Dragon Lee

Amazon.com lists 4 editions for pre-order:

Blu-ray

Collector's Edition Blu-ray

DVD

Collector's Edition DVD

Personally I can't wait for this. Been waiting ages for an official US BD.

Solid Snake

....I'm fucking pre-ordering the collector's BD and hope we get a review of it early enough for me to cancel it if need be.

bse

I can't wait to get rid of my terrible DVD of this. I hope Well Go does a good job, some of their Shaw dvds have been lackluster.

RaMMaR

Hopefully they'll be able to port most of the special features found on the UK release. It sucks that i have to use my laptop to view them since almost all of the special features are in PAL. i'm champing at the bit for Ip Man II....

Dragon Lee

^+1. Lucky us because Well Go has Ip Man 2 also. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for that one. I hear its really good...

E Unit

If this has less of an offering than the Universe release, it won't be worth the time. That one is well worth the $30. Yeah, pricey, but it delivers on just about every level in terms of PQ, AQ, and extras.

asianxcore

Definitely will be keeping my eye out on this, since from what I hear the HK and UK BD's are pretty solid.

manicsounds

who is going to bet 1080 interlaced?

Sessa17

I'll wait for reviews before I decide whether or not to double dip on this.

Yavin

.. and only a couple of months after I bought the Universe BD. I'm ok with it though, I like the Universe cover art more anyway, and it seems like the most comprehensive package.

E Unit

What makes you think that? Is that how they release BD content, in 1080i only? I've never heard of them, so I'm not sure.

asianxcore

Well Go's BD/DVD releases have all been interlaced transfers thus far.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-r...es_blu-ray.htm

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-r...ve_blu-ray.htm

E Unit

Wow - fucking lame.

truelies

Why wait so long, I bought it from UK.

IP Man 2 is on play in china, also a great movie.

dullboy

Collector's Edition BD now down to $21.49 on Amazon, cheaper than the single disc version.

Brian T

I get tired of the deliberately misleading tag lines on western releases of Hong Kong/Chinese pictures.

"Mentor of Iconic Legend Bruce Lee." Yeah, sure, that's a huge component of the story that begs to be pimped in larger, brighter letters than the more appropriate tag line above or below it (depending on the cover).

I suppose some folks will buy this based solely on Lee's being name-checked on the cover (and in spite of the fact that he's barely even a blip in the sequel, no less). One hopes they'll be entertained nonetheless.

E Unit

I don't get it. So you think they're trying to mislead by simply saying "Mentor of iconic legend Bruce Lee?" Because they're not really lying. Of course they're going to use dramatic license on this, but no more than they did with the first Ip Man. Besides, the font isn't huge or anything like they're trying to throw people off with that. And this next chapter is supposed to focus on him teaching Bruce Lee.

Brian T

First off, you seem to be mixing up the two movies here. This upcoming U.S. release is for the first film.

Anyways, misleading and outright lying aren't quite the same thing. Of course it's true that Ip Man was a mentor to Bruce Lee (well, sort of . . . ), but that has nothing to do with this film, and is only there to pull in the unsuspecting (fair enough -- they want to make money). As I said above, I hope those folks will be as entertained as those more familiar with the film or character from history or import DVDs.

IP MAN 2 does not focus on his teaching of Bruce Lee (though this isn't the first time this has been claimed on the web, presumably by folks who simply haven't seen the film). The Lee character, as a boy (Jiang Dai-Yan), makes a brief appearance at the end of the picture. The actual plot of IP MAN 2 has Ip Man acquiring his first students and battling rival schools in Hong Kong in the early 1950's. If they were to make a third film in this franchise that focused on Bruce Lee's training, they'd logically have to sideline Ip Man in favour of Wong Shun-leung, which wouldn't make it much of an Ip Man film, really. Donnie Yen has already suggested that he's done with the character.

E Unit

Yeah., I suppose putting the blurb about Bruce Lee would be more apt for the second BD, not this first one. I am aware this is the first film we're talking about.

I know nothing about the second film other than the online footage. I did come across this supposed "spoiler review" someone posted in for movie forum:



I understand what you're worked up about, I just don't really think people are going to pick this up, read that blurb, and buy it based on that alone assuming they're going to see a movie about Bruce Lee.

Brian T

I guess your original post left me confused, as it seemed to be referencing the sequel throughout.

The remark about "money talks" (in reference to Yen making a third picture) in that review you quoted is rather naive. I have to assume the author only knows what he/she knows about the real-life Ip Man from these two pictures, and thus thinks he or she automatically knows what kind of storyline a third film would contain. The problem with a third film, as I mentioned—and especially if it were to focus on Bruce Lee's training—is that it would by necessity move Ip Man himself to the margins, as he wasn't the only mentor of Lee at the school, and wasn't really the primary mentor to boot (see my previous post to learn who was). This is all what makes the "mentor of Bruce Lee" line so debatable—no matter which country splashes it across the fronts of their DVD sleeves (and the U.S. distributors aren't the only ones guilty of such leverage). There is a real-life connection, but in the IP MAN films, it's utterly tenuous at best, especially in regards to the first film.


Still, it doesn't need to be there and it IS enough to draw a connection in the minds of some people (as in "Perhaps I might learn more about the background of Bruce Lee by watching these films", which generally won't be the case), and this distributor has to know that. The pictures stand on their own merits, and the merits of Ip Man himself, in such a way that a marketing-driven connection to one of his later students who went on to become famous is unnecessary and, as I first stated, misleading.

Dragon Lee

I don't see anything wrong with the Bruce lee reference of the cover. If that catches the average person's attention, then I guess its a goo thing.

Atleast its not like the cover to The Protector: QUENTIN TARANTINO PRESENTS in large font, Tony Jaa in very tiny font. That always bugged me.

Brian T

Agreed! That's far more misleading than this little bugaboo, and sadly all too symptomatic of Dragon Dynasty's approach to a lot of their titles. I'm just glad the IP MAN films found another home (still hoping the transfers are decent, of course). Had DD licensed the films, I'm certain they couldn't have resisted renaming them "The Legend of Ip Man: The Martial Arts Mentor Of Bruce Lee" or some such daftness for what they perceived to be their culturally-challenged customer base.

Still think the Lee reference on the IP MAN sleeve is utterly unnecessary, even if it is harmless.

dino88

I'm looking for some information on the UK blu-ray release, but I can't find the thread. I try to do a search for it, but I don't get any matches because the words are too common or short. I'm trying to decide if I should buy the import (it's only £8) or wait for the US collector's edition.

manicsounds

The UK disc has noticably not as good as the Hong Kong disc, and almost all the supplements are in PAL. Make sure your player can read PAL if you want to play the bonus features.

Dragon Lee

Here's the first in depth review I could find.