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Fist of Unicorn

Fist of Unicorn

List Price: $14.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bruce Lee History Piece
Review: I am happy and sad to see the release of this `Lost Classic'.
Happy since it is finally available and sad since it's not a good film!
Complaining aside,the whole DVD is well worth the purchase price.
It includes the following-
2 Versions of the film-English and Mandarin.The English is a Full Screen Version and the Mandarin is Widescreen.
There are different openings to the film on both,and the English version has two clips of Bruce Lee not shown in the Mandarin Version.
Original Trailer-Quite a rarity.It has unseen footage of Bruce Lee on set.
Last Day of Bruce Lee Documentary-an interesting 20 minute piece which is narrated and hosted by Bruce's Hong Kong girlfriend Betty Ting Pei(it's dubbed in English).There's a load of footage of Bruce at a party with the cast of the film,and then funeral footage.This alone is worth the price of the DVD.
Photo Gallery-an excellent compilation of Bruce Lee's life in 1972.I haven't seen these photos before and the captions are great.Bruce Lee Historian George Tan has done an amazing job.
Fight Scenes interview-this 20 minute piece has Bruce's stuntmen discussing how Bruce Lee put together the famous Enter the Dragon fights,plus anecdotes about Fist of Unicorn and the man himself.

Cover artwork is the best images of Bruce to date.
Also recommend `Death by Misadventure-the mysterious life of Bruce Lee'.See my review on this masterpiece.

Overall a great DVD piece,minus the actual film(s).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Rare and Unique!!
Review: I saw this film in 1976 and could only recall some rare snippets of Bruce in the film.I was completely blank on the rest of this movie.
This package presentation is top of the line.Two versions are presented.The original Chinese release print in lovely widescreen and an English version(the one I saw in theatres) in Full Screen format.
The subtiltes on the chinese edition are somewhat small.They would have been better to add new titles in the borders.
The English version has a misaligned framing,so a portion of the film is on the bottom instead of the top.It's still watchable,but a bit annoying at first.
The footage of Bruce Lee in the films is minimal.The English version has a bit extra,which might explain why both versions were included.
Bonus materials are abundant.An incredible photo gallery of shots from 1972 which explain what Bruce Lee was doing in what would be the most productive year of his life.Little time is spent on Fist of Unicorn and focuses instead on Way of the Dragon and Game of Death(Bruce apparently made Unicorn in between these two).An excellent archive of materials.
The original trailer for Unicorn is quite good.A great bonus for sure.
The main source of footage is a mini-docu entitled Last Day of Bruce Lee.It is 15 minutes of pure Bruce Lee.
Another more recent mini documentary included is Fight Scenes the Bruce Lee way,with Bruce Lee's assistants explaining and demonstrating how Bruce Lee staged his fights.Also anecdotes on the man and his movies.Excellent material.
There is no audio commentary on this DVD,unlike Death by Misadventure and The Young Bruce Lee(see my reviews).
Overall a great package of rarities and oddities on Bruce Lee.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Pitiful garbage
Review: The movie "Fist of Unicorn" is complete garbage, badly made and rottenly acted (at one point, there is a stuttering duel of all things). The fight scenes are not very impressive, despite choreography by Bruce Lee. In the English version, Bruce Lee is supposedly showing off to Unicorn Chan in the opening sequence but, wouldn't you know, they use a double! Unicorn himself is not much of an actor, but he is a graceful fighter.

What is really pitiful is the DVD itself: there is no trailer for the film, despite user comments, only trailers for "Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth" (shown twice!) and other Bruce Lee rip-offs (even a trailer for a Ron Van Clief film). The documentary of stunt men who knew Bruce is translated by someone with a lazy drawl for a voice - you'll think it was intended as a joke. The only plus is the 72 photos of Bruce shown - for that, buy a book of pictures of the martial-arts master but not this film.


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