BRIDGE OF DRAGONS (Isaac Florentine, 1999)

[Jox]

French TV spot
http://www.programme-tv.net/videos/band ... s-dragons/

Takes another dimension to see it in widescreen...

[Jox]

Israeli VHS


(click to enlarge)

[ShawnWatson]

French TV spot
http://www.programme-tv.net/videos/band ... s-dragons/

Takes another dimension to see it in widescreen...

The AR doesn't look correct.

[Jox]

Indeed, but it looks cool though especially since we still only have 4/3 versions, and I'm sure Florentine wished he coud have shot it in anamorphic or at least 2.35:1.

[Jox]

GHANAIAN MOVIE POSTER
https://www.pagodared.com/ti/featured-c ... er?page=11

Frequently unable to import official posters, theaters in Ghana hired enterprising artists to create and embellish designs to promote the films in their own style. The works, true to their folk style, are hand-lettered in the local vernacular, adding to the character of the works. This painting has exciting perspective emphasizing the excitement of the exotic martial arts the artists endeavored to communicate to their unfamiliar audience. Over time, these singular pieces of movie history have become sought after by collectors the world over.

[Jox]

Another Ghana hand-painted poster at a current New York exhibit
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjltWNOAETK ... isher_book
https://scontent-cdt1-1.cdninstagram.co ... 7008_n.mp4

[Jox]

New Isaac Florentine interview:
http://www.actionreloaded.com/isaac-flo ... interview/

Moving back to your filmography, I enjoyed your move Cold Harvest that starred Gary Daniels and Bryan Genesse, what was it like filming that?

IF: It was the first movie I did for Millennium/Nu Image and it was shot in South Africa in May/June time and I was unaware it was winter and the winter over there is very, very, VERY cold. We filmed mainly at nights to which was freezing. I was very lucky to have Gary and Bryan who are two wonderful actors and screen fighters. It was a great experience.

AR: After that you made ‘Bridge Of Dragons’ starting Dolph Lundgren. Its not often you get Dolph doing loads of martial arts moves in a movie. How did you push him for that?

IF: I didn’t have to push Dolph. Because I had met Dolph in 1980 in Stockholm. After my military service in Israel I went to Sweden to train in karate. I met Dolph and trained with him. So I did not need to push him to do more as I knew he would and was capable. People just don’t ask him to do all these moves. Funny story, Dolph was to do a spinning hook kick to Cary Tagawa and it was meant to just miss his face, well I slight skin touch and Cary was worried. I told him not to worry and Dolph did it in one perfect take. Luckily when we filmed that movie Dolph was training for like three intensive months in tje dojo. So I think what made the fights better was I caught him in his peak at that time.

AR: The character reminded of a futuristic John Matrix (Schwarzeneggers character from Commando) I would have loved to see more of him. Was there a reason we never got a sequel?

IF: It was the first movie I shot in Bulgaria, what happened was the studio moved out of Cape Town after someone started shooting the place up. So we moved from there to Bulgaria that at the time was coming out of a very hard economical situation. I’m South Africa we were given 8-10 weeks to shoot an action movie, but in Bulgaria we were given just 6 weeks. It was a schedule I was not used ipso it was a very tough experience. I always say I got my white hair from that movie (laughs)

[Jox]

Forgot to mention BRIDGE OF DRAGONS was being filmed 20 years ago. This was the start of Nu Image/Millennium's move from South Africa to Bulgaria, which triggered a few workflow and technical glitches in the making of the film. Nu Image gave BOD a much lower budget ($3-4 million) than THE PEACEKEEPER and SWEEPERS ($10 million).

[Jox]

BOD on Amazon Prime US
https://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Dragons-D ... 07H4ZV568/



If you watch it please report to us about the transfert

[savagesketch]

Ben Johnson of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast joins me to discuss BRIDGE OF DRAGONS! Hope you enjoy! Please help me out; I’d appreciate reviews and 5-star ratings on iTunes, Stitcher, etc, as that helps the algorithms and further gets the show out there!

https://imustbreakthispodcast.wordpress ... f-dragons/

While I do own this one on DVD, I did watch it on Prime, and the transfer is pristine. Much better than PEACEKEEPER, BLACKJACK, and SWEEPERS.

[Jox]

While I do own this one on DVD, I did watch it on Prime, and the transfer is pristine.

And widescreen?!

[Jox]

David J. Moore

Very pleasantly surprised to find this Dolph Lundgren collection in the dump bin at Walmart. I usually stay far away from these crummy dvds from Echo Bridge, but in this collection are widescreen transfers of SWEEPERS and BRIDGE OF DRAGONS, which have never been available before in 1:85:1. The quality isn’t great, though. They cram four movies to a disc. But still. $5!

[lt.brannigan]

Just received my copy in the mail today.

[alex.sp89]

Just watched this one in HD 720p real widescreen the other day !!! And one thing came into my mind - how different is your reaction when u watch it in good quality ? Before that is was hard to find it and give an adequate review !!! German blu ray released several years ago was jut awful, Dvd upscale 4:3 and all of them in PAL !!! Saw it in NTSC only on Netflix in 2014, but quality was DVD also !!! I was wondering why so many Blu ray from Germany are just ripoffs and nobody sue this independent companies that are releasing those ! Krikel and others are just assholes who want the money and deliver nothing !!! Saw recently Van Damme's Knock Off on German blu ray - it is just a shame to call it Blu ray, amateurs no more than that... who print beautiful covers for 2 cents and no content ... Or German release of Minion, Retrograde speaking about Dolph ...
One more thing- HD version u can find already in internet, but official release didn't come yet and nobody know when ! Paradox !!!

[Jox]

Just watched this one in HD 720p real widescreen the other day !!! And one thing came into my mind - how different is your reaction when u watch it in good quality ?

For sure, always be mindful of that when you watch a film in 4/3 and standard definition. Many movies look cheaper than they actually are just because they're released in wrong aspect ratio and bad or bare minimum quality...



The original trailer, widescreen