Best DVD version of Drunken Master?

mike dk · Post by **mike dk** » 14 Sep 2007, 01:08

Which edition of Drunken Master has the best picture quality ? This is a classic that I have seen many times (on VHS...years ago) but actually don't own yet on DVD.

mike dk · Post by **mike dk** » 14 Sep 2007, 01:09

And..when we are at it. Same question for "Snake in the Eagles Shadow".

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Sep 2007, 01:38

Drunken Master:

Personally I'd go with the Columbia Tristar R1 or R4:

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=2122

The Mei Ah HK DVD sounds like an interesting idea but I'd have preferred they just include it properly but in Mandarin then instead of using silly deleted scene type footage. With the Mei Ah you either watch it cut or with an interruption when the extra footage happens.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 14 Sep 2007, 02:35

French DVD of SITES is the only one with the complete original audio track, from what I've heard.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 14 Sep 2007, 08:00

HK Video has the complete canto audio. Columbia is cantonese / english mix and Mei Ah is cantonese / mandarin / english (non-dialogue scenes) mix.

HK Video has the weakest picture quality. Columbia and Mei Ah should be about even but I can't say for sure since I sold those years ago.

Mei Ah is double cut. Some scenes you can view in mandarin when the logo pops up (no way to stop this) (will also cause a brief pause) but some pieces are missing for good. I don't know exactly what is missing, I noticed it by an accident when I was briefly comparing the picture quality and noticed the shed scene (Jackie hanging from the roof) was missing a few seconds (his friend giving him food, I think). I'm not sure if Columbia and HK Video are 100% complete but I'd assume so.

SITES:
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... php?t=1964

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 14 Sep 2007, 09:31

SITES - Columbia or Mei Ah are best at the moment but another version is coming out in Germany that may surpass these

DM - Vive La France! The other versions are useless if you want uncut Cantonese

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Sep 2007, 09:44

I've never heard of cuts to the DM Columbia Tristar DVD. Obviously if you need English subs the French DVD is no good. That DM Mei Ah DVD sounds awful, nice idea but a complete cock up.

Old Pang Yau · Post by **Old Pang Yau** » 14 Sep 2007, 18:07

The Columbia DM is the full 110 min cut, which also includes the scene where Fei-hung's friend gets him down from the "water jug torture", which Mei Ah missed. Pluss, it's progressive while Mei Ah is, as always, interlaced.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Sep 2007, 18:31

Easy call for the Columbia Tristar then, unless you don't need English subs and in which case get the French DVD.

mike dk · Post by **mike dk** » 14 Sep 2007, 19:34

Could someone post a direct link to the Colombia Tristar edition of Drunken Master ?

I found this version on amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Drunken-Master-Ja ... 169&sr=8-1

But I guess its not the one in question as its a Sony release.

Old Pang Yau · Post by **Old Pang Yau** » 14 Sep 2007, 20:39

That's the one... Columbia is a Sony-owned company.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 14 Sep 2007, 22:52

I typed up half-complete half-arsed remastered English subtitles for the Cantonese soundtrack (from scratch). I still prefer the film with the MIHK dub.

Dub: Killing a nobody like you, would only ruin my reputation.
Sub: Killing you with one kick; I'd be called a bully. With two kicks; it would ruin my reputation.

Mei Ah is a waste - substitute shots, frame-cuts, cuts etc.

French has ugly levels, but it's allegedly uncut (frames and footage) and no print damage.

HKL (when 2:35:1 and distorted restaurant signs) is the least cropped of any of them. It's a complete mess too (full of small cuts etc).

Sony is uncut and the best levels, but it has some print damage (Each Church, One Buddha).

---

PanMedia would steal the German release, so I doubt it would contain new subtitles for SITES.

mike dk · Post by **mike dk** » 15 Sep 2007, 00:28

Thanks for the help.

I just placed an order for Drunken Master at CDWOW as they also have the Colombia/Sony version. It was only £7.99.

Now I only need to find a good release of Snakes In the Eagles Shadow.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Sep 2007, 02:16

Glad we could help.

As I am presuming you need English subs I'd say go with the Columbia Tristar again. "Old Pang Yau" above says the DM Mei Ah is interlaced whereas the Columbia Tristar is Progressive (which is better if you didn't know). It is likely the same rule applies to SITES.

The 3 versions to consider are (same as DM):

* French - But no English subs. I don't know much about it for this reason. Bar the subs issue it's probably the best.
* HK Mei Ah - Likely to be Interlaced but it does have an extra 5.1 remix if you like those.
* USA or Australia Columbia Tristar - Progressive. Like DM Columbia Tristar own the R1 and R4 rights (same disc bar PAL vs. NTSC).

All AFAIK are uncut and all are uncropped (according to Rewind).

chenlung wrote:Sony is uncut and the best levels, but it has some print damage (Each Church, One Buddha).

For an HK film as old as these are I'd expect print damage. They're never going to look perfect.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 15 Sep 2007, 02:32

The R4 of SITES suffers from the same animal cruelty cuts as the UK release (laziness on the part of Sony I presume) and is only available on a flipper with Drunken Master on the other side (DM is the same as the R1, except in PAL).

IIRC the R1 SITES is OOP.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 15 Sep 2007, 02:41

For an HK film as old as these are I'd expect print damage. They're never going to look perfect.

I meant severe print damage to where the image actually splits into 3 for 3 consecutive frames (Mei Ah simply replaces it with an already-used HJL shot). The French is a bit zoomboxed compared to it, but there's no damage on the "Each Church, One Buddha" bit. On the contrary, I'd be interested to know how well the French handle their print; in terms of damage (levels are, and usually shit with old HK movies on French DVDs, but the damage etc).

No perfect DVD solution. You could head after the Magnum VHS for widescreen/Cantonese/subtitles. There is the Far East laserdisc too, but a little impractical.

PanMedia's DVD is a mixure of theatrical and dubtitles (according to a friend). Don't let those liars at HK Flix fool you. It's also from the French DVD (lousy PAL>NTSC port with poor image) and reportedly the HKL/Columbia dub, instead of the beloved MIHK one.

For SITES, Mei Ah has the original theatrical subtitles. The only problem is that it has artificial credits at the beginning (interlaced too of course). The HKVideo version has an uncut (ableit missing 'Seasonal Films' logo) 2:35:1 Cantonese print. Sony has an English print (with Cantonese soundtrack and flubtitles). Both progressive.

For super-purist reasons on all (?) Seasonal titles, the red background with 'The End' is seemingly fake. 'The End' that's on a freeze-frame of the final shot of the film is genuine.

http://adg.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2059 - Good reference to some of my points.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 15 Sep 2007, 02:48

The R4 of SITES suffers from the same animal cruelty cuts as the UK release (laziness on the part of Sony I presume) and is only available on a flipper with Drunken Master on the other side (DM is the same as the R1, except in PAL).

Do Aussies edit animal cruelty too? Don't see how Sony could be lazy if the latter and HKL are two completely different companies?

IIRC the R1 SITES is OOP.

Yep. Sony should sell the rights to somewhere that will do it properly. It would only make sense considering...

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 15 Sep 2007, 03:11

chenlung wrote:
The R4 of SITES suffers from the same animal cruelty cuts as the UK release (laziness on the part of Sony I presume) and is only available on a flipper with Drunken Master on the other side (DM is the same as the R1, except in PAL).
Do Aussies edit animal cruelty too? Don't see how Sony could be lazy if the latter and HKL are two completely different companies?

I presumed that it was just laziness on Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia, reusing DVD material from the other major PAL English-speaking territory, the UK.

Eg In the early days of DVD, we were often stuck with BBFC cut DVDs from Fox (like Commando) because they couldn't be arsed pressing uncut PAL English discs, just to sell in a smaller market.

But HKL is a different distributor altogether from Sony, so I dunno for sure. It's all just speculation.

Old Pang Yau · Post by **Old Pang Yau** » 15 Sep 2007, 05:40

chenlung wrote:Yep. Sony should sell the rights to somewhere that will do it properly. It would only make sense considering...

Well, we know Dragon Dynasty snagged some of the Lo Wei films that used to be owned by Sony, but that might be a joint deal of some kind with Fortune Star. Seasonal, on the other hand, has always been sketchy in terms of getting good prints. I remember what happened to Media Blaster's planned release of Bruce Lee: The Man The Myth... ugh...

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Sep 2007, 14:27

chenlung wrote:No perfect DVD solution. You could head after the Magnum VHS for widescreen/Cantonese/subtitles. There is the Far East laserdisc too, but a little impractical.

VHS and Laserdisc? Neither count in my opinion. Beside VHS brings stacks of it's own problems.

chenlung wrote:Do Aussies edit animal cruelty too? Don't see how Sony could be lazy if the latter and HKL are two completely different companies?

No. I guess they re-used HKL's master. HKL do have the film in 2.35:1 after all. They've just never shown to actually release it this way.

I'd pick up the HK Mei Ah then, or see if you can get the R1 on eBay. I can see where Chenlung is coming from but for me it gets way, way to picky when you start nitpicking over every fault a DVD has.

BibMcFeck · Post by **BibMcFeck** » 03 Feb 2008, 16:23

Any opinions on the new R2 version which was released last week? According to HMV it's Columbia Tristar so I'm guessing is just a PAL version of the R1?

Why did HKL never get round to doing the SEs of this and SITES? I sold both old HKL versions years ago in preparation of the new versions

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 03 Feb 2008, 16:53

BibMcFeck wrote:Why did HKL never get round to doing the SEs of this and SITES? I sold both old HKL versions years ago in preparation of the new versions

I don't think they ever managed to source appropriate transfers then of course HKL went down hill.

RickyTheDragonSteamboat · Post by **RickyTheDragonSteamboat** » 03 Feb 2008, 21:30

BibMcFeck wrote:Why did HKL never get round to doing the SEs of this and SITES? I sold both old HKL versions years ago in preparation of the new versions

They probably sold those properties to someone else. I won't be surprised if Sony releases SITES on R2 after Drunken Master.

BTW, does the "animal cruelty" cuts effect the Sony R1 of SITES? I have it, but I've never sat through it.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 03 Feb 2008, 21:53

Nope. They're cuts due to the Animal Cruelty act. The BBFC had to force HKL to cut them.

BibMcFeck · Post by **BibMcFeck** » 08 Feb 2008, 02:31

Bought the R2 in Asda today (£6.97).

Don't know if it may be recalled as while on the case it's rated 15 on the disc itself the BBFC cert is 12. Looking at the BBFC site it seems it was classified twice at the end of last year by Sony HE (for whatever reason) and received a 12 cert. It seems the cover is wrong. It may have been recalled if the opposite was the case I suppose but it may slip through the net in this case.

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