God of Gamblers (1989) (88 Films) - 20th March 2023

[chen lung]

Does anyone have the Made in Hong Kong VHS?

[Pochacco]

Originally Posted by chen lung

Does anyone have the Made in Hong Kong VHS?

I did have but then I got rid of it when I upgraded to the DVD release. Sadly the only VHS I have is of The Avenging Quartet (should you ever need it in future!)

[revoloution]

Originally Posted by chen lung

Does anyone have the Made in Hong Kong VHS?

Yes i do, do you want me to post it out yo you?

[chen lung]

Does anyone have the Nova Blu-ray?

[chen lung]

Originally Posted by Futurhythm

I do.

Thanks.

I've just realised the Vicol one would also be fine.

[DGS27]

This is gonna be a great release. About time!

[Gobzer]

How is the PQ on the Nova release?

[Broomey]

Perhaps volume 3 of Shawscope could be 12 mahjong films. You could even fit a set in that big box.

[Yurakucho]

Originally Posted by Broomey

Perhaps volume 3 of Shawscope could be 12 mahjong films. You could even fit a set in that big box.

Anything but more wuxia.
I can't take any more kung fu masters with wispy white beards.

[Master O]

Originally Posted by Broomey

There seems to be way too few Chow Yun Fat films on Blu.

If I'm not mistaken, many of his films, especially Hard Boiled, have legal rights issues, which is why we have not seen recent Blu Ray releases for them.

The last Region A Blu-ray release for Hard Boiled was Dragon Dynasty's iirc.

[drush9999]

Amazon have pushed back the release date to the 10th April

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by Master O

If I'm not mistaken, many of his films, especially Hard Boiled, have legal rights issues, which is why we have not seen recent Blu Ray releases for them.

The last Region A Blu-ray release for Hard Boiled was Dragon Dynasty's iirc.

All zoomed in for that one. It was also included on that Hard Boiled game.

What is the story on The Killer and Hard Boiled? Still with whatever Weinstein company it was under?

[apollo828]

Originally Posted by Mr. Chaverria

All zoomed in for that one. It was also included on that Hard Boiled game.

What is the story on The Killer and Hard Boiled? Still with whatever Weinstein company it was under?

Both films were produced by Golden Princess. The common story has been that, after the rights were picked up by a real estate investment firm (!), they refuse to license the movies out beyond Hong Kong. (Mei Ah had, and maybe still has, the HK rights.) However, the story goes that Mike Leeder has been claiming the rights are with Disney these days. Apparently, Star TV somehow acquired the GP rights as part of a legal case, and then Star TV was bought by one of Disney's Asian wings. If this is true, good luck waiting for Disney to do anything with these films, assuming they've even been properly maintained.

Is all of this true? Damned if I know. In any event, it's all a gigantic mess that nobody seems to have figured out. I believe there was a rumor that Kino somehow made an offer to somebody. Only a fool would think Criterion hasn't been sniffing around. I'm sure Eureka & 88 would commit mass murder if it meant getting a deal done. Whatever the truth may be, those films are buried deep.

[Yautja_Warrior]

Really hope the rights issues can be sorted out one day and we get proper good releases of Hard Boiled and The Killer, as the best versions are still the bootleg HKR releases. I would gladly pay up for a high quality official release of Hard Boiled.

[Ben_C]

A UHD of Hard Boiled would almost certainly be numero uno on my wishlist.

[The Mole]

Originally Posted by apollo828

Both films were produced by Golden Princess. The common story has been that, after the rights were picked up by a real estate investment firm (!), they refuse to license the movies out beyond Hong Kong. (Mei Ah had, and maybe still has, the HK rights.) However, the story goes that Mike Leeder has been claiming the rights are with Disney these days. Apparently, Star TV somehow acquired the GP rights as part of a legal case, and then Star TV was bought by one of Disney's Asian wings. If this is true, good luck waiting for Disney to do anything with these films, assuming they've even been properly maintained.

Is all of this true? Damned if I know. In any event, it's all a gigantic mess that nobody seems to have figured out. I believe there was a rumor that Kino somehow made an offer to somebody. Only a fool would think Criterion hasn't been sniffing around. I'm sure Eureka & 88 would commit mass murder if it meant getting a deal done. Whatever the truth may be, those films are buried deep.

Not quite. Golden Princess was transformed into a real estate company, Kowloon Development. They sold off the Asian rights to the majority of their movie catalogue to Star TV/Fortune Star and part of it to Mai Ah Entertainment. The international rights however stayed with them. This includes the entire Cinema City library. Kowloon Development, no longer being about film licensing, is not interested in licensing out single movies to different companies around the world. What they are looking for is a company that buys all the international rights in one package. But this package is supposed to cost several million dollars because of its size (several hundred movies and TV programs). So it would take at least a mini major who can afford this investment. And they would not only buy well-known titles sellable around the world but also tons of materials only suitable for Asian or even only Cantonese audiences (comedies, dramas etc.). So up until now, no one is willing to take the risks and make the deal, which is the cause why all of Golden Princess' catalogue is and stays legally unavailable outside of Asia. All those Golden Princess/Cinema City releases coming from Germany at the moment, are bootlegs.

[Mr. Chaverria]

I'd imagine the people that would get Hard Boiled or The Killer be 88 Films, Eureka, or CC. Maybe Arrow but I don't feel like they'd be someone to kill over those films. They have less to prove than Eureka and 88 Films.

I'd guess CC have been working on it too.

Whoever gets it and the demand for it? Not putting it on UHD would be stupid. It's a money mover for sure by now. Shit. Those would be the releases of the year for sure.

And, yeah. HKR is the best version of those things currently.

[Broomey]

I wonder if it's a case for these big companies that the money they would make for licensing these films would be so comparatively small compared to the sort of money they are use to making it would be like if offered Bill Gates $10 to mow my lawn.

[Owenjohnston]

I'm surprised that if Fortune Star / Mei Ah own the Asian rights they haven't released a 4K UHD John Woo collection that we could import.

[Magyalmar]

Adam from Third Window explained that a lot of UK distribution rights are stuck in limbo since Tartan's shutdown, because they had secured long-term rights. It's very possible that The Killer and Hard Boiled are among those.