Black Cat 2 (88 Films)

[The Mole]

1. Vital signs readout now!
(That is what I hear. And it makes sense as the clip shows an operation).

2. You will forget about it
(Not sure, but that is what it sounds like to me. Would be easier to verify if we had the context of the scene. What are they fighting about?)

3. Yes please, sir!
(Also not sure. Context needed.)

4. Coming in.

5. Allright! Get off of me!

[chen lung]

1: Vital signs readout, now! = seems right.
2: You won't forget. / What's happened? = not totally convinced.
3: Yes, please, sir! = not totally convinced.
4: Coming in. = seems right.
5: You all right? / Get off of me! = seems right.

[cooey]

Black Cat II finally confirmed as delayed (just had an email from HMV with a release date of TBC)

[Sleazeaddict]

waiting for 88 to list this and Gaira boxset

[cooey]

Originally Posted by Sleazeaddict

waiting for 88 to list this and Gaira boxset

I think you'll be waiting well into the end of September, probably well into October....

[Daedolon]

Originally Posted by cooey

Black Cat II finally confirmed as delayed (just had an email from HMV with a release date of TBC)

Was just wondering about this, thanks! I can safely place my order for the other stuff now.

[cooey]

OP updated

[chen lung]

The film had a handful of releases with the English audio (largely sync sound, though there is ADR here and there — particularly for Jade Leung), but probably more so with the dubbed Cantonese version. However, this will mark, as far as I’m aware, the first home video release to contain the English soundtrack in true stereo.

We were originally delivered audio which was effectively mono, but after I queried to Fortune Star, the optical Dolby Stereo reels for both languages were obtained from the Hong Kong Film Archive (the main repository for assets of titles belonging to Fortune Star) and transferred at a lab (or possibly retransferred); 88 Films had them remastered by FilmFinity. I made English SDH for it, and the Russian and Cantonese dialogue has been newly translated (thanks to those people but also the others who helped transcribe the English dialogue).

I don’t know if it was done exclusively for this release (I requested it, though), but the visuals of the Hong Kong and English trailers were scanned to 4K from film (as opposed to wholly using the ancient masters from DigiBeta); 88 Films also commissioned restorations of those (again, by FilmFinity).

[Parsifal]

Originally Posted by chen lung

The film had a handful of releases with the English audio (largely sync sound, though there is ADR here and there — particularly for Jade Leung), but probably more so with the dubbed Cantonese version. However, this will mark, as far as I’m aware, the first home video release to contain the English soundtrack in true stereo.

The Vinegar Syndrome release also has a stereo track for BLACK CAT 2 English track, unless that's not "true" stereo.

[chen lung]

Originally Posted by Parsifal

The Vinegar Syndrome release also has a stereo track for BLACK CAT 2 English track, unless that's not "true" stereo.

I think the English was dual mono? The Cantonese was stereo.

[cooey]

Packshot

[Stanshall]

Originally Posted by tomblu

Still haven't seen the first one, have been wanting to see it. How does it compare to say, She Shoots Straight, or the ITLOD films? And is the sequel any good?

It's relatively bleak and very little that you'd call kung fu. The sexualised elements are rather overplayed by the cover art and chosen stills. Nevertheless, quite enjoyable.

[tomblu]

Originally Posted by Stanshall

It's relatively bleak and very little that you'd call kung fu. The sexualised elements are rather overplayed by the cover art and chosen stills. Nevertheless, quite enjoyable.

Thanks for the reply, I ended up picking it up in the end, managed to get the LE from Amazon for retail price, and then I picked up a German mediabook for fun because I saw it on holiday.

It was enjoyable but I did prefer a few of the other HK action ones more.

I've got the second one on order.

[Telemachus]

I finally saw the first Black Cat film, I thought it had a rough start and the acting from the Westerners was awful, but it settled in once Simon Yam showed up, he's always so cool! Jade Leung won me over during the film, she's definitely not a good actress, but something genuine about her expressions and the way she plays the character. She definitely got knocked around doing all those stunts, so she impressed me. Interesting audio track on this, English, Cantonese, Japanese, splash of German. Down for the second film when it hits!

[Anthony Thorne]

In the first film, Jade Leung was put in hospital by the fire stunt in the corridor, so she's quite a trooper.

[The Mole]

I got my BD a few days ago and had a quick look at it so far. Image looks a bit filtered. Nothing drastic, but it is not as good as other HK titles from 88. The big letdown is the English stereo track which sounds plain awful. There are hugh fluctuations in volume and at some points it gets so low that one cannot even hear what is being said. The English mono track sounds better but is no revelation either. On the other hand the booklet is an interesting read, there are a few interviews an other bonuses and the overall design of the release is excellent as always.

[apollo828]

Yeah, some of the tracks included on these releases are there more for the sake of completion than for the tracks' fidelity. It's really unfortunate but often unavoidable.

[Markgway]

I'd rather the original tracks were present in a less than optimum form than not at all.

[The Mole]

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every original audio track these labels can get their hands on and include, but in this case the bad quality of the English tracks is a special case because English is the original language here, not Cantonese. So it is really sad that 88 could not get them in better quality, especially the stereo track, which, pardon my french, sounds like sh*t.

[Telemachus]

The VinSyn English mono track also sounds like trash according to the other thread, and they didn't even bother to find the stereo. Seems like this film just has cursed sound elements. Amazon Global Store UK is selling this on Amazon US for $26 with free shipping, had to grab it. Next cheapest price is Atomic but it's $29 + $5 ship charge. I didn't think the first film's sync sound track was great but the picture is so pretty I didn't let it bother me.