Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65103 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-05-21
• Rating: X (Mature Audiences Only)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 484 minutes

Amazon.com
Sinewy, sleek, and oozing charisma, Bruce Lee brought sex appeal to the martial arts genre, dominating even the most cliché-riddled adventures with his mix of good-humored geniality and focused intensity. His first film, the low-budget Hong Kong adventure Fists of Fury (as it was titled in the U.S.), is exactly that: a raw, rough-edged revenge drama of a country boy who uncovers a heroin-smuggling ring. Yet the film comes alive when Lee pounces into action, his wiry, well-muscled frame erupting in lightning moves. His follow-up, The Chinese Connection, keeps the revenge theme going for a tale of a kung fu student who avenges his teacher's death at the hands of a Japanese rival. The international success of both films enabled the increasingly ambitious Lee to write and direct his own feature, Return of the Dragon, a more-comic tale of a Chinese country boy who travels to Rome to help out cousins under the thumb of local mobsters. Though filled with excellent martial arts bouts, all choreographed by Lee, the highlight is a death match between Lee and karate champion Chuck Norris in the Roman Colosseum. Lee died before completing his last feature, Game of Death, and a rather unconvincing double runs around much of the film between footage of the real Lee, but the climax features an impressive bout with basketball star and Lee student Kareem Abdul-Jabar. Though a cut above most martial arts movies of the period, these are no masterpieces, but then who watches a Bruce Lee film for the story? In these films, plot is simply there for the scenes between Lee's amazing fight sequences. The documentary Bruce Lee: The Legend completes the collection. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Bruce Lee -- Region 1
So, here it is, the latest collection of DVD's featuring all of Bruce Lee's Hong Kong movies (Fists of Fury aka The Big Boss, The Chinese Connection aka Fists of Fury, Return of the Dragon, Game of Death, and an additional documentary Bruce Lee, the Legend) in one pretty package. Note that Enter the Dragon, made by Warner Brothers and considered by many to be Bruce's finest (and certainly his most polished) film, is not included in this boxed set. Likewise, the version of Game of Death offered is the original 1977 release, without any of the recently unearthed and restored footage featured in A Warrior's Journey. Also, these are English-dubbed, edited (for the western market) versions of the films. All in all though, this is probably the best collection of Bruce's films available in the U.S.

Of course, 30 years after Bruce's death, these movies are a bit campy now -- with Fists of Fury only a few steps up from Sunday afternoon 'action theater' crapola, and Game of Death (pieced together after Bruce's death with an actor double, clips from old movies, and even a cardboard cut-out to make up for his absence in all but the final fight scenes) an unmitigated travesty -- but the charismatic screen presence and fighting skills of Bruce will always satisfy die hard fans (which are the likely target consumer for this boxed set). After all, you don't really watch this genre of movie for plot, but for the fighting, which was innovative at the time (differing from both the usual chop-sockey shenanigans as well as today's wushu-style 'wire-fu'), and to see the man who started it all and has attained an almost Elvis-level deity status.

Okay, so here's the bad news... These U.S. Region 1 DVD's pale in comparison to the versions available in Region 2 put out by the Hong Kong Legends company (http://hongkonglegends.co.uk/ -- see for yourself). They have just released a 30th Anniversary boxed set of these movies -- their editions (which can only be viewed on DVD players that can play Region 2 movies) feature the original Cantonese language versions of the movies (as well as the English), the uncut/unedited versions (in which mild nude scenes or corny comedic sequences are left intact), with lots of additional features (critical commentaries and other extras). There simply isn't any comparison and it is a crying shame these are not available in the U.S. (though apparently some HKL titles are beginning to come to the U.S. market). Any serious Bruce Lee fan will want the HKL versions instead -- as for me, I'm off to buy a region free DVD player.

A definite must buy for any Bruce Lee fan.
This is the most complete Bruce Lee DVD set you can ever own. This collection plus Enter the Dragon will make your Bruce Lee DVD collection complete. You will have all of his films. Collection contains remastered movies, cleaned up and sharp looking. Other DVD releases by lesser companies offer horrible image quality but not Columbia. Enter the Dragon is owned by Warner Brothers, otherwise it would have been included in this DVD kit. On the down side, the DVD collection offers just the movies and nothing else. There's no bonus materials on any of the DVDs. I guess you can consider the documentary DVD a bonus. There's five DVDs in total and in my opinion worth every penny. Summary: IMAGE QUALITY (A+) Bruce Lee's films have never looked better or so new, SOUND (B) mono only, . It would have been nice if they had redubbed all the movies for this release in Dolby Digital 5.1.

GET THE HONG KONG LEGENDS VERSION!!!
This Warner Brothers set is very good-I bought it, but it's annoying that these discs are not anamorphic and you don't get the original soundtrack. However, if you are a Bruce Lee fanatic, and you have a PAL converter, and a multiregion dvd player that can play Region 2 discs, you must get the Hong Kong Legends releases. This is a UK company. They put out the four Bruce Lee films, minus Enter the Dragon, in beautiful, restored, remastered, anamorphic widescreen versions with Dolby Digital sound. This is heaven for people with widescreen TVs. They are loaded with extras(Game of Death has 2 dvds!) and also have several soundtracks so you can watch the original Chinese with English subtitles, or the English dubbed version. It's amazing, but Region 2 really outdid Region 1 in this case. You can buy them from Amazon.com.uk. Hong Kong Legends has a website that lists all their releases, including many Jackie Chan and Jet Li films, all made to the same high standards.