No Hong Kong Movies On BD In The UK

[x3ntaur]

I loved the Hong Kong Legends releases on DVD. Most had decent transfers and its a shame no company has picked up rights to do releases for the UK/EU market. I always enjoyed Bey Logan's commentaries too.

[Ste7en]

Link for Trinity:

http://www.trinityfilm.co.uk/cine_asia/

I still have some gaps in my Cine Asia collection.

[bizarre_eye]

There was also this announcement a while ago concerning Kino Lorber (US) picking up distribution rights to the Tartan library:

HONG KONG – Specialty North American distributor Kino Lorber has picked up distribution rights to the Palisades Tartan library, which includes the iconic “Asian Extreme” movie collection.

Ownership of the 90-title collection remains with Palisades Tartan, giving Kino Lorber U.S. home entertainment rights including packaged media, digital and repertory theatrical rights. The deal also includes rights to some titles in Canada.

Company principal Richard Lorber said that Kino Lorber will now take certain titles out on limited theatrical release. Others will be issued on Blu-Ray (under the Palisades Tartan label) for the first time in North America.

While some of the titles have previously been represented by Vivendi and eOne, these deals have now expired. Kino Lorber plans new digital releases since many of the titles have not been widely available on the most current new media and digital platforms.

The Asia Extreme label was assembled and pioneered by the U.K.’s Tartan Films before it expanded into the U.S. in the early 2000s and filed for bankruptcy in June 2008. It notably includes Park Chan-Wook’s “Oldboy,” and the other instalments of Park’s ‘revenge trilogy’ “Sympathy For Lady Vengeance” and “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance;” Johnnie To’s “Election,” and “Triad Election;” Yoji Yamada’s samurai epic “The Hidden Blade;” and Shinya Tsukamoto’s cult classic “Tetsuo The Iron Man;” Kim Jee-woon’s “A Tale of Two Sisters” (pictured); Thai horror “Shutter,” as well as early films by Kim Ki Duk “Samaritan Girl,” “The Coast Guard,” “The Bow” and “Breath.”

The Palisades Tartan-branded titles included Carlos Reygadas’ “Battle In Heaven;” Michael Winterbottom’s “9 Songs;” Ulrich Seidel’s “Import Export;” and Feng Xiaogang’s “A World Without Thieves.”

“We are exultant to be able to bring the gems of the Palisades Tartan library back to market on all home entertainment physical and digital platforms. It’s why we exist as a company—these films define our mission,” said Lorber.

With the Tartan titles expanding its library to nearly 900 titles Kino Lorber is one of the key indie art house distributors in North America. It releases some 25 films per year theatrically. Some 70 titles a year go to home entertainment via its own DVD brands and direct digital distributor deals with the major platforms including iTunes, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.

Source.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by navydavey

I would be behind any company releasing classic Hong Kong Cinema - especially any Jackie Chan movies. I have fired an email to Arrow as I think it would fit nicely alongside their current Japanese range but they have stated that the market for these movies is too small.

I don't get that - surely releases like this one below are just as obscure or niche as the more famous HK films?:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=255683

Edit: Maybe films like Massacre Gun are cheaper to buy rights to?

[drauch]

^Probably. I have a friend that worked for Shout!Factory, and being a huge classic HK action/martial-arts fan, I was curious how much it costs to license some of that stuff. He said the Jimmy Wang Yu and Angela Mao stuff was cheap, but the Jackie Chan stuff was outrageous when compared to that. When you get into the 80s and early 90s stuff hardly anybody cares outside of Jackie, and maybe Sammo kind of, which is a damned shame. Even classic Jonny To like The Big Heat only has that awful print. I've basically just grown accustomed to accepting non-anamorphic VHS prints with awful hardsubs, or unfortunately German English-dubbed prints of Girls w/ Guns stuff.

[Markgway]

The problem isn't just with the cost of rights, it's that HD masters don't currently exist for most of these older films.

[drauch]

Correct, but at this point I don't even care about HD masters for the wealth of films outside the big directors/actors. Give me a set like those Shout!Factory ones, or at least good releases like Media Blasters did with stuff like Boxer's Omen and Seeding of a Ghost. Anything that doesn't look like a VCD print is fine with me for a film like Devil Fetus or The Rape After that has only seen garbage releases on dead media throughout the years.

[Markgway]

Actually, many of the Shaw Bros titles do have genuine HD masters, which is why the Media Blasters editions are so good.

[SymbioticFunction]

I think that some of the John Woo HK films that starred Chow Yun-fat would sell very well in the UK (and would be heavily imported by non-UK collectors). I'm convinced that Arrow special editions of genre classics such as A Better Tomorrow or Hard Boiled would be very popular releases.

btw Hard Boiled now has an excellent looking HD master according to people who bought the non-english friendly Japanese bd.

[drauch]

Originally Posted by Markgway

Actually, many of the Shaw Bros titles do have genuine HD masters, which is why the Media Blasters editions are so good.

Yeah, they seem to be about the only ones that took care of their films. Wish more people could get a hold of them and release them. I've got tons of those old R3 IVL releases, but even then some of that stuff got edited. I'd love is someone could release the extended Chinatown Kid with Alexander Fu Sheng instead of the forced "happy" ending. I think the problem with martial-arts films is that it has been parodied so long and primarily released as budget DVDs that nobody takes it seriously.

Woo is a pretty household names, so it's sorta perplexing that his stuff wasn't on (good) BD immediately. In the states the Weinstein brothers with Dragon Dynasty is sorta to blame for the rights, but really surprised to not see anything in the UK yet.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by drauch

Woo is a pretty household names, so it's sorta perplexing that his stuff wasn't on (good) BD immediately. In the states the Weinstein brothers with Dragon Dynasty is sorta to blame for the rights, but really surprised to not see anything in the UK yet.

For an infamous film like Woo's Hard Boiled, something that is so highly respected, popular and influential, a blu-ray special edition just seems like a bit of a no-brainer.

Battle Royale (deservedly) got a special edition from Arrow so why not that 1992 classic? I own a very disappointing Dragon Dynasty US Hard Boiled bd and would upgrade to a better english friendly version in a heartbeat.

I would also love to see A Better Tomorrow arriving to the UK in HD. Or how about The Killer? I'm not at all convinced that those three Woo films would be significantly less successful and more "niche" than many of the other blu-ray releases, Arrow have chosen to put out to date.

btw I'd also love to own HD versions of Chan's Project A and the original Police Story...but maybe those two films really are "niche"? And finding a good HD source might be a serious problem?

[huntauk]

Oddly enough I was searching ebay on the off chance the James Dean set would be £10 or under (missed it last year when was £7.99) and German editions of Superfighter 1-3 came up. Not sure what the English titles are but Superfighter coming up as Project A and Superfighter 3 as The Fearless Hyena (I'm probably wrong), which chronologically make no sense.

Mansinthe do you own these, and are the transfers ect decent?

[drees5761]

From what i have read the German Blu rays are the usual upscaled Fortune Star stuff and not English friendly unfortunately.

[Agermemnon]

Bit of a drag that HKL and CA went bust, but Well Go USA Entertainment are region free and maybe Third Window Films will pick up more ? otherwise it's importing region free films or getting a region free player.

[samdvd1]

Originally Posted by Agermemnon

but Well Go USA Entertainment are region free

I picked up their release of the Jet Li movie Ocean Heaven. Really good change of pace for Li. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Ozman79]

Can't believe it's 2020 and there's still no UK release for The Killer, Hard Boiled, or A Better Tomorrow.

[The Mole]

Originally Posted by Ozman79

Can't believe it's 2020 and there's still no UK release for The Killer, Hard Boiled, or A Better Tomorrow.

And there won't be in the foreseeable future. Rights issues. No licenses available for outside of Asia due to Golden Princess no longer dealing in film rights.

[Ozman79]

Originally Posted by The Mole

And there won't be in the foreseeable future. Rights issues. No licenses available for outside of Asia due to Golden Princess no longer dealing in film rights.

That's just crazy. Do they not like money?

Looks like it's a good thing HKR are putting out Hard Boiled and The Killer then.

[Pochacco]

Originally Posted by The Mole

And there won't be in the foreseeable future. Rights issues. No licenses available for outside of Asia due to Golden Princess no longer dealing in film rights.

It's interesting... I was just reading on Wikipedia that Star TV acquired the rights to Golden Princess movies while Rupert Murdock purchased Star TV during the mid 90s.

If Star TV's parent company was 21st Century Fox - that Disney bought in 2019 then in theory Disney would have the rights to the Golden Princess movies

Somehow I can't see any of their releases making it onto Disney+!

[Killer Meteor]

I don't think Fox owns Fortune Star anymore?