The first licensed DVD release of Chang Cheh’s period epic THE HEROIC ONES comes from Well Go USA. Other than an original theatrical trailer, it’s a barebones release lacking the bonus content provided by other distributors of Shaw Brothers classics including Dragon Dynasty, Media Blasters and Australia’s Siren Visual Entertainment. This would be acceptable if the film’s overall presentation was above average but the distrib fumbles on its audio offerings.

Image quality on this restored print is arguably the best of any DVD release of THE HEROIC ONES to date. The 16×9 transfer takes full advantage of widescreen monitors. Contrast is brighter than on previous releases, resulting in a more vivid picture. That’s where the praise ends.

Well Go blows it big time on its choice of audio selections. They only provide Celestial’s remastered and remixed 5.1 Mandarin and original English dub tracks. This is bad news for purists. Both tracks have been very poorly engineered with new surround music and foley effects that sound absolutely atrocious for anyone who cares about such things, myself included. It’s so bad I will go so far as to suggest hanging on to any scratchy bootlegs you may own, although I do recommend tracking down Siren Visual’s DVD release. They are the only ones to have released the film with the original mono English and Mandarin audio tracks, minus the awful remixing.

Removable English subtitles are an exact copy of those provided on the first IVL release and they include the same bad grammar. The only improvement here is that they’re slightly larger and easier to read.

Format: Region 1 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 16×9 Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: English 5.1, Mandarin 5.1
Subtitles: Chinese, English
Length: 121 minutes
Release Date: 2008.08.16

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  • chen lung

    I wasn’t sure which to go for, but I like the ’1st restoration’ (Siren/MIB/IVL) as opposed to the 2nd (WellGoUSA) in terms of levels as contrast isn’t strong enough.

    The ’1st restoration’ (PAL non-anamorphic I believe) may not suffer frame-cuts.

    The ’2nd restoration’ (HD anamorphic) might suffer from frame-cuts and little snippets (can’t confirm – Spannick?), but it’s wider.

  • chen lung

    Rather, contrast is better, if a little too strong on the ’1st restoration’ as WellGo’s gives it a less-sharper look.

    There was a colour different too, in which I preferred the 1st restoration (everything in the 2nd seemed all normal, whereas the 1st seemingly had shots containing blue – possible design?).

    Basically, I believe Celestial put this through the rounds twice. Initially, they did PAL non-anamorphic, but seemingly upgraded to PAL anamorphic after a few batches and for a number of titles, did them in HD.

    http://bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4821 – sorry for posting the link, but it was the colour difference in the 2nd one down when a gentleman is stabbed (notice the blue which is in other comparison featured to a lesser extent).

  • Abdullah

    I’ve been really disappointed with Well Go’s DVDs so far. From 17 min chapters, to poor audio quality, to having to select “Chinese” to get the English subtitles on Brothers Five, the whole thing is a mess.

    I’ll most likely get this one too only because it’s the cheapest route but I’ve seriously made better DVD’s from home movies on my macbook then Well Go puts together.