On September 15, 2009 Miramax and Dimension released four classic martial arts films on blu-ray for the first time. They can be purchased together as one four-pack of blu-rays or separately. All of them got brand new 1080p transfers, which in general an upgrades over previous standard DVD releases, but there are no new extras, But perhaps the biggest crime of this release is that they give us brand new lossless DTS-HD master audio tracks ON THE ENGLISH DUB of ALL FOUR FILMS!. So when you hear the much improved fight scenes, sound effects, and music, all of that high definition bliss is interrupted with some half-baked, poorly translated mockery of the film.

Most of the blu-rays do have thankfully, a 5.1 Dolby Digital track to fall back on in the original language, EXCEPT Legend of Drunken Master. Ernie Estrella has written full reviews of all four blu-rays accessed below. Each would be recommended as rentals unless you’ve never see any of them. Not because they’re not good enough movies to own outright, but they are not definitive editions by any means, and their leap to high definition should be taken with a grain of salt, or is that a grain of rice. Anywho, on to the reviews.

Full Legend of Drunken Master Blu-Ray Review (1994)

Full Hero Blu-Ray Review (2002)

Full Iron Monkey Blu-Ray Review (1993)

Full Zatoichi Blu-Ray Review (2003)