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Hong Kong Legends
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MDV 394
- Running time: 94 minutes
- Year: 1978
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 25 plus extras
- Sound: Linear PCM Mono
- Languages: Mandarin, English (dubbed)
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.77:1 (cropped from 2.35:1)
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Jackie Chan photo gallery,Jackie Chan biography and filmography, UK music promo, Rare interview withproducer Ng See Yuen, Kicking Showcase with Hwang Jang Lee
Director:
- Yuen Woo Ping
(Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow)
Producer:
- Ng See Yuen
(Dance of the Drunken Mantis, Drunken Master, New Dragon Gate Inn, Ninja in the Dragon’s Den, No Retreat No Surrender 1 & 2, Secret Rivals 1 & 2, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow)
Cast:
- Chien Fu: Jackie Chan (Armour of God, Cannonball Run 1 & 2, Drunken Master 1 & 2, Enter the Dragon, Fist of Fury, Hand of Death, Mr. Nice Guy, Operation Condor: Armour of God 2, Police Story 1-4, Project A, Rumble in Hong Kong,Rumble in the Bronx, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Twin Dragons, Who Am I ?
Begger So/Pak Cheung Tien: Yuen Siu Tien (Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow)
Preacher: Roy Horan (Game of Death 2, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow)
Eagle Claw Master: Hwang Jang Lee (Dance of the Drunken Mantis, Ninja in the Dragon’s Den, No Retreat No Surrender 2, Secret Rivals 1 & 2, Shanghai Express, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Snuff Bottle Collection, Street Warriors)
Snake in the Eagle’s Shadowis one of Jackie Chan‘s earlier films, as Chien Fu, in which he must save his master,Pak Cheung Tien (Yuen Siu Tien) from certain death courtesy of EagleClaw Master (Hwang Jang Lee). In order to do this, he must be taughtthe lethal art of Snake Fist by an old beggar, who is actually – shock, horror -his snake master.
The film features humourous and clever action sequences, including a cat’sclaw method that Chien Fu learns after seeing a cat and a cobra fight eachother.
The film was originally made in a ratio of 2.35:1 (Shawscope), but has beencropped here to 16:9, albeit anamorphic, losing approximately 25% of itsoriginal screen width and rendering fight sequences incomprehensible. Itstill suffers scratches on the print and the average bitrate is a so-so4.48Mb/s, hovering around that mark for the duration of the film.
Why crop and result in such a missed opportunity? The following comes courtesyof the DVD Debate,which answers the query and it comes straight from Brian White,Head DVD producer at Medusa :
- “The reason we decided to re-master this movie into 16:9format 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 ifhe’s worried about small TVs, what about putting both a 2.35:1 and a 4:3version 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 martialarts kicking sounds so you know what to expect. One thing Hong Kong Legendshave got right is to include both the original Mandarin language as well asa dubbed English one. It’s nice to get the choice, but other than the dialoguenote 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 traileris 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 beturned off. The disc tells you that Chinese subtitles are included when playingthe 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 abackdrop of clips from the film, also cropped to 16:9. There’s an 18-strongPhoto Gallery, mostly featuring Jackie, a biography andfilmography of the man, plus a 14-minute rare interview withproducer Ng See Yuen (including brief biog & filmog) and a Kicking Showcasewith Hwang Jang Lee (as well as a brief biog & filmog), the 2-minute clipfor 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 alot of things right by including a number of decent extras, they’ve completelymisjudged the market this is aimed at – after all, cropping films to 16:9 isn’tthe usual practice by video companies putting out martial arts films for homeviewing so why one bloke pretending to be catering for the discerning collector(yes, this is actually a “Special Collector’s Edition”) should think otherwiseis beyond me.
If this film gets a 2.35:1 re-release, snap it up, otherwise avoid. As forthe rest of the forthcoming line-up, those were each delayed by a month andI only hope it was to find a print in its original ratio and not the cropped16:9 version.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.