Black Mask (1996) - Eureka Entertainment

[NeoNical]

Jet Li's Black Mask (1996) will be released by Eureka Entertainment

[Show spoiler]

Will be released in BOTH Regions A & B!

Region A: April 23rd
Region B: April 22nd

[Sky_Captain]

[Jompa]

Hopefully from a new 4K scan and perhaps Dolby Atmos. Even though the 7.1 mix is still pretty good to me.

[apollo828]

Originally Posted by Jompa

Hopefully from a new 4K scan and perhaps Dolby Atmos. Even though the 7.1 mix is still pretty good to me.

Don't know about 4K. Eureka avoids surround sound remixes unless they're the original soundtrack or there's no other way to hear certain dubs (e.g., certain English dubs for alternate cuts). As long as the original theatrical audio is included (I think it was mixed in 5.1), along with the extended Mandarin cut (ideally HD but I'll settle for SD if necessary), I'll be happy.

[KIDplus]

Finally. I got the old HK blu. This movie needs an upgrade.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by Jompa

Hopefully from a new 4K scan and perhaps Dolby Atmos. Even though the 7.1 mix is still pretty good to me.

This film wasn't made w/ those. Though the Lionsgate did have the BD have the ENGLISH dub w/ a 7.1.

It might have had a 5.1 when it came out in HK. Just give me the original track, clean it up if you can. I'm good.

[NeoNical]

I don't think this will be a 4K restoration. Someone on the Eureka forum mentioned it was a 2K restoration but I wasn't able to dig up any evidence to prove that either. The best of my own memory is that I do recall a social media post of someone saying that they were working on restoring some of the Jet Li titles, which may or may not have included this one. One person will not be entirely reliable though so I took it with a grain of salt.

Fortune Star released this video 2 years ago. I haven't seen the film in years so I can't confirm if this video uses footage from the older master or not. Either way, I would bet that there is a new restoration for this release and it will most likely be 2K since most HK films as of the last 5 years have been getting 2K restorations.

[Trailer] 黑ä¿* (Black Mask) - Restored Version - YouTube

Without a doubt, this will be the best release of this title in the market unless if the US market makes a better special edition (My bet would be Shout Factory would probably handle this). There's also the thing about the three cuts: US Cut, Hong Kong Unrated Cut, and the Extended Taiwanese Cut (I believe there was also a hybrid cut on the German Blu-ray releases as well).

[ReSe2k]

never owned this one because there was always something wrong with every release; cut, no subs or shit quality, so i'm very excited for this!

hopefully with multiple cuts *fingers crossed*

[Mr. Chaverria]

I've seen the US cut for sure.

I don't know if I've seen the HK or Taiwanese cut. I want to say I've seen the HK cut but I don't remember what language it was that I saw it in. I'll have to look into those cuts and see if anything I read in them stands out immediately for me to confirm.

[spannick]

Fortune Star is offering a new 4K Scan for customers.

but sadly i would assume it's the usual cut HK "unrated" Version with bits of gore & violence missing.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Mr. Chaverria

This film wasn't made w/ those. Though the Lionsgate did have the BD have the ENGLISH dub w/ a 7.1.

It might have had a 5.1 when it came out in HK. Just give me the original track, clean it up if you can. I'm good.

Theatrical release was Dolby Digital 5.1.

That track should be on the new disc.

[dex14]

Hmm... another Jet Li film from Eureka. And the mysterious plans for Region A that Diabolik DVD alluded to haven't been made known yet... I wonder if maybe Arrow is planning a large box set ala Bruce Lee?

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by dex14

Hmm... another Jet Li film from Eureka. And the mysterious plans for Region A that Diabolik DVD alluded to haven't been made known yet... I wonder if maybe Arrow is planning a large box set ala Bruce Lee?

Someone is. Arrow, Shout, or VS. Shout usually doesn't prevent international releases from being sold at Diabolik, so my guess is that it's either Arrow or VS.

[WaverBoy]

Three cuts, eh? I wonder if there’s any chance of getting a hybrid cut for this one with all the footage included that fits, with Cantonese track for the bulk of the film and the unique bits in Mandarin? I’ve still never seen this and am very curious about it.

[chen lung]

As mentioned, there are several versions of this film (Hong Kong; Taiwanese; English; UK? US), so please try to get any unique footage scanned.

I've got the China Star English trailer for this on 35 mm (I don't know if Fortune Star has it).

[Pochacco]

I used to own the HK DVD but sold it on because watching it back it was so dark!

The only significant cut I recall is

[Show spoiler]where the bad guy handcuffed to Lau Ching-Wan's gets blown up and his severed arm remains.

[Chumpster99]

Are they going to make sure the colours and filters are all as they should be, I hope? Fortune Star's remasters have a history of missing out on those, the masters given for Once Upon a Time in China 1&2 were downright horrible for this and even Criterion didn't end up fixing them. The US BD for this too misses out on a lot of the filters and stylized colours. Hope they make a proper return on this release.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by Chumpster99

Are they going to make sure the colours and filters are all as they should be, I hope? Fortune Star's remasters have a history of missing out on those, the masters given for Once Upon a Time in China 1&2 were downright horrible for this and even Criterion didn't end up fixing them. The US BD for this too misses out on a lot of the filters and stylized colours. Hope they make a proper return on this release.

Hrmm. Didn't know that about the OUATIC transfers. Guess I'm just used to seeing some rough HK stuff that it just flew by me w/o paying attention just cuz i got OUATIC in HD.

[Chumpster99]

Originally Posted by Mr. Chaverria

Hrmm. Didn't know that about the OUATIC transfers. Guess I'm just used to seeing some rough HK stuff that it just flew by me w/o paying attention just cuz i got OUATIC in HD.

Yeah, between night filters and red/sunset filters, a missing special effect and a wrongly-used alternate shot, along with the colours just generally being quite raw, the first two are pretty rough. Opening credits for II are the most obvious as you cycle through white, pink, yellow, red skies where it was all consistently red originally.

Second film is also very noticeably seconds-long framecut in at least one crucial spot during the final fight, Shaw Bros. style, and has sync issues on the mono (possibly related to the cutting?) I still need to check for other framecuts in the film, only the one was confirmed.

It's why I'm very wary about these Fortune Star transfers and always hope they get a double check / a lot more love and care to keep it / make it more accurate to the originals

[apollo828]

Originally Posted by Chumpster99

Second film is also very noticeably seconds-long framecut in at least one crucial spot during the final fight, Shaw Bros. style, and has sync issues on the mono (possibly related to the cutting?) I still need to check for other framecuts in the film, only the one was confirmed.

It's why I'm very wary about these Fortune Star transfers and always hope they get a double check / a lot more love and care to keep it / make it more accurate to the originals

I get the impression that, to some degree, there has been a learning curve involved. Those films were among the first to get remastered. Meanwhile, you have Criterion's upcoming Heroic Trio / Executioners release. It will have restored footage. Somebody noticed and was able to get that corrected, possibly because there was an attempt to sync up the original audio instead of blindly accepting what was handed to them, which seems to be what happened with the French release.

Don't get me wrong. There could still be issues! I'm just saying a lot of work is involved, especially since a lot of raw transfers are missing certain things that have to be added later. That means tracking down original tapes/LDs/VCDs, comparing, adding filters and such, and who knows what else. It's a fair amount of work, with what is usually a limited amount of time to tackle it.