| The DVD
Video:
Each of the six films in the set is presented in its original aspect ratio of approximately 2.30.1 and all of the films are enhanced for anamorphic viewing.
In short, these movies all look fantastic. The Big Boss and Fists Of Fury/The Chinese Connection look the best out of the lot, but all of the movies in this set do look very nice. Colors are quite strong and don't over saturate at all. Print damage is pretty much gone completely save for the odd speck of dirt noticeable here and there (except for Enter The Dragon which shows a little more wear… more on that below), and grain levels are just fine in that they look natural and are never overpowering or too distracting.
Only very slight edge enhancement is present and unless you're specifically looking for it (and I was) you likely won't notice it at all. Mpeg compression problems are not an issue at all, even in the reds and blacks used throughout the movies. There's a nice high level of detail present throughout each of the transfers noticeable both in forefront and background images, and the picture looks very clean for all of the films.
The Fortune Star transfer of Enter The Dragon, while quite good, isn't as nice as the recent Warner Brothers release. The colors are nice but there is a little bit of print damage noticeable during playback and a couple of scenes look just a little bit flat. While it's hardly a bad transfer, it is noticeably weaker than the other films in the set, even if it's only by a small margin.
Sound:
Fortune Star has included the original (well, original for all of the films except for Enter The Dragon) Cantonese mono mixes, as well as newly re-mastered Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mixes and DTS 5.1 Surround Sound mixes in both Cantonese and in dubbed Mandarin. Subtitles are available in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English for each of the films in the set.
For purists, the mono tracks will be the way to go, and in this case, they sound just fine. There's virtually no hiss or distortion present at all and each of the films on the set does sound quite good in its original mix.
As far as the surround sound mixes go, the Cantonese DTS mixes absolutely rock. The dubbing on the Mandarin mixes looks off and sounds quite fake, but the Cantonese mixes come through very clearly with a whole lot of ‘oomph' packed into the fight scenes. The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mixes are great, but the DTS 5.1 mixes are even better and when someone gets hit by Bruce, you really feel it. Directional effects are very well handled with all sorts of fun surround elements kicked up in high gear throughout each of the movies, and channel separation is distinct and clean.
My only real complaint with the audio, and the reason that this set is not receiving a perfect grade for the audio portion of the review, is that the original English track for Enter The Dragon has not been included. While it may or may not be a licensing issue, Enter The Dragon was shot in English and not having the original mix for that film in this set detracts from things a fair amount. It also would have been nice to have the English dubs for the other films in the set included as well, though they're less essential than the Enter The Dragon English language track.
Extras:
There are no extra features on the movie discs themselves, likely to maximize the bit rate for the video and to be able to include the five different audio tracks for each film without sacrificing disc space and therefore bit rate. All of the supplements are contained on the seventh disc in the box, which breaks down as follows:
Bruce Lee Photo Galleries And Trailers: For each of the six films there is a slideshow made up of promotional stills, a separate still gallery made up of more promotional stills, the films original theatrical trailer, and a newly created trailer for this release.
Celebrities Interviews (sic): This is a segment that runs 9:23 and features brief interviews with actors Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Paul Pui, Flora Cheong-Leen, directors Wong Jing and Tung Wai, and stuntman Rocky Lai. They cover all sorts of Bruce related areas, from his fighting style and his stunt work to his sex appeal and his philosophy, but the problem is that none of the interviews, save for Sammo's, are long enough or in depth enough to really get that interesting.
Unseen Footages (sic): This is 11:09 worth of alternate shots and unused footage from Game Of Death, much of which does not have an accompanying soundtrack and is presented here with some ‘rock guitar' music playing over top. A lot of it is superfluous, but there is some additional Kareem footage in here, as well as some nice shots of Bruce in action in his jumpsuit. It's presented here without any context of any form – no commentary, no introduction, nothing. And a lot of it, if you're a Bruce Lee fan, has been seen before on other releases.
Bruce Lee NG Shots: I'm going to assume that the NG part refers to ‘no good' as this is a 2:59 selection of bloopers from Game Of Death. It's fun to see Lee looking so jovial when he slips up with the stunts. Again, like the Unseen Footages section, these are presented without a soundtrack, just with goofy ‘rock' music playing overtop.
Enter The Dragon Alternate Opening Credits: This is exactly what it sounds like, it's the alternate credits for Enter The Dragon. Not much else to say about it, really.
With all of the extra features available on the European Hong Kong Legends releases of these films and on the Warner Brothers Enter The Dragon two disc special edition DVD release, it's disheartening to see such skimpy supplements on this set. I realize you can't just use someone else's supplemental material but you'd think that Fortune Star would have at least tried to compete with those releases with this set, but sadly, they get trounced in this department. If there had been commentaries for the films or some better documentary material or more and better interviews supplied for this release, it truly would have been an Ultimate DVD Collection but sadly, the supplements here really are not that impressive considering what has come before it from other companies in other regions.
On a semi-related note, high fives all around to Fortune Star for giving viewers the choice of navigating the menus in their choice of English or Chinese (and the all around nice job that they did on the menu design for this set in general, aside from a couple of grammatical errors on the Extra Features disc).
The entire package is bundled up nicely in a very well constructed shiny cardboard box with a great picture of Bruce on the front and a small rice paper sleeve that slips over top. The discs are housed individually inside the box in some thin clear plastic keepcases and contain unique cover art for each release.
Also inside the box is a thirty two page booklet that, while nicely laid out and very pleasing in terms of the graphic design incorporated into it, really doesn't contain a whole lot of interest. What is inside are brief quotes, one for each film in the set, from those who worked with, knew, or were influenced by Bruce Lee.
Final Thoughts:
While the extra features are lighter than they should have been, the films have never looked or sounded as good to my eyes and ears as they do on this set from Fortune Star. Limited to only 10,000 units, this set looks and sounds just great and the movies hold up incredibly well, especially when seen in their original language and not with the dubbed tracks most Western viewers are accustomed to. That being said, without any hesitation at all the Bruce Lee Ultimate DVD Collection comes highly recommended to martial arts fans with Region Free players. | 
Technical Notes:
