Dragon Lord (龍少爺) is a 1982 live-action theatrical Hong Kong film directed and written by Jackie Chan, and produced by Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho, with distribution by Golden Harvest and Lo Wei Motion Picture Company Ltd. The film starred Jackie Chan, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Sidney Yim, Mars Cheung Wing-Fat, Tien Feng and Paul Chang Chung, with screenplay writers Edward Tang and Barry Wong Ping-Yiu, and music composed by Frankie Chan and Philip Chan. The film was theatrically released in January 1982 for Hong Kong.
Note: As I’ve purchased the film a while back, this is more akin to a ‘delayed unboxing’ post but the photos were sorted at the time of its arrival.
Background:
“Following the breakout success of The Young Master (1980), Jackie Chan returned with Dragon Lord—an ambitious, stunt-packed spectacle that pushed the limits of action cinema. Famous for earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most takes ever required for a single scene, the film showcases Chan’s relentless pursuit of perfection. The story follows childhood friends Lung (Jackie Chan) and Ngau (Mars), whose carefree days of dodging schoolwork and stirring up mischief take a dangerous turn when they stumble into a ruthless gang smuggling priceless Chinese artifacts out of the country. What begins as light-hearted adventure quickly escalates into a fight for survival, delivering breath-taking action and trademark Jackie Chan innovation in stunning 4K UHD.”
Plot Synopsis via 88 Films, February 2026.
After watching half a dozen of Jackie Chan’s works from when they were being re-released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK back in 2020, at some point I didn’t get around to watching the rest which included Dragon Lord, his third directorial film.
Dragon Lord is a comedy with a lot of hijinks from Jackie Chan and Mars Cheung Wing-Fat throughout the course of the plot. Originally going to be a sequel to his previous film The Young Master, the story was mostly centred on their characters trying to get the girl of their dreams though it does get lost in the wake of bumping into a group of people that lead to some pretty impressive action sequences.
Before we eventually get the epic final fight, there’s also two big set pieces with a ton of people. The first set piece is the bun festival which had dozens of people doing choreographed moves and was rather chaotic, and the second set piece involves Jianzi but presented in an arena so it’s like mish-mash of football and badminton in simple terms, though you can get lost on the dialogue which would explain why there’s an alternative subtitle track that makes it easier to follow one of the scenes.
I will say that I was pretty confused by some of the elements featured in the film like a piano, the football style match and the guns as they felt more modern than the film’s setting would imply, but I suspect this is Jackie going for his own twist on the historical period to add more fun to the mix.
88 Films previously released Dragon Lord in the UK on Blu-ray in August 2020 from a 2K restoration, but it was this 4K restored release is how I watched the film for the first time. Everything that was previously included in that release is here plus more ways to watch the film and more additional features.
Deluxe Limited Edition Contents:
88 Films released Dragon Lord before in a first-print edition packaging years back, but with the 4K Ultra HD release they went with the deluxe limited edition packaging that offered more for the fans of the film. Because I pre-ordered the set from 88 Films’ online store, they also included an o-card slipcase that features two original poster artworks; one for the Japanese release, and another for the English release.
This deluxe limited edition release is presented with a rigid box showcasing newly illustrated artwork by Sean Longmore, a 4K Ultra HD Amaray case housing the discs, a collectible double-sided postcard, and an 40-page perfect-bound book featuring four write-ups. The articles covered are ‘About the film’ by Thorsten Boose & Will Blaik, ‘Keeping Up with the Jianzi’ by C.J. Lines, ‘Young Master in Overdrive: How Jackie Chan nearly lost the plot of his third film as director…’ by Andrew Heskins, and ‘The Last Dragon: Jackie Chan’s coming of age, facing the challenge of Cinema City, and bidding farewell to the kung fu comedy in Dragon Lord’ by David West.
The box art is clean with no ratings/information on all sides (except for one of the sides of the o-card slipcase which has the BBFC rating). The artwork on the Amaray cases (both covers) do include information and specs on the back. The deluxe limited edition 4K Ultra HD release retailed for £34.99 SRP, and the previously released Blu-ray from years ago is still available (but is based on the 2K restoration). A standard edition 4K Ultra HD release will likely appear once this deluxe limited edition sells out.
I pre-ordered this alongside Picture of a Nymph from the 88 Films store.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Slipcase featuring illustrated artwork by Sean Longmore
- O-Card Slipcase featuring original Japanese theatrical artwork & English artwork (88 Films Store Exclusive)
- 4K Amaray case packaging
- Collectible Double-sided Postcard
- 40-page illustrated book featuring new and archive articles by Thorsten Boose, Will Blaik, Andrew Heskins & David West.
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: 88 Films
Released: 23rd February 2026
The deluxe limited edition release for Dragon Lord contains the film on two 4K Ultra HD discs and two Blu-ray discs. All the discs were encoded and authored by Visual Data Media Services (VDMS) on behalf of 88 Films.
The previous 88 Films Blu-ray release was based on a 2K restoration, but here we have a brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm negatives for not just the 96 min Hong Kong and 103 min Extended (Work-in-Progress) cuts but also for the 91 min English Export Version and a special 111 min Hybrid Cut, the latter of which was previously not featured in the older release.
The first 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray discs are focused on the Hong Kong cut, presented in Cantonese audio with English subtitles and another English subtitle track to simplify the Jianzi (shuttercock) sequence so that you can focus more on the action. Also included are different Cantonese audio tracks with different sound mixes, and the classic English dub with any dialogue that wasn’t dubbed in the Hong Kong cut switched to Cantonese audio with English subtitles, and the English Export Version cut, presented in English audio. There’s no English SDH subtitle tracks included (but there are on-screen text subtitles).
The second discs are focused on the Extended (Work-in-Progress) cut and Hybrid cut, both presented in Cantonese audio with both English subtitle tracks used for the other cuts. The Hybrid cut is a special version by 88 Films that combines the unique footage from each cut into one supercut so that you have every moment included in the same watch.
The 4K Ultra HD discs feature Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback and the 4K Ultra HD disc is playable to 4K players of any region. The regions for the Blu-ray disc however are locked to players set to B.
4K Ultra HD Specs:
| Languages | Hong Kong Cut: Cantonese, English Export Cut: English Extended Version & Hybrid Cut: Cantonese |
| Audio | Hong Kong Cut: Cantonese ‘Original Theatrical Mono’ Linear PCM 2.0 Cantonese ‘Alternative Home Release Mono Mix’ Linear PCM 2.0 English ‘1982 Export Dub with Cantonese for undubbed scenes’ Linear PCM 2.0 English ‘2003 Mix’ DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Export Cut: English Linear PCM 2.0 Extended Version & Hybrid Cut: Cantonese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 2160p Ultra High Definition format 2.35:1 aspect ratio Dolby Vision HDR |
| Region | All Region |
| Subtitles | Hong Kong Cut, Extended Version & Hybrid Cut: English, English (Simplified for the Jianzi Match) Export Cut: English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-100s |
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Hong Kong Cut: Cantonese, English Export Cut: English Extended Version & Hybrid Cut: Cantonese |
| Audio | Hong Kong Cut: Cantonese ‘Original Theatrical Mono’ Linear PCM 2.0 Cantonese ‘Alternative Home Release Mono Mix’ Linear PCM 2.0 English ‘1982 Export Dub with Cantonese for undubbed scenes’ Linear PCM 2.0 English ‘2003 Mix’ DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Export Cut: English Linear PCM 2.0 Extended Version & Hybrid Cut: Cantonese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition format 2.35:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | Hong Kong Cut, Extended Version & Hybrid Cut: English, English (Simplified for the Jianzi Match) Export Cut: English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
4K Ultra HD On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1: Hong Kong & Export Cuts
- Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng & F.J. Desanto (Hong Kong Cut)
- Mars Cheung on Dragon Lord (22:48 runtime)
- Dragon Lord Titbits with Angie Chen (12:17 runtime)
- The Insider: An Interview with Louis Sit (09:38 runtime)
- The Fall Guy: An Interview with Mars (29:46 runtime)
- The Master Returns: An Interview with Wong In-Sik (11:52 runtime)
- Behind-the-Scenes Teaser (05:21 runtime)
- Hong Kong Trailer (04:13 runtime)
- English Trailer (01:31 runtime)
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1: Hong Kong & Export Cuts
- Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng & F.J. Desanto (Hong Kong Cut)
- Mars Cheung on Dragon Lord (22:48 runtime)
- Dragon Lord Titbits with Angie Chen (12:17 runtime)
- The Insider: An Interview with Louis Sit (09:38 runtime)
- The Fall Guy: An Interview with Mars (29:46 runtime)
- The Master Returns: An Interview with Wong In-Sik (11:52 runtime)
- Behind-the-Scenes Teaser (05:21 runtime)
- Hong Kong Trailer (04:13 runtime)
- English Trailer (01:31 runtime)
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Dragon Lord is available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray by 88 Films in the United Kingdom.
The deluxe limited edition 4K Ultra HD release can be purchased across different retailers including 88 Films, Amazon UK, HMV, Terracotta Distribution and Zavvi.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment