Region 4 Winners and Losers

    There are a lot of editions of this film.

    The UK Region 2 from Hong Kong Legends appears to be identical to the Region 4, apart from having a different batch of trailers for other releases.

    The US Region 1 from Columbia Tristar is reported to have an abysmal video transfer. It seems that the transfer comes from a letterboxed transfer converted to 16x9 enhanced by stretching it, according to one source. It features a commentary by Hong Kong film expert Ric Meyers and a trailer, plus it also has an alternative English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. It also features two versions of the film: the full length original, and the heavily cut English-dubbed US release, the latter having significantly better video quality.

    There is a Region 2 from France which, judging by screen-caps on DVD Beaver, has slightly better picture quality than the UK Region 2 from which the Region 4 comes. It also has an introduction by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and excerpts from three other Wong Fei Hong films. However, it comes as part of a two film set with part 2 of the series, and there are no English subtitles.

    An All Regions release from Korea has a transfer that is not 16x9 enhanced. The main extra is a featurette about the film.

    The original All Regions Hong Kong release came from Mega Star, and featured a transfer that was not 16x9 enhanced. It included as extras a booklet written by Bey Logan and excerpts of several old Wong Fei Hong films.

    IVL have released an All Regions set in Hong Kong which includes the first three films in the Once Upon a Time in China series, none of which are available separately. In comparison to this release, the Region 4 misses out on:

• Featurette-The Legend of Wong Fei Hong (40 minutes, spread across the three discs in the set)
• Photo Gallery-Movie Stills
• Photo Gallery-Slideshow
• Trailers-Once Upon a Time in China 2, Once Upon a Time in China 3
• Cantonese DTS 5.1 Soundtrack
• Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 Soundtrack with surround encoding

    Apart from the theatrical trailer, 16x9 enhancement and the two Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, the IVL misses out on everything the Region 4 has. Judging by comparative screen caps I have between the Hong Kong Legends and the IVL, the IVL has the much better video. Colours are more realistic and more detail is visible. This comparison also highlights that the Hong Kong Legends transfer is cropped on the left hand edge.

    On the other hand, the sole review I have seen of the IVL set damns it because of the audio transfer. The dialogue on the surround tracks is set at too low a level in comparison to the effects. The mono mix is apparently not much better and audio sync is poor. The reviewer suggested that a rating of 0.5 out of 5 was appropriate for the audio on this film.

    So it is a pity that there is no ideal version of this film available in any region. Because of the audio problems with the IVL, and the additional extras on the Hong Kong Legends release, I would have to recommend the latter.