VCI starts Martial Arts blu ray collection

[ShawAngela]

7 hours ago, Iron Head Rat said:

Never seen either movie. You had chance to watch either of them yet?

Mine is on its way.

I watched both a while ago and I enjoyed them both A LOT !

[Yihetuan]

13 hours ago, saltysam said:

I think Pearl River and VCI are on a really limited budget so i suppose it's a cost thing. It's a real shame we don't get interviews with the stars Henry Yu or Meng Fei, it would have been a great opportunity, though i imagine in pandemic times it would have been tough to arrange. Glad we are getting these movies though and i hope they continue to come out and a bit more often.

No doubt about it. That's why they have a big disclaimer in the beginning talking about the lack of color correction, grading and clean up of the print. I'm not faulting them for that and I'm glad to have these prints available on blu ray but don't title it the "basher box" when it's just a double feature disc.

I'm used to Matthew Whitaker from his Cinema Bushido podcasts and his co-hosting duties with MW on the Clones Cast podcast but he really has no business doing the commentaries for this He literally adds nothing of value during the entire audio commentary.

[DragonClaws]

On 4/15/2021 at 6:40 PM, Yihetuan said:

Yes, it is. I received mine the other day and that's the first thing I checked.

 

Thank you @Yihetuan.

[Yihetuan]

Anyone who wants to save an additional 15% off The Basher Box or anything else that is in-stock at deepdiscountdvd.com can use the code: FLOWERS. Valid until 4/21 @noon CST.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Yihetuan

[KenHashibe]

On 4/16/2021 at 12:37 AM, Shaolin Patriot said:

Looking forward to your stellar reviews, Ken.  I'd be anxious to hear what you think about Prodigal Boxer (I only saw it decades ago on television).  Hopefully the feature audio commentary & "basher" interview prove insightful.  Look out for some familiar Shaw faces & an earlier Jackie Chan!  I do have the Leg Fighters release and was reasonably satisfied. 

Thank you @Shaolin Patriot! I'll definitely be posting some reviews of the releases once I get them. It might take a while but I'll post my thoughts as I go along. I'll look out for those cameos! The transfer for The Leg Fighters looked especially good with its colors! USPS Tracking says it should arrive tomorrow!

[Django]

It would be awesome if VCI would release The Mystery of Chess Boxing, Shaolin and Wu-Tang or Shaolin VS Lama. The day when I can put those three Blu-rays on the shelf, will be a good day!

[khuu_2000]

Hello everyone, I would like to know in the forum if anyone ordered and received The Basher Box Set (The Prodigal Boxer & The Awaken Punch) 4k Restoration [Blu-ray]? If so if the person could tell me the Bluray would have an original version (in Mandarin) in addition to the English dubbed version. Thank you very much.

[saltysam]

3 minutes ago, khuu_2000 said:

Hello everyone, I would like to know in the forum if anyone ordered and received The Basher Box Set (The Prodigal Boxer & The Awaken Punch) 4k Restoration [Blu-ray]? If so if the person could tell me the Bluray would have an original version (in Mandarin) in addition to the English dubbed version. Thank you very much.

English dub only, no mandarin

[khuu_2000]

thank very much,because I look for these films only when Its have the original version

[Kwok Choi]

On 3/28/2021 at 11:42 PM, ThunderScore said:

 

 

What about The Prodigal Boxer is it uncut?  The bad guys met a nasty demise at the end. Are their death scenes fully intact or truncated? This is important for me to make a purchase of this Basher Box Set

Edited July 22, 2021 by Kwok Choi

[Yihetuan]

Just a quick update on the next release of the Pearl River imprint from VCI. MW in his most recent podcast mentioned that Duel of the 7 Tigers is getting finished up (just waiitng approval from the higher ups at VCI) and the next one after that is a work in progress but he's trying to get 7 Commandments of Kung Fu and Fist of Fury 3 Jeet Kune: Claws and the Supreme Kung Fu lined up. He mentioned 7 Commandments of Kung Fu is really beat up but he has two different prints available to work with & he has a separate project on Bruce Li (mentioned on the Martial Arts mania podcast) which was originally supposed to be part of the VCI label but he's working with another company on that one.

MW also mentioned the Brucesploitation documentary is going to be released soon and hit the festival circuit first along with several Brucesploitation titles which will be released simultaneously along with the release of the documentary.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Yihetuan

[thundered mantis]

Ohh MY!!! Finally! Duel of the 7 tigers at long last! That's a great release. 7 Commandments is superb news also. Despite the print being in bad shape, watching it on HD and OAR is more than I ever dreamt of. Very excited for those two

[Django]

7 Commandments of Kung Fu, that's great news! 

[saltysam]

Great news and without wishing to come across as ungrateful and impatient, I hope Pearl River can speed up their release dates. I hope we can get 7 Tigers before the end of the year.

[Killer Meteor]

1 hour ago, Django said:

7 Commandments of Kung Fu, that's great news! 

So many laxative scenes....

[lilmanjs]

Great news on upcoming releases! Started off by grabbing Dynamo and the basher box. Can't wait to see how the label shapes up!

[wmcguire18]

If you watch the doc features on their releases it feels like every little featurette about restoration has a visible MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING tin in the background of the guys talking, so I would say that one is a matter of time.

[Iron Head Rat]

23 hours ago, saltysam said:

Great news and without wishing to come across as ungrateful and impatient, I hope Pearl River can speed up their release dates. I hope we can get 7 Tigers before the end of the year.

Is the only way to buy them in the UK, is to import them?

[saltysam]

7 hours ago, Iron Head Rat said:

Is the only way to buy them in the UK, is to import them?

https://www.zavvi.com/elysium.search?search=basher+box

[Super Ninja]

Sweet, will get all three. Also great to hear the dox is finally here, hope the book is in final stages as well.

[wmcguire18]

On 7/26/2021 at 3:05 AM, wmcguire18 said:

If you watch the doc features on their releases it feels like every little featurette about restoration has a visible MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING tin in the background of the guys talking, so I would say that one is a matter of time.

OR Eureka could beat them to the punch, I guess.

[Kwok Choi]

From a post in a thread on Blu-ray.com..............

" VCI Entertainment’s new Classic Kung Fu cinema focused label The Pearl River Collection will be releasing on Blu-ray “The Basher Box”, punching its way to retailers on April 13, 2021. It will include Ulysess Au-Yeung Jun’s The Prodigal Boxer (1972) and Fong Long-Seung’s The Awaken Punch (1973), to be followed later in the year by the seminal Duel of the Seven Tigers from director Yang Chuen.

The Basher Box features two early Kung Fu films showcasing the transitional shift from the Wuxia Pian sword fighting knights of classics such as Touch of Zen to the more brawling style of action that paved the way for both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

In a 1973 film that bares many similarities to Bruce Lee’s debut film The Big Boss, The Awaken Punch‘s Henry Yu Yang plays an altruistic fighter who begins to build a name for himself as he violently cleans up a town from within its more seedier elements. But when he must abide by a promise to his dying father to give up his fighting ways, he will be faced with a new challenge in the arrival of the knife-throwing master Tien Feng (Fist of Fury) and his gang. With action from the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping (Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and a cameo from a young Jackie Chan and others, this basher is the epitome of the Punch and Block violence that began a long trend within Martial Arts cinema.

The Prodigal Boxer (1972) is an early take on the legend of martial artist Fong Sai-Yuk (later to be portrayed by the likes of Jet Li and Alexander Fu-Sheng), here played by Mang Fei. Once Fong Inadvertently kills a student of the rival school run by Iron Hand Tan (Kurata Yasuaki), this action leads to a series of near death confrontations between the men concluding in a tournament battle of the ages. Choreographed by Shaw Brothers’ Lau Kar-Wing (the brother of the great Gordon Liu and Lau Kar-Leung) this film represents the brawling style of the time as well as the genesis of the more stylistic “Shapes” trend of martial arts action that would soon follow.


Special Features:
* NEW 4K Transfer of The Prodigal Boxer from a 35mm inter-positive???????
* NEW 4k Transfer of The Awaken Punch from a 35mm negative
* Audio Commentary on The Prodigal Boxer with actor/director Michael Worth and Clones Cast/Cinema Bushido host Matthew Whittaker
* Creative Chaos: The Basher Genre: an interview with Michael Worth and Action Choreographer John Kreng
* Original Theatrical Trailers to both films
* Newly commissioned artwork from artist Bryan Meredith
* Essay booklet on the Basher genre within Kung Fu Cinema History"...........................................................................

I have put question marks, highlighted and underlined the word "inter-positive" in the description above. There is also a full review of The Prodigal Boxer Blu-ray on this link in the same forum https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Prodigal-Boxer-Blu-ray/285078/#Review but I did not notice anything being said about cuts so if anyone has bought and watched this set can they please comment on The Prodigal Boxer? Many thanks.

[saltysam]

I have the disc, The Prodigal Boxer is from a USA Cinema print. There's no inserts, what would likely to be cut?

[Kwok Choi]

5 hours ago, saltysam said:

I have the disc, The Prodigal Boxer is from a USA Cinema print. There's no inserts, what would likely to be cut?

Hi saltysam thanks for the response. I am just worried about the end fight. Some prints for vhs/dvd had the end fight truncated for violence......(without given spoilers!)...........and was just wondering if this VCI release is uncut especially at the end fight. Both films in this set are important to me so if this is the best available I want to make sure that it is the "international theatrical version" with the demise of all the bad guys at the end fully intact.

[saltysam]

It's definitely a different print to the one used for the DVD i had as the title card is different. If you could spoiler an example of what should be there i can check it.