The Heroic Ones (DVD – Well Go USA)

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