Released alongside another Jimmy Wang Yu feature film, THE MAN FROM HONG KONG, is Retrofilm’s German DVD release of Wang Yu wuxia actioner THE DESPERATE CHASE, aka HARUSCHI – DAS BLANKE SCHWERT DER RACHE in Germany and BLOOD OF THE DRAGON in the U.S. It’s a great film long in need of a quality release and this one only gets it about 60 percent right, although the effort should be appreciated by collectors.
There are two different versions of this release that differ only in alternating cover art. Cover text and menus are in German only.
The widescreen print used for the release is beat up and missing chunks of film. The intact footage features moderate to heavy print damage but clarity and colors are very good and there are no embedded subtitles. In place of the missing footage which totals roughly four minutes spread out in smaller chunks, is an alternate print that looks much worse. The alternate footage is also widescreen but an old Ocean Shores release and looks like a third-generation analog tape.
There are a whopping four audio tracks, each with a different dub in three different languages, none of them ideal for different reasons. This is more than adequate for a German-language release but will leave English-speaking buyers wanting. The German dub uses the Chinese soundtrack and may work for German-speaking audiences but with no English subtitles it’s off the list. The same goes for the original Mandarin track which only works for German audiences who can read the removable German subtitles. There are two English-language audio tracks. The first one sounds like an amateur dub because of the strong British accents, poor voice acting, awful translations, and equally awful overdub editing. This track at least benefits from its use of the original score but everything else makes this track frustrating to listen to. That leaves the original English-language dub from the 1973 U.S. release. This track benefits from quality voice acting but the Chinese soundtrack has been replaced by a horrid rock score by a band called Flood. Most of the time, there is no music at all and compared to the Chinese track, it sucks a lot of the intended excitement out of the film.
Extras are similar to Retrofilm’s release of THE MAN FROM HONG KONG with the notable exception of an audio commentary.
Trailers – Original German trailers for THE DESPERATE CHASE, THE INVINCIBLE, KNIGHT ERRANT, ONE-ARMED BOXER, FURIOUS SLAUGHTER, FANTASY MISSION FORCE and FOUR REAL FRIENDS. Original U.S. trailers for THE DESPERATE CHASE, KING OF BOXERS, POINT THE FINGER OF DEATH, and MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE. One Chinese trailer for THE KILLER METEORS.
Alternate Title and End Credits – Understandably, the film presented contains the German opening credits. As a bonus, the label kindly includes alternate opening credits from the original Chinese and U.S. versions of the movie. There is also an alternate end credit sequence for the U.S. version.
Gallery – A slideshow gallery contains two sets of German lobby card art, U.S. lobby card art and the original U.S. poster art.
Format: Region 0 PAL DVD
Aspect Ratio: 16×9 Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: German 2.0, English (HK version) 2.0, English (US version) 2.0, Mandarin 2.0
Subtitles: German
Length: 91 minutes
Release Date: 2008.08.08
Currently, the disc appears to only be available at a few German online shops that I am unfamiliar with. To find them search for ” Haruschi – das blanke Schwert der Rache” and “Retrofilm.”
Related Topics:
DVD • Retrofilm • The Desperate Chase (1971)
