I love international films. What I don't love is when they're poorly dubbed into English, like some old kung fu movies from decades past. Granted, I can imagine it's not easy for voice actors to capture the same performance when they're dubbing for other actors, but it can be distracting for moviegoers to watch sounds out of sync.
This is why I always prefer to watch foreign movies in the original native language with English subtitles.
Be that as it may, there has been an exception. One time, I tried watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with the English-dubbed audio track, and I was surprised that the dubbing was hardly distracting. It helps that Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh also speak English, but it exemplifies that it is possible to make dubbed movies with minimal distractions.
Moreover, even in American films, actors are usually called back in to re-record some of their dialogue in post-production for Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR). This process can serve several purposes, but one common reason for ADR is movie sets are often too noisy during filming to record clear audio, like a scene in the rain.
Speaking of kung fu movies, I'm a longtime Bruce Lee fan, and, of course, I had to get "Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits" from The Criterion Collection. This new Blu-ray box set comprises all his five films from The Big Boss to Game Of Death, along with a plethora of supplementary material. Naturally, I've seen Lee's movies many times, but this is the first time I've ever seen them in High Definition video in widescreen format and in the original Mandarin language.
Before, I've only seen Bruce Lee movies in Standard Definition on TV and VHS, so watching them on Blu-ray was movie buff bliss. The films were amazingly restored, and although the sound is mono, I can now appreciate the movies as they were initially viewed in theaters without the dubbed English soundtrack.
Some say Enter The Dragon is Bruce Lee's best film, but in my opinion, Fist Of Fury is the greatest of all. Mistakenly titled The Chinese Connection in the U.S., Fist Of Fury was Bruce Lee's second film with his long time film collaborator Raymond Chow.
From the same writer and director of The Big Boss, Lo Wei, Fist Of Fury is an interpretation of a true story about an actual martial arts school master named Huo Yuanjia. Bruce Lee plays a fictional character as one of his students.
Aside from different martial arts styles, the film explores bullying, corruption, racism, and revenge. First released in 1972, Fist Of Fury still has some of the coolest martial arts fight scenes, and like his other films, features Lee's lightning-fast moves he's famous for.
Bruce Lee was gone too soon at age 32. I might be called a "fanboy," but from his presence in movies and television to his wisdom and philosophies to creating his own style of martial arts called Jeet Kune Do ("The Way of the Intercepting Fist"), Bruce Lee is one of the most multi-talented, influential and inspirational persons who ever lived. And many years ago, there were hardly any Asian role models for a little Vietnamese boy who grew up in Michigan and Louisiana in the '80s.
Decades later, Bruce Lee continues to be a legend in his own right and still has a huge fan base with the young and old. If you haven't become a fan or never seen any of Bruce Lee's films, check out Fist Of Fury. If you're into action drama movies, you just might become a fanboy (or fangirl) yourself.
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