Game of Death (1978) Collector's Edition Blu-ray A ADDED

[Frank_Chan]

Title: Game of Death AKA Bruce Lee's Game of Death
Country: America
Region: A
Releasing Studio: Shout! Factory - Collector's Edition
Case Type: 2-Disc Keep Case
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Codec: (MVC, AVC MPEG-4, VC-1, MPEG-2) AVC MPEG-4
Picture: (1080p/1080i 60/1080i 50 etc) 1080p 24fps

Disc 1:
* The Film - International Version (HD)
Audio Commentary by Hong Kong film expert Mike Leeder
Trailers (5:22)
Stills Gallery
"Game of Death" Outtake Montage (3:39)
"Game of Death" Bloopers (2:29)
"Game of Death" Revisited (39:01)
Alternate Opening (1:56)
Alternate Endings (3:52)
Deleted Scenes (7:01)
"Game of Death" Locations (7:27)
"Game of Death" Japanese Print in HD (99:52)
Soundtracks:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono (Japanese Theatrical)
Subtitles (are they optional?): English (optional)

Disc 2:
* The Film - Hong Kong Version (HD)
Trailers (9:07)
Soundtracks:
Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
Subtitles (are they optional?): English for HoH (optional)

Cuts: (and if you know it, precise run time) No cuts - contains the International version (100:19), Japanese theatrical version (99:51) and Hong Kong version (90:17)

Notes:
Part of the Shout Select series.
Features a 4K scan from the original negative.
Comes with a reversible cover.
Easter Eggs:
Amazon ASIN (UK, French, German, USA releases only): B06W2GKHM6
Source:* own

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

* The Film - Hong Kong Version (HD)
Trailers (9:07)
Soundtracks:
Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
Subtitles (are they optional?): English for HoH (optional)

The Hong Kong version only has HoH subtitles and not standard English subtitles?

[Frank_Chan]

Yes, only HoH subtitles.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

HoH subtitles on the Hong Kong version? Shout Factory screws up again with the Bruce Lee Blu-rays? Maybe shouldnt be a surprise at this point....

Oh, one more question
Japanese cut: Are there English subtitles, English HoH subtitles, or none?

[Frank_Chan]

The Japanese cut is presented as a bonus feature. There are no subtitle selections. There are burnt-in Japanese "side-titles".

Not about GoD, but there are also English HoH subtitles for the Shout! Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon blu-rays.

Also, all 4 Shout! factory blu-rays have been color corrected; the UK and HK releases don't have the color correction.

Also for the Japanese Extreme Edition blu-rays of Game of Death and Tower of Death, they list a "Hong Kong version" and a "Taiwan version" as bonus features. However, the "Taiwan" version just plays the same "Hong Kong version", but with the Mandarin soundtrack instead of Cantonese. So there are no actual "Taiwan versions".

Japanese GoD blu-ray has the International version as the main feature, with the Japanese cut (HD) and Hong Kong cut (SD) as bonus features (with the Mandarin soundtrack listed as a "Taiwan version" selection).

Japanese Tower of Death blu-ray has the International version (HD) as the main feature with the Hong Kong cut (SD) as a bonus feature (with the Mandarin soundtrack listed as a "Taiwan version" selection). This HK cut of Tower of Death is sourced from the old HK Universe vcd as it has the incorrect opening music from the International version.

Those 2 HK cuts of GoD and ToD on the Japanese blu-ray are in poor SD quality with heavy pixelation, probably a vcd transfer.

So Shout! version of GoD wins with it's color corrected, 4k source of the International and HK cuts.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

but there are also English HoH subtitles for the Shout! Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon blu-rays.

So these discs have both English subtitles for the Chinese translations and English HoH subtitles for the English dub tracks?

[Frank_Chan]

There are three English subtitles tracks. It seems to be one for the Mandarin tracks, one for the Cantonese tracks, and one for HoH. When the English tracks are selected, they default to subtitles off, but you can press the subtitle button to switch.

These 4 Shout! releases also use the old English titles for "The Big Boss" ("Fists Of Fury"), "Fist Of Fury" ("The Chinese Connection"), and "The Way Of The Dragon" ("Return Of The Dragon") on the default cover and on the discs' main menu, but use the original titles for the actual films and on the alternate cover side.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

OK, added and updated. Thanks!

[Brent_Reid]

Bloody hell. And I thought the Chaplin, Nosferatu, Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Evil Dead trilogy releases were complicated! I'd never tackle the Bruce Lee home video catalogue...

After much scouring of this site, reviews and various forums, I opted to go for the Shout! Factory Bruce Lee Premiere Collection BD set. I've already got loooads of documentaries and stuff on DVD, most which are still unwatched. Can anyone tell me in a nutshell what the faults are with the Premiere Collection discs?

[Frank_Chan]

Nothing wrong with the Premiere Collection discs. I actually sold my Premiere Collection and got the Legacy Collection for the bonuses and the book presentation. All of the Legacy Collections available now should be problem-free. The ones with the red sticker on front and the revised barcode is the fixed version, and the ones with the black sticker on front are the faulty ones. Of course you would have to deal with the discs getting scratches and fingerprints due to the way they are housed.

However, the new individual Collector's Edition releases have a noticeable increase in picture quality and a few new bonuses. So I would get the individual Collector's Edition releases for watching the films, and the Legacy Collection for the bonuses. The UK boxset also has great bonuses from the HKL dvds and better commentaries than the Shout! releases.

[Brent_Reid]

Thanks for the detailed reply, Frank; just how many Brucie discs do you own?! I checked out the Mediumrare BDs but as I've got all the old HKL DVDS, as well as various other docu discs, I decided to curb my completist tendencies for once.

However, now you've thrown up an added complication in saying the individual Shout! releases are improved yet further. How so? I thought they were just the exact same discs repackaged. I see GoD has an extra disc with the shorter HK cut, but I'm not interested in that. It's hardly his masterpiece...

[Frank_Chan]

They are 4k mastered with color correction. The older Shout! releases are only 1080p.

You can see some comparison shots of the old Shout! releases (Legacy & Premiere Collections), 4k mastered non-color corrected releases (Kam & Ronson, Mediumrare), and 4k mastered color corrected (new Shout! individual releases):

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php ... ath&page=6

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php ... ry&page=10

[Brent_Reid]

Just when I thought I'd got it all worked out... So, to be 100% certain, there are now four permutations of Shout's Brucie discs:

- Legacy
- Legacy corrected
- Premiere - corrected Legacy repackaged
- Select Collector's Edition - improved over the above three

Correct?

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Just when I thought I'd got it all worked out... So, to be 100% certain, there are now four permutations of Shout's Brucie discs:

- Legacy
- Legacy corrected
- Premiere - corrected Legacy repackaged
- Select Collector's Edition - improved over the above three

Correct?

Basically yes.
Though on a minor note on the 2-disc remastered "Game of Death", shout factory put English HoH subtitles for the Chinese dubbed Hong Kong cut of the film - which is a big no-no even if it is for a bonus film.

[Brent_Reid]

Thanks James. I don't quite follow the point you made about the subtitles though...

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

The Hong Kong version has Cantonese and Mandarin audio, but for subtitles it doesn't have standard English but English hard-of-hearing subtitles, so there are annoying captions for sound effects, etc. HoH subtitles should be the same language as the audio, not for translation.

There was a huge backlash years ago with the Ingmar Bergman MGM DVDs - the US had standard English subtitles but the Euro releases had English HoH only, so things like [projector whirring], [intense music], [door shutting] were captioned. In my opinion, unacceptable, I sold off my Dreamworks DVD of "Millennium Actress" because of that and went with the Japanese release.

[Brent_Reid]

Ah, I see... Thank you for explaining it so clearly. It figures that no matter how many times they do them over, Shout have to keep cocking up somewhere. Their QC is consistently in the toilet; it seems they're content to just repeatedly bang stuff out without first paying due diligence.

I haven't actually bought the Premiere Collection yet, so it looks like I'll be picking up the inidividual Select releases after all. Of course, while I'm waiting for them to go down in price, Shout! may well reissue them yet again as a box set. It's great that they've finally released these in the best versions to date, but they're really taking the p*ss to not have simply replaced the discs in their Legacy and Premiere collections with these latest ones. That would have been the decent thing to do. For anyone proving they already own those sets, they could have offered the discs only, at a discount.

On a more positive note, I continue to plug DVDCompare on my own site, social media and various chat forums. In addition, I regularly cite it as a reference on Wikipedia. For GoD I've just edited this to this.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Simplified the article and made links to our site. Nice!