Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance is essential to our survival.
What do Patrons receive, that you don't?
1)
Our
weekly
Newsletter
and
Calendar Updates
sent to your Inbox!
Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change! / a coffee!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. I am indebted to your generosity. |
Search DVDBeaver |
S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r |
Joseph Kuo Double Feature [2 X Blu-ray]
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen (1968) The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979)
A tale of honour and revenge by a celebrated master of wuxia cinema, Joseph Kuo! *** Tsai Ying-Chieh (Tien Ping) is on a 20 year long mission of revenge against the man who killed his parents. Anyone who gets in his way must be punished by his swordplay skills. Another important character in the movie is the mysterious Black Dragon (Nan Chang) the only other character around who swordplay is one a par with Tien Ping's character. Polly Kuan's character, Swallow, befriends... |
Posters
Theatrical Release: October 6th, 1968 - 1979
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Review: Eureka Classics - Region 'B' - Blu-ray
Box Cover |
|
CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures: |
Distribution | Eureka Classics - Region 'B' - Blu-ray | |
Runtime |
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen: 1:25:42.637 The Mystery of Chess Boxing: 1:31:05.793 |
|
Video |
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen 2.35 :1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 30,957,119,516 bytesFeature: 27,795,699,264 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.86 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
The Mystery of Chess Boxing: 2.35 :1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 30,556,008,413 bytesFeature: 30,502,555,200 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.91 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
||
Bitrate The Swordsman of All Swordsmen Blu-ray: |
|
|
Bitrate The Mystery of Chess Boxing Blu-ray: |
|
|
Audio |
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen: LPCM Audio
Mandarin 2304 kbps 2.0 /
48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit LPCM Audio English
2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
The Mystery of Chess Boxing: LPCM Audio
Mandarin 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit LPCM Audio English
2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit Dolby Digital Audio English 320 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -31dB |
|
Subtitles | English, None | |
Features |
Release Information: Studio: Eureka Classics
Edition Details: The Swordsman of All Swordsmen: • Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng and film writer John Charles (The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977–1997)• Archival interview with director Joseph Kuo (12:15)
The Mystery of Chess Boxing:
• Brand new feature-length audio commentary
by Asian film expert Frank Djeng and martial artist / filmmaker Michael
Worth
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by
Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju)
Transparent Blu-ray Case inside slipcase Chapters 9 / 9 |
Comments: |
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
For The Swordsman of All Swordsmen, it states that "This film was
originally released in 1968, and its digital restoration was completed by
Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute in 2021 as part of the “Taiwan Film
Classics Digital Restoration and Value-adding Project" commissioned by the
Ministry of Culture. The restoration was based on a 35mm original camera
negative with 2K resolution. The condition of the film includes flicker and
tiny dirt caused by aging and warp, dye fade and defects caused by splices.
There are some small scratches and dirt on the right side of the frame.
Automatic restoration was used to reduce the instability, warp, flicker,
dirt and scratches. The frame-by-frame manual process was carried out to
remove the residual defects and restore the artifacts caused by the
automatic process. And two Day-for-Night scenes have been corrected
according to the director's instructions.
NOTE: We have added 68 more large
resolution Blu-ray captures
(in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE
On their
Blu-rays,
Eureka Classics use linear PCM dual-mono tracks (24-bit.) The Swordsman of All Swordsmen
is offered in the
original Mandarin with an optional English language DUB.
The Mystery of Chess Boxing
has the choice of Mandarin, Cantonese or an English DUB. The audio
quality is about the same level as the video - also with issues -
prominently with the weak English DUBs. There is extensive snappy, crisp
- if authentically hollow, aggression in the multitude of martial arts /
sword conflict effects. The score on The Swordsman of All Swordsmen was by Szu Li (only
film credit) with repurpose music mentioned in the commentary - and on
The Mystery of Chess Boxing by Mou-Shan Huang (Beach
of the War Gods,, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "Cute
Girl", "Green,
Green Grass") Sound quality is acceptable if imperfect via
the uncompressed tracks. I stick with the original audio and just enjoy. Eureka Classics offer optional English
subtitles on The Swordsman of All Swordsmen but they are
burned-in, (with Chinese characters above the - sometimes misspelled
English - see sample below) in The Mystery of Chess Boxing.
Eureka's package
Blu-rays
are both Region 'B'-locked.
The Eureka Classics
Blu-ray
There are two commentaries on The
Mystery of Chess Boxing.
Djeng with Michael
Worth who always adds important value as someone working in the
industry. They call it a 'bona-fide stone cold' classic and discuss some
trivia around the film's details including that it was never released in
Hong Kong. The second is by action
cinema experts Mike Leeder (editor of
100% Jackie Chan: The Essential Companion) and Arne Venema.
We have heard Leeder and Venema via
excellent commentaries on Eureka's
Blu-rays
of
Odd Couple and
The Shaolin Plot - plus 88 Films
Blu-rays
of
The Fearless Hyena,
Dragon's Forever plus Vinegar Syndrome's
Righting Wrongs and many more. I haven't fully indulged but they
seem as competent and complete as ever venturing to tangential films in
the genre, what 'real' chess boxing is, the actors and overall details
of the productions as well as diverse film culture comparisons to the
West. The package has a limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new
artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju), an LE collector’s booklet featuring
new writing on both films by James Oliver as well as an LE set of
facsimile lobby cards and double-sided poster featuring original release
posters.
These two Joseph Kuo films, 1968's The Swordsman of All Swordsmen
and 1979's The Mystery of Chess Boxing, are hardcore wuxia
classics and we should be thankful of the restorations despite the
source-related warts. They contain great training / fight scene form and
choreography with specific editing techniques. Impressive
representatives of the genre. Taiwanese-born film director Kuo was best
known for his Hong Kong based kung fu films of the late 1960s through to
the mid 1980s. 1968's The Swordsman of All Swordsmen is a
revenge-based gem with a few prosaic scenes and 1979's The Mystery of
Chess Boxing has 'The Ghost Faced Killer' and an eventual strategic
link between chess and kung fu. What fun. Eureka Classics Blu-ray
|
Menus / Extras
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen
The Mystery of Chess Boxing
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen
The Mystery of Chess Boxing
More full resolution (1920 X 1080) Blu-ray Captures for DVDBeaver Patreon Supporters HERE
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen
The Mystery of Chess Boxing
Box Cover |
|
CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures: |
Distribution | Eureka Classics - Region 'B' - Blu-ray |
Search DVDBeaver |
S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r |