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Return Of Kung Fu Trailers Of Fury
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: March 14th, 2017.
Director: Various
Cast: Various
Year: Various
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The Movie:
The good people at Severin Films once again dig deep into the vaults of martial arts cinema to bring fight film fans more than two hours of Asian action movie insanity. This release follows last year's Blu-ray release of Kung-Fu Trailers Of Fury (reviewed here).
The trailers included in this second collection are:
Thunderbolt / Yellow Faced Tiger / Kung Fu Master Named Drunk Cat / The Invincible Super Guy / The Invisible Terrorist / Shaolin Invincible Sticks / Bruce And The Iron Finger / The Snuff-Bottle Connection / The Story Of Chinese Gods / Along Come The Tiger / The Owl / Two In Black Belt / The Young Avenger / White Haired Devil Lady / The Super Kung-Fu Fighter / Killer from Above / Two Assassins Of The Darkness / Bloody Mission / Revenge Of The Shaolin Kid / The Thundering Mantis / Shaolin Hero Chang San Feng / The Bomb-Shell / Black Guide / One Way Only / The Old Master / Big Leap Forward / Gambling For Head / Silent Romance / Itchy Fingers / Crazy Horse And Intelligent Monkey / The Legendary Strike / The Instant Kung-Fu Man / The Dragon and The Tiger Kids / The Avenging Boxer
This one starts off with the one/two punch of Angela Mao and Chuck Norris with the Thunderbolt trailer and then the spot for Karate Cop (a.k.a. Slaughter In San Francisco) under the less politically correct title of Yellow Faced Tiger. It's fun to see Norris pop up in this one, even if it is fairly briefly. From there things get insane with Kung Fu Master Named Drunk Cat. What exactly is going on in this one is anyone's guess but there's plenty of high flying action and rope-a-dope physical comedy here even if it makes little sense.
Other stand outs include an obscure Brucesploitation flick called Bruce And The Iron Finger, starring the mighty Bruce Li in Lee's place. The Story Of Chinese Gods, which according to the trailer was the country's first animated feature length movie, is also pretty nutty. It looks to be based on ancient Chinese folk stories but it too features one of the more unorthodox Bruce Lee nods you're ever likely to see on the screen. White Haired Devil Lady looks like a lushly shot wuxia film with some absolutely gorgeous scenery and a lot of impressive wire work, while The Bomb-Shell appears to load up all sorts of exploitation movie tropes alongside all of the kung-fu fighting. This one looks like a lot of good, trashy fun. Bolo Yeung pops up in the trailer for Black Guide, which definitely qualifies as one of the funkier looking movies profiled in this compilation.
One of the more interesting pictures is The Old Master, which is the only movie to have starred Yu Jim Yuen, the man who trained Jackie Chan and the rest of the Seven Little Fortunes at the Peking Opera School. Getting the chance to see a man clearly in his mid-seventies squaring off against a bunch of younger fighters makes this trailer one well worth checking out, and of course there's the historical significance of the film itself. A few completely bizarre kung-fu comedy hybrids that pop up towards the end, they being Itchy Fingers and The Instant Kung-Fu Man, are also worth noting just for how strange they seem from their trailers.
All in all, this is a pretty solid selection of action and insanity and a good mix of some recognizable and even well-known titles alongside a whole bunch of genuine obscurities. This is a really fun way to kill two hours in front of the TV.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Severin Films presents Return Of Kung-Fu Trailers Of Fury on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, each in its own aspect ratio, and generally speaking things look really good here (these were all transferred from original film elements). Expect scratches and print damage throughout but fans of trailer compilations wouldn't have it any other way. The disc is well authored, there are no obvious compression issues to note despite the long running time of the disc, nor are there any traces of noise reduction or edge enhancement here. These trailers look like the marginally beaten up film sourced promo spots that they are, but you'll still notice quite a bit more detail and texture here than you would on a standard definition offering. Quality varies from one spot to the next but overall, yeah, this stuff looks just fine on Blu-ray, very film like and appropriately gritty and grainy.
Audio chores are handled by a DTS-HD Mono track that is on par with the video as it's not quite pristine, but it sounds very good for what it is. The music and effects bits also sound nice and strong and if there's bit of hiss here and there and the odd pop in the mix, that's okay. Subtitles pop up when needed, sometimes burned into the trailers themselves (and those ones do tend to be frequently unintentionally amusing thanks to some odd translations and phrases).
Extras start off with an audio commentary from martial arts film expert Ric Meyers , NY Asian Film Festival's Frank Djeng, Martial-Arts Instructor Greg Schiller and Ric Stelow of Drunken Master Video. This is an informative piece that, when possible, offers up plenty of information about the various performers that we see pop up in front of the camera. There's also talk about the different fighting styles and the techniques, some of the directors who made these pictures, the locations and quite a bit more. Outside of that we get menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Return Of Kung-Fu Trailers Of Fury is a pretty eclectic but wholly entertaining mix of vintage martial arts movie trailers. The presentation from Severin Films is solid and the commentary a welcome addition to the disc, but it's the bizarre selection of trailers included here that really delivers. Lots of fun to be had here. Recommended!
Click on the image below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
