Warning: This Article May Cause Discomfort for the Eyes

Marketing Hong Kong movies to a western audience has always been a tricky business, especially when it comes to DVD releases. Amongst the countless latest Hollywood titles fighting for your attention and shelf space, arguably the most important asset a DVD can have is an attention grabbing cover. Hong Kong movies in particular have been subjected to some ‘interesting’ design choices since the inception of the DVD format, and while plenty of titles have been released with artwork that captures the essence of the movie perfectly, those aren’t what this article is about. Instead, we’re going to take a look at some of the worst cover designs that the movies we love have been stuck with, whether it be questionable design choices, completely misleading images, or the just plain bizarre, take a look at the list below and see if you agree.

1. New Fist of Fury
Released by Beverly Wilshire in 2001

In 1976 Jackie Chan was still relatively unknown, and his contract under Lo Wei saw the director trying to style Chan as a character in the vein of Bruce Lee. What Lo Wei can never be accused of though, is attempting to style him as a Chinese version of Rambo (by pasting Jackie’s head on Stallone’s body from the First Blood poster), which is what seems to be the message being conveyed on the cover of this 2001 release of the movie. Sporting a legless (literally, not the drunken kind) Chan set against the backdrop of the Japanese Imperial Flag, the fact that he’s brandishing a huge machine gun, complete with a belt of bullets wrapped around his torso, gives no indication to the old-school kung fu movie behind the title. Still, the designer of the cover certainly can’t be accused of not being creative. Note: The artwork originally appeared on the film’s 1985 VHS release by All Seasons Entertainment.

2. Meltdown/Another Meltdown
aka High Risk/The Blacksheep Affair
Both released by Sony Pictures in 2001

Poor Jet Li and Vincent Zhao, not only do each of their respective movies here have nothing to do with each other, but they both had their heads poorly photoshopped onto the body of other Hong Kong stars. Clearly doing a Google search of ‘muscular Asian body’ wasn’t enough for Sony, so here we have Jet Li’s head stuck on top of Donnie Yen’s body, and Vincent Zhao’s head stuck on top of Bruce Lee’s body. Ironically Zhao doesn’t even get billing on the cover, instead having Shu Qi and Andrew Lin steal his limelight. As for Meltdown, a re-title of High Risk, the cover gives no allusion to the fact that the movie is in fact a zany mix of Die Hard meets a satire of Jackie Chan, with Jacky Cheung aping the stars claims to perform all his own stunts.

3. Infernal Affairs/Infernal Affairs 2
Released by Miramax in 2004/Tartan in 2005

With the original Infernal Affairs being a taut thriller played out between a cop working undercover as a triad, and a triad working as a mole in the cops, you would never guess from the cover Miramax decided to place on it. If anything, you would presume it’s about a love triangle between Andy Lau, Tony Leung, and a generic Asian female holding a gun. Generic Asian Female – 1, Integrity of the movie – 0.

The sequel to Infernal Affairs is unique in that it’s just as good as the original, however it’s certainly not an action flick. Thankfully proceedings play out in such a way that at one point, a minor character played by Chapman To, breaks out a pair of handguns and starts blasting away. It’s a brief flash of violence, but it gave Tartan Video the solution they needed. Take a screenshot of To in action, then awkwardly photoshop one of the movies main stars, Shawn Yue, onto his body for the DVD cover. The resulting composition has Yue seemingly with no neck, with Edison Chen menacingly feeling his butt from behind.

4. The Founding of a Republic
Released by Metrodome Group in 2011

This pompous overly long movie was commissioned by the Chinese government in 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Telling the tale of how the Communist party rose to triumph, it was notable for having cameo appearances by just about every actor working in the Chinese/Hong Kong movie industry you can think of. Amongst those cameos were Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Donnie Yen. The resulting release by Metrodome Group sneakily saw them use the trio’s names as headlining stars, photoshopping them to wear matching white kung fu garments, with their images above a traditional Chinese landscape. Enticing as the cover may seem, it couldn’t misrepresent the movie anymore if it tried.

5. PTU: Police Tactical Unit
Released by Dragon Dynasty in 2008

Johnnie To’s quietly enthralling 2003 police thriller was released by the Weinstein’s Dragon Dynasty label 5 years later, and they’ll be damned if they’re going to believe anyone would be interested in buying such a movie. So instead of creating a cover which represents what PTU is actually about, we get a photoshopped Simon Yam brandishing a pistol in each hand, an exploding building behind him, and a helicopter that may or may not be the reason why the building is exploding (it is flying pretty low). Anyone wanting to find answers to the events playing out on the cover by watching the movie would be sourly disappointed, as none of them actually happen, but as the expression goes, never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

6. Jackie Chan and his Black T-Shirt
Released by – too many to mention

The legend of Jackie Chan and his black t-shirt has many variations, the most popular one seems to be that at some point during the late 90’s/early 00’s, he did a photo shoot to promote his image as an action star in the States. Since then, images of Chan and that damn black t-shirt have appeared on so many of his movies DVD covers, that there’s enough to make a separate Top 10 all together. But we won’t. Instead, check out the thumb nails to flick through a fashion catalogue of Chan and his favorite t-shirt, being used on everything from Project A to Police Story. Possibly the most iconic piece of clothing since the white vest Bruce Willis wore in Die Hard?

7. Dragon Dynasty Shaw Brothers Releases
Released by Dragon Dynasty in 2011

While some of the Shaw Brothers movies that were put out on the Dragon Dynasty label sported perfectly suitable covers, others veered off into the bizarre. Take the cover of Five Shaolin Masters for example, who exactly is that in the centre of the cover!? Why is Fu Sheng brandishing nunchucks!? What’s Gordon Liu doing there!? Then you have Avenging Eagle. So Fu Sheng is fine to appear on the cover of Five Shaolin Masters, but here his sleeve blade wielding character has his face replaced by…who even is that!? It looks like some strange composite of several actors faces put together. The same strange characters seem to appear on both the covers for Flying Guillotine (Chen Kuan Tai after going through some Mickey Rourke style procedures?) and Executioner from Shaolin, which has someone that looks like Norman Chu destroying a dummy with a flaming fist. Great.

8. The Jet Li Collection
Released by Dimension in 2000

The only thing worse than the re-titled, cut up, dubbed, and newly scored versions of these movies which were put out by Dimension, were the covers that came with them. Featuring scenes from different movies (The Enforcer has a scene from Fists of Legend on its cover, while Twin Warriors features an image of Michelle Yeoh in Project S, re-positioned in what we’re supposed to believe is a flying kick). Burdened with tag lines that reference every cliché in the book, from Fists of Fury to my personal favorite – ‘Loyalty. Honor. Vengeance’. If anyone was foolhardy enough to pick up one of these DVD’s, they quickly learned that the only collection these releases deserved to be a part of, was the one pre-faced with the word ‘garbage’.

9. Ninja Masters
aka: Coweb
Released by Lions Gate in 2013

In 2008 a new female kung fu talent made her debut with Coweb, a tale of underground fight tournaments that are broadcast on the web, and featuring some solid kung fu talent in the form of opponents like Kane Kosugi and Mike Moller. The modern day set actioner was picked up by Lions Gate, and released in 2013 under the bizarre title of Ninja Masters. Featuring a DVD cover with a male dressed in full ninja garb, and a pagoda in the background, Coweb feature zero ninjas or pagodas, nor is it from Japan. Sporting the tagline ‘They are the Perfect Weapon’, to further mislead buyers, one can only wonder what someone who bought this would think, once they find it’s a tale of a tough femme fatale battling it out in modern day Hong Kong.

10. Kung Fu Master
aka: Looking for Jackie
Released by Phase 4 Films in 2010

Jackie Chan marks his fourth appearance on the list, this time for his 2009 Chinese family drama Looking for Jackie. The family friendly tale of a teenage boy who goes off to find Jackie Chan in Beijing, believing he’ll be able to learn kung fu from him, the movie is a torture to get through, and what’s more, features Chan for just a few mere minutes at the end. Undeterred by this, Phase 4 Films picked up the title in 2010 and released it under the name Kung Fu Master, featuring a gigantic Jackie Chan who’s about to kick a bunch of miniature sized battling soldiers and monks into oblivion. Needless to say, anyone who was expecting to see kung fu, Jackie Chan, or miniature sized soldiers and monks would be left feeling severely misled.

That wraps up the list, but we’d love to hear what some of your personal picks are for the worst DVD covers that Hong Kong movies have been subjected to? Who knows, perhaps we’ll get enough for a Part 2. Now, where did I leave my black t-shirt?

After Roger Corman’s 1966 outlaw biker film The Wild Angels became a surprise hit in Japan, Japanese studios were quick to cash in and make similar films. One such popular film was Toei’s Delinquent Boss from 1968. The Nikkatsu film studio saw Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss as their way to jump in and compete with Toei’s product. Unlike most films with copy-cat origins, Delinquent Girl Boss successfully started a series that ran for five films (spread out over just two years) and is fondly remembered as one of the country’s best film series of the 1970s.

It’s a strange series. Directors Yasuharu Hasebe (Retaliation) and Toshiya Fujita (Lady Snowblood) split the series, with each director giving their films a particular style. Sometimes a Stray Cat Rock film is a gritty crime drama, other times it’s a youth comedy. One film deals with the subject of racism, another film has a dude dying from sexual excitement while using a jackhammer. The series used many of the same actors from film to film (including Meiko Kaji, Tatsuya Fuji, Eiji Go, and Rikiya Yasuoka), but the actors never played the same characters. And though the films are often funny and wildly different, they all invariably end in shocking, downbeat fashion. The Stray Cat Rock series is part Nikkatsu action movie, part Easy Rider, part counterculture comedy, and 100% 1970s.

For the longest time, only the third film of the series, Sex Hunter, was available on DVD in the US. That’s now changed as the complete series has received a Blu-ray/DVD release from Arrow Video. Over the past month, I’ve had a chance to go through the series to watch and review each film.

Delinquent Girl Boss (1970)

In Yasuharu Hasebe’s Delinquent Girl Boss, Nikkatsu basically took a bit of everything that was working for them at the time and threw it all together. We get a yakuza action movie plot infused with rock & roll, 70s counterculture, violent youth, girl power, and a dash of ‘pinky violence’ to top it all off. An entertaining mix. Read my full review.

Wild Jumbo (1970)

After the success of Delinquent Girl Boss, a follow-up film was rushed into production and released just three months later. Toshiya Fujita’s Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo is a messier, cheaper looking film than its predecessor, but somehow that doesn’t seem to matter. While the first film played with audience expectations and genre clichés, this movie just wants to have fun. Read my full review.

Sex Hunter (1970)

Yasuharu Hasebe returns to the series he helped create after Toshiya Fujita stepped in for him on film 2. Under Hasebe’s direction, Sex Hunter leaves Wild Jumbo’s beaches behind and returns to the bloody city streets. Sex Hunter is not only the most well-known entry of the series but it’s also probably the best. Sex Hunter tackles political themes and racism in 1970s Japan, making for a darker, more thought-provoking film. Read my full review.

Machine Animal (1970)

Hasebe’s final film in the series borrows moments and themes from earlier Stray Cat Rock films, feeling like a blend of Delinquent Girl Boss and Sex Hunter. The least original of the bunch, Machine Animal is lacking something that keeps it from fully coming to life. Still, there are enough interesting scenes and entertaining performances to make it worthwhile for fans. Read my full review.

Beat ’71 (1971)

Director Toshiya Fujita returns to the Stray Cat Rock series for the fifth and final installment, Beat ’71. This may not be the most polished film in the series but it is one of the funniest. In Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo, Fujita broke away from the delinquent girl gang stuff that the series is generally known for, and he moves even further away from that sort of movie with Beat ’71. The final Stray Cat Rock film isn’t about cool, good-looking young people hanging out in clubs and getting into altercations with their rivals, instead it’s about homeless hippies and a society that doesn’t see a use for them. It’s a fun, weird movie. Read my full review.

"Stray Cat Rock: The Collection" Blu-ray Cover

About Arrow Video’s release:

The complete series has been released in a 5 disc DVD/Blu-ray set from Arrow Video. The set contains 2 Blu-rays and 3 DVDs. I did not have the DVD versions of the film to review, but as far as the Blu-ray presentation is concerned, the five films are packed onto the 2 Blu-ray discs.

Because the films are short and special features are minimal, I don’t think there are any compression issues. The picture quality of the films is good but not great, thanks to prints that do not appear to be in pristine condition. Some of the picture quality’s faults are also likely attributed to the filming techniques used, as dark scenes have a tendency to look very dark. Still, the films look good in high-definition, and Sex Hunter is a noticeable upgrade over the previous DVD release. I think Beat ’71 looks the best out of the bunch.

For special features we have trailers, a booklet containing writing on the films by Jasper Sharp, and a trio of 30 minute interviews with subjects Yasuharu Hasebe, Yoshio Harada, and Tatsuya Fuji. The interviews appear to have been conducted in 2006, before we sadly lost both Hasebe and Harada. I found the interviews to be both informative and entertaining.

Hasebe’s memory of shooting the series has gotten a bit fuzzy over the years but he shares a few interesting stories about the origin of the series, casting the actors, and questions about Sex Hunter’s strange ending. Yoshio Harada talks about his transition for a stage actor to film actor at a time when the Japanese film industry was starting to fall apart. Harada shares stories about Tatsuya Fuji and Meiko Kaji, saying that they were more than just co-stars, they were his teachers as he started work in film. Tatsuya Fuji has the sharpest recollection of what filming the series was like and shares many humorous stories about the guerilla-style filmmaking. Fuji it seems was good friends with Hasebe, but he couldn’t quite figure out what to make of Stray Cat Rock’s other director Toshiya Fujita.

Overall it’s a great collection. I do wish there were more special features, but the interviews are good. This set is a Limited Edition of only 3,000 copies. So, if you’re interested in picking up a copy, then you best not delay.

The Verdict:

Stray Cat Rock is crazy, violent, and frequently funny. I’m stumped at trying to pick out a similar series. I was happy to finally get a chance to see the entire series after having only seen Sex Hunter before. My opinion is that Sex Hunter is the best (and Machine Animal is my least favorite), but each entry has its own special something to offer, so everybody may have their own differing opinions on best and worst. It’s a strong series, one that allowed two very different filmmakers to go all-out and create some memorable films about the youth of the 70s. If you’re a fan of Japanese cinema, you should definitely give Stray Cat Rock a look.

Blu-ray screen shots courtesy of doblu.com. Please take a moment to read their coverage of Arrow Video’s Stray Cat Rock Collection by clicking here.