Arrow Video in the USA has announced the Blu-ray release of the Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung classic Heart of Dragon with many extra features.
Lifelong friends since they met as boys at Peking Opera school, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung conquered the Hong Kong film industry side-by-side in the 1970s and 1980s. One of their greatest collaborations sees the two ‘brothers’ playing actual brothers for a change: 1985’s Heart of Dragon, a film that combines heart-rending drama with pulse-pounding action!
Tat (Chan) is a hotshot cop with more stress than he can bear: if he’s not on the verge of getting beaten up at his day job, he’s looking out for his mentally handicapped brother Dodo (Hung), who needs constant supervision in case his naïve, kind nature gets taken advantage of. Tat wants nothing more than to escape his obligations and see the world; but when Dodo accidentally winds up in the line of fire, Tat must run into danger and make the ultimate sacrifice to save his brother.
More serious and emotionally driven than many of their previous films, Hung and Chan made sure not to skimp on jaw-dropping stunts and high-velocity violence while showing a broader depth to their talents than audiences had seen before. The result is one of the jewels of 80’s Hong Kong action cinema, now restored with additional fight scenes filmed especially for the Japanese market!
Extras include –
- 2K restoration from the original negative by Fortune Star
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of the 91-minute Hong Kong Theatrical Cut and the 99-minute Extended Japanese Cut via seamless branching
- Original lossless Cantonese and English mono audio on both cuts, plus Mandarin on the Theatrical Cut and Cantonese with an alternate score on the Extended Cut
- Optional English subtitles for both cuts
- A brand new commentary by Frank Djeng & FJ DeSanto on the Extended Cut
- The Making of The First Mission and The First Mission: Pre-Release Event, two extended featurettes made to promote the Japanese release by Shochiku
- Archive interview with star Jackie Chan
- Archive interview with star Rocky Lai
- Two archive interviews with director/star Sammo Hung
- Archive interview with cinematographer Arthur Wong
- Alternate English credits as The First Mission
- Trailer gallery, including the ‘music video’ trailer by Su Rui
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Gilbey
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Dylan Cheung and David West
Looks very similar to the UK release by Eureka but with a few different extras.