"The reason we decided to re-master this movie into 16:9
format was to cater for the widest possible commercial audience.
The hard-core collectors may all prefer 2:35:1, but we have found
that many kids with 14, 17 and 21" television sets are amongst the
most regular buyers of Jackie Chan movies.
Unfortunately, due to the tiny viewing area offered with the 2:35:1
format on smaller TV sets, we often get asked by this target audience
to provide 'pan & scan' versions of our movies. As the hard-core
collectors detest 'p & s' with a passion, I thought the 16:9
anamorphic/1:85:1 widescreen ratio, would be a good compromise that
would appeal to both markets.
In addition, had we conformed the feature to 2:35:1 anamorphic
standard, most of the nation's DVD players, are currently not equiped
to handle this ratio correctly, and therefore the image would be
stretched."
So - a well-judged decision or an incredible lack of foresight? You decide.
Every single DVD player can handle a 2.35:1 anamorphic feature film and if
he's worried about small TVs, what about putting both a 2.35:1 and a 4:3
version on the disc? After all, a 16:9 version doesn't satisfy either market,
it just annoys both!
The sound comes in mono - or at least sounds like it. It's the usual martial
arts kicking sounds so you know what to expect. One thing Hong Kong Legends
have got right is to include both the original Mandarin language as well as
a dubbed English one. It's nice to get the choice, but other than the dialogue
note the complete difference in background music in a number of scenes.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailer :
There are 20 chapters to the disc which is fine and the original theatrical trailer
is included.
Languages & Subtitles :
As stated earlier, both Mandarin and English languages are available and,
thankfully, we get subtitles that are not burned into the print. They can be
turned off. The disc tells you that Chinese subtitles are included when playing
the film, but I saw none when selecting that in-film option.
And there's more... :
The UK music promo is three minutes of nameless electronic music to a
backdrop of clips from the film, also cropped to 16:9. There's an 18-strong
Photo Gallery, mostly featuring Jackie, a biography and
filmography of the man, plus a 14-minute rare interview with
producer Ng See Yuen (including brief biog & filmog) and a Kicking Showcase
with Hwang Jang Lee (as well as a brief biog & filmog), the 2-minute clip
for this apparently coming from the film Top Fighter.
Menu :
It's static and silent and contains a shot of the front cover.
Overall, the film is a laugh, but while Hong Kong Legends have got a
lot of things right by including a number of decent extras, they've completely
misjudged the market this is aimed at - after all, cropping films to 16:9 isn't
the usual practice by video companies putting out martial arts films for home
viewing so why one bloke pretending to be catering for the discerning collector
(yes, this is actually a "Special Collector's Edition") should think otherwise
is beyond me.
If this film gets a 2.35:1 re-release, snap it up, otherwise avoid. As for
the rest of the forthcoming line-up, those were each delayed by a month and
I only hope it was to find a print in its original ratio and not the cropped
16:9 version.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
