Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Very rare trailer for THE BIG BOSS found on Danish VHS - the version that contains the REJECTED English Hong Kong dub mind you!!!



Today, my mate Hans-Jørn aka Diabolik found the original English dubbed trailer for THE BIG BOSS on a Danish trailer video tape from the mid 1980s!!!

This is highly interesting because this is the version that contains the original, REJECTED English dubbed version that was made in Hong Kong!!! This is not to be confused with the English dubbed version you can buy on VHS and DVD!

Back in the day when the American distribution company bought the film they thought the English dub (made in Hong Kong) was too crappy and decided to make their own dub. The "new" dub is the one that was used on ALL releases (apart from the versions dubbed into other languages, obviously). The original HK dub only played in certain territories in the Middle East (and reportedly Bruce Lee hated it when he heard it!) in the early days.

Until now fans have believed this original dubbed version was never released to home-cinema anywhere. Not on video, video-cd, laserdisc, DVD, or shown on TV. However, this Danish tape is interesting because needless to day you can't help wonder if there might be a Danish VHS release from the early 80s that uses this dub (all HK films were released in their English dub in Denmark).

Also, as I've mentioned on this blog before, the rejected dubbed version has now been *released* (on bootleg anyway) but it's from a CUT print. If this really does exist on Danish VHS it's most likely going to be fully uncut.

I'm fully aware there's another version of this trailer already on YouTube (which I've posted here before) but just the mere fact that Hans-Jørn found another release is awesome PLUS the picture quality of this one is better that the other one in my view. I have no idea why HJ chose to use the old US title but this is THE BIG BOSS.
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2 comments:

  1. Asian Cult CinemaJuly 13, 2011 at 7:10 PM

    Great find...i have the "slightly cut" dvd of the old English dub and its strange hearing different voices and music, by the way Bruce's dubbed English voice was done by Ted Thomas who interviewed Bruce a few times for HK Radio.

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  2. Jack JJuly 14, 2011 at 2:29 AM

    Hi ACC (I assume you're not Thomas Weisser, LOL),

    I have that "slightly cut" DVD as well and yes it's a weird experience but somehow I quite like the old version. I usually go for the original Chinese versions but a dub which is this *crappy* somehow adds an almost surreal feel to the film that a "good" English dub just doesn't reach.

    I have never read into who did which dubs so this in interesting info. As I've mentioned in several of my posts I've read that Bruce Lee hated the original English dub.

    Thanks for your comments, mate.

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