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TK

I couldn't be more thrilled about this, especially as it's been considered worthy of MoC treatment. After all, it's hard to deny that Yuen Woo-ping is one of the supreme masters of a particular kind of cinema.

And how appropriate that it should be announced on the same day as a Buster Keaton package. Granted, Jackie Chan was always more inspired by Harold Lloyd, but he's clearly the strongest present-day link to the great silent comedians.

This really needs the full Cantonese mono track. It was present on the French DVD, but abridged on the US and HK DVDs and totally missing from the UK Hong Kong Legends DVD.

I also hope they get hold of the same transfer Sony Japan released alongside Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, rather than the older master Umbrella were supplied with.

Hopefully since this is a Masters of Cinema entry, Eureka will make sure they get the right combination of video and audio - if they do, I could see this being the definitive release of the film, with the obligatory extras and booklet every MoC title gets.

Glad to see them revisiting both martial arts and comedy in one fell swoop. Can't wait to get my hands on this one!

A Bey Logan commentary would be great!

Although I'm quite excited for this release, I'd find myself enjoying Yuen-Woo Ping more as the action choreographer than a director. Even in his more praised films, there's always something really sore for me, like the child actors in Iron Monkey and True Legend.

Hope MoC can get a superior transfer of this one. This type of cinema is almost always looks like it was rescued from a cat-mangled print on home video.

To be fair, the previous Sony releases of this film always looked good. And, despite the heavy cropping, so did the 2000 UK DVD from Hong Kong Legends.

Regarding Yuen as a director, Drunken Master is my favourite of his films where you can sense him as a director. My other two favourites, The Magnificent Butcher and Iron Monkey, feel more like Sammo Hung and Tsui Hark films respectively.

One Yuen film that needs rescuing is Legend of a Fighter. It's a biography of Ho Yuen-Chia (see also Fist of Fury and Ferless), and HKL cropped the heck out of it on their DVD.

The available Sony transfer is a stunner and can be seen here. Eureka have surely licenced it from Sony so I don't think there will be anything to worry about. Snake in the Eagle's Shadow is equally good, and I'd be surprised if Eureka didn't pick this up at the same time (Twilight Time have both).

Snake will likely be cut though.

EddieLarkin wrote:The available Sony transfer is a stunner and can be seen here.

Has Sony released this on Blu-Ray domestically? (not seeing it on Amazon)

They have in Japan

EddieLarkin wrote:The available Sony transfer is a stunner and can be seen here. Eureka have surely licenced it from Sony so I don't think there will be anything to worry about. Snake in the Eagle's Shadow is equally good, and I'd be surprised if Eureka didn't pick this up at the same time (Twilight Time have both).

I can't imagine TT doing an isolated track for those, but you never know - Snake's score is a wonderful collage of Jean Michel Jarre, John Barry and John Williams!

Spine number: #166

Specs:

• Definitive transfer from 4K digital restoration
• The original complete Cantonese soundtrack, rarely heard on home video
• Alternate Cantonese, English and Mandarin audio options
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Audio commentary by Hong Kong film experts Ric Meyers and Jeff Yang
• New video interview with director Yuen Woo-ping
• Video interview with Jackie Chan
• New video interview with film scholar Tony Rayns
• New video appreciation by director Gareth Evans (The Raid film series)
• Deleted scene
• Original trailer
  PLUS: A booklet featuring new writing and archival imagery

No original English dub?

Orlac wrote:No original English dub?

rapta wrote:

• Alternate Cantonese, English and Mandarin audio options

Also see the trailer here to hear the English dub (and a sample of the original audio towards the end).

Basically, this looks to be the definitive home video release of this film. Very pleased they roped both Tony Rayns and Gareth Evans in for this as well - two opinions I'd especially like to hear in regards to a film like this!

I wasn't aware the movie was restored in 4K.
Very good news in any case.

I think Orlac means "does it have the original English dub?", since all true Drunken Master fans know that there are two.

tenia wrote:I wasn't aware the movie was restored in 4K.
Very good news in any case.

I was under the impression the 4K-restored version was this one released by Sony Japan. Could be wrong though?

Apologies for my above post - I realise now that Orlac was referring to the original UK dub, in which case I don't know whether Eureka are including that or not. I assume there will definitely be the US dub as shown in the trailer, but if they can secure the UK one as well I'm sure it'll be included. Personally, I'll be watching it in Cantonese anyway but may try a dub another time (less likely to if it's the US one though).

PS: I vaguely remember watching John Woo's Hard Boiled with the hilarious English dub some years ago. Not my thing when it comes to Chinese films, but for some reason I actually prefer the dub track for Spaghetti Westerns.

Actually the re-dub may have been done in HK too. It's the same dubbers who did Project A in the mid 80s.

Even so, it will be a great release because of the Cantonese track - missing totally from the HKL DVD, and heavily abridged on the Tristar and Mei Ah releases.

Great news on the original English dub front:

Following on from Tuesday's announcement about our forthcoming release of DRUNKEN MASTER, we'd like to add that we are making every effort to include the preferred English language track, and are confident it will appear on the final disc.

Beaver.

Just to update a few details in this thread, sadly this disc does not contain the original English dub. Eureka tried, but they were unable to confirm precisely who held the UK rights, and didn't have the option of delaying the release to find out thanks to the terms of their licence with Sony. It also doesn't contain an interview with Yuen Woo-ping - one was scheduled, but it fell through.

However, it definitely does contain the complete original Cantonese soundtrack, which I believe is a first for a legitimate commercial Blu-ray release. Indeed, so clearly superior was this track to the "Cantonese" track that's accompanied other releases (which consists of Cantonese plus chunks of English plus sound effects from the Mandarin version) that Eureka ended up dropping the latter altogether. The Mandarin track is a similar bodge job, and I can't see anyone preferring it unless they really need Mandarin for some reason, but it's there if you want it.

As a further bonus, it also contains, in addition to proper subtitles, a facsimile of the bizarrely-translated subtitles that accompanied its original HK theatrical release. Although those who hanker after the old Hong Kong Legends "dubtitles" can simply switch to the English SDH subtitles that are technically supposed to accompany the English dub, but you can mix and match whatever soundtrack/subtitle combo you fancy.

To fans of the film (I've never seen it), how big of a loss is not getting the original English dub? What's the sentimental/artistic value?

I expect for a lot of American and UK audiences their first exposure to a lot of this kind of Asian cinema was through comically poor dubs, and there's a sentimental attachment to that experience.

swo17 wrote:To fans of the film (I've never seen it), how big of a loss is not getting the original English dub? What's the sentimental/artistic value?

It's sentimental value: it's the one I grew up with. But if you didn't, I doubt it would make much difference.

The crucial thing is that the full-length Cantonese track is a colossal improvement on previous UK releases, which were either dubbed into English or which only had a Mandarin option. But it's clear when looking at the lip movements that Cantonese was the language mostly spoken on set, with Hwang Jang Lee's villain being the major exception - I suspect he was speaking his native Korean.

(Amusingly, he's been given a snooty British accent in the English dub on the Eureka disc. To underscore this, when I proofed the SDH subtitles for that track I adjusted them so that he called his enemies "arseholes", while they call him an "asshole" in return, in completely accurate reflection of what was actually said.)