HOME VIDEO: ‘Fearless’ Director’s Cut, ‘Bat Without Wings’

This week in home video, Universal Pictures releases JET LI’S FEARLESS: DIRECTOR’S CUT to region 1 DVD, a re-release of director Ronny Yu’s fantastic Huo Yuanjia biopic with nearly 40 minutes of footage added that was not seen in the theatrical or original DVD releases. The two-disc release actually contains three versions of the movie including the 104-minute U.S. theatrical version, the 141-minute director’s cut (previously released on DVD in Hong Kong), and the international theatrical version.

Update: See FEARLESS Director’s Cut ships with defective disc

Newly added scenes in the director’s cut include an opening sequence with Michelle Yeoh playing a Chinese official, more footage of Huo as a child, additional dramatic footage with the rice farmers, and a fight with a Muay Thai boxer. This latter footage was included in the theatrical release in Thailand but hasn’t been seen anywhere else except on DVD in Hong Kong.

Universal includes the original Mandarin audio track and upgrades the cover art to something much more appropriate than their original cover with dreadful Photoshop art and fonts.

Image Entertainment releases the Shaw Brothers wuxia classic BAT WITHOUT WINGS just in time to take advantage of the latest Batman movie coming out in theaters. Directed by wuxia master Chor Yuen, the film stars Derek Yee as a knight errant caught up in a kidnapping plot involving a heinous predator known as the “Bat Without Wings.” The studio’s distinctively campy and creative production design is on full display in this entertaining swordplay mystery.

SHOGUN ASSASSIN 5: COLD ROAD TO HELL (1974 – video) is the final release from AnimEigo in the bloody SHOGUN ASSASSIN chambara film series starring Tomisaburo Wakayama. The series is just an English-dubbed version of the original six LONE WOLF AND CUB films that began with SWORD OF VENGEANCE, also released by AnimEigo. The main difference between the two series besides language is that the first two LONE WOLF AND CUB films were edited together into what became the first SHOGUN ASSASSIN. It probably would have made more sense had AnimEigo packaged alternate versions on the same disc instead of forcing us to buy them separately but they’re a small distributor and may not have had the rights to both versions of each film at the same time. Unlike some small distribs, they actually honor their license agreements by discontinuing the reissue of a title once the license expires.

BATMAN BEGINS gets a Blu-ray release and Limited Edition re-release. Bonus material in the Limited Edition release on Blu-ray and DVD includes 12 making-of featurettes, two photo galleries, an MTV spoof, theatrical trailers, a motion art lenticular (hologram art), collectible postcards, and a 32-page booklet with photos, storyboards and script excerpts.

BLOOD BROTHERS (2007 – video), Alexi Tan’s directing debut arrives in the U.S. courtesy of First Look Pictures. It’s a triad pic in the tradition of John Woo who happened to be one of the producers for the film. It flopped at the Hong Kong box office but so did Tsui Hark’s THE BLADE. It stars Daniel Wu and CROUCHING TIGER star Chang Chen. The verdict among online reviewers is that it’s an impressive first outing for Tan but falls short of its influences, mostly as a result of a lightweight script.

The U.K. has a few releases to talk about. Entertainment in Video releases Korean wuxia pic THE LEGEND OF THE SHADOWLESS SWORD. New Line Home Video will be releasing this title in the States on August 12th.

Isaac Florentine’s THE SHEPHERD arrives in the UK from Sony Pictures. Despite the exciting match-up of veteran martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme with up-and-comer Scott Adkins, the pic was not quite up to the standards Florentine set in UNDISPUTED 2. Still, it provides solid B-movie action that is worth a rental at least.

Warner’s Blu-ray edition of sword-and-sandal pic TROY (2004 – video) arrives in the UK. For genre fans, this big-budget actioner is known for containing Nathan Jones’ breakout action role. After taking on Brad Pitt he famously battled Tony Jaa in THE PROTECTOR and Jet Li in FEARLESS.

Coming out of Hong Kong are three titles from Kam & Ronson beginning with the Blu-ray release of Johnny To’s EXILED. Hard-boiled actioner WAKE OF DEATH stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Simon Yam. Lastly, there is a director’s cut edition of THE WARLORDS that includes exclusive footage, director’s audio commentary, deleted scenes, a making of featurette, and movie diary.

From Joy Sales comes more Golden Harvest classics on the inferior VCD format. For those unfamiliar with VCD, it’s basically a CD and is still widely popular in China as a movie format due to its low cost. Movies are spread across two discs and are compressed down to a lower resolution than DVD. The two channels of audio are split between Mandarin and Cantonese so that you’ll have to turn off one speaker and listen with one channel. Reasons to buy VCD are that they’re cheap compared to DVD and occasionally it’s the only way to own a licensed copy of a rare title.

Joy Sales titles of interest include LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY, MR. VAMPIRE 2 (1986 – video), OPERATION SCORPIO, SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT (1990 – video) and WARRIORS TWO.

LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY was released on DVD by Dragon Dynasty and despite HKFlix’s claim to being out of print is still easy to find elsewhere online. OPERATION SCORPIO and WARRIORS TWO can be found on DVD in the U.S. from Fox for a very reasonable price. Hong Kong Legends previously released a superior DVD version of SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT starring Sammo Hung’s wife Joyce Godenzi in one of the better “girls with guns” flicks to come out of Hong Kong. MR. VAMPIRE 2 is the only titles here that buyers may want to consider. It was previously available on DVD from Deltamac but has since gone out of print and is now hard to come by.

Next Week

• BIRDS OF PREY: THE COMPLETE SERIES (DVD – Warner)
• BROTHERS FIVE (DVD – Well Go USA)
• EAGLE SHOOTING HEROES (DVD – Kino)
• THE NINJA COLLECTION (BIONIC NINJA / DEATH CODE: NINJA / NINJA: AMERICAN WARRIOR / NINJA IN THE KILLING FIELD) (DVD – Rarescope)
• TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN (DVD – Image)