Third Window Films Discussion Thread

[Mansinthe]

tetsuo is a simply stunning release. part 1 looks awesome
and its acutally pretty cheap if you consider what you get here... well done !

i know different people different taste but currently i own all the bluray releases of thirdwindow a few DVDs , and there is not a single movie i didnt like ! looks like adams taste in movies does work fine for me

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Sinthetic

Absolutely great stuff mate. Well done on Confessions.

I am a huge fan of the Tetsuo release you did, I think it is one of the best Asian releases out in HD. I've never actually seen Bullet Ballet so I'm hugely looking forward to the release. A good way to end the year!

Have you had direct contact with Tsukamoto? Tell him Sam says hi if you get a chance to speak again haha.

Yeah speak to him quite often as worked very closely with him on all these releases, so will say hello from you next time!

He's starting shooting his new film soon and I'm really looking forward to it as the story is great

[Pooch]

Hi Adam,

If you see Shinya Tsukamoto, or speak to him, please tell him I really, REALLY want an HD, 1080p version of A SNAKE OF JUNE, as soon as possible! My favourite film of his, that is crying out for a Blu-Ray release with English Subtitles!

Thanks!


Pooch

[crazyman]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

So he could ignore an entire country's product because one extremely obscure title bombed on him? What a muppet. If he released som Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung films they would be his best sellers guarenteed.

[mimurph1]

Originally Posted by Pooch

If you see Shinya Tsukamoto, or speak to him, please tell him I really, REALLY want an HD, 1080p version of A SNAKE OF JUNE, as soon as possible!

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by crazyman

So he could ignore an entire country's product because one extremely obscure title bombed on him? What a muppet. If he released som Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung films they would be his best sellers guarenteed.

like he already said many times, movies from jackie chan , jet li and other big names might probably sell great but are way to expensiv to afford for his label. and even if he could or wanted to get such a movie there might still be a BIG risk. we all know what happend to cineasia (they had such big titles in their lineup.. didnt help them much)

i think such thinks are way more complex and not that easy how we sometimes think they are for movie labels.

and still i would call movies like "for loves sake" and "vulgaria" extremely obscure.. there is stranger stuff out there...


big labels would probably not even give him just "one" jackie chan movie for example, so he would have to buy the license for 5 , 10 or more movies at once. such things are not even possible for bigger labels i would assume

[Yami]

Originally Posted by crazyman

So he could ignore an entire country's product because one extremely obscure title bombed on him? What a muppet. If he released som Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung films they would be his best sellers guarenteed.

Adam posts here under the 'thirdwindowfilms' handle and I would appreciate if you didn't call him a muppet. Even if you disagree with what he says, there are better, politer, ways of initiating a discussion on the topic - as has been demonstrated earlier in this thread.

As mansinthe said, releasing Jackie Chan films didn't help Cineasia stay afloat. The more expensive the rights, the bigger the risk - very few films are guaranteed best sellers.

[crazyman]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

like he already said many times, movies from jackie chan , jet li and other big names might probably sell great but are way to expensiv to afford for his label. and even if he could or wanted to get such a movie there might still be a BIG risk. we all know what happend to cineasia (they had such big titles in their lineup.. didnt help them much)

i think such thinks are way more complex and not that easy how we sometimes think they are for movie labels.

and still i would call movies like "for loves sake" and "vulgaria" extremely obscure.. there is stranger stuff out there...


big labels would probably not even give him just "one" jackie chan movie for example, so he would have to buy the license for 5 , 10 or more movies at once. such things are not even possible for bigger labels i would assume

Cineasia is more complex than that.

Hong Kong Legends lasted the best part of ten years and were successful because they built up a great reputation with HK fans thanks to Brian White and Bey Logan. When they left the company started to go downhill. I have little doubt HKL would still be a successful company today if they had continued to work there.

Cineasia took over but all they did was re-release some HKL DVDs, which most of the HK fans already had, hence the DVDs didn't sell well. Had they released classic Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee films on Blu-ray they would have undoubtedly sold a lot better. The classics of the 70/80s remain a very popular niche in the UK but there's only so many times you can sell your customer base the same product (usually once).

[crazyman]

Originally Posted by Yami

Adam posts here under the 'thirdwindowfilms' handle and I would appreciate if you didn't call him a muppet. Even if you disagree with what he says, there are better, politer, ways of initiating a discussion on the topic - as has been demonstrated earlier in this thread.

As mansinthe said, releasing Jackie Chan films didn't help Cineasia stay afloat. The more expensive the rights, the bigger the risk - very few films are guaranteed best sellers.

No backseat modding. People who blame their failures on others are to me muppets.

Spending (relatively) big on a popular title is a lot less risky than spending less on a title that will sell 3 copies.

[charnier]

Originally Posted by crazyman

No backseat modding. People who blame their failures on others are to me muppets.

Spending (relatively) big on a popular title is a lot less risky than spending less on a title that will sell 3 copies.

And no upfront trolling - you may not agree with Adam's strategy, but as Yami has said, you don't have to revert to name calling and be rude.
If you don't like how they do things, then don't buy their product. And since you're into Bruce Lee, then maybe the Legacy set from Shout would suit you better.

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by crazyman

No backseat modding. People who blame their failures on others are to me muppets.

Spending (relatively) big on a popular title is a lot less risky than spending less on a title that will sell 3 copies.

to get big movies he has to compete with big companys. thirdwindow films is adam (alone) like he said himself , hes not warner or well go usa

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Pooch

Hi Adam,

If you see Shinya Tsukamoto, or speak to him, please tell him I really, REALLY want an HD, 1080p version of A SNAKE OF JUNE, as soon as possible! My favourite film of his, that is crying out for a Blu-Ray release with English Subtitles!

Thanks!


Pooch

Both him and myself would love to, but unfortunately the rights are still held with Palisades Tartan so it's up to them...

The reason why we could do the others is that the rights lapsed and we worked on a big project to start going through and cleaning them up for blu-ray as there would be an immediate distribution plan. With Snake of June he couldn't just up-front pay for it to be digitised without a distribution plan after, and I wonder if Palisades Tartan would be so forthcoming with him...

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by crazyman

Cineasia is more complex than that.

Hong Kong Legends lasted the best part of ten years and were successful because they built up a great reputation with HK fans thanks to Brian White and Bey Logan. When they left the company started to go downhill. I have little doubt HKL would still be a successful company today if they had continued to work there.

Cineasia took over but all they did was re-release some HKL DVDs, which most of the HK fans already had, hence the DVDs didn't sell well. Had they released classic Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee films on Blu-ray they would have undoubtedly sold a lot better. The classics of the 70/80s remain a very popular niche in the UK but there's only so many times you can sell your customer base the same product (usually once).

HK Legends is honestly another time another place.

The UK distribution scene has changed DRASTICALLY over the last couple years so one can't point at their successes (or those of Tartan) and compare to what's going on nowadays.

With the Sony Riots of 2011, EUK going under, Zavvi and Virgin closing, HMV going backrupt end of last year, Blockbuster going early this year and Play.com around the same time as that, the whole entire market has changed. VOD may be coming in, but nowhere near the levels as in the States and it's very hard to make income from that with most foreign films, especially Asian ones. On top of all of that, DVDs are selling for peanuts, and everybody wants blu-rays which cost 6 times the amount of DVDs to produce, yet people here don't want that represented in the price as too many studios have been selling blu-rays so cheaply that it has forced the indies to do as well.

Titles that would have been easily snapped up years ago, such as Outrage Beyond, Shield of Straw, etc, still have not been sold to the UK because there are no companies that can take risks on even larger, what would have been considered more 'commercial' and 'obvious' titles.

So it's just not as easy as using such comparisons. I wish it was!!

Unfortunately though despite the lack of market, film's prices have not dropped in relation, so while prices have dropped a bit, it's not to the levels that could guarantee any success, and it's a risk either way.

So if you have a huge wad of cash burning a whole in your pocket then please feel free to pass it on and i'll go after some Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee (if I could convince Warner Brothers to give up some, which may be hard), but if that gamble fails then it could be the end of me, while at least gambling on cheaper and smaller films and failing still allows me to continue.

Also please appreciate that I don't have any real staff or office, so handling a massive title could put a lot of strain upon handling all the other titles and the company itself, plus just may not be possible for 1 person to physically handle. I already program for 3 film festivals and produce a film a year so along with the release a month I'm doing for Third Window it's hard to devote too much time on 1 film which could be too tough to handle.

Of course I try and listen to all things, so I appreciate you posting your opinions and hope to strive forward without the need to change or stray too far from the company's original concept.

thanks

[Pooch]

Hi Adam,

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Both him and myself would love to, but unfortunately the rights are still held with Palisades Tartan so it's up to them...

Dag nammit. That's a pain in the rear. I really want an HD release of this film, because it needs a 1080p/1080i print due to the colour-scheme and nature of the film. On DVD, it looks okay, but it's pretty messy in comparison, simply because DVD doesn't have the ability to cope with really, ultra-fine detail.

Guess, I'll have to go pester Palisades Tartan then! Thanks for taking time out to reply though.


Pooch

[pro-bassoonist]

NOTE

I wanted to quickly mention that Adam now has official Blu-ray Insider status on the site.

Before asking a question, please skim at least the last weeks worth of posts in order to make sure that the question hasn't already been asked or answered. Using the search function is also always a good idea. Please conduct your inquiries in a professional manner and avoid asking "chicken little" questions or asking when unannounced titles will come out.

Pro-B

p.s. Adam, please check your PMs.

[Zen_Amako]

I wouldn't mind seeing some of Takashi Ishii's films. His last few weren't released anywhere outside of Asia, as far as I know. Maybe A Night in Nude: Salvation? I bet Hiroko Sato in HD would move more than three copies.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Zen_Amako

I wouldn't mind seeing some of Takashi Ishii's films. His last few weren't released anywhere outside of Asia, as far as I know. Maybe A Night in Nude: Salvation? I bet Hiroko Sato in HD would move more than three copies.

He is one of the better directors of that genre and the Night in the Nude series are great (as are Flower and Snake), though to be honest blu-ray releases of pink films are a bit of a non-starter as they don't have enough of an audience. DVD has a better chance of selling, but pink films always did the best when they were stacked on shelves in stores where the cover sold the films, but nowadays with HMV going bankrupt earlier this year and no other retailers (HMV have come back as a much smaller version) there is no store space for those type of films unfortunately. Just working off the name the market may be too small as films tend to fit in between arthouse and pink which is a complicated and niche genre. If it was 5+ years ago then definitely would be a better chance, but unfortunately things have changed

[Yami]

Trailer for Tokyo Fist

[Dan8700]

Since TW owns the rights for "Peppermint Candy"... any plans to release an HD upgrade? It's been out for a while in Korea and seems it looks great (even tho there are issues concerning the English translation).

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Dan8700

Since TW owns the rights for "Peppermint Candy"... any plans to release an HD upgrade? It's been out for a while in Korea and seems it looks great (even tho there are issues concerning the English translation).

To be honest, blu-ray versions of titles which have already been on DVD which are not older classics or cult titles do not sell at all as people are very reluctant to upgrade, and only in cases of titles being incredibly popular such as Love Exposure could a blu-ray release after the DVD release work. Many of out titles such as Kamikaze Girls and Memories of Matsuko which are arguably a huge step up on blu-ray and much more popular titles didn't sell at all when we released the blu-rays as not many people who already had the dvd wanted to upgrade.

A title like Peppermint Candy just wouldn't be possible on blu as the DVD wasn't a bit seller, and the blu-ray would need to sell 6 times as much as a DVD, yet with the DVD a poor seller itself there just is no way in hell it could come anywhere near a breaking even point.

Unfortunate, but that's how it is on many titles such as that.

though if the korean blu-ray has english subtitles then why not buy that? That would take away even more from any release anybody else could do