a 4:3version on the disc? After all, a 16:9 version doesn’t satisfy either market,it just annoys both!

 

 

[TheKungFuRobber]

There is a Mei Ah VCD available for the film and I presume that means there is also a Laserdisc too.

If anyone has the VCD or even a Laserdisc, I'd be interested to know if it was wide-screen or not or has any extra scenes. If there is a Laserdisc, that would be great because Laserdisc can be DVD quality.

[DragonClaws]

1 hour ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

If anyone has the VCD or even a Laserdisc, I'd be interested to know if it was wide-screen or not or has any extra scenes. If there is a Laserdisc, that would be great because Laserdisc can be DVD quality.

 

I found this over at KungFuKingdom.Com, I sure its from the HKL DVD?. Sometime since I watched this film, but I'm sure the HKL rlease, had some TxT, explaining why some scenes where cut, maybe before the original trialer, on the special features part of the disc?.

 

Quote

In the original Hong Kong trailer for this movie there is footage of a sword duel that was cut from the final film. Sadly, Seasonal Films did not keep the negative of the edited footage, and the only remaining evidence of it’s existence is in the trailer. - KungFuKingdom

 

If the footage was pre-cut by the studio, before its release, then all official releases, should be the same version?. Similar to how, The Big Boss has one print/cut available world wide, despite having different versions, released in cineams across Asia in the 70's.

[saltysam]

HKL cropped Drunken Master & Snake In The Eagle's Shadow as well.

[TheKungFuRobber]

2 hours ago, saltysam said:

HKL cropped Drunken Master & Snake In The Eagle's Shadow as well.

Yeah I have both the discs. Amazing remaster for 2002, clearly at some cost but then they fucked up really badly by cropping the picture and forgot that the films were screened in Cantonese and not Mandarin. I can't bring myself to throw them away because they are nice to lend to people and speak of an era when a company tried to do something about the mistreatment of HK cinema.

They also fucked up with The Big Boss DVD too and included the later Cantonese dub from 1981 even though the correct audio should be Mandarin. Remaster was amazing though for its time, given that the film was never remastered before then. If only HKL were still around maybe they'd be making blu rays by now.

 

[ShawAngela]

This movie looks GREAT !!!!

I have to watch it as soon as possible !!

[Asmo]

4 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

This movie looks GREAT !!!!

I have to watch it as soon as possible !!

You'll surely enjoy it! 

[Omni Dragon]

4 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

This movie looks GREAT !!!!

I have to watch it as soon as possible !!

It's hard to go wrong when the Yuen's are involved and this is one of their best.

[TheKungFuRobber]

I always thought LOAF was a staple in the diet of kung fu movie consumers, or even HK cinema fans in general. If you haven't seen it, I urge you to watch it. I won't spoil the ending for you though because it is quite sad.

[panku]

20 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

This movie looks GREAT !!!!

I have to watch it as soon as possible !!

When I made the thread asking if you were forced to pick only Shaws or non-Shaws Hong Kong martial arts films to watch for the rest of your life and I said I didn't think I could choose, Legend of a Fighter is one of the main reasons there is no way I could choose Shaw Brothers only.

[Omni Dragon]

On ‎9‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 11:30 PM, TheKungFuRobber said:

Yeah I have both the discs. Amazing remaster for 2002, clearly at some cost but then they fucked up really badly by cropping the picture and forgot that the films were screened in Cantonese and not Mandarin. I can't bring myself to throw them away because they are nice to lend to people and speak of an era when a company tried to do something about the mistreatment of HK cinema.

They also fucked up with The Big Boss DVD too and included the later Cantonese dub from 1981 even though the correct audio should be Mandarin. Remaster was amazing though for its time, given that the film was never remastered before then. If only HKL were still around maybe they'd be making blu rays by now.

 

HKL DVDs weren't perfect but still, they might be the DVD label I think back to most fondly as I found them when I was just getting into HK movies, and they released the first HK movies I saw without Jackie Chan.