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Legend Of Drunken Master (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (29th September 2009). |
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The Film
 Western audiences were mainly introduced to Jackie Chan's early films on video, usually cut down and dubbed into English with changes to music to make it more palatable to American audiences, and for years this was the only way to get these classic Hong Kong action films. You'd think that with the growing embrace towards foreign films, subtitles and the high-definition market expanding we'd finally get to see the full and original versions of these films. Unfortunately fans still have to make due with these cut-down versions thanks to Miramax, released as the shorter "International Version" and although they own the US rights it never crossed their minds to finally give fans what they've wanted for years (or have been importing from other regions), this being the full "Hong Kong" version of "The Legend of Drunken Master" with it's original audio soundtrack rather than the cheesy English dub. In words of Stephen Colbert - tip of the hat for releasing this film, wag of the finger for not including the original versions... Rant aside, "The Legend of Drunken Master" is probably one of the two most recognizable Hong Kong films featuring Jackie Chan to most Western audiences ("Supercop" (1992) being the other), it tells the tale of Wong Fei-hung (Jackie Chan), having returned to his village with his father from a shopping expedition for medicinal roots, he finds himself at the center of a battle between the Chinese mafia, loyalists and a group of foreigners who want to export rare artifacts out of the country. But those that cross Fei-hung have to endure his "drunken boxing" style, where alcohol gives him unstoppable fighting abilities. The genius of the film lies in its action, and displays Chan's incredible abilities. It's first evident in the fight that takes place under a train, it's one of the best examples of Chan's agility and martial arts prowess to be able to perform an intense action scene in s confined space. it's made all the more entertaining by the sheer speed of the movements. The fight with the chinese mafia in the village square is another great example of Chan's abilities and is the first time we get a taste of the drunken style that the film takes its title from, and finally the final fight provides yet more hair-raising moves, throw in a fire pit and dangerous moves and you've got a film with one unique action set-up after the next. If anything "The Legend of Drunken Master" is never boring and each new fight scene brings something new to the table, Chan is not one to repeat himself here as he's done in his American films (*cough*"Rush Hour" (1998)*cough*). The story, like most Hong Kong action films is quite basic, but at least it's not another in a line of films were the protege must get revenge for his disgraced master against another clan... for that I give it credit for trying something different. And the filmmakers manage to instill a sense of cultural pride in its story line too, and while the film may not be among the greatest in the genre, it certainly has enough going for it to warrant repeated viewings, some of the problems however concern the fact that this is a shorter "International" version of the film, I was also not sold on some of the comic acting, Chan is one thing, but I found his mother, Mrs. Wong (Anita Mui) to be annoying. The English dubbing also gives the film a humorous tone, probably more so than what was intended.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and mastered in VC-1 compression. I suppose fans can at least take a sign of relief that the film's ratio isn't cropped. I found that this image is better than previous home video releases from Buena Vist/Miramax... but there are numerous problems that litter this image that hold it back from being a decent HD transfer. First of all the colors seem off, skin tones veer towards the orange hues a bit too often and blacks appear crushed and retain a fair bit of noise. The overall image seems flat and lifeless, and dirt and specks are all over this print. The source material doesn't seem to have been taken care of and it shows in this image. Sharpness is inconsistent, some shots are nicely sharp and detail while others appear soft and lacking in detail, it's particularly frustrating to watch such an inconsistent image that jumps around in quality.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as a French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround dub and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround dub. The disc menu for some reason lists an English Dolby TrueHD audio but it is in fact a DTS-HD audio track. The first thing fans will notice is that the original Cantonese sound track is not on this disc, and that's a real shame because dub tracks are ever any good. To make matters worse this English dub is just not a good, it's lacking in depth and range is occasionally limited. While dialogue is clear there's an inconsistent feel to the rest of the surround activity, going from overbearing to just no impact to the surround channels at all, the music feels flat and the ambient surrounds may as well have not been there at all at times. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, English, Bulgarian, Czech, French, Hebrew, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.
Extras
Buena Vista has released this film with a scant collection of extras and features only a short featurette and bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. "Behind the Master: Interview with Jackie Chan" is a featurette which runs for 6 minutes 35 seconds, this is basically a old promotional interview clip as Chan talks about the film's release in Asia and bringing the film to America, the action and the difficulty of the stunts among other things, and it's astounding that for a film that holds such a massive cult following that Buena Vista hasn't taken time to find something worthwhile to include on this disc. There are also some bonus trailers for: - "Lost: The Complete Fifth Season" which runs for 58 seconds. - "Adventureland" which runs for 1 minute 35 seconds. - "The Proposal" which runs for 1 minute 32 seconds. - "Miramax Films" spot which runs for 2 minutes 36 seconds. - "Disney Blu-ray" spot which runs for 1 minute 1 seconds.
Overall
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