Bruce Lee - The Master Collection

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Criterion has then recorded new interviews for each film in the set featuring Lee biographer Matthew Polly, who talks about each film and their importance regarding Lee’s career. They last 10-minutes or less each and provide decent intros for each film to newcomers. Newly uncovered deleted scenes from The Big Boss, plus a video essay by Bentley about scenes still missing such as the ‘saw-in-the-head’ kill

Arrow Video announces world exclusive definitive Bruce Lee

The theatrical version of Enter the Dragon is then found on disc four, and this is the only disc of the first five to not sport an audio commentary. It does feature the 30-minute making-of Blood and Steel that was initially produced for Warner’s 2-disc special edition DVD in 2004. It gathers together a number of people around the film’s production (along with James Coburn) to talk about the film and Lee. The disc also features a couple of other Warner features, including 16-minutes’ worth of interviews with widow Linda Lee Cadwell, a 7-minute EPK featurette, and the 19-minute Bruce Lee: In His Own Words, which showcases archival footage of Lee talking about his philosophies before closing on a montage accompanied by an incredibly cheesy song. There are then a collection of trailers, TV spots, and a radio spot. Criterion also includes a 2-minute archival interview with actor Tung Wai, who plays the young student at the beginning (this interview was found in some of the Shout! releases for the other Lee films). Sadly, Criterion was not able to carry over the lengthier documentaries found on some of the previous Warner editions, Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey and The Curse of the Dragon. The first two starring vehicles for Lee, The Big Boss and Fist of Fury (both directed by Lo Wei), smashed all box office records in Hong Kong and made him the most famous face on the continent. Lee asserted his artistic independence by directing, writing and starring in The Way of the Dragon, arguably his most thrilling and personal film. Tragically, on the cusp of achieving the international stardom he had long strived for, Bruce Lee died suddenly in 1973, aged only 32. Not to be outdone by the tidal wave of ‘Bruceploitation’ films that followed, Golden Harvest completed two posthumous films using unreleased footage, 1978’s Game of Death and its 1981 sequel, as well as two official documentaries, the first of which hit cinemas only three months after Lee’s death. Today, five decades since his passing, Bruce Lee continues to be the most beloved and influential martial artist in the world.At the height of his stardom in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee was called to Hollywood to make the film that, perhaps more than any other, defines his legacy. His electrifying fighting style and the deeply personal philosophy that guided it received their fullest expression yet in this thrilling tale of a Shaolin fighter who goes undercover to infiltrate an island presided over by a renegade monk turned diabolical criminal mastermind. Released just days after Lee’s tragic death, Enter the Dragon went on to become his greatest international success and one of the most influential action movies ever made, with its famed hall-of-mirrors finale bringing together the physical and intellectual dimensions of his artistry in one dazzling set piece. The Limited Edition UHD/Blu-ray Collection includes brand new 4K restorations of The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon and Game of Death and a brand new 2K restoration of Game of Death II.

Bruce Lee to Get Definitive Criterion Collection Blu-ray Box Set

Considering Game of Death’s unorthodox production (made after Lee died to make use of footage he had begun shooting for a film of the same name) it should be no surprise that this disc, disc five, ends up offering some of the more interesting features in the set. The big one would be Game of Death Redux, which is a new edit (Shout! included something similar on their releases) of the footage Lee shot, running 34-minutes. It’s an impressive edit, expertly dubbing in dialogue and making excellent use of John Barry’s score. But what’s most impressive about it is that it does feel like, at the very least, a complete section of a film. The context is missing, obviously, as it only shows three of the five planned fight scenes and is only able to explain the basic plot through a text intro, but it’s well put together all the same.Featuring exclusive 4K restorations, hours of brand new bonus features and previously unreleased footage, the set will include the extended Mandarin Cut of The Big Boss, now ten minutes longer than any version ever released on video worldwide, and the never-before-seen ‘log fight’ from the original Game of Death shoot. New interview with producer Andre Morgan about Golden Harvest, the company behind Hong Kong’s top martial-arts stars, including Lee Bruce Lee’s cinematic legacy may already be secure, but it’s about to be boosted by impressive Blu-ray releases, courtesy of The Criterion Collection, that will see his five legendary, genre-transformative Hong Kong action films in a way we’ve never before imagine, digitally restored in 4K resolution. The third disc houses The Way of the Dragon, which, like the previous two titles, also offers some alternate opening credits (one using the alternate title Return of the Dragon) along with a collection of trailers and a radio spot. There are also a collection of interviews including one for Jon T. Benn, who talks about his role in the film. The best feature on here is Legacy of the Dragon, a 47-minute documentary on Bruce Lee’s life that ends up getting into a great amount of detail around Game of Death, the film he was working on after The Way of the Dragon before going off to Hollywood to do Enter the Dragon. UHD Blu-ray presentations in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of The Big Boss, The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon and Game of Death

Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits | The Criterion Collection

Arrow Video has announced BRUCE LEE AT GOLDEN HARVEST, the definitive tribute to Bruce Lee’s enduring legacy with the legendary Golden Harvest studio, which will be released in a stunning 10-Disc Ultra HD and Blu-ray Box Set on 17th July 2023, as well as an Arrow Store Exclusive Limited Edition 4K UHD Box Set. Following this are a few interviews. Andre Morgan talks about the impact Golden Harvest had on the Hong Kong film business, while Grady Hendrix talks about the “Bruceploitation” genre that exploded after Lee’s death (which he considers Game of Death to be a part of). This is accompanied by a collection of trailers for a few notable films in the genre, though only a radio spot for Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death. Another interesting interview segment called Match the Lips features professional dubbers Michael Kaye and Vaughan Savage talking about the art of dubbing. The disc then closes with The Grandmaster & the Dragon, which features Wing Chun Grandmaster William Cheung talking about Lee.Disc two holds Fist of Fury, which also comes with its own set of alternate opening credits, which either present different titles (like the alternate The Chinese Connection title) or a slightly different opening, like the Japanese version (which seems to try to lessen the anti-Japanese sentiment found in the film through the opening title card). This disc also features interviews actors Nora Miao, Riki Hashimoto, Jun Katsumura, and Yuen Wah. It closes with four theatrical trailers. Multiple programs and documentaries about Lee’s life and philosophies, including Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend (1973) and Bruce Lee: In His Own Words (1998) Brand new interviews with actors Malisa Longo and Colleen Camp, plus hours of archive interviews with Lee’s former co-stars, colleagues and friends, including Nora Miao, Dan Inosanto, Bob Wall, Yuen Wah and many others