Legacy of Rage | Blu-ray (88 Films)
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Deluxe Blu-ray (Region B) for Legacy of Rage, a 1986 revenge thriller from noted Hong Kong director Ronny Yu (The Bride with the White Hair) and star, Brandon Lee (The Crow).
Ronny Yu is doing what he does best here, delivering a breath-taking, action-packed, fist-flying tale of vengeance which stars Brandon Lee. Hardworking Brandon Ma (Lee) is loving life with his girlfriend May (Regina Kent) but his drug dealing best friend Michael (Michael Wong) has sights on May and sets Brandon up for murder. Soon Brandon is on the hunt to save his girl and exact brutal revenge in this stylish flick which is packed with stunning fight choreography and cool dialogue.
The film also stars Mang Hoi (The Blonde Fury), Michael Chan Wai-Man (The Deadly Kung Fu Factor), Regina Kent (A Better Tomorrow 2), Bolo Yeung (Breathing Fire) and Ng Man-Tat (To Be Number One).
Features:
- Slim rigid slipcase
- Booklet notes by Paul Bramhall
- Limited Edition A3 Poster
- Brand new 2K Remaster from the Original Negatives
- HD (1080p) Blu-ray presentation in original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
- 2.0 Cantonese Mono
- 2.0 English Mono
- Newly translated optional English subtitles
- Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng and Ronny Yu
- Phat Samurai Ronny Yu Interview
- Hector Martinez Presents the World of Brandon Lee
- Archive Interview with Director Ronny Yu
- English Opening & Closing Sequence
- Hong Kong Trailer
- Export Trailer
- Tai Seng Trailer
- Stills Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring new art by Sean Longmore and original poster art
Order today from Goodie Emporium!
I always have championed this as Brandon Lee’s second best movie (After The Crow) and years later, I can might say this is his best movie because it is satisfyingly good pulp. At the time it’s easy to compare this to the John Woo heroic bloodshed films, but honestly it’s a pretty great stand alone film. Ironically Showdown In Little Tokyo has also grown on me over the years, Brandon Lee is terrible in it (Far worse than Dolph to be honest, seriously watch it again) I personally will take both of these over The Crow. The Crow is still a decent movie, but it’s hard to divorce it from the goth and emo kids who made such film their statement film. Also the sequels are so terrible.
Also Michael Wong is really good in this film, just as he was pretty good in the In The Line Of Duty IV film. I think in a lot of ways Legacy Of Rage needs a reappraisal as being one of the most accessible Hong Kong films, if you see Legacy you’ll start watching John Woo,Ringo Lam and the Police Story films.
Indeed, the only Blu ray release that would make me happier is Bridge Of Dragons and Bloodfist II and III and maybe a rerelease of Invasion USA that isn’t a 80 bucks on ebay.
I couldn’t get into Legacy of Rage because of how slow the movie is. The Woo inspired shootout at the end may have been done well, but it didn’t make the rest of the movie good. I get the feeling most people will already have watched Woo, Lam and Chan flicks before this one, and it’s certainly not an introductory movie.
The Crow may technically be Lee’s best film, but Rapid Fire was the one that showed he was a true action star, and he probably would have starred in The Matrix if things had turned out differently.
See, I never liked Rapid Fire. Too much time was taken Brandon Lee’s father subplot and his dislike for politics. It then leads to him saving Powers Boothe and it’s really not very good. I get a lot of people like it, but in all honesty it’s not up to the best Kung Fu films like King Of The Kickboxers, Kickboxer and Jackie Chan movies from the 80s, let alone even decent ones like Double Impact, Punisher, Showdown In Little Tokyo and Perfect Weapon. (Granted all in my opinion) Rapid Fire always seemed too much of a trying to be respectable instead of being just playing true to its B.movie visceral charms.
Laser Mission is definitely worse though.Legacy Of Rage isn’t slow for me, I liked the story of betrayal and vengeance. However Legacy Of Rage is what got me into John Woo. Although to be fair Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan probably just got me into the genre of HK cinema in general. I guess what I’m saying is, Legacy Of Rage worked for me because I felt the primary characters were very compelling.
Wow, that’s pretty heavy. Rapid Fire is very enjoyable as a 90’s “B action film” and the serious parts balance it all out. If everyone was “in on the joke,” it wouldn’t have nearly been as enjoyable.
We even get an out-of-nowhere sex scene to an 80’s styled ballad just when things get too serious!
And of course, the action choreography be Lee and Jeff Imada was a real love letter to HK cinema with Brandon Lee vs Al Leong being completely different from what US audiences were used to seeing in the theatre.
I think I agree. There’s a continuous 5 seconds or so wide shot of Brandon vs Al Leong in the end fight scene of Rapid Fire where Brandon shows he has what it takes to be a great onscreen fighter. As a whole not as good as The Crow but easily second Best Brandon Lee movie by quite a margin. To say legacy of rage is the gateway movie to watching john woo and Jackie Chan is bizzare to say the least.
I used to be obsessed with RAPID FIRE, but its re-watch value is sorta dwindling for me. One of the strongest scenes in the film is the fight between Brandon and the two cops (in that small apartment).
Appreciate the *almost* shot-by-shot action scenes that were taken straight from JC’s movies. It’s apparent that even someone as physically capable as Brandon was that he couldn’t quite capture the same magic (could be the camera or editing work to blame?), but then again, I am making a comparison to JC at his height.
Hey ANM!
Legacy of Rage will always be my favorite Brandon Lee film, but for all the reasons that have nothing to do with Brandon. lol I like the brutality of it. I like how M. Wong is a pretty boy villain, comparable to someone like James Spader.
If you take out the Brandon Lee element and put any actor in his role, this is a dark, but rock solid HK movie.
Hey MPM, I agree with you on Legacy Of Rage. Michael Wong if we’re objective was hands down a great villain.
Now to explain Legacy as a gateway drug, which is going to date me. Back in 90s Hong Kong movies weren’t as nearly accessible. Trust me when I say you pretty much were at the mercy of video stores with ep prints of Bruce Le films. So, in 1998 Tai Seng (my memory is spotty, but I thought it was this label) released Legacy Of Rage on VHS and DVD, because Brandon Lee had The Crow,Rapid Fire and Showdown people were eager to see this hidden movie. At least I was. I loved this movie and thought the action and heroic bloodshed hit harder than most American films I was also expecting Kung Fu by the way, but 16 and it wasn’t. I then looked up Legacy on the internet which led me to reviews and other people bringing up Hard Boiled and The Killer and so on. I then had to go to the city or to Mall Of America mainly Suncoast to buy such movies. These weren’t availabe to rent, like they had The Killer and A Better Tomorrow, but no ABT 2. Also this release was at the same they started releasing just terrible Jackie Chan films that literally had characters call him Jackie Chan. For the record the movies were good, the disrespectful dubbing outraged me. I literally would buy terrible prints with the 70s dubbing just to avoid such. Again it was rough time. So, because of Lee’s popularity and Bruce Lee’s films, Legacy was available at rental shops. Where as a lot of stuff with Chow Yun Fat and John Woo weren’t. Not even Face Off and Crouching Tiger made much accessible as I was still going to Suncoast. Granted, once they started releasing the Jet LI movies (also altered) it was way easier to see these films, but for a long time your only really gateway access was Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, albeit crappy versions of Jackie Chan.
As for Rapid Fire, they didn’t even show boobs on the sex scene and they killed the mob guy off screen, like I’ll give you the fights were good, but it for me was not good enough to work as a top tier action flick, nor schlocky enough to be fun bad. The stuff with the mob war between triads and the mafia is the thrust of the movie, then it goes back to being about the triads. Also is how the politics and how Lee is reeling from his dad’s demise and how it ties into him saving Powers Boothe is so stupid. Once again, ask yourself this, minus the budget and A-list cast, is such any more compelling wise then something Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson would star in?
Another great character we don’t speak about is Four Eyes, who’s relationship with Brandon Lee is contrasted sharply against Lee and Wong’s. The film also ends on such a downbeat note. It still holds up imo.
I actually enjoy Knock Off and Blackjack more now given the WTF nuttiness of such.
Still hate The Replacement Killers and The Big Hit though.
For the record, since I’m going to be bold. Jackie Chan’s Who Am I holds up better than Project A 1-2 and Armour Of God 2. In fact I’d put Who Am I with a
in a rotation with Dragons Forever,Wheels On Meals and Police Story and I feel it’d fit right in. Okay, I’m probably banned now.
Wild take! But then I’ve come across people who say Once Upon a time in Hollywood is better than Reservoir Dogs
I’m a fan, I love all of the Brandon Lee’s movies and TV appearance. Legacy of Rage is always switching from my number 2 or 3 favorite movie of his. It should always in the conversation when mentioning the top 5 “Heroic Bloodshed” films.
At last years San Diego Comic Con, Frank Djeng hinted that this movie was coming out in the near future and been waiting for the announcement since. I hope there’s a lot of Special Features in release (hopefully it’s region free or has a US release). I know at this point in time Brandon wasn’t the easiest to work with butting heads with director Ronny Yu and rubbed Michael Chan-wai the wrong way. I don’t think he appreciated some of the marketing that was going on in countries like the Philippines where they used his name and retitled the film as “Bruce Lee Jr. In ‘Dragon Blood'”. I hope somewhere in the commentary they mention what the initial idea was for the film and the proposed sequel that would’ve had Brandon Lee teaming up with Donnie Yen.
As far as the comments of Showdown In Little Tokyo, I think they are valid. When talking about the movie, I always say “it’s the best buddy cop movie ever made… under 80 minutes”. But I remember renting the movie every chance I had from 1992 til 1996. My brother personally hates that movie for the amount of times I rented the film. I loved the movie so much, I made a personal edit of the movie and had it going around my Junior High school. I would add scenes from Laser Mission and Rapid Fire to make the Brandon the main character. My classmates thought I had some secret director’s cut. I recently made another edit (entitled “the Murata” cut) making a 30 minute version of the movie.
Just writing to say, I’m a big fan of Brandon Lee, I love reading these comments and I hope more Brandon Lee releases get the Vinegar Syndrome/88 Films treatment (like a Special Collector’s Edition Director’s Cut of Laser Mission).
1) The crow.
2) Far away: Legacy of rage (a special collector’s edition for this and not for most of the MUCH BETTER movies they have put out?).
I’ll watch my French DVD again before buying that one, blind buys days are over.
3) The rest doesn’t even matter.
The audio commentary with Ronny Yu for this movie is so informative and entertaining. So much stuff I didn’t know. Explains alot why the movie is so light on fight scenes and what the mood was like on set!!! Picture quality is pretty good, nice amount of film grain and the sound is proper mono, no downmixing or dumbass 7.1 remixes