Search - Rage of the Master on DVD

Needs Extra Pathologists and Caretakers

FrontPage | Baltimore, MD United States | 11/25/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"One person claimed there were 87 bodies, but I had counted at least 152 (it was so late by the time I rounded third on the body count that I passed out). The only reason I tried counting was that I kept seeing people rolling their eyes in the backs of their heads with blood spewing out their chests, necks, or mouths. Even "Terminator" didn't do this much damage; I don't think the trilogy could even come close to the number of 6-foot holes needed to bury the dead!

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER, YOU'LL PAY WITH YOUR BLOOD!" says Tiger Wong (played by Jimmy Wang Yu), who had already done in another two handfulls of bad guys, pausing before wrecking more havoc after his buttons were pressed too hard and too often. He finally added to the slaughter, perhaps more than halfway through the film!

The dubbing pretty much sucks raw eggs, but I feel that's part of the joy of some of the martial arts films of its day, when the Asian characters mouths move, while British voices are heard instead. The color is really bad in my DVD pressing (one I had gotten at a true dollar store, where everything costs a buck). And there's a serious crop issue with the transfer being made from a standard TV format (4x3), when the film seems as though it were filmed in letterbox (around 2.35:1). That means that about half the original film is cropped in the transfer. But the framing during filming isn't fully exploited (like the composition of the scenes in Star Wars or Jaws, for instance). So, viewing this movie, you'll see more arms cropped out, than essential characters missing in essential scenes.

My version, a dual-sided DVD (with Snake Crane Secret on the flip) was worth the dollar spent. If you purchase any version over a couple bucks, try to make sure it's widescreen and a direct film transfer from the master negative. Otherwise, just get the cheapest DVD possible, so you won't be too frustrated over paying too much for a badly-pressed DVD."