Mystery of Chessboxing (1979) - Fanmade Digital Restoration

[TheKungFuRobber]

Hello everyone, I have finished restoring and creating a 1080p restoration of Mystery of Chessboxing, with the original Cantonese dubbed soundtrack using the transport stream of RZA's 35mm reel capture as a source.

Restoring the film was a long and tedious task, and it was done with a lot of effort being made working with a lower bitrate source. I have employed the best tools at my disposal to make the task possible, using the GAIA-HQ plugin as a deblocking algorithm to restore some details resulting from compression and also additionally using tools such as DVO Pheonix and a lot of time manually removing debris and dirt using Photoshop.

The Cantonese soundtrack used is from a less than ideal VHS bootleg done some years back gratefully by a contributor on the old Asian DVD Club website, so I have used it as a source here as the RZA had hastilly replaced the optical Cantonese track with an English dub from a poor quality source. This results in the audio cutting out intermittently at 4 points in the film for a few miliseconds as the VHS distorts whenever the reel is changed.

The film also suffered from bad magenta fades as seen on the scan, so colour correction was used to restore the colour, and additionally a grain layer was employed to restore the 35mm grain which had likely been removed in an automated cleanup during the telecine process.

I will post a permanent link to download the full 117GB restored film as a Prores 422 file on the Internet Archive soon, where it will remain so that others can enjoy the film in perhaps the best version that will ever exist. From all accounts, it is unlikely that the film will ever be scanned in HD again. Ideally it would be good if the original negatives be scanned and cleaned up professionally, or even an export print without the hard-coded bilingual subs. This aside, this is a film that has long awaited a decent release and long beleived would never see a release of a greater calibre than bootleg VHS or pan and scan DVD.

I will also make another high-bitrate encode of about 30GB which will have the English track muxed into the stream alongside the Cantonese and a subtitle file for the Chinese text.

Preview of the restoration (needs to be updated to include ammendments to audio track)

Screencaps, showing the before and after.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by TheKungFuRobber

[TheKungFuRobber]

I will also, of course, prepare a blu ray release for the film. I would probably like to have a cover commissioned for it. Need to hunt down an artist for the job, but with time it will happen. And I will make the BD availible on the Internet Archive too down the line.

For now, I'll post a link to download the whole 117GB file later in the day.

[Frank Bolte]

I will definetely cop the Bluray when its out ! 

[Super Ninja]

I'll order the blu once it's available, along with Rebellious Reign and The Hot, the Cool and the Vicious. Huge, huge thanks for another great custom work and all the effort put into it. Buddha bless! 

[TheKungFuRobber]

https://archive.org/details/mystery-of-chessboxing-1080-p-239-76-restored-kungfurobber-cantonesepcm.mov

Here's the link to download it. It will be a few days before it is up on Internet Archive, as they have to leech it from my end as a torrent file, but the torrent is availible so you can download it as it uploads to the internet archive.

[LiuYiLong]

17 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

I will also, of course, prepare a blu ray release for the film. I would probably like to have a cover commissioned for it.

Maybe @KUNG FU BOB would be a good man to ask!

But have to say This looks incredible @TheKungFuRobber ! amazing work!!

I'll absolutely grab a Blu-Ray once you're ready.

[thundered mantis]

On 7/2/2021 at 6:49 AM, TheKungFuRobber said:

Hello everyone, I have finished restoring and creating a 1080p restoration of Mystery of Chessboxing, with the original Cantonese dubbed soundtrack using the transport stream of RZA's 35mm reel capture as a source.

Restoring the film was a long and tedious task, and it was done with a lot of effort being made working with a lower bitrate source. I have employed the best tools at my disposal to make the task possible, using the GAIA-HQ plugin as a deblocking algorithm to restore some details resulting from compression and also additionally using tools such as DVO Pheonix and a lot of time manually removing debris and dirt using Photoshop.

The Cantonese soundtrack used is from a less than ideal VHS bootleg done some years back gratefully by a contributor on the old Asian DVD Club website, so I have used it as a source here as the RZA had hastilly replaced the optical Cantonese track with an English dub from a poor quality source. This results in the audio cutting out intermittently at 4 points in the film for a few miliseconds as the VHS distorts whenever the reel is changed.

The film also suffered from bad magenta fades as seen on the scan, so colour correction was used to restore the colour, and additionally a grain layer was employed to restore the 35mm grain which had likely been removed in an automated cleanup during the telecine process.

I will post a permanent link to download the full 117GB restored film as a Prores 422 file on the Internet Archive soon, where it will remain so that others can enjoy the film in perhaps the best version that will ever exist. From all accounts, it is unlikely that the film will ever be scanned in HD again. Ideally it would be good if the original negatives be scanned and cleaned up professionally, or even an export print without the hard-coded bilingual subs. This aside, this is a film that has long awaited a decent release and long beleived would never see a release of a greater calibre than bootleg VHS or pan and scan DVD.

I will also make another high-bitrate encode of about 30GB which will have the English track muxed into the stream alongside the Cantonese and a subtitle file for the Chinese text.

Preview of the restoration (needs to be updated to include ammendments to audio track)

Screencaps, showing the before and after.

 

drooling all over the keyboard just now. Thank you so much @TheKungFuRobber

[laagi]

@TheKungFuRobber If you'd do the same for Shaolin Vs Lama, I'd consider myself a very happy man 

[thundered mantis]

2 hours ago, laagi said:

@TheKungFuRobber If you'd do the same for Shaolin Vs Lama, I'd consider myself a very happy man 

count two!

[sym8]

2 hours ago, laagi said:

@TheKungFuRobber If you'd do the same for Shaolin Vs Lama, I'd consider myself a very happy man 

Me too,I refuse to watch this movie until there’s a worthy print available 

[laagi]

33 minutes ago, sym8 said:

Me too,I refuse to watch this movie until there’s a worthy print available 

I think the print shown on 36cinema would be more than worthy. And that's coming from someone who watched the horibble 35mm print that's been floating around for years.

[Graysman]

2 hours ago, sym8 said:

Me too,I refuse to watch this movie until there’s a worthy print available 

Me too count me in on that also.

[Ninja Sinai]

Thank you @TheKungFuRobber you are a legend!!!!

Mystery of Chess Boxing has been one those classics that fans thought they would never ever get to see a good quality release off, along with others classics such as Shaolin vs Lama, Shaolin vs Wu-Tang, Buddhist Fist and Legend of a Fighter. 

Well respect to RZA for making a proper scanned print available and for you for putting in all the time and effort to make it look gorgeous! Seeing good quality prints of movies which you’ve only watched crappy prints of for several decades is an amazing joy. Your left speechless looking at the screen. 

Thank you once again. 

[Ninja Sinai]

23 hours ago, laagi said:

@TheKungFuRobber If you'd do the same for Shaolin Vs Lama, I'd consider myself a very happy man 

I already mentioned this to the Robber several weeks ago but sadly he doesn’t have the rip of the stream of Shaolin vs Lama that was shown by RZA. So if anyone does have it, send it to the Robber so he use his special Kung Fu skills on it. Heck if anyone has a copy of the streams for Shaolin vs Wu-Tang then send over also!

[TheKungFuRobber]

8 hours ago, Ninja Sinai said:

I already mentioned this to the Robber several weeks ago but sadly he doesn’t have the rip of the stream of Shaolin vs Lama that was shown by RZA. So if anyone does have it, send it to the Robber so he use his special Kung Fu skills on it. Heck if anyone has a copy of the streams for Shaolin vs Wu-Tang then send over also!

I can appreciate that a lot of people would like to see me work on Shaolin VS Lama but please understand I've got a lot of projects on the go at the moment. Please be a bit patient. I might want to do a Shaolin Lama project down the line but I'm not promising anything, and even then it will not be this year. Also I'm not a guy.

Edited July 4, 2021 by TheKungFuRobber

[Ninja Sinai]

40 minutes ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

I can appreciate that a lot of people would like to see me work on Shaolin VS Lama but please understand I've got a lot of projects on the go at the moment. Please be a bit patient. I might want to do a Shaolin Lama project down the line but I'm not promising anything, and even then it will not be this year. Also I'm not a guy.

Ah my apologies.. a girl into classic Kung Fu movies!? Not many of them around.. thanks for all your hard work and efforts. It’s much appreciated. 
 

Personally im anxiously looking forward to your releases of Secret Rivals and Snake In The Monkeys Shadow. 

[TheKungFuRobber]

47 minutes ago, Ninja Sinai said:

Ah my apologies.. a girl into classic Kung Fu movies!? Not many of them around.. thanks for all your hard work and efforts. It’s much appreciated. 
 

Personally im anxiously looking forward to your releases of Secret Rivals and Snake In The Monkeys Shadow. 

all good thanks and true. we all have fists and feet though, and sometimes a desire to use them.

I'm just waiting for Snake in the Monkey's Shadow to come out on BD for now before I even do anything more on that project, then I'll be getting it subtitled. Paying someone to do it.

[Ninja Sinai]

1 hour ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

all good thanks and true. we all have fists and feet though, and sometimes a desire to use them.

I'm just waiting for Snake in the Monkey's Shadow to come out on BD for now before I even do anything more on that project, then I'll be getting it subtitled. Paying someone to do it.

Thanks. 

Hows is Secret Rivals coming along?

[TheKungFuRobber]

1 hour ago, Ninja Sinai said:

Thanks. 

Hows is Secret Rivals coming along?

Postponed because I need to get more storage before I can do any more work on said project.

[sifu iron perm]

a Bluray would be fab!!!

[Django]

Isn't it considered stealing though? 36 Cinema is charging  $10 to rent it for a week. I cannot see how putting it out there for free is not hurting RZA and Dan's business..

[TheKungFuRobber]

1 hour ago, Django said:

Isn't it considered stealing though? 36 Cinema is charging  $10 to rent it for a week. I cannot see how putting it out there for free is not hurting RZA and Dan's business..

How old are you, buddy? Do you really think that RZA plans on selling this on BD, given the costs to get rights to distribute it likely and the fees needed for whichever blu ray company would be releasing it? I don't think so, it wouldn't be profitable. If it were, then it would have been released on DVD 20 years ago in anamorphic format. It has been sold in pan/scan format for years on many off label formats. Just because RZA has a 35mm print doesn't mean he owns the film outright and I'm not going to keep my fan work hidden away from people considering that there are people on here who have been waiting 40 odd years for the film to come out in a decent format on home media just out of respect for some millionaire audio technician's business. Go kick up a stink elsewhere. If you were to argue that you could argue that the shitty VHS bootleg that's on YouTube with millions of views is "stealing his business". He's making an absolute killing on his shitty music already, I don't think he gives a flying fuck about my project.

Edited July 5, 2021 by TheKungFuRobber

[Django]

5 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

How old are you, buddy? Do you really think that RZA plans on selling this on BD, given the costs to get rights to distribute it likely and the fees needed for whichever blu ray company would be releasing it? I don't think so, it wouldn't be profitable. If it were, then it would have been released on DVD 20 years ago in anamorphic format. It has been sold in pan/scan format for years on many off label formats. Just because RZA has a 35mm print doesn't mean he owns the film outright and I'm not going to keep my fan work hidden away from people considering that there are people on here who have been waiting 40 odd years for the film to come out in a decent format on home media just out of respect for some millionaire audio technician's business. Go kick up a stink elsewhere. If you were to argue that you could argue that the shitty VHS bootleg that's on YouTube with millions of views is "stealing his business". He's making an absolute killing on his shitty music already, I don't think he gives a flying fuck about my project.

I’m 28, if that is something that you need to know. And as far as I know, RZA does not own a print. But Dan Halsted does, and he had it scanned. I don’t have a clue  if there’s any plans on a BD release of this movie, maybe VCI in the future?
 

And what’s the deal with shitting on RZA and his music? Totally uncalled for since it has absolutely nothing to do with anything in this case. 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Django

[TheKungFuRobber]

7 minutes ago, Django said:

I’m 28, if that is something that you need to know. And as far as I know, RZA does not own a print. But Dan Halsted does, and he had it scanned. I don’t have a clue  if there’s any plans on a BD release of this movie, maybe VCI in the future?
 

And what’s the deal with shitting on RZA and his music? Totally uncalled for since it has absolutely nothing to do with anything in this case. 

Dan Halstead dealing with VCI? Is the Pope a Catholic? 

I couldn't give a rat's what Dan Halstead thinks. He doesn't own the film either in any case. Besides if a company wanted to work on the film in any case I think they would find a better source than someone's own personal print with all of the jump cuts and tears present, Mei Ah likely has an interpositive somewhere already because they are the absentee proprietor of these films who don't give enough of a damn. Fan projects aren't going to make an official release less likely, they happen because the companies don't care. Maybe 200 people at most are even going to bother downloading my custom. I spent fucking hours on this. And if you don't approve that's fair enough but if Dan Halsted has a problem then he can bring it to me. But don't take your personal distaste for people working their ass off for free on shit out and making it free for the fans out on me. I've always told people to support official releases when possible and done my part in buying up decent releases of movies I like when they come along. But if you know anything about these movies you'll understand that were not in a position where you can just buy everything on DVD considering most of these films are only still around because of bootlegging anyway. Even ask someone like Toby Russell or Mike Leeder who knows what they're on about they'll tell you the same thing...

 

 

 

[TheKungFuRobber]

Look I'm not trying to sound harsh. You're entitled to your opinion and so on but beleive me I want an official release just as much as you do. If I felt my efforts would be in vain I wouldn't have proceeded and it does cross my mind. But I'm not convinced that I get in the way of that possibility. So time will tell what happens. All I can do is hope for the best and make the best of what is around. It's all anyone can do.