Any news on planned R1 "Street Fighter Boxset"?

[GwaiLoMoFo]

Been a long time since I heard any news either way on the R1 "Street Fighter" DVD boxset. Ive held off buying the UK release because of it. Is there any hope left for it?

[KUNG FU BOB]

I haven't heard anything, but I thought I'd let you know about the UK set which I bought. The prints are beautiful, and they have very good optional subs. My only complaint is that I wish there was a dubbed option. Other than these and some of the Shaw Bros films I always prefer subtitles. But the dubs on the STREETFIGHTER movies are so much fun. I only wish the same guy would have dubbed Sonny as in the first two- LAST REVENGE has him sounding like a knob.

[SlothStyleKungFu]

Yeah, I know the purists might get up in arms, but Streetfighter is one of those examples of the old school dub being, IMO, an essential inclusion in a DVD release. It really adds to the nostalgia and charm of how Eng language audiences discovered and fell in love with the film.

[kungpowmaster]

I prefer a dub over subs, if the dub is well done. Sometimes they are bad and can ruin it. Now I even like the old school funny voice dubs. I more so dislike the modern dubs, where all the Asian actors sound like college kids in Seattle.

I wonder if the USA will get a definitive Street Fighter set, that has original language and the dub, and uncut restored quality transfers?

But one reason I think we haven't, is these have been available via PD releases, and those releases for the most part have been decent quality prints with the English dub.

I wish Tokyo Shock would release these with a Sonny Chiba running commentary, poster gallery, and trailers. Or BCI, as they have done a lot of the Chiba sets, which I have them all except the Matasaya Trilogy.

From what I have gathered, the best US DVD of these we have is the Diamond DVD label. It can be had for $2.99 at FYE/Sam Goody new. I also have Street Fighter's Last Revenge on Platinum DVD, and these all look really clear and good to me. I have them on some sets too, but these are the ones I keep on my Sonny Chiba section shelf.

Chosen One

[Killer Meteor]

Yeah, I know the purists might get up in arms, but Streetfighter is one of those examples of the old school dub being, IMO, an essential inclusion in a DVD release. It really adds to the nostalgia and charm of how Eng language audiences discovered and fell in love with the film.

I actually most purists like me would be happy or not bothered if the dub was included. If it were JUST the dub I'd be annoyed

[bamboo spear]

I'm the same way about some films. I bought Shogun's Ninja as part of the Chiba collection just because I'd never seen it in Japanese, and it was cool to hear the correct dialogue, but I've really only watched it once and gone back to my old English dub from the "The Ten Faces of Chiba" boxset from like 7 years ago.

Same with Chinese Connection and Return of the Dragon, I watched them in Chinese once, because I was curious, but grew up with the awful dub, so to me it's mentally ingrained in the film. Of course, I can't stand to watch Fist of Legend or Crouching Tiger in English, but in the old days we had little choice.

[Solid Ronin]

Ok guys, I'm pretty new to Kung fu movies so please bear with me,

... Chinese Connection, Return of The Dragon AND Street Fighter in the original languages! PLEASE TELL ME WHERE and HOW!?

[daisho2004]

I've about giving up on the Street Fighter getting a makeover with Japanese Language and Subtitles! Doesn't seem its ever going to happen anytime soon.

[Guest WuxiaFan]

GwaiLoMoFo--haven't heard anything on an R1 boxset. I recently ordered the UK boxset [Optimum Releasing--they're very good, BTW] on amazon.co.uk. If you don't have a universal DVD player that properly converts PAL to NTSC, you need to upgrade so you're not limited to R1 NTSC.

Kung Fu Bob--glad to know the prints are beautiful. Look forward to getting them!

[HAZ]

The R2 boxed set was a great value, IMO. I would not hesitate to pick it up. They also have 2 films of the Yakuza Deka series available.

[Guest WuxiaFan]

Ok guys, I'm pretty new to Kung fu movies so please bear with me,

... Chinese Connection, Return of The Dragon AND Street Fighter in the original languages! PLEASE TELL ME WHERE and HOW!?

Solid Ronin:

If you want to be able to own the best versions of martial art movies, the first thing you need to do is get a true universal DVD player that plays all regions and properly converts PAL to NTSC. If you're new to that, suggest going to HKFlix.com and go to their Hardware section and read about it. They have very good articles and explanation of DVD region encoding and PAL/NTSC conversion.

Regarding the films you mention: IMO, the best version of THE STREET FIGHTER would be the UK box set from distributor Optimum Releasing. They're an excellent distributor and put forth quality DVDs. They will be R2 PAL. Might was well get the 3 film trilogy, but the individual film is also available.

Bruce Lee films: first, other than in the US, the films will usually known by their original HK name. So, THE BIG BOSS is "Fists of Fury"; FIST OF FURY is "Chinese Connection"; WAY OF THE DRAGON is "Return of the Dragon"; then ENTER THE DRAGON and GAME OF DEATH are just known by those titles. Second, other than ENTER THE DRAGON, you will not hear Bruce Lee's voice in any of his movies. That is because in HK, they would usually dub the audio track as opposed to using the actor's real voices.

So, knowing that, IMO, the best versions of Bruce Lee's films are the UK versions released by UK distributor Hong Kong Legends. They were also known as Contender Group/Medusa Communications. Before they went out of business, they released Platinum 2-Disc versions of THE BIG BOSS, FIST OF FURY, WAY OF THE DRAGON, and GAME OF DEATH. The BIG BOSS and FIST OF FURY are still available in the Platinum 2-disc version; WAY OF THE DRAGON is available in their single disc version. If you want WAY OF THE DRAGON in the Platinum 2-disc version, it might still be available from chaos.com, an Australian retailer. It will be R4 PAL. I have the HKL Platinum 2-disc versions of the 4 films above and the 2-disc SE version of ENTER THE DRAGON (Warner Bros.). The HKL discs are unbelievable and highly recommended (at least by me). Sorry for such a long answer to your question.

[GwaiLoMoFo]

GwaiLoMoFo--haven't heard anything on an R1 boxset. I recently ordered the UK boxset [Optimum Releasing--they're very good, BTW] on amazon.co.uk. If you don't have a universal DVD player that properly converts PAL to NTSC, you need to upgrade so you're not limited to R1 NTSC.

Yeah Ive pretty much given up on any R1 release. I have watched the Optimum release of the films and I know they are quality. I've just been waitng to find a good deal on them.

[KUNG FU BOB]

WuxiaFan, that's good advice you gave for Solid Ronin.

However SR, in the meantime, if you can't afford a multi-region player at the moment, you can go to F.Y.E. and pick up all 3 STREETFIGHTER films for probably under $10.00. Any version looks fairly decent, as all these DVD companies ripped their copies right from the remastered, letterboxed, uncut STREETFIGHTER film's laser disc releases.

[Solid Ronin]

Thanks for the Solid (No pun intended) advice!

I've known bout the multi-reigon for awhile (I'm not quite as new as I made myself out to be so sorry.).

Although I didn't know that about the HK dubbing. I knew they had to dub them into different dialects but wow, didn't even use their own voices! With that in mind I'll just re-buy Return of the Dragon. And while I'd still love to listen to the real audio of the Street Fighter, with DVD going on the out, I'm just not sure.

I know my response just kinda voided ya'lls response, I'm very sorry but Thank you very much still.

...They just need to release everything on Blu-ray now.