Why So Blu?

Enter The Dragon (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

This year of Warner Bros celebrated 100 years with some great debuts on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray hits some peak excitement this month as Bruce Lee’s opus Enter The Dragon arrives on August 8th. The film itself is half of Warner Bros’ age, turning 50 this year. The film will feature a Dolby Atmos track addition, but only carry over the Linda Lee Cadwell introduction and Paul Heller and Michael Allin commentary. Since there is not a companion standard Blu-ray (only a digital code), the featurettes are not here. Holding onto an old disc aside, this is a very exciting movie to be making the jump. You can order yourself a copy using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review at the bottom of the page.

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Film

Bruce Lee explodes onto the screen in the film that rocketed him to international superstardom, Enter The Dragon. Lee plays a martial arts expert determined to take down the ruthless gang leader, Han, who was responsible for the death of his sister. Recruited by an intelligence agency, he poses a student and attends a tournament at a remote island fortress. His goal is to gather evidence that will prove Han’s involvement with drug trafficking and prostitution. With one man focused on crime and the other bent on revenge, the two engage in the now-classic fight-to-the-death finish. They both enter a mirrored maze and deadly battle. Only one will exit.

Back in 2020, when the Criterion Collection released a box set of Bruce Lee’s films, I participated in an audio commentary for Enter The Dragon on Out Now With Aaron & Abe. In addition to Aaron and myself, Peter Paras is on board to go over the film and Lee’s legacy.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are from the standard Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection edition, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC/H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Enter The Dragon arrives with a new 4K restoration for this disc. The previous release of the film through a Criterion box set only had a 2K restoration. However, these looks along the lines of how that edition looked in terms of the color timing. This now has some more depth, saturation to those colors as well as the blacks. Details are pretty fine and there’s some nice grain intact giving us some prime texture and filmic feel to the presentation.

Depth:  Depth of field is improved here, especially from the original Warner Bros disc. There’s nice pushback but also a grander feel to the scale of the film. Movements are cinematic and smooth. No issues occur during the action that would create any sort of blur or jitter from the rapid motion on screen.

Black Levels: Black levels are deep, rich and natural. There’s some great shadow and nighttime work on display here. You can still discern some fine details in the darkest hair follicles, surfaces, clothing fabrics, shadowy areas and such. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors pop a bit better here in this new 4K transfer. Yellows, blues, greens and reds all look vibrant when on a fabric worn by a character or the forest/grass appearing onscreen. HDR comes in handy moreso with fire or a neon display or two early in the movie.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. From any reasonable distance in the frame one can see clear as day facial texture and details with ease.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English 2.0 Mono DTS-HD MA, French 1.0 Mono Dolby Digital, German 1.0 Mono Dolby Digital, Italian, Spanish (Castilian) 1.0 Mono Dolby Digital, Chinese 2.0 Dolby Digital (Special Edition only), Spanish (Latin American) 2.0 Dolby Digital, Czech 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Dutch, Korean, Spanish (Latin American), Czech, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish

Dynamics: Enter The Dragon has entered the era of Dolby Atmos in this new release. A lossless mono track has been provided, tho I’m not sure if its a downmix of the Atmos or the same one found on the Criterion release from 3 years ago. Nonetheless, either way, this is a boffo presentation of the film. It has terrific space and breathing room made by great layering, depth and balance in the mix. Its engaging and feels quite a impacting way to watch an old classic.

Height: From above, nothing too fancy aside from crafting some room ambiance and giving a hand here or there to some effects or parts of the score in the film

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer lands the punches and kicks to good effects and lands the shattering crashing and deeper tones in the music.

Surround Sound Presentation: From around the room, you definitely feel the environment provided by good unique contributions and ambiance in the rear and side channels. Sound travel has some nice power and is felt in areas where they want you to feel it. Off screen activity is effect and track well as the camera angles change within a given scene.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Enter The Dragon comes with a redeemable digital code. This release includes by the Theatrical Edition and the Special Edition versions of the film.

Audio Commentary

• by Paul Heller and Michael Allin

Introduction By Linda Lee Cadwell (HD, 2:11)

Summary

Enter The Dragon provided a rock solid foundation of a tentpole type kung fu film for generations to come and still going to this day. From other films to video games to people inspired to learn martial arts – the film and the legend, Bruce Lee, provided it all. While Game Of Death came after, Enter The Dragon is the climax to his career. Warner Bros has given it a pristine presentation to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, but unfortunately opted not to port over the extras that celebrate the film or Lee’s life. A definitely pick up, but like a lot of these Warner 4Ks, you gotta hold on to those old Blu-rays for the extras.

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