Jackie Chan's Magnificent Bodyguards Comes Out of the Screen on 3D Blu-ray for the First Time

88 Films is putting Jackie Chan's Magnificent Bodyguards out on 3D Blu-ray on 10 November, and it says this is the first time the 3D version has been released anywhere in the world. The film was shot in 3D in 1978, but according to 88 Films it has only ever been available in 2D on home video in North America.

Jackie Chan plays Lord Ting Chung, who agrees to guard a woman and her gravely ill brother on a journey through the dangerous Stormy Hills to reach the one doctor who can cure him. Chung knows it is not a one-man job and brings in a team, including Bruce Leung and James Tien, to fight off bandits, monks and royal soldiers on the road. The director is Lo Wei, who made Bruce Lee's The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. 88 Films says this was the film that brought 3D filmmaking to Hong Kong cinema for the first time, with weapons aimed straight at the camera.

The two-disc set holds a Real-D 3D Blu-ray and a standard 2D Blu-ray, both from a new 2K restoration of the original camera negatives. The 3D alignment and panel matching were done with the 3-D Film Archive. The film comes with Mandarin and Cantonese audio with English subtitles, plus an English dub and a second English track with alternate music cues. Extras include a commentary by Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, pieces by James Mudge and Steve Lawson, and the Mandarin and English trailers. It is rated 15 and runs about 104 minutes.

88 Films lists it at £19.99 in the UK and $25.97 in the US, and both sites show the 10 November date. The UK disc is region AB and the US one is region-free. 88 Films also hints that the score will sound very familiar to fans of a certain galaxy-spanning sci-fi saga, so keep an ear out.