#178
Post
by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:07 pm
I picked up The Leg Fighters, which came out from a new VCI sub-label called Pearl River Collection which is specifically releasing rare martial arts films. They say in the special features that it's a way to properly present rarities that have now been relegated to bad VHS rips online. I often think about how many Ocean Shores VHS releases from the 80s have sort of just ended up on YouTube because these films are often in copyright purgatory. The release says it's a 2K scan from the best surviving elements, which in this case is a black market print with burned in subtitles from the Hollywood Theater in Portland, which they claim is the only known copy of the film in the western hemisphere. I'm certainly used to seeing my share of pink, deteriorated, sliced-up prints in real life, so this didn't bother me at all. And to any collectors of Hong Kong cinema, prints or copies with burned in subs are often the only way to watch features as often times original camera negatives, outtakes, and theatrical prints from the pre-digital age would often be neglected or intentionally destroyed. I was mostly surprised how well the color still looked and that for a relatively obscure feature, they decided to get director approval on the transfer. It's not a spectacular transfer, but I'm still impressed anyone is doing this. The film itself is very funny that seems to one to channel a bit of Drunken Master comedy in, even hiring an actor with a very similar haircut to Chan's in that film. Of course, the performers don't have the manic energy of Jackie Chan, but it's a great example of the direct influence Chinese opera moves can have on martial arts cinema, this is an excellent example. Looking forward to their next release of Dynamo, one of many Brucesploitation films they have coming up.
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