The
Black Dragon's Revenge
(1975/Film Detective Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C Film: B
The
1975 Blaxploitation/Bruce-sploitaiton film, Tommy Loo Chung's The
Black Dragon's Revenge
aka The
Black Dragon Revenges The Death of Bruce Lee,
is full of kung fu carnage that is sure to please fans of the genre
and was most certainly a popular film during the heyday of the genre
when it was produced. The film also stars Charles Bonet and Phillip
Ko.
Finding
its way on Blu-ray disc for the first time courtesy of Film
Detective, the film stars Martial Arts legend Ron van Clief and
centers around Clief's confrontation with rival gangs in search of a
lost "finger fighting" manual written by Bruce Lee. It's
up to Clief to make sure the manual doesn't get into the wrong hands!
For
fans of Quentin Tarantino,
you may notice that the score played in the opening scene was also
used in
Inglorious
Basterds
(2009). The infamous director loves to pull music cues from obscure
cinema of the past. The film also features camerawork that was
obviously mimicked in Kill
Bill
(2003) as well.
The
Black Dragon's Revenge
is presented in 1080p high definition with a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect
ratio and a lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono (48kHz,
24-bit) audio mix. Given the budget and condition of the film, the
transfer isn't as sharp as it could be, in fact many scenes look a
bit soft when one would expect them to be sharper especially seeing
that the film was shot with anamorphic lenses on 35mm film. Still,
this is probably the best that the film can look given its budgetary
constraints. Some scenes show film artifacts, which only adds to the
experience.
Special
Features are pretty sparse and only include...
Trailer
in HD
Bruce
Lee Dubs
Though
the transfer isn't perfect and there's a definite lack of extras, The
Black Dragon's Revenge
is a fun time capsule into the past where these sorts of films on the
big screen was of the norm.
-
James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
