FistOf Legend and Kill Zone Blu Ray Mini Reviews

[David Rees]

Here's a quick mini review of Fist Of Legend and Kill Zone (SPL) Blu ray's from Cine Asia UK. A longer review can be found on my blog later this week...http://asiancultcinema-drees5761.blogspot.com/

Firstly both are virtually identical to the Dragon Dynasty dvd releases with regards to extra's etc.

SPL is a fabulous transfer, very crisp and very little edge enhancement that i could see.

Sound is DTS Master Audio 5.1 Cantonese and English. Don't know how this compares to the HK blu ray release but i would reccomend it as its a quality disc of one of my favourite films of the past few years.

Most of the Cine Asia releases on Blu ray are region free so i expect this is the same. Do remember that the extra's are all in PAL SD so any USA buyers will have to be able to playback Pal material.

Fist Of Legend. What can i say but a very dissapointing transfer, very grainy and there seems to be a halo around everyone. The picture varies as the film progresses, sometime good mostly poor. Not sure if this is the source material or the HD master was in poor shape.

The sound is DTS HD master audio ....English dub only!! Im not suprised as this is what the Weinstiens did with the Blu ray releases of Hero and Iron Monkey. As the film was mono anyhow im glad of the mono option for the Cantonese track.

Again extras are the same as the dvd release and in Pal.

It just seems that classic HK films just wont be getting the remastering HD treatment they deserve either because of the cost or more likely the negatives are in such bad shape i dont know, im sure the more technically knowledgable on this board can elaborate on it.

Cant tell if Fist of Legend is an upscale, i dont have Blu ray option on my pc so not sure how to check.

Would i recomend Fist Of Legend Blu ray?....if you have the dvd probably not but as its one of my favourite Jet Li movies it may well be worth it if you find it at a bargain price somewhere.

Lastly Cine Asia's release of Shinjuku incident is magnificent, and totally reccomended if you like the film as i did, a great drama and performance from Jackie. This disc is confirmed region free by the way.

Far East Blu Ray Guide

[Guest Yi-Long]

Not surprised they once again fucked up a Fist of Legend release.

Disappointed? Yes very... but not surprised.

Will be downloading a bootleg instead.

[Guest Markgway]

If FOL is indeed an upscale I'll pass. I like the film but not enough to put up with anything other than a true 1080p transfer. I take it we're talking original Cantonese mono and not a downmix?

[David Rees]

Yes, original mono as far as i can tell. Is there a way of telling if its an upscale or not?

FAR EAST BLU RAY GUIDE

[OldPangYau]

I would've been shocked if SPL didn't look good at least. But the "halos" you describe sound like edge enhancement... which would most likely be applied after upscaling an SD transfer... hmm, screencaps will make or break this release. And most likely the US version as well.

[Guest Markgway]

Is there a way of telling if its an upscale or not?

As soon as caps are available someone more knowledgable than me will post.

[Guest Yi-Long]

As soon as caps are available someone more knowledgable than me will post.

We don't need screencaps for that to happen, Mark....

[Rhythm-X]

Fist Of Legend. What can i say but a very dissapointing transfer, very grainy and there seems to be a halo around everyone. The picture varies as the film progresses, sometime good mostly poor. Not sure if this is the source material or the HD master was in poor shape.

The sound is DTS HD master audio ....English dub only!! Im not suprised as this is what the Weinstiens did with the Blu ray releases of Hero and Iron Monkey.

Far East Blu Ray Guide

The Weinsteins were long gone from Miramax by the time HERO and IRON MONKEY were being prepped for Blu-ray release. There's plenty of awful stuff they've actually done - no need to blame them for things they had nothing to do with. It was the most recent post-Weinstein Miramax regime that should be held responsible for not fixing mistakes made in the past.

As bad as the Weinsteins remain, the most recent Miramax team is arguably worse - at least the Weinsteins have, in their inimitable pitiful half-assed-at-best way, released things that have previously not been released and improved a few things that had, however marginally. Post-Weinstein Miramax only did one thing right with their Asian catalog - they licensed a bunch of stuff to BCI. And we all know how that turned out.

The Weinsteins are still in the running to buy Miramax from Disney, by the way. Just because this parade needed more rain.

[blue_skies]

Fist Of Legend. What can i say but a very dissapointing transfer, very grainy and there seems to be a halo around everyone. The picture varies as the film progresses, sometime good mostly poor. Not sure if this is the source material or the HD master was in poor shape.

The sound is DTS HD master audio ....English dub only!! Im not suprised as this is what the Weinstiens did with the Blu ray releases of Hero and Iron Monkey. As the film was mono anyhow im glad of the mono option for the Cantonese track.

Again extras are the same as the dvd release and in Pal.

It just seems that classic HK films just wont be getting the remastering HD treatment they deserve either because of the cost or more likely the negatives are in such bad shape i dont know, im sure the more technically knowledgable on this board can elaborate on it.

Cant tell if Fist of Legend is an upscale, i dont have Blu ray option on my pc so not sure how to check.

Would i recomend Fist Of Legend Blu ray?....if you have the dvd probably not but as its one of my favourite Jet Li movies it may well be worth it if you find it at a bargain price somewhere.

David, just curious is the picture of FOL Bluray better than the DVD?

[David Rees]

Yes its better, but i was dissapointed with the grain and overall lack of polish to the release, although strangely it gets better as the film progresses. Its not a totally bad release just i felt dissapointed as its one of my favourite films.

Shaw Brothers Official All Region DVDs Here

FAR EAST BLU RAY GUIDE

[The Running Man]

Since this is about the Fist of Legend release, let me mention two things I forgot to mention about the DD DVD:

1 - There is a line in the Cantonese mono that is replaced with a line from the Dimension dub. It's the judge's line about having to play cricket game (original line). Who knows why that was done.

2 - Unlike the English subtitle track, the Spanish subs on the DD edition do not revert to the Dimension dub. This means someone at DD messed up and replaced an entire section of their subtitle track with the script from the Dimension dub somehow.

[chen lung]

1 - There is a line in the Cantonese mono that is replaced with a line from the Dimension dub. It's the judge's line about having to play cricket game (original line). Who knows why that was done.

They probably thought the Dimension dub lip-synced better than what was done originally.

There's been a bit of discussion about the subtitles at Bullets'n'Babes.