The Way of the Dragon (1972)
猛龍過江
Action, Crime • 1h 40m
Director: Bruce Lee
Cast: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Wei Ping-ao, Huang Tsung-Hsun, Robert Wall, Hwang In-shik, Chin Ti, Tony Liu, Little Unicorn, Malisa Longo, Wu Ngan, Robert Chan Law-Bat, Fu Ching Chen, Jon T. Benn, John Kenny, Robert Baker, Riccardo Billi, Russell Cawthorne, Franz Colangeli, John Derbyshire, Alexander Grand, Barry Haigh, Michael Kaye, Giuseppe Marrocco, Mark Metekingi, Andre Morgan, Anders Nelsson, Matthew Oram, Marco Pane, Ho Pich, Homan Tapsell, Pupita Lea Scuderoni, Lisa Mantellini
Arrow Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest 4K
Video format
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
(Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest) if compared to the Criterion BD set
Overview
Tang Lung arrives in Rome to help his cousins in the restaurant business. They are being pressured to sell their property to the syndicate, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. When Tang arrives he poses a new threat to the syndicate, and they are unable to defeat him. The syndicate boss hires the best Japanese and European martial artists to fight Tang, but he easily finishes them off.
Director: Joachim Trier
MUBI 4K Blu-ray has zero extras
Directors: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
4K encode is low-pass filtered and noticeably so, which was unfortunately par for the course with Criterion 4Ks until sometime in 2024, and the encode is still less than ideal even despite that. Still better than the Criterion and Lionsgate Blu-Ray discs for the Dolby Vision grading alone.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK is considering doing a 4K https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Video format: HD Streaming
More Action on Blu-ray
Director: Guillermo del Toro
WB 4K Blu-ray teased by Guillermo Del Toro
CA Alliance Blu-ray or dutch Blu-ray are the same masters but have additional sharpening.
The original DVD has an isolated score and a exclusive easter egg
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
UK Second Sight Trilogy Boxset 4K Blu-ray
US Magnolia Pictures 4K Blu-ray uses the same source but with worse encoding
Director: Terence Young
WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Has English subtitles, better than 2015 Maiden Blu-ray which lacks the original mix
Bandai 4K Blu-ray? vs 2008 Japan Bandai Blu-ray (BCXA-0085): same video but includes Bandai English dub and original mix
2026 Bandai 4K Blu-ray
Director: James Cameron
Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)
Fox Blu-ray for original cuts without the extra scene added in the re-release and AI upscaling
Newer Blu-ray/4K has the extra scene, but is poor and has excessive AI upscaling
An additional scene was added to the ending of the movie in the 2022 re-release: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=493908
Sources: fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab) · originaltrilogy.com (opens in a new tab)
2017 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray and subsequent 4K Blu-rays are notorius for being heavily denoised and smoothened. Alternatively, 35mm scans for the theatrical cut is also available.
For the Ultimate Edition with the T-1000 searching John's room and the happy future ending, the 2009 Skynet Blu-ray, which is the older pre-2017 transfer, but has DNR.
Director: Michael Arias
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
GKIDS 4K Blu-ray is a sharpened upscale. Caps
GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has a true lossless English dub and correct volume levels for the Japanese audio
Director: Roger Christian
Theatrical Version: Mill Creek Blu-ray
Home Video Version: Concorde Blu-ray
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