Comparison between the cut Blu-ray from Hong Kong by Kam & Ronson and the international version contained on the British DVD by HKL


- 9 cuts
- Total length of cuts: 650.4 sec (= 10:50 min) PAL



As can be looked up in the according comparison inclusive an extensive overview, this little classic movie from Hong Kong comes in two official versions, which each contain exclusive footage. We called these two versions "International Version" and "Hong Kong Version". The latter is contained on the old DVD by Label Universe from Hong Kong, but this name is maybe a bit confusing now - while the later DVD reissue from Hong Kong by Joy Sales / Fortune Star contained the international version, the new Blu-ray from Hong Kong by Kam & Ronson, which was used for this comparison, came equipped with a totally new version.

Unfortunately, they only provided the old Fortune Star master as an SD upscale, as is often the case with Kam & Ronson. Accordingly, they had to use the master of the international version, which was also used for the corresponding DVD. So you have to go without the additional footage of the "Hong Kong Version", which can be found on the by now quite rare Universe DVD (this name is used when we refer to it in this report). But nonsensically enough, they reconstructed the cuts of the Universe DVD...at least most of them. Apparently they missed a scene of about 30 seconds right at the beginning.

To sum this up: the Blu-ray from Hong Kong is completely useless (partially due to the horrible new effects in the audio track) and should be avoided at all cost. This report is supposed to make that clear. The cuts were already presented in the report mentioned above, which is why they are only mentioned here briefly and with few pictures.



Running time indications are listed in the order
Hong Kong Blu-ray / British DVD in PAL.

Logos
00:00 / 00:00-00:29

The Fortune Star logo comes up on the Blu-ray before the actual beginning of the movie; this part doesn't belong to the movie file. Accordingly, the British DVD is longer at this point.

29.2 sec



01:31 / 14:27-15:45

Fong-Tin is stomping wistfully through the deep snow towards the supposed corpses. He turns one of them around and takes his necklace.

35.9 sec

Fong-Tin giving the gun back to the Russian guy and trying to talk his way out of this is only contained on the Blu-ray.



05:01 / 05:53-06:52

Loi Fook walks over to Fong-Tin, who is freezing. The latter is begging for something to warm himself up. Loi gives him a cup of supposedly hot coffee after some more words...but the coffee is already frozen of course and Fong-Tin gets a piece of ice into his face.

58.6 sec

05:03 / 06:54-06:59

Two more shots: one of Fong-Tin sucking on the piece of coffee-ice and one of Loi cutting some meat.

4.9 sec



08:55 / 10:42-11:33

The meeting of Yun Shiyu (James Tien) and his companions begins clearly earlier in the international version.

One of the thugs says to Brother Yen that they surely haven't come here to see Shiyu playing with his model railroad. Then Shiyu walks around and talks about the loyalty of Yen's guys, but they don't quite understand him and are still a bit anxious. The HK also sets in again when he's describing the raid.

51 sec

10:10 / 12:44-12:58

There's some exclusive footage in the international version at the beginning of the scene with Fong-Tin and Siu-Hon in the garden. Fong-Tin tells about a village about 350 miles away, in which they could have a better life. The girls are supposed to follow him there.

13.8 sec

23:12 / 25:29-26:05

After Han (Richard Ng) has talked briefly to his mistress a thief is stealing some fruits from her.
Han then brings his wife some plums, which she doesn't appreciate that much. He uses this as a pretext to get back to his mistress for some other fruits. He slips her a ticket while doing that. His wife comes and drags him in the direction of the train compartment.

36.3 sec

26:31 / 29:16-30:07

Tsao is discussing the situation with his people. They designate a night watch and the guy isn't too happy about that.

51.1 sec

31:21 / 34:45-35:09

Chi sees Tsao coming closer and she tries to hit on him: she parades in front of him and then falls down theatrically. But Tsao doesn't help her up, as she intended. He just tells two of his guys to do that instead.
He walks on and Chi makes an angry gesture.

24.2 sec

31:53 / 35:40-41:54

After his helper has left Tsao says that Fong-Tin is probably up to something.
Two long additional scenes follow:
1. Tsao visits the "beauty salon" in order to question Chi. While he's there Fong enters and Tsao, hidden behind a door, can listen in on some of his plans. Chi unsuccessfully tries to get Tsao's attention again after that.
2. An introductory scene for Jenny the bandit (Cynthia Rothrock) and her gang; moreover, an allied group of Chinese guys is shown, with whom they obviously have some issues.

374.2 sec

The last freeze frame with Sammo and the "The End" display fades to black a bit earlier and yet another Fortune Star logo is shown. How grateful we are for their hard work...