Asian Cinema has been thriving in recent years with many classic films returning to the UK in High Definition, but during the 90s onwards there were tons of releases on VHS and DVD for various martial art films. An example of such works came from the late actor Bruce Lee, thanks to the international success of Enter the Dragon. The films he’s starred in continued to be in print over the decades and even on Blu-ray. The discs were serviceable but they were still easy to own without issue.
Now it’s 2023 and after many months of rumours, Arrow Video finally confirmed they acquired the UK rights for the Bruce Lee films and this time will be releasing it on the 4K Ultra HD format with new restorations and a complete package. This is a complete contrast to how Criterion years prior picked up the North American rights but only released a Blu-ray box set, which to their credit was considered the best version to own at that point.
Arrow Video provided two variations of the limited edition box set and my copy is based on the variation exclusive to Arrow’s store.
Background:
Bruce Lee (李小龍), was born in San Francisco, California in 1940. His early life can be summarised as struggling with academics and getting involved in street fights numerous times, and despite being raised in Hong Kong, eventually he’ll end up returning to the US, learning and teaching martial arts, attending more academic schools and later joining the entertainment industry throughout the 1950s & 1960s. He worked on multiple projects, with 1966’s The Green Hornet being one of his more famous roles prior to his big hits with Golden Harvest. Saying that, many would be more familiar with the film roles that he worked on in the Hong Kong film industry where he would eventually achieve stardom in the 1970s, though sadly for a short while as he passed away in 1973.
It’s been 50 years since Bruce Lee passed away, and here Arrow Video has presented their UK audience with the Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest box set, containing all of his major works with Golden Harvest plus additional versions and documentaries.
The Big Boss (唐山大兄, Tang shan da xiong), directed by Lo Wei (with Wu Chia-hsiang listed as uncredited) and released in October 1971. The film starred Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Nora Miao, Lee Kun, Han Ying-Chieh, Tony Liu, Kam Shan and many more. Alternate names for the film were The Big Brother from Tangshan and Fists of Fury.
Fist of Fury (精武門, Jing wu men), directed by Lo Wei and released in March 1972. The film starred Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Tien Feng, James Tien, Huang Tsung-hsun, Han Ying-chieh, Paul Wei, Riki Hashimoto, Robert Baker and many more. Alternate names for the film were Gate of Martial Excellence, Chinese Boxers and The Chinese Connection.
The Way of the Dragon (猛龍過江, Meng long guo jiang), directed by Bruce Lee and released in December 1972. The film starred Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Paul Wei, Huang Tsung-hsun, Lau Wing, Unicorn Chan, Robert Wall and many more. Alternate names for the film were The Fierce Dragon Crosses the River, Enter the Dragon and Return of the Dragon.
Enter the Dragon (龍爭虎鬥, Long xheng hu dou), directed by Robert Clouse and released in July 1973. The film starred Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri, Shih Kien, Roy Chiao, Bob Wall, Angela Mao, Betty Chung and many more. Alternate names for the film were Han’s Island and Blood & Steel.
The Game of Death (死亡的遊戲, Sǐwáng de yóuxì), directed by Bruce Lee but was incomplete and filmed in 1972. The film starred Bruce Lee, James Tien, Chieh Yuan, Dan Inosanto, Ji Han-jae, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hwang In-shik. Alternate name for the film was Yellow-Faced Tiger.
Game of Death (死亡遊戲, Siwang youxi), directed by Robert Clouse (with Bruce Lee and Sammo Hung credited in the Chinese prints) and released in March 1978. The film starred Kim Tai-chung contributing to the remainder of Bruce Lee’s role. Joining the cast were Gig Young, Dean Jagger, Hugh O’Brian, Colleen Camp, Robert Wall, Mel Novak, Chuck Norris, Sammo Hung, Roy Chiao and many more.
Game of Death II (死亡塔, Sǐwáng Tǎ), directed by Ng See-yuen (with Kang Fan-jiu credited in the Korean prints) and released in March 1980 first in South Korea followed by March 1981 in Hong Kong. The film starred Kim Tai-chung, Hwang Jang Lee, Roy Horan, Roy Chiao, Lee Hoi-san, Yang Cheng-wu, Hou Li-jen, To Wai-woo, Miranda Austin and many more. Archival footage of Bruce Lee was also used. Alternate name for the film was Tower of Death.
Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend (李小龍的生與死, Li Xiao Long di Sheng yu si), is a documentary directed by Wu Shih, written by Benson Cheng and narrated by Wang Mei in Mandarin and Barry Haigh in English. It was released in October 1973. Alternate names for the documentary were The Life & Death of Bruce Lee, The Legend is Born of Bruce Lee and Year of the Dragon.
Bruce Lee: The Legend, is a documentary written by Russell Cawthrone and narrated by James B. Nicholson with features by Raymond Chow, Nora Miao and Betty Ting-pei. It was released in 1984.
About Arrow Video / Arrow Films:
Arrow Films, also known as Arrow Video, is an independent UK distributor for Asian Cinema, Spaghetti Westerns, Italian Cinema, Horror, Cult Classics and Action. Their line-up of films in the Asian Cinema scene includes the works of Chan-Wook Park (JSA, Oldboy), Hideo Nakata (Dark Water, Ringu), Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, Battles Without Honour & Humanity), Takashi Miike (Audition, Dead or Alive Trilogy), Teruo Ishii (Blind Woman’s Curse, Horrors of Malformed Men), Yasuzo Masumura (Black Test Car, Giants & Toys) and also many individual films from Hirokazu Kore-eda, Jia Zhangke, Seijun Suzuki, Shohei Imamura, Tomu Uchida and more. The distributor also has a US branch which offers some of the same range as titles that are available in the UK. Their 2023+ line-up for Asian Cinema is quiet but will include more volumes of the Shaw Scope series and Hideo Nakata’s Ring in 4K Ultra HD.
Limited Edition Contents:
Arrow Video went all-out on this release, and it definitely celebrates Bruce Lee‘s career at Golden Harvest. This set has tons of physical items and every major film from the distributor plus more. To recap, Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest has two variations for the 4K Ultra HD format, the difference is the artwork used for the rigid box and the digipacks and the one that I own is from Arrow’s store which is an exclusive variant. The non-exclusive variant is available across different retailers. You can also own the non-exclusive variant release on the Blu-ray format if you don’t own a 4K player.
The release is presented in a rigid box which opens from the top, and housed inside are 10 digipacks, a 200-page hardbound book, 10 glossy photos of Bruce Lee in action, a double-sided poster and a cardboard box that stores 24 double-sided lobby card reproductions. Each digipack houses one disc, whether its in 4K Ultra HD or on Blu-ray.
The book features essays written by Walter Chaw, Henry Blyth, Andrew Staton, Dylan Cheung, David West and James Flower. The topics include a backstory for each film, the early days of Bruce Lee’s career in film and television, how the BBFC impacted the UK releases of the Golden Harvest titles and the impact Bruce Lee had in the industry.
The SRP is £159.99 (that’s about £15.99 per disc) and has an unspecified print run. Once the print run is out of stock, this edition won’t be available. There’s no word on how a standard edition would be presented at the time of this write-up, but Enter the Dragon is available from distributor Warner Bros.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and Digipack packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Tom Ralston
- 200-page hardbound book featuring new writing by Walter Chaw, Henry Blyth, Andrew Staton, Dylan Cheung, David West and James Flower
- 24 lobby card reproductions
- 10 glossy photos of Lee in action
- Reversible poster with vintage quad poster artwork
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Arrow Video
Released: 17th July 2023
The limited edition release for Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest contains a mixture of versions across two formats with different restorations/transfers, audio and bonus feature content. Below is a list of what this collection includes!
| Disc | Films |
|---|---|
| 1 (UHD) | The Big Boss Main feature runtime – 01:40:17 |
| 2 (UHD) | The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut Main feature runtime – 01:50:55 |
| 3 (UHD) | Fist of Fury Main feature runtime – 01:46:32 |
| 4 (UHD) | The Way of the Dragon Main feature runtime – 01:39:23 |
| 5 (BD) | Enter the Dragon Main feature runtime – 01:42:33 |
| 6 (UHD) | Game of Death Main feature runtime – 01:41:07 |
| 7 (BD) | Game of Death: Alternate Versions Main feature runtime – 01:29:36 |
| 8 (BD) | Game of Death: Bonus Disc (The Final Game of Death) Main feature runtime – 03:43:05 |
| 9 (BD) | Game of Death II Main feature runtime – 01:35:59 Tower of Death Main feature runtime – 01:26:38 |
| 10 (BD) | Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend Main feature runtime – 01:25:40 Bruce Lee: The Legend Main feature runtime – 01:29:08 |
Starting with the 4K Ultra HD discs, we have The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon and Game of Death each receiving 4K restorations by Arrow Films. The Big Boss and Fist of Fury was scanned and restored from the original 35mm camera negatives (35mm exhibition print for The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut, and 35mm interpositive elements for Fist of Fury‘s opening credits). The Way of the Dragon was scanned and restored from the original 35mm internegatives and Game of Death was scanned and restored from the original 35mm CRI internegatives. They are presented on a single 4K Ultra HD disc each, and support Dolby Vision HDR.
In addition to the 99 minute 1983 version, both the English Export cut and US Theatrical cut for The Big Boss have also been restored in 4K. In relation to The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut, Arrow has added additional comments which are displayed in the menus before you start the film: “Over ten minutes of additional footage from the last-known surviving 35mm print of the original Mandarin-language version have been integrated to the 4K version of the film. Some visual defects remain due to the condition of this rare material, such as splices, on-screen dirt and burnt-in subtitles. We hope these do not affect your enjoyment of this important piece of action cinema history, restored to its extended glory.”
Next we have the Blu-ray discs, which includes Enter the Dragon, alternative versions and bonus disc for Game of Death, Game of Death II and the Hong Kong version Tower of Death, and the documentaries Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend and Bruce Lee: The Legend. Each of these are presented in 1080p High Definition, with the alternative versions for Game of Death based on a master supplied by North American distributor Shout! Factory with additional optimisation work by using the 4K restoration of the international cut by Arrow themselves. In addition, Game of Death II scanned in 2K resolution from 35mm internegatives, Tower of Death was reconstructed by Arrow using a mixture of HD & SD sources, and the Korean version of Tower of Death was restored in 2K from the 35mm internegatives.
Enter the Dragon is a unique case in this box set. Arrow Video were not allowed to do their own restoration or new extras for the film because Warner Bros will instead be releasing their own 4K Ultra HD release at a later point. That said, Warner Bros has allowed them to include the film with this box set by re-using the 40th Anniversary Blu-ray release.
Game of Death is also another unique case, because officially it was incomplete as Bruce Lee passed away during its production, but various amounts of footage was produced though it’s not the final product. Arrow Video has presented the film with various versions, which includes Mandarin & Cantonese audio options presented in the Alternative Version disc and a special bonus disc called The Final Game of Death, which is over 3 hours of content covering the whole of the film’s production and footage. Arrow has also said “To just watch the new reconstruction of Bruce Lee’s The Game of Death, skip ahead to Chapter 8, titled “Life After Death”. Because of its length, they have provided chapters that can be assessed from the menu:
- Introduction / Chapter One: The Rules of the Game (15:27 runtime)
- Chapter Two: The Hall of the Unknown (41:50 runtime)
- Chapter Three: The Hall of the Tiger (41:08 runtime)
- Chapter Four: The Hall of the Dragon (35:25 runtime)
- Chapter Five: End Game (04:37 runtime)
- Chapter Six: The New Territories (10:27 runtime)
- Chapter Seven: Game Over (18:18 runtime)
- Chapter Eight: Life After Death / The Game of Death (50:08 runtime)
- Epilogue / End Credits (05:49 runtime)
All bonus features included on this disc are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, unless specified in the list later in this post. I don’t normally make note of the runtimes in the bonus features but in this special occasion I have done so, which is partly why this unboxing took much longer than usual.
The subtitles included with all of the films and versions are unlockable during playback. The 4K Ultra HD discs are all region, while the Blu-ray discs are locked to Region B players.
4K Ultra HD Specs:
| Languages | The Big Boss, Fist of Fury & The Way of the Dragon: Mandarin, English, Cantonese The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut: Mandarin Game of Death: English |
| Audio | The Big Boss: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (Japanese Mix) Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English Commentaries DTS 2.0 The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Fist of Fury: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English Commentaries DTS 2.0 The Way of the Dragon: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English Commentaries DTS 2.0 Game of Death: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English Commentaries DTS 2.0 |
| Video | 2160p Ultra High Definition format 2.35:1 aspect ratio Dolby Vision HDR |
| Region | All Region |
| Subtitles | The Big Boss, Fist of Fury & The Way of the Dragon: English, English SDH The Big Boss: The Mandarin Cut: English Game of Death: English SDH |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 5 BD-100s |
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Enter the Dragon: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castalian), Spanish (Latin), Polish, Russian Game of Death: Alternate Versions: Mandarin, Cantonese Game of Death: Bonus Disc, Game of Death II & Bruce Lee: The Legend: English Tower of Death: Mandarin, English, Cantonese Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend: English, Mandarin |
| Audio | Enter the Dragon: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 French Dolby Digital 1.0 German Dolby Digital 1.0 Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 Spanish (Castalian) Dolby Digital 1.0 Spanish (Latin) Dolby Digital 1.0 Polish Dolby Digital 1.0 Russian Dolby Digital 1.0 English Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 Game of Death: Alternate Versions: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Game of Death: Bonus Disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Game of Death II: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (Japanese Mix) English Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 Tower of Death: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Bruce Lee: The Legend: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 |
| Video | Enter the Dragon: 1080p High Definition Native format 2.40:1 aspect ratio Game of Death: Alternate Versions & Bonus Disc, Game of Death II & Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend: 1080p High Definition Native format 2.35:1 aspect ratio Bruce Lee: The Legend: 1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | Enter the Dragon: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Spanish (Latin), Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Turkish Game of Death: Alternate Versions & Tower of Death: English Game of Death: Bonus Disc, Game of Death II & Bruce Lee: The Legend: English SDH Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend: English, English SDH |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 5 BD-50s |
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