big e

A couple weeks ago I picked up a martial arts DVD set from Best Buy entitled "Fists of Death" for $6. It's a 2-disc set that includes 6 films: the three Sonny Chiba Street Fighter films and a couple Brucesploitation films (The Real Bruce Lee, Fists of Bruce Lee, and The Image of Bruce Lee). It's a region free DVD, so I'm pretty sure it's a Chinese bootleg, but I thought for $6, why not? Plus I wanted to check out the Chiba Street Fighter films. Now, my question is, one, are the Brucesploitation films worth watching? And two, what is the best quality version of Chiba's Street Fighter films? The versions in this release are non-anamorphic and I did a search on Amazon, but just came up with a bunch of PD releases.

Thanks in advance.

manicsounds

The best quality DVDs of the Street Fighter movie series is The Street Fighter Trilogy, Optimum UK, region 2. There are no extras besides the trailers, but is in anamorphic widescreen, remastered from the 35mm film materials, with the original Japanese tracks with removable English subtitles.

The only problem is, it seems to be out of print.

big e

Thanks for the link. Unless I'm converting them wrong, those prices seem a little pricy. I liked the movies, but I didn't like them that much. There aren't any decent quality R1 releases?

GoldenWheels

I have this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Sonny-Chiba-St...ter+collection

It is non-anamorphic but I thought the quality itself was pretty good...they looked exactly like the VCI versions to me. Not overly compressed, etc.

I'd kill for a good blu of the fist one (the only one I really enjoy 100%).

big e

I saw that in my Amazon search. It looks like it was released by the same company that released that Fists of Death set I mentioned in my opening post.

GoldenWheels

You're right. Couldn't find Fists on Amazon but could on our own site once you said that. Both are Pop Flix sets, so same print for sure.

They're a legit company (Allegro Media) but because of the PD glut of this title, I doubt we ever see anybody bother to do a good version for the US. I've seen the first one as low as 97 cents through Oldies.

Spottedfeather

That Street Fighter set is pretty good. I got it after watching James Rolfe (AVGN) do a short commentary for the first movie. I think that the less than stellar quality kind of adds to the fun of old Kung Fu movies.

big e

Which set are you refering to, the one GoldenWheels posted or the one manicsounds mentioned?

I looked up those other three movies in this set (Image of Bruce Lee, The Real Bruce Lee, Fists of Bruce Lee) on Netflix and they all had terrible reviews. The only semi-decent sounding one was Fists of Bruce Lee. I'll probably skip these ones and look for a better set of the Street Fighter movies.

big e

Does anyone have an opinion on either of these sets:

Great Street Fighter Movies

The Street Fighter Saga

The Street Fighter Saga set was referenced a few times when I looked the movies up on DVDcompare.net, but it includes Sister Street Fighter and I already have that one in another Sonny Chiba set. Great Street Fighter Movies just has the three Street Fighter movies, but if looks like it's only one disc, so the movies are probably compressed to hell. It also says the movies are 1.33:1; I'm not sure if that means they're full screen or non-anamorphic.

Spottedfeather

The one that Goldenwheels was talking about. I'd go for the better quality Uk set, but it doesn't appear to have the dub. I just can't enjoy cheesy kung fu movies without an english dub. It makes them funnier.

GoldenWheels

I don't have Saga but I have two of the singles of the Saga, from the same company (VCI). SF and SSF. They have to have used the same prints. When I watched the Allegro set it strongly reminded me of those singles (to the point where I just assumed they ripped their print).