Advice for the best versions of Jackie Chan movies?

[TMAC]

Please forgive me if this is in the wrong area.

I'm looking to finally rebuild my Jackie collection on DVD (or DVD-R even).

I've been scouring the internet and there seem to be so many versions.

Is there any 1 thread discussing the best versions of Jackie's movies?

I'd like to see the uncut complete versions with subs of movies like the Drunken Master films, Dragon Lord, Young Master, Police Story films, Armour of God & Project A films, Thunderbolt, Who Am I, Mr Nice Guy, etc.

Any help you can be will greatly appreciated.

[The Running Man]

That's a very difficult task my friend for many a reason. One being that companies like the Weinsteins have bought many of his films and have only released heavily butchered versions of his films. Another is that many companies are incredibly incompetent so you have released with botched soundtracks, crappy subs, etc..

In terms of official DVDs:

You have the HKL DVD of New Police Story. Pretty much the DVD to own for that film. It has both the original soundtrack and the English dub (featuring Jackie Chan doing his own voice) plus retranslated English subtitles.

Japanese DVD of Who Am I. This one is uncut but unfortunately has the partially dubbed in Cantonese soundtrack. The whole movie was shot in English but for some bizarre reason a version was made that dubs all the segments in Africa in Cantonese. The Columbia DVD, although cut, does have the African scenes it does include in English. There are no English subtitles available to use for those scenes (even though they were originally all in English).

Japanese DVD of Gorgeous. Anamorphic and fully uncut. No English subs though.

Japanese DVD of Mr. Nice Guy. Not anamorphic, but fully uncut.

Japanese DVD of Police Story 4: Same as "Mr. Nice Guy".

Japanese DVD of Rumble in the Bronx: Not anamorphic and cropped to 1:85 but it's the only fully uncut version of the film with the original soundtrack intact.

HKL DVD of Wheels on Meals: Uncut, anamorphic remastered, includes the original Cantonese mono track and with redone subs (although not as good as the Tai Seng translation).

Those are the ones to get off the top of my head. Most of the others are riddled with bad soundtracks, bad subs, incomplete versions, etc...

[lillippa328]

what is animorphic?

and also, is there a version of like Police Story 2 that isnt sped up at certain fight scenes

[tdb]

what is animorphic?

wikipedia: anamorphic

[blue_skies]

I'm not an expert like most of the guys around here but apart from being in the UK and Hong Kong Legends DVDs being the distributor here. I have found them to be very good purchases.

Personally I'm not interested in original mono preferring an original language 5.1 mix, which Hong Kong legends usually do (with good clear subtitles - how well translated I couldn't tell you) as well as an English dub.

I assume you've read the link about anamorphic widescreen. Hong Kong Legends are to the best of my knowledge always anamorphic widescreen. Although some of my DVDs I haven't seen in a while.

Apart from having good audio and video presentation HKL DVDs usually have good extras, often with interviews with the cast and crew and some really good audio commentaries from Bey Logan.

As was said above my post a lot of the time there aren't any perfect DVDs, it seems you have to sacrifice one of your criteria. For me I think the all-round balance, assuming you don't speak Cantonese, bodes well for Hong Kong Legend DVDs. The only problem you may find (if you choose to buy any HKL discs) is that most of them are out of print and those selling them are charging extortionate amounts.

Also while I think of it it's worth finding out what's been cut from a film. I'm not advocating cutting a film but sometimes what has been cut is really insignificant, and you have to ask yourself what is going to enhance the movie more for you. Whatever's missing or better subtitles/better picture/better extras/better sound on a DVD by DVD basis.

[kungpowmaster]

I think the Fortune Star, and Dragon Dynasty US dvds are very great for their Chan releases. Some of the Sony ones I have are kinda crappy.

[Macho King]

Yeah I'd recommend any of the JC flicks released on HKL or Dragon Dynasty as they were, for the most part, fairly good releases. New Line did a decent job with Thunderbolt, although I don't love that movie very much. Sony's discs for Drunken Master and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow feature great looking transfers but have their faults: DM doesn't include a full Cantonese track and SITES is dubtitled. I have a huge collection of JC DVDs purchased from abroad but most are either bad quality (like being non-anamporphic or cropped) or are not English-friendly which makes it hard to give an outright recommendation for those of us who require English subs.

[Karlos]

The best version of Thunderbolt, I understand, is the Spanish release.

[The Silver Fox]

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow-Mei Ah

This version can be had for pretty cheap and it has correct aspect ratio and several language options.

[inframan]

I just (finally) got the Dragon Dynasty release of Police Story, a little let down that it didn't have the old school dub, and Bret Ratner is horrible on the commentary (Look at that! ,Look at that!) otherwise a really good release. Look much better than the megastar DVD.

I need to get the DD PS2, the megastar dvd has a horrible sound delay, its hard to watch.

[TheGrimReaper]

You could try to find the remastered versions from Fortune Star - some of them are Region 3, so be aware of this. Project A boxset, Police Story trilogy, also if you could find the Zoke Culture DVD's - they look like a bootlegs, but they are made for the Chinese mainland market and it has some decent quality.

I can't think of any more labels to recommend, but wishing you luck in obtaining all the titles you want

[Buxbaum]

Aren't the Zoke ones the same as the Fortune Star ones?

I just got some old Jackie Chan Films like Cub Tiger, Hand of Death and Shaolin Wooden Men from HKL and Rarescope. The quality is fine.

What I really want is Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin with genuine Mandarin mono. The HKL track is sadly a down mix from the 5.1 track.

Anyone a good recommendation for that movie?

[Ramji]

I recently ordered the Japanese DVD's of Rumble in the Bronx, First Strike and Mr Nice Guy for £11.99. That's for all three. Got them in the post yesterday, new, sealed and in perfect condition. What a bargain!!! Here's a link if anyone wants to pick up copies for themselves

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/wa-store-10?_rdc=1