Police Story (1985) / Police Story II (1988)

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

I couldn't think of a more generic title for a film even if I tried. Will have to research these before getting too excited. For all I know it could be a soap opera

[darkness2918]

I also was going to grab the Eureka release in a couple of weeks but will just wait for these now instead.

[RossD]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Sure, but they don’t do that, sadly. (In regards to fan sources)

The colour grading is a different story. If they are prohibited by the distributor- Fortune Star- then unless they want a bad relationship, they play by their rules.

So what’s the reasoning behind them (or others) prohibiting color grading?

[ltb2.0]

So of a *****! I just got in the Eureka releases.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by RossD

So what’s the reasoning behind them (or others) prohibiting color grading?

I don’t really know. Maybe Irongod could explain if he knows? It’s probably just Fortune Star being overly protective of their stuff.

[El_Fez]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

I couldn't think of a more generic title for a film even if I tried. Will have to research these before getting too excited.

This is all the research you need:

Police Story (HK 1986) - Stunt #3 - YouTube

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by darkness2918

I also was going to grab the Eureka release in a couple of weeks but will just wait for these now instead.

You might still want to grab the Eureka ones.

David M compression>>>>>>Criterion compression

Also, I doubt Criterion would have the same audio tracks as Eureka (given by Irongod), so maybe hold off unless they get them.

I could see getting the Criterion one because of the extras, assuming they make and/or license more not on the Eureka release.

[Shingster]

Originally Posted by RossD

So what’s the reasoning behind them (or others) prohibiting color grading?

Basically Eureka said that Fortune Star stipulated in their contract that they were "not allowed to edit the restorations in any way", so that prohibited them from creating a HK cut of PS2 using the 4K footage and from correcting the typically messed up Ritrovata colour grading.

Eureka appear to have "corrected" the colour grading for City Hunter though (which is a 2K restoration) so maybe it's only the 4K restorations that they're not allowed to touch.

Criterion have more clout than eureka though, so maybe they can enact the changes that eureka couldn't.

[RossD]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Basically Eureka said that Fortune Star stipulated in their contract that they were "not allowed to edit the restorations in any way", so that prohibited them from creating a HK cut of PS2 using the 4K footage and from correcting the typically messed up Ritrovata colour grading.

Eureka appear to have "corrected" the colour grading for City Hunter though (which is a 2K restoration) so maybe it's only the 4K restorations that they're not allowed to touch.

Criterion have more clout than eureka though, so maybe they can enact the changes that eureka couldn't.

So WHY do you think Fortune Star won’t allow this? Other companies making the print look better makes them look bad?

[Shingster]

Because they commissioned 4K restorations with Ritrovata and presumably they're happy with them and want to "protect" them from outside tampering. It's not a hard concept to grasp, despite what we fans think of their output Ritrovata have a sterling reputation within the industry.

[RossD]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Because they commissioned 4K restorations with Ritrovata and presumably they're happy with them and want to "protect" them from outside tampering. It's not a hard concept to grasp, despite what we fans think of their output Ritrovata have a sterling reputation within the industry.

Gotcha- I didn’t realize they had a good reputation. I’ve only ever heard how awful their color grading is.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by RossD

Gotcha- I didn’t realize they had a good reputation. I’ve only ever heard how awful their color grading is.

In terms of restoration- as in everything besides colour grading- they're pretty good, there's nothing wrong there. It's just the grading... which I'll never understand why they choose colours like that...

[Bandit Tajomaru]

Has the 4k remastered Police Story 3 been released in anywhere in Asia with English subtitles yet?

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Basically Eureka said that Fortune Star stipulated in their contract

And that's the key sentence. Criterion may have a different contract which allows them more control over their output. That said, they didn't fix the grading on the King Hu films, so I'm not sure there's any reason to assume they'll do it here, even if 'allowed'.

[LordCrumb]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Why? There's no guarantee the Criterion will be any better, in fact the only way this is gonna improve on the Eureka is if they go the same pains they did to source the original audio and then remaster them further in house, or somehow manage to persuade Fortune Star to send (or let criterion send) the masters back to Ritrovata with explicit instructions to remove their LUT bullshit that's ****ing up the color grading like Arrow did with Deep Red, or they tell Fortune Star where to go on the whole "you can't edit the restorations in any way" and do a partial correction of the colour grading and provide a HD presentation of the HK theatrical cut themselves, or match the Eureka A/V wise but provide a good wodge of new extra features on top.

If they just take the masters and slap them onto disc like they have done so far with their HK acquisitions, then you're likely gonna see an inferior presentation due to Criterion's notoriously janky compression not being able to hold its own against a David M. encode.

If any company can get access to stuff from hard ass companies, it's Criterion.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by LordCrumb

If any company can get access to stuff from hard ass companies, it's Criterion.

Are there specific examples of Criterion getting stuff from hard ass companies that no one else could get (apart from instances where the filmmakers themselves were involved, like Lynch, Anderson and Malick).

[LordCrumb]

I don't know. Sounds like you want to prove me wrong, so you look into it for me would you please

[88mph]

Criterion couldn’t save the pisstavision on the King Hu movies, so not getting my hopes up for these. I would like to surprised though.

Also I seem to recall a few more recent Criterion releases dropping original audio mixes and just going with 5.1 upmix. So they might not bother with the original mono altogether if they aren’t handed them from FS.

[morris_schaffer]

Originally Posted by Shingster

They are about the least generic action films you can think of.

The stuntwork is of course much celebrated and rightly so, but the storytelling isn't exactly compelling, the bad guys aren't really on the level of say Hans Gruber, there are some woeful attempts at humour which stops at least one PS installment dead in its tracks for some time. Now I know that some of the action has a little bit of slapstick, and some of it works, but some of it definitely doesn't.

I admire the action and Chan a lot, and I can enjoy these movies somewhat, but take out 'Chan doing his own stunts', and precious little remains.

I don't even think the shopping mall stunt, which was posted a few posts above, is all that thrilling, because in my opinion the movie itself isn't. I don't feel mortal danger in that scene, perhaps because of how it's been shot, perhaps because the narrative isn't super propulsive, perhaps because there's a comical quality to much of the movie, perhaps because the stunt felt like showing off and he didn't really need to slide down that christmas tree (as far as I recall). I like the one with the bus a lot more as it feels more dynamic with more thrilling camera angles.

Bruce Willis jumping off Nakatomi Plaza using a fire hose was far more exciting to me, regardless of whether he did or didn't do it himself. No, I don't think the PS movies as a whole attain greatness in the action realm, but Chan deserves all the credit in the world for doing this stuff for real. That said, you gotta wonder, when an action movie's really great, would it matter if you knew that the actor wasn't doing is own stunts? Provided it wasn't obvious of course.

[ravenus]

^There's a special thrill that comes off knowing that an actor is doing his own stunts and acrobatics, and in Jackie's films even the action has a ballet-meets-slapstick feel to it. I guess sometimes the camera is focussed to show that Jackie is doing the stunt himself and therefore may not choose the most dramatic angle, but for me that is more than offset by Jackie's charisma as an actor and my admiration of his daredevilry.