Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[Dailyan]

Twilight Time is back with two new titles for pre-order! THE MAN FROM HONG KONG (AKA THE DRAGON FLIES / 1975) and VENOM (AKA THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST / 1971).
The estimated street date is Monday, January 18th.

[DavidRoylance]

I'm super pleased to hear they are back.

I will be even happier if they have maintained a relationship with the new owners of Fox.

[Gunsnroses092789]

The new titles aren't for me, but it's exciting we're getting more boutique label titles Looking forward to future announcements!

[Shanghai Express]

These titles

[Dollar Colonel]

$25 is a reasonable price. As usual shipping possibly kills the deal. I'll wait for reviews.

[garyd97]

I am glad they are back, but have no interest in these 2. Any chance they will reissue some previous titles that are sold out, like the Blue Lagoon?

[dwk]

I assume that there is no compelling reason to choose the TT The Man from Hong Kong instead of the Umbrella release?

[The Great Owl]

I am glad that Twilight Time is back.

These titles looks intriguing, if not essential.

[Ruemorgue10]

Count me in for The Man from Hong Kong.

[xochipilli]

Not interested in either title, but I do have dome observations:

• The Man From Hong Kong lists the 5.1 track as lossy and the 2.0 stereo as lossless. Not a huge problem, but TT used to encode pretty much everything on the disc with dts-hd ma, including commentaries, featurettes and trailers.
• No isolated score tracks on either one. It's not unprecedented for them but maybe it's a sign that with Nick's passing they no longer have access to such materials.
• No mention of limited quantities. Maybe that's a sign that they're taking a more M.O.D. tactic than before.
• The Man From Hong Kong is a Fox title in the US, so unless I'm wrong that might bode well.

Agreed that these two don't seem to be standard TT fare, but they have put out similar titles in the past. Hopefully more well known studio films are in the pipeline. This niche stuff seems to have a ridiculous amount of pull with customers, which hopefully means it'll sell well, but I'm interested in more standard fare that seems much harder to put out.

[SeanJoyce]

So is it time to re-sticky this thread?

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

No isolated score tracks on either one. It's not unprecedented for them but maybe it's a sign that with Nick's passing they no longer have access to such materials.

That would be sad if true, because the iso scores were always one of the bigger selling points for me when considering TT releases, especially if were a score that was never released on CD, or at least currently OOP.

[DukeTogo84]

The Man From Hong Kong sounds interesting enough.

Does anyone know what the original language for the film is? Was it filmed in English? Also is this a Fox title?

[Sinbad75]

Originally Posted by DavidRoylance

I'm super pleased to hear they are back.

I will be even happier if they have maintained a relationship with the new owners of Fox.

Me too! Especially hoping to see the Tyrone Power Adventure/Swashbuckler "The Black Rose" get the TT treatment!

[Matt89]

Great to hear that Twilight Time is back, I just really wish they would've had the opportunity to renew or re-release some of their OOP Fox titles. I missed out on Violent Saturday and The Egyptian and have been kicking myself ever since. Two CinemaScope masterpieces that are missing from my collection, they're probably my two most wanted titles, and they're OOP everywhere. Other than eBay, I'm not really sure where else to look for them without expecting to pay $100+. I guess with the Disney/Fox deal there's not much hope these will ever get re-released?

~Matt

[gates70]

Great news!

[Nailwraps]

Twilight lives!!!!

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by Matt89

Great to hear that Twilight Time is back, I just really wish they would've had the opportunity to renew or re-release some of their OOP Fox titles. I missed out on Violent Saturday and The Egyptian and have been kicking myself ever since. Two CinemaScope masterpieces that are missing from my collection, they're probably my two most wanted titles, and they're OOP everywhere. Other than eBay, I'm not really sure where else to look for them without expecting to pay $100+. I guess with the Disney/Fox deal there's not much hope these will ever get re-released?

~Matt

LOL and don't I find a copy of Violent Saturday just now on Amazon.com used for $38 shipped. Got it from this seller, I hope it actually is the Twilight Time release but they say in their description that if anything is incorrectly described I get a full refund. Fingers crossed it's not a bootleg lol.

The Egyptian, however, still remains out of reach.

~Matt

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

The Man From Hong Kong sounds interesting enough.

Does anyone know what the original language for the film is? Was it filmed in English?

English. And it is truly a thing of wonder:



"Everywhere you go you just commit mayhem, man... This is Australia, mate, not 55 Days at Peking!"

Ah, Australia in the 70s - where films were cheap but life was cheaper. The Man From Hong Kong (released in the US as The Dragon Flies), George Lazenby's second-finest hour, is truly a thing of joy - an essential Ozploitation movie that does what it says on the label even if Jimmy Wang Yu doesn't exactly burn up the screen as `the tough Hong Kong cop who learned every trick in the book - then threw the book away.' Unlike Lazenby. Where else can you see a film where they set a former James Bond on fire - for real - and he just goes on fighting? Roger, Shir Sean and Pierce would never have done that in a million years. Not only is he `the ruthless czar of international evil' but he's racist with it - "I've never met a Chinese yet that didn't have a yellow streak!" - and even has Frank Thring on the payroll, sneering disdain as only he could at a hero who can only speak English in a badly dubbed American accent ("We like to bounce our customers, not to break them"). Thring at least lasts longer than Sammo Hung, who choreographed the fight scenes and has a supporting role billed as Hung Kam Po before taking an early shower before he can show up the star too much ("A master of kung fu, he used his art for an evil purpose, but he fought well. I will like to meet the man who employed him.").

Wang Yu is never more than adequate - Lazenby still looks like he could beat him in a fair fight, even when on fire - but the film is so much fun and such an intoxicating mixture of car chases, outrageous action movie stunts, gratuitous hang gliding and. in at least one sequence, literally pant-splittingly good fight scenes that it doesn't matter. This is the kind of movie where stuntmen get kicked off racing motorcycles or thrown through very solid objects and stage terrific car chases on back roads without bothering to tell the local police, who probably wouldn't understand why they needed to destroy quite so much property in the process. Indeed, director Brian Trenchard-Smith's original pitch was a bulldozing cop who causes more collateral damage than the villain he takes down ("This country's got a small population, and he's getting through them very fast!"). That tends to get lost until the big car chase near the end of the film, but there's plenty of choice locking of cultural horns between him and the recently departed Hugh Keays-Byrne's hip local detective en route ("I don't want to be rude, man, but no torture, no thumbscrews. This is Australia. We're not allowed to get into that sort of thing, mate."). There's even room for the odd love scene with the two leading ladies, and boy is Wang Yu a charmer:

"Do you think you've recovered enough for me to make love to you?"
"I think I could stand the pain."
"That was nice."
"What did you expect - acupuncture?"

And that's not mentioning the infectiously catchy title song, Sky High (

[Show spoiler]

Jigsaw - Sky High (1975) The Man From Hong Kong - YouTube

. Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to...

Trenchard-Smith's audio commentary, while not as explicit as some of the comments made on the documentary Not Quite Hollywood, is worth a listen, detailing just what an arrogant xenophobic sexist nightmare Jimmy Wang Yu was to deal with during the shoot (when the director cameoed as a thug in a fight in a lift, Wang Yu didn't pull any punches, and that was one of his better days). The compression sucks on the overstacked Australian Blu, so hopefully this should be an improvement.

The Man from Hong Kong - Trailer (1975) - YouTube

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Matt89

LOL and don't I find a copy of Violent Saturday just now on Amazon.com used for $38 shipped. Got it from this seller, I hope it actually is the Twilight Time release but they say in their description that if anything is incorrectly described I get a full refund. Fingers crossed it's not a bootleg lol.

Good deal if it's a legit release. "Violent Saturday" is probably one of my favorite blind buys (I own the Eureka release).