High Road To China

[goldenpony]

One of Tom Selleck's best

[TheOneWithThePrize]

This one would be nice, the darn thing hasn't even gotten a widescreen release on DVD. Great score by John Barry.

[iamjohnsname]

So who do we petition for a release? With such beautiful scenery and soundtrack I can think of few movies more deserving of a BluRay release.

Who owns tw home video rights to it?

Originally Posted by TheOneWithThePrize

This one would be nice, the darn thing hasn't even gotten a widescreen release on DVD. Great score by John Barry.

[TheOneWithThePrize]

Originally Posted by iamjohnsname

So who do we petition for a release? With such beautiful scenery and soundtrack I can think of few movies more deserving of a BluRay release.

Who owns tw home video rights to it?

Warner had US distribution rights back in the day of theatrical and home video (VHS/LD) so one might try with them.

[iamjohnsname]

Originally Posted by TheOneWithThePrize

Warner had US distribution rights back in the day of theatrical and home video (VHS/LD) so one might try with them.

I wrote to Warner Archive and their response was "The Golden Harvest library is a little tricky."

So I have now emailed Golden Harvest.

However I have noticed on an Australian website (which is lucky since that's where I am):

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-3201...-to-china.aspx

It is listed as being 16x9 in the aspect ratio.

I can only hope.

[TheOneWithThePrize]

Originally Posted by iamjohnsname

I wrote to Warner Archive and their response was "The Golden Harvest library is a little tricky."

So I have now emailed Golden Harvest.

However I have noticed on an Australian website (which is lucky since that's where I am):

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-3201...-to-china.aspx

It is listed as being 16x9 in the aspect ratio.

I can only hope.

Nice catch! A widescreen release of this would be very nice, even if only on a DVD.

[iamjohnsname]

Originally Posted by TheOneWithThePrize

Nice catch! A widescreen release of this would be very nice, even if only on a DVD.

Good news:

I wrote to the company, Umbrella Entertainment, asking about it and got a prompt response:

Dear John,
*
Thank you for enquiry.
*
I can confirm that High Road to China will be a 16:9 presentation, we went to great lengths to find the best available master.
*
At this stage there is no Blu Ray release planned.

So it's not a Blu Ray but it's a start.

[TheOneWithThePrize]

Awesome!

[iamjohnsname]

Wow - even tough Umbrella list the release date as February, my pre-order has already arrived. I watched it tonight.

What a wonderful film!

The image and sound quality are much better than the previous releases.

I can confirm that it is not censored (like the British VHS was) and that it is indeed in 16x9 widescreen.

There are problems with the transfer: odd hisses in the sound occasionally and the image is not as beautiful as other movies that have been restored. But it unquestionably looks much better than I've ever seen it.

I'm thrilled. I've been waiting for a respectable copy of this film since I was a child.

Now to start counting down to the Blu Ray release...

[HelmutNewton]

Originally Posted by iamjohnsname

So who do we petition for a release? With such beautiful scenery and soundtrack I can think of few movies more deserving of a BluRay release.

The producer, Fred Weintraub, has his own webpage. It couldn't hurt to send him a few polite e-mails. :-)

http://www.fredweintraub.com/blog/

[HelmutNewton]

It's official! Hen's Tooth Video is releasing "High Road To China" on 4/17/12. It is 1080p widescreen and Region A. The only extra is the theatrical trailer. MSRP is $34.95.

The PDF is too big to attach. But here is a JPG of the sell sheet: