The Jackie Chan Collection: Volume 1 (1976-1982) - Blu-ray Review

Movie
The Killer Meteors :
1976 was sort of a big year for Jackie Chan. Up until then he’d been in a good 25 or so films, but usually ONLY as an uncredited bad guy, or a thug in the background. He’d started to break out into more popularity with films like Rumble in Hong Kong back in 1973, or All in the Family, but he was still mostly a stunt guy and a nobody even in Hong Kong Cinema. But in 1976 he started to get the recognition he deserved with films like New Fist of Fury, The Hand of Death, and The Killer Meteors. He was still mostly playing bad guys and villains, but his roles were starting to become more than just a random cameo or background character.

The Killer Meteors is really a detective martial arts story with your typical 1970s period piece visuals. A local martial arts master known as Mei Xing He (Jimmy Wang Yu) is recruited by a local nobleman (Jackie Chan) to murder his wife, Madame Tempest, for him. It appears that Madame Tempest has been poisoning him for years, and blackmailing him with the antidote. She’s got warriors under her thumb who will die for her, and the weakened Nobleman has no ability to use his own martial arts skills and take care of them in order to get to her.

Taking the job out of apparent desire, it turns out that Mei Xing He is actually working undercover as a freelance detective in hopes of finding out if the nobleman is actually a master thief who has taken the 7 Palatial treasures from the palace. A simple job at first, but soon turns deadly as everyone has an agenda, and the deeper and deeper that Mei goes, the more intrigue and betrayal is uncovered.

The Killer Meteors is a hoot and a half for a classic Kung-fu fan such as myself. It’s got the old clunky Shaw Brothers choreography that was common in the 60s and 70s, but also leans more towards what would become the 1980s era of storytelling. It’s much deeper and more convoluted than most of the 1970s martial arts films, and it’s also a bit fun to watch Jackie play the role of the villain here (or at least one of them, as everyone’s a freaking villain in this film). Jimmy is the main focus of the story, but Jackie Chan DOES get a couple of good fights in that are more than enough to satisfy those coming here for the actor specifically.

Shaolin Wooden Men:
1976 was a busy year for Chan, and a big transition year for Hong Kong cinema in general. The martial arts cinematic world was still reeling from the recent death of Bruce Lee, and trying to fill that void with a million copycats (the Bruce Li, and Bruce Lei years of Hong Kong cinema was downright painful at times), and Jackie Chan was slowly being recognized for the powerhouse that he soon would be. While The Killer Meteors was old school style chop socky, Shaolin Wooden Men started to slowly play to Chan’s comedic strengths and was the start of a paradigm shift in the genre.

Little Mute (Chan) watched his father get murdered years ago by a mysterious martial artist with an unknown deadly technique. Years later Little Mute has joined a Shaolin temple in order to gain enough power to one day challenge his father’s murderer (not exactly the most Buddhist thing he could do, but hey, it was the 70s). Having taken a vow of silence, the tortured young man does his best, but soon finds himself the weakest of all the students at the temple. The butt of many a joke, and the laughing stock of the other students, Little Mute is on his way out when he notices a drunken monk taking food to a secret cave behind a waterfall. There he finds a violent criminal imprisoned there who is supposedly developing a secret martial arts technique known as “The Lions Roar”. Bringing the prisoner food and water, he soon convinces the man to train him and teach him The Lions roar in order to finally achieve his goal.

Simultaneously, a Shaolin nun (played by Taiwanese actress Chang Ping-Yu) sees Little Mute practicing the very harsh and violent style taught to him by his imprisoned master, and attempts to teach the angry young man that martial arts are for defense and self betterment, NOT for violence and attack. She teaches him the fluid Gliding Snake style, which is the ying to his imprisoned mentor’s yang style. Learning both styles at once, Little Mute grows in strength and skill, able to finally pass the monk’s tests and defeat the Green Dragon gang as his final test.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize who the mentor really is. In fact, if you don’t see that coming then you haven’t seen enough movies. That being said, the counter balance of having two competing styles and two competing philosophies strive to take over Little Mute’s mind is fascinating. For a 100 minute film it actually has a lot of epic drama built in, as well as well as allowing some of Chan’s trademark comedic stylings to come out too. It may not be the best of the old 1970s Jackie Chan movies, but it is a seminal one that marks a drastic change in Hong Kong cinema for years to come.

To Kill With Intrigue:
1977 had Jackie Chan once more being pushed as the leading man after Bruce Lee’s death (many times called the Bruceploitation era) and after breaking out from the traditional Shaw Brothers style, we had Chan team up with prolific director Lo Wei for what would be a long and fruitful collaboration for many years to come. Instead of going with the more popular older styles, they decided to blend history and Wuxia together for an epic film that sort of fell flat on its face theatrically. Most Chan fans will admit that To Kill With Intrigue is one of his more boring entries, but it’s still a decent amount of fun to watch as long as you’re not looking for a masterpiece.

It’s his father’s 60th birthday, but Lei Shao-feng (Chan) is not exactly in the partying mood. He has evidence that assassins may be trying to take his father’s life, and the Bee Faces gang may soon attack. His intelligence turns out to be right as the Bee Faces, led by Ting Chang Yen (Feng Hsu), attacks as soon as the festivities are over, killing both his parents despite Lei’s attempts to thwart them. As an attempt to keep his own girlfriend Qian-qian (Ling Lung Yu), he breaks up with her in hopes of driving her away to safety. Entrusting her to his best friend Jin-chuan (le Lung Shen) Lei Shao-feng sets out on his own for revenge

Even Jackie Chan admits in his famous autobiography that not only was he confused over the direction, but even director Lo Wei hinted at not really understand what to do with the convoluted script. The film veers all over the place with drastic mood and tone shifts ranging from supernatural horror, to classic Wuxia martial arts, to love story, back into revenge drama. The script pretty much attempts to do too much too fast, with not enough effort spent on fleshing out the story. It’s still a fun little romp, but one that is more akin to 1990s Hong Kong movies where the movie appears to have been edited into oblivion and the viewer is left wondering “what the heck is going on?” most of the time.

Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin :
Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin was probably the first time that Jackie Chan FINALLY got the recognition he was due. He was finally no longer just a background villain, nor was he just someone the studios were trying to push as the next big thing. With this little adventure Jackie shot straight into the Hong Kong cinema front lines with more of his trademark humor, props, insane stunts, and more modern choreography. The story is also a lot less involved and “epic” than previous films. I guess you could say that the powers that be saw the promise of slapstick comedy and the simplicity of a martial arts film that just allowed the audience to enjoy the kung-fu and not get caught up in politics and intrigue and adhering to Wuxia or Shaw Brothers legacies.

The plot is almost hilariously bad, with Jackie’s Hsu Yin-fung coming into contact with a book left behind by 8 martial arts masters. A book that everyone and every bad guy in the region is dying to get their hands on. And by “dying” I mean that they’re willing to beat the every living snot out of anyone who has it (in this case, Jackie) and do their bestest to make him dead. That’s quite literally it. This is the rise of 80s and 90s Jackie Chan, where it’s almost a non stop chase scene from beginning to end filled with intense martial arts and high flying stunts. And give us these stunts and action in spades the film does. However, Snake & Crane DOES have a center act where Jackie Chan gets injured in the film, and we’re left with background characters and generic action to fill it in. I guess you could say that it goes to show just what a pull Chan was, as the second he’s back in action and kicking again (quite literally I might add) the intensity and enjoyment for the film is back to level 10 once more.

Most of Jackie’s 1970s films were not exactly something most Kung-fu fans thought of as epic film making. Most of that decade was spent with him as supporting characters, or as low budget films where directors weren’t putting in their best work. However, Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin was the kickstart that his career needed, as the general populace FINALLY saw him as a massively bankable star, and the studio heads were more than eager to let him loose with bigger projects. The flick is much more of what we would come to know as “typical” Jackie Chan fare, showcasing more of his athletic prowess and penchant for physical humor than what has come before us in this collection (as well as his other cameos and uncredited characters over the late 60s and early 70s).

Dragon Fist
While I’ve watched most of these films over the years in some form or another (either on public domain DVDs, or on The WB’s martial arts movie Saturday’s from 20 years ago), it’s been fascinating to watch the films in order of release date in this set. Each film shows an evolution and change to Chan’s films, each one getting closer and closer to what most of us remember from the late 80s and 90s when he was in his prime.

Dragon Fist is probably the most complex and fleshed out film of the entire box set to date. While Chan is displaying many of his trademark moves and expressions, it’s also the least comedic of the set. This is more of a traditional martial arts journey, complete with the serious student routine instead of non stop slapstick action, while he plays the more traditional hero type cast.

After his master is murdered, martial arts student Tong Huo-wan is out to get revenge on the men who killed him. However, what starts off as a generic action/revenge flick changes gears rather rapidly as Tong soon becomes manipulated by rivaling gang members in order to save his mistress when the gangs decide to poison her. The story shifts and changes with the wind, allowing Tong’s character to undergo some actual real character development. As I said above, this is not your typical Jackie Chan movie, as the comedy is set to level 1 out of 10, and instead focuses him as the traditional Bruce Lee/Jet Li style stoic hero. Strangely enough, Jackie actually leans with the punches and does really well at it. His trademark action style and ability to adopt multiple different martial arts styles throughout the film is still present, but the revenge thriller is one of my favorite of this batch simply because it’s so different than what you would expect.

Battle Creek Brawl:
Battle Creek Brawl will forever be one of those weird films in history that may never be truly understood why it failed. Jackie Chan was now seen as a big star, and he was wanting to break into the American Hollywood market, so they attached him to the Director of Enter the Dragon (with most of the cast) and expected it to take off. Unfortunately the movie literally tanked at the box office and is still seen as one of those weird “what were they thinking?” movies in Chan’s long list of films.

I guess the reasons can be multi faceted, but still bizarre. While Chan was a big name over in Hong Kong, he still wasn’t a name over here in the United States, and audiences were most likely expecting another Enter the Dragon or Game of Death vs. Jackie Chan’s comedic stylings. And Jackie is in FULL form here, having a ball with the goofy affable persona that would become his trademark over the years instead of playing thing serious. It also doesn’t help that it was set in a mythical world of 1930s Chicago with mafia style bosses, crazy villains, and an almost cartoony tone to the whole thing. Mix it all together and Battle Creek Brawl has become a cult classic for being the movie that almost tanked Jackie Chan’s career in the U.S.A. before it even started.

The film also has a ton of little nuances going along with the story that is a lot for the audience to take in. We have Jerry Kwan (Jackie Chan) living in Chicago, taking on mob bosses (Ferrer) trying to squeeze his father, rescue a kidnapped fiance, trying to win a royal rumble brawl to help out his brother, and of course the regime of training that gets Kwan ready to fight in the gigantic street brawl (kind of weird mix of Hard Times with Van Damme’s Lionheart). Chan is trying his best as the goofy Jerry Kwan, but the story just doesn’t have a lot of cohesion, and Robert Clouse has difficulty directing everything together. The movie isn’t bad, but after the epicnesss of Clouse’s Bruce Lee entries it sort of turned American audiences off from Chan until Rumble in the Bronx came out in the early 90s.

Dragon Lord:
Dragon Lord returns Jackie back to Hong Kong once more, and this time with a full on comedy action flick. This time starring alongside close friend and fantastic stunt man Cheung Wing-fat. Dragon (Chan) and Bull (Fat) have been friends since they were children, mostly hanging around and having fun will chasing local babes and spying on their crushes. However, a gang in the nearby village is smuggling ancient Chinese artifacts out to the colonizing westerners, and when the duo raise their concerns about it, they garner attention of the Big Boss.

Said big boss sends his henchmen after Dragon and Bull, causing general mayhem, problems with the police, and of course PLENTY of action. The disc actually houses not only the theatrical cut, but an alternate cut as well, which is my personal favorite version of the movie, which cuts the opening scenes of the film and puts them as the ending scenes, and tightens up a lot of the story. The film is pure comedy gold, with Chan blending American Football and Shaolin Soccer together for a slapstick adventure that has some incredible fight choreography. Here is where we really get to see Chan’s comedic stylings on full display, as the movie allows him to do some crazy stunts and use his trademark facial expressions and physical slaptstick comedy at peak levels. He and Fat do well together as friends on screen, playing off of each other’s phsyicality and supposedly ad libbing a TON of stunts that has forever to this day been some of the most dangerous that the man has ever done simply because his own team wasn’t sure what they were going to do next.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The Killer Meteors:
According to the press release from Shout Factory, all of the titles except for Battle Creek Brawl have a new(ish) 2K master from the original film source from Fortune Star and given to Shout Factory to encode. However, this doesn’t always mean good picture quality. The film quality for The Killer Meteors is completely DNR’d to death, with a nasty layer of digital artifacting. The disc appears to be a CBR encode for the most part, but it does fluctuate a bit later on in the film (although the average bitrate will only flicker up and down 1mbps at a time at most), and there is like ZERO grain to be seen anywhere. This looks like a master struck for the 720p/1080i days of cable and while it does look better than the DVD due to lack of macroblocking and out of control grain, it does NOT look that great. Sadly it’s one of the worst of the series along with Battle Creek Brawl. I’m guessing some of it is due to an aging master that Fortune Star used, but also due to the fact that this was shot dirt cheap in the 70s and will never be a film that looks amazing and gorgeous.

Shaolin Woodmen Men:
Almost as weak as The Killer Meteors, Shaolin Wooden Men comes to Blu-ray with a mediocre looking transfer that sports really weak black levels, lots of digital noise reduction and smoothing, as well as mild banding (although the banding is really mild. Black levels are almost gray and tend to be murky, while facial details are super smooth and smeary looking. The scan itself once again feels like a master meant for the 1080i/720p cable television era, and while not horrendous, is still hampered by being overly smooth and dull looking. Reds and oranges do pop with a slightly hot and burnished look though, but other colors tend to be more muted and less saturated.

To Kill With Intrigue:
To Kill With Intrigue is the first film in the series to show some decent promise. It’s still not a great master and probably struck from the same era as the previous two, but it shows some decently saturated primary colors, and a semblance of actual grain in the image. There’s definitely been some digital erasure going on with the image, but it’s not nearly as aggressive as the last two films. However, it’s poorly rendered and slightly mushy, most likely a result of sloppy grain reduction rather than actual intent to keep it intact. Highlights are slightly yellowed, with a decent array of details when going up close and blacks are not AS gray as I would have expected (although not nearly close to black).

Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin:
All right, things are definitely improving here. The image has a small digital flair to it, with some obvious noise reduction, but nowhere near as aggressive or egregious as the last 3 flicks. It’s actually rather filmic, with good detail levels and some decent grain structure. There’s smoothing going on with faces, but colors are warm and pushing towards the red end of the spectrum. Blacks actually look black for the most part, but shadow details get a bit crushed and I noticed some minor banding in the murky spots. It’s solid, and I notice contrast drifting and fading here and there as well. All around, this is the best of the batch so far, and I didn’t notice any major print debris or damage either.

Dragon Fist:
As you’ve probably noticed, with the films age comes better picture quality. This one looks about on par with Snake & Crane with a visibly sharper and more and saturated image. Colors are warm and mostly natural, with decent contrast and bronzed skin tones. Blues and reds shine through the best, though the rest of the primary colors aren’t muted or dulled. Digital noise reduction is less than before, with a decent look sharpness and clarity as a result. There’s some moderately appreciable grain structure that hasn’t been smeared away, although there is still definitely some noise reduction going on.

Battle Creek Brawl:
According to the press release this was the only film that didn’t get a new 2K remater, so I’m guessing it’s the same master that was used for the 2 pack with City Hunter that shout factory released back in the summer of 2013. If so, then it’s not surprising why the disc looks so awful. That was an incredibly weak transfer that suffered from nasty artifacting and DNR galore. To be completely fair, I’m not going to throw Shout Factory and Fortune Star under the bus for this one, because Battle Creek Brawl has always looked terrible on home video and the 35 mm prints that I’ve seen over the decades. It just wasn’t shot very well, with weak lighting and terrible color timing. The new Blu-ray appears to replicate that perfectly, with a few issues of blocking and banding to add to the mix. It is what it is, as I’ve never seen a copy of Battle Creek Brawl that is going to blow the viewer away.

Dragon Lord:
Dragon Lord is an interesting looking image. It’s the newest of the batch, and while it looks rather decent, it still suffers from the same noise reduction and smearing that the other older films suffer from. Not the best, not the worst, but sort of in the middle out of all the films. Part of it may be due to the fact that Shout Factory locked this to a CBR (constant bitrate) in the mid to low 20s for the film, as well as the re-cut version (each having their own separate encode). Things are a bit smeared, colors a tad muted, but fine details are pretty decent, especially in daylight. It is what it is, and is pretty much par for the course with this set.









Audio:

I honestly thought hard about separating the audio review out for each of the 7 movies, but after consideration I realized that it would basically be me copy and pasting the review for the previous one into the next slot as each film sounds remarkably similar. We’ve got Mandarin, Cantonese and English DTS-HD MA tracks for each film, with a few of them having alternate Cantonese/Mandarin tracks and a few lossy English 5.1 mixes. Each of these mixes have their pros and cons, with various quirks to each one (some of them have Mono sources only, some were obviously taken from stereo tracks), but overall they are pretty homogeneous. Scratchy vocals and dulled and hollow sound effects throughout with a very tinny sounding score. Rinse, repeat, re-use for the next one. Again, I’m not throwing Shout/Fortune Star under the bus here as that was VERY typical for these 70s chop socky films and something we’ve been used to for many years. It’s just obvious that there wasn’t any restoration or remixing going on for these aging tracks.







Extras:

The Killer Meteors
• 2K transfer from the original film elements
• NEW audio commentary by David West, critic and author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery
• DRAGON LORD – Bonus Hybrid Cut (Cantonese Mono DTS-HD Master Audio)

Shaolin Wooden Men
• 2K transfer of the Hong Kong version from the original film elements
• NEW Audio Commentary with James Mudge, veteran Hong Kong film critic at easternKicks
• Ricky Baker on SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• English Trailer
• Still Gallery

To Kill With Intrigue
• 2K restoration from the original film elements
• NEW Audio Commentary with David West, critic and author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film.
• Intriguingly Jackie – an interview with Hong Kong cinema expert Rick Baker
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese Teaser Trailer
• Japanese Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese TV Spot
• Still Gallery

Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin
• 2K restoration from the original film elements
• NEW Audio Commentary with David West, critic and author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film.
• Pick Your Poison – an interview with Hong Kong film expert Rick Baker
• Trailer
• Japanese Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese TV Spot
• Still Gallery

Dragon Fist
• 2K Scan of the original film elements
• NEW Audio Commentary with James Mudge, veteran Hong Kong film critic at easternKicks
• A Dragon Rules – an interview with writer/journalist David West
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese TV Spot
• Still Gallery

Battle Creek Brawl
• NEW THE GOLDEN BOY: HARVESTING A MAJOR NEW MARTIAL ARTS MAVERICK - A 85-minute feature length documentary, exclusive to this release, on the sensational seventies emergence of Jackie Chan featuring contributions from Chen Chi-Hwa (director of SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN), Andre Morgan (producer BATTLE CREEK BRAWL), actress Kristine DeBell (BATTLE CREEK BRAWL) Lin Kuang-Yung (Actor/Stuntman HALF A LOAF OF KUNG FU), film critic Ricky Baker, Chinese cinema academic Dr Lin Fung and more!
• NEW Audio Commentary with James Mudge, veteran Hong Kong film critic at easternKicks
• NEW Interview with Kristine DeBell (2022)
• Interview with Jackie Chan
• Interview with producer Fred Weintraub (2013)
• Interview with actress Kristin DeBell (2013)
• Battle Hardened – an interview with critic and author David West
• Rumble in the USA: Jackie Chan Takes on America – an interview with martial arts expert Ricky Baker
• BATTLE CREEK BRAWL Theatrical Trailer
• THE BIG BRAWL Theatrical Trailer
• THE BIG BRAWL Opening Titles
• Still Gallery

Dragon Lord
• Two cuts of the film restored in 2K from the original film elements – the 96-minute Hong Kong Theatrical Cut and 103-minute cut that was released in some territories with approximately 15 minutes of extended and alternate footage.
• NEW Audio Commentary with David West, critic and author of Chasing Dragons: An Introduction to the Martial Arts Film.
• An interview with Louis Sit
• An interview with actor Mars
• An Interview with actor Whang In-sik
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Cantonese Trailer
• English Trailer
• Behind-the-Scenes trailer
• Still Gallery












Now, this set was always going to garner some controversy. The image quality of the films was never super duper awesome, and Fortune Star appears to have used some dated and/or sloppy masters for Shout to encode. Shout’s encodes are solid enough (though the CBR stuff irritates me), but there are a couple of weird authoring issues that makes me raise an eyebrow. Mainly that you can’t change audio tracks via the “audio” button on my player remote, and the “pop up menu” button doesn’t work either. Instead of bringing a pop up it brings the viewer to the main menu where you have to choose what you want, and then restart, unlike how Java based Blu-rays have operated for years. Nothing big, just a mild irritant. The set itself has some fun movies, albeit with said dated transfer. Extras are nothing special, but solid enough, and it’s awesome to see all of the original audio tracks for each film, as well as the extended cut of Dragon Lord. All in all, this is a solid set for fans, as long as you can live with “meh” picture quality.

Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jackie Chan, Nora Miao, Ing-Sik Whang, Barry Wong, Jose Ferrer
Directed by: Various
Written by: Various
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC (all 7)
Audio:
The Killer Meteors: Mandarin, Cantonese, English DTS-HD MA Mono, Mandarin, English DD 5.1
Shaoline Wooden Men: Mandarin, Cantonese, English DTS-HD MA Mono, Alternate Cantonese DTS-HD MA Mono
To Kill with Intrigue: Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Japanese Theatrical Mandarin DTS-HD MA Mono, Mandarin, English DD 5.1
Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin: Mandarine, Cantonese, English, Japanese Theatrical Mandarin DTS-HD MA Mono
Dragon Fist: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese Theatrical Mandarin, English DTS-HD MA Mono, Cantonese, English DD 5.1
Battle Creek Brawl: English, Cantonese, Mandarin DTS-HD MA Mono, English DD 5.1
Dragon Lord: Cantonese, Alternate Cantonese, English DTS-HD MA Mono, English DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: NR
Runtime: 812 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January, 24th, 2023