Bruce Li or Ho Chung Tao as he's billed in the credits(and on the DVD cover!) makes his directorial debut with FISTS OF BRUCE LEE. While not his best I still found it enjoyable with of plenty kung fu action and 70's cheese. You can read my engaging movie review, right here, go ahead. Gemstone brings us this flawed DVD, not in the movie, but more in the DVD itself. Read on.
Picture quality
As with 99% of all budget kung fu DVDs this one is full screen. There are scratches, lines, and fuzzy things that appear briefly onscreen, but sadly I'm so used to it now I didn't mind much. They even say on the back of the DVD that "There may be some slight visual variances due to the state of the original master." At least they are honest. Some scenes really suffer from the cropping, especially during the fights. A few times when two people are fighting, only one of them is onscreen.
Sound quality
If you think the sound quality is going to be any better than the film quality, you're wrong!
Menus
First of all, what menus? Somebody really dropped the ball on this one as the menus on the DVD aren't even completed. The DVD boasts the bonus features as interactive menus, Ho Chung Tao filmography, full scene access, and kung fu fun facts. Well, it's not great, but better than nothing. When the disc loaded, the main menu featured one of the generic karate guys(see below) and the "Play Movie" link. What happened to the "Bonus Features" and "Chapters"? Looking closely at the screen I noticed above and below the "Play Movie" button were two rectangles that were a lighter color of black. These were where the "Chapters" and "Bonus Features" buttons were supposed to go, only nobody did it! I tried accessing them with the remote, but no go. Luckily, there are chapter stops on the disc that can be accessed with your remote. Now, I wonder if the other features are actually on there?
Packaging
Well some truly lackluster cover art on this one. Not a single shot of Bruce Li, or even Bruce Lee for that matter. The cover features a stone background with a statue on the bottom and two generic guys in karate outfits. The back features the exact same pictures of the statue and the karate guys only they changes the sizes. They can't fool me, I know it's the same picture! Boring stuff.
Well, I'd have to say if you're thinking about getting this disc, don't. Several companies have also released FISTS OF BRUCE LEE on DVD, and I'm sure they did it better. While all companies use the same print, hooray for public domain, they probably got around to finishing their menus. So you'll be getting the same picture/audio quality, but a better menu system, and hopefully better cover art. It even says on the back of the case GUARANTEED SUPERIOR QUALITY, I guess they haven't heard of quality control...REJECT!
Review by Keith.