The Ultimate Force of Four
Featuring: Hero, Iron Monkey, The Legend of the Drunken Master, and The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
Asian cinema fan? Samarai Fan? Kung-Fu fan? Any of these types will be thrilled with the recent release of Miramax's Blu-ray Box Set The Ultimate Force of Four.
The set features some great films from some industry legends including Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Takeshi Kitano.
Click the Rawr for our thoughts on the set!
The Ultimate Force of Four features a nice spread of Asian cinema from historical epics to wild action. Each of the four titles included in the set are prime examples of amazing fight scenes, high drama, and exceptional film making.
First up is Hero, which happens to be my favorite of the bunch. The Jet Li epic is presented here in gorgeous 1080p. The sound and picture are quite good and make revisiting this film a treat. Special features wise, Hero has the most to offer. We get featurettes including a conversation with Quentin Tarantino and Jet Li and a Making of. Storyboards, a Soundtrack Spot, and a digital copy of the film make up the rest of the features.
Honestly, the features aren't that great but the film is so good and is so well represented on blu-ray that is really doesn't matter.
Next up is the action packed Iron Monkey. This film is full of some incredible fight scenes and has a great story as well. It is a really fun film that is gorgeously presented on blu-ray. The problem here is the complete lack of features. There are two interviews (Quentin Tarantino and Donnie Yen) and nothing else to speak of. For a film that "critics everywhere have called one of the greatest martial arts films of all time" they sure don't think it deserves any kind of supplemental material. That is pretty sad considering a film like this must have a wealth of material that could be presented.
Thirdly, we have the Jackie Chan classic The Legend of the Drunken Master, which is exactly what it sounds like. The stunts and fighting in this are great. Jackie Chan was truly incredible back then. He's top of his game in this one. It's a pretty funny movie too. A movie about a guy who gets better at fighting the drunker he gets has to have some laughs right?
Sadly, this disc is also vacant of features outside of a Jackie Chan interview. Besides that the disc looks and sounds incredible it's just unfortunate we get a goose egg for special features.
Last on the list is the film written by, directed by, edited by, and starring Takeshi Kitano, The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi. This is probably my second favorite of the set. It's a gorgeous film about a revenge seeking, nomadic, blind samurai. He has a lot against him but it certainly doesn't stop him from slicing and dicing.
The film looks and sounds great of course (beginning to sound like a broken record here but Miramax truly does great with their releases) but again, not many features to be had. This time we have a behind the scenes special and cast interviews. Still the film alone is enough, it truly shows off Takeshi Kitano's talents as a film maker and an actor.
Individually, these films can cost you between $25.99 and $29.99 buy you can get the entire set for under $75. That's a great bargain for some excellent martial arts cinema.
Sure for the most part the discs are light on features but the quality of what we're seeing more than make up for that. Amazing picture, stunning sound, and superb films make The Ultimate Force of Four a no brainer.
The Ultimate Force of Four is available now.
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