Bruce Lee films - French alternate dubs tracks

[CastleOfDeath]

Not sure I saw a thread about that here. 

In France, we had two versions of the dubs of the Bruce Lee films.

Above is the first Big Boss poster from the original french distributor, Genoves, before René Chateau took over. From the 70's up to 2003, the original cinema dubs were the same, they are called "René Chateau" versions by the fans. The films themselves are edited differently from any version out there, with unique opening credits, and edits, as Chateau removed stuff from the films to make Bruce looks more like a true hero. Hence we don't see Bruce crying over his Sifu coffin in Fist of Fury, for example.

Because the french edit os Big Boss was based on the Mandarin Cut, about 4mn from the film were unique to France, until the recent Golden Harvest set. Here's a YT vid highliting the extra footage: 

So basically, France had a third of the mandarin extra footage all along up to 2003, when the regular worlwide edit became the norm. The french original edit was also the only one for decades where the killing of the Boss has the circular camera motion complete.

Here's all four trailers with the original french dubs: 

The original dubs are highly sought after by fans, as they don't exist anymore on Blu-ray or UHD. The 2003 dubs were remade by current right owners Metropolitan Films, and are actually much closer to the original dialogue than the vintage 70's versions which are a bit trashy, but that is part of their original charm. For example in Big Boss, after the first fight, Bruce says "Well, do You want more?" to the wounded men in the 2K version. In the 70's version, he says "Well? Go back to your mom!" which is a french suburban insult.

Weirdly, Way Of The Dragon has a funny 70's dub where all chinese actors speaks with heavy chinese accent, making many regard the dub as "racist". Although the 2K dubs are criticised by nostalgic fans, they are much more closer to the original intent. Ideally, a Arrow style box set should reunite both dubs, but people doubt this may happen.

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by CastleOfDeath
Dates corrections

[Coliseum1972]

I saw french Boss , it did not have animated opening sequence , just blue background with titles

[CastleOfDeath]

That's right  With music from the deleted prostitute scene! Crazy.

[Coliseum1972]

I believe Andre Genoves released both Boss & FoF.....says so on the movie posters

 

[CastleOfDeath]

Yes, you also can tell due to the difference in dubbing, Way of the Dragon René Chateau dub is so awful it's actually very funny.

[Chorake]

I always admired the French dub of The Big Boss for not skimping on re-recording the interjections for the fight scenes.