Fortune Star

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

Even if bird chirps were there originally, I hope they remove every single bird chirp from these films - Im too distracted by them that im waiting for the bird chirp rather than focusing on the film.

[OldPangYau]

ANYway Just discovered this last night... apparently Fortune Star is footing the bill for L'Immagine Ritrovata to restore the Lo Wei produced Jackie Chan films. I watched this video:

LIGHTS! CAMERA! RESTORATION! - YouTube

And the focus on the film reel at the 17 second mark caught my eye. So, I screencapped it, rotated it 90 degrees left, flipped it horizontally, then color corrected it... it's a reel of Dragon Fist.



A film I never thought Fortune Star and L'Immagine Ritrovata would bother with! It's definitely one of the better Lo Wei produced (and in this case, directed) JC films, but one I never thought would get the "Ritrovata treatment."

[Killer Meteor]

Oh man, now I'm excited!

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Killer Meteor

Oh man, now I'm excited!

Same here! This bodes SO well for the rest of JC's films through the City Hunter/Crime Story era and the Fortune Star catalog in general. It's entirely possible that Fortune Star has finally heard the cries from reviewers around the world and is putting in the effort to get these fixed. L'immagine Ritrovata opening the lab in Hong Kong has been a huge help, so they can physically clean and scan the negatives there and send the non-digitially-restored files to Italy to the main L'immagine Ritrovata HQ for digital restoration.

The crazy fact that we're bypassing upscales for 4K masters is amazing. I can't wait to see how these look, and A Better Tomorrow may be the first to get a blu-ray since that was already completed last year. We probably won't see the new Bruce Lee restorations on disc until next year... but I'd like to be wrong.

As for Dragon Fist? Who knows how far along they are in restoring it. That scene in question is about a third of the way in the film, and who knows when that video was filmed. Plus, that was the physical restoration, not even the digital aspect. My guess? We may see it at the 2017 Hong Kong International Film Festival. But I wonder what other films they will play with it. Maybe they're restoring all of the Lo Wei JC films first? On that note, I mentioned on Facebook that it makes me VERY curious as to which version of New Fist of Fury they would potentially restore... hopefully the 120 minute Mandarin version and not the 80 minute Cantonese version.

As with many things, only time will tell.

[OldPangYau]

So, I took another stab at trying to detect the film in this official L'immagine Ritrovata article on Facebook:



As I *thought* it was the last time I tried (but couldn't get just right), it's from the opening of Shaolin Wooden Men:



So that's two confirmed Lo Wei JC films being restored by L'Immagine Ritrovata... seriously, I never would've expected 4K restorations for the Lo Wei JC films

[reason108]

Cool news! Thanks for that info!

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by reason108

Cool news! Thanks for that info!

No problem! I just find it amusing that they keep posting photos of their negatives thinking that there aren't film nerds like myself who won't try to find out what they are! The first one I discovered was Fist of Fury, and then these followed. Funny thing is, they posted a blatantly obvious negative from The Big Boss since it was the opening title to the film!

[reason108]

Originally Posted by OldPangYau

No problem! I just find it amusing that they keep posting photos of their negatives thinking that there aren't film nerds like myself who won't try to find out what they are! The first one I discovered was Fist of Fury, and then these followed. Funny thing is, they posted a blatantly obvious negative from The Big Boss since it was the opening title to the film!

Don't say it too loud as they might stop doing that.

But, as long as they continue to post the negative images, keep letting us know.

And, FS really need to start releasing these 4k masters on blu-ray ASAP. Though, the Lo Wei JC films are not my favorites, at least it is a start. As far as early JC movies go, I would like to see Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin, Spiritual Kung Fu, The Fearless Hyena, Dragon Fist and Dragon Lord get a 4k remaster. Since FS do not own the rights to Snake in the Eagle`s Shadow or Drunken Master, it is doubtful that those will get a 4k remaster. At least there is a decent master out there for them but needs an English subbed release. And, the JC cannon goes without saying (1980-1994 imo)! As long as a good job is going to be done and have faithful versions released, then I will certainly be supporting the cause by picking these up yet again. Hell, I would be happy with a bare-bones release as long as it is a true HD release and include the original mono soundtrack. I would probably then just replace the disc that came with these Nova Media Korean releases with the FS 4k release if it was bare-bones. But, the question is, whom will be releasing these true HD releases? Would FS just use K&R or Nova Media, or both? It makes me wonder because someone has to put them out on disc. Would it make sense to saturate the market with these inferior transfers then turn around and announce the 4k mastered releases? I know us die-hards would be dipping again. But, maybe that is the plan; that they release the Lo Wei movies mastered in 4k and then allow NM to put those out. Then, maybe in a couple of years, re-release the cannon JC films that everyone would be expecting. FS have the same problem with the BL films. I doubt the average fan would double-dip again on the BL films since we still have the Shout Factory box set, the Australian box set, the Japanese Extreme Editions, etc... Hope I am wrong and they get these out. We already have some of these 4k titles sitting around for at least a year or so, right? The BL films were done last year, I think. Yeah, get some movies out and show the fans that you have a change of heart and will do the right thing. That would be my message to FS.

What I would really like to see happen is some director involvement so color timing, etc can be addressed. Otherwise, the fans will say "Yeah, its great we got 4k but Jackie`s uniform should be green and not blue. Screw FS, I am just gonna boot it/stick with my dvd, etc." Cause, you know they will.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by reason108

Don't say it too loud as they might stop doing that.

But, as long as they continue to post the negative images, keep letting us know.

And, FS really need to start releasing these 4k masters on blu-ray ASAP. Though, the Lo Wei JC films are not my favorites, at least it is a start. As far as early JC movies go, I would like to see Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin, Spiritual Kung Fu, The Fearless Hyena, Dragon Fist and Dragon Lord get a 4k remaster. Since FS do not own the rights to Snake in the Eagle`s Shadow or Drunken Master, it is doubtful that those will get a 4k remaster. At least there is a decent master out there for them but needs an English subbed release. And, the JC cannon goes without saying (1980-1994 imo)! As long as a good job is going to be done and have faithful versions released, then I will certainly be supporting the cause by picking these up yet again. Hell, I would be happy with a bare-bones release as long as it is a true HD release and include the original mono soundtrack. I would probably then just replace the disc that came with these Nova Media Korean releases with the FS 4k release if it was bare-bones. But, the question is, whom will be releasing these true HD releases? Would FS just use K&R or Nova Media, or both? It makes me wonder because someone has to put them out on disc. Would it make sense to saturate the market with these inferior transfers then turn around and announce the 4k mastered releases? I know us die-hards would be dipping again. But, maybe that is the plan; that they release the Lo Wei movies mastered in 4k and then allow NM to put those out. Then, maybe in a couple of years, re-release the cannon JC films that everyone would be expecting. FS have the same problem with the BL films. I doubt the average fan would double-dip again on the BL films since we still have the Shout Factory box set, the Australian box set, the Japanese Extreme Editions, etc... Hope I am wrong and they get these out. We already have some of these 4k titles sitting around for at least a year or so, right? The BL films were done last year, I think. Yeah, get some movies out and show the fans that you have a change of heart and will do the right thing. That would be my message to FS.

What I would really like to see happen is some director involvement so color timing, etc can be addressed. Otherwise, the fans will say "Yeah, its great we got 4k but Jackie`s uniform should be green and not blue. Screw FS, I am just gonna boot it/stick with my dvd, etc." Cause, you know they will.

Well, they might wise up and just use images of films that have been confirmed

As for those early JC films, one of those is not like the other

And getting these released to the public... I wonder if they would have an embargo on showing the restorations at film festivals if they've already been released on disc. As someone who had a short film at a festival, they have rules and stipulations of varying degrees if you've released a film online. However, A Better Tomorrow has been shown at TWO of the Hong Kong International Film Festivals thus far... not sure why they're sitting on that one. I'm most intrigued about that one since we know John Woo was happy with it.

On that note, you won't always get director involvement... the Lo Wei films alone are evidence But they could bring in Jackie to oversee his films.

[drees5761]

Great news.
They did a good job with the King Hu films , lets hope the same happens with these and obviously original mono will be essential.
The problem is what company will release these on Blu?
Hong Kong shows little interest in the format, Japan and Germany do but these are not English friendly. Lets hope someone like Arrow get involved and that these dont just sit there and come out for festivals or pay TV screenings.

[PGW]

I'm sorry, but "Shaolin Wooden Men" is not in the same cinematic universe as the King Hu films.

[drees5761]

No one is saying that.
Its just a shock that these early low budget Jackie Chan efforts are getting a HD remaster at all.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by drees5761

Great news.
They did a good job with the King Hu films , lets hope the same happens with these and obviously original mono will be essential.
The problem is what company will release these on Blu?
Hong Kong shows little interest in the format, Japan and Germany do but these are not English friendly. Lets hope someone like Arrow get involved and that these dont just sit there and come out for festivals or pay TV screenings.

Yeah, that's what I talked about as well. We know the Bruce Lee films will always get re-releases, but the JC titles can be hit or miss with companies, especially the Lo Wei-era ones. It would be nice to see some of the cult companies like Arrow or 88 Films jump in, especially considering the latter is heading towards more HK films (although only Shaws so far). Despite the prestige of the restoration company itself, I don't see Criterion releasing a Lo Wei-era Jackie Chan box set Despite the lack of English options, I wouldn't be surprised if Japan and Germany have a field day with these. Paramount Japan stopped releasing JC discs, perhaps knowing that the films were headed in this direction.

Originally Posted by PGW

I'm sorry, but "Shaolin Wooden Men" is not in the same cinematic universe as the King Hu films.

Not sure if you mean taking place in the same world (that's all I think of when I see "cinematic universe" these days... Thanks Marvel...) or general quality of filmmaking... but you're right on both levels, but drees is right in that no one even implied that. Hell, I've mentioned how I'm surprised that either Fortune Star, L'immagine Ritrovata, or both thought that the Lo Wei-era JC films were worth 4K restorations. The *only* one I think is truly worth that big of a restoration effort would be Fearless Hyena, if only because it was Jackie's first film credited as director... and is easily the best of the Lo Wei era, simply because Jackie took what he learned from his time at Seasonal and applied it to the film.

[Fabs]

I just hope we can get physical copies of these restorations, without having to wait years for them.

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Fabs

I just hope we can get physical copies of these restorations, without having to wait years for them.

Very true. It would be a total waste to focus these solely on film festivals, and not give the public a chance to purchase them. On that note, when did the restoration of A Touch of Zen first play in theaters compared to when it received its first blu-ray? I'm still betting that A Better Tomorrow will be the next one to finally get a disc release, as I believe it was L'immagine Ritrovata's first restoration after the two King Hu films. I'm still hoping Criterion will give it a whirl, but they still haven't announced Dragon Inn yet.

[Killer Meteor]

I must admit it's a delight to know the Lo Wei films existed at all. At one point, we were condemed to tapes that didn't even pan'scan, but just showed the centre of the image. There are whole scenes on the tape of SPIRITUAL KUNG FU where you can see is the scenery!

[Markgway]

I suspect that with improved masters becoming available more reputable companies (i.e. those not willing to put out any old crap they're given) will consider dealing with Fortune Star. Look into it, Arrow!

[OldPangYau]

Originally Posted by Killer Meteor

I must admit it's a delight to know the Lo Wei films existed at all. At one point, we were condemed to tapes that didn't even pan'scan, but just showed the centre of the image. There are whole scenes on the tape of SPIRITUAL KUNG FU where you can see is the scenery!

Oh, I remember those days... at least the All Seasons Entertainment VHS releases had decent artwork (although the Rambo-esque New Fist of Fury one is laughable). But remember the Simitar releases?



Yeah, let's take screencaps directly from the VHSs and use them for art. Although New Fist of Fury and one other one (blanking on it) used promo photos from Battle Creek Brawl!

Originally Posted by Markgway

I suspect that with improved masters becoming available more reputable companies (i.e. those not willing to put out any old crap they're given) will consider dealing with Fortune Star. Look into it, Arrow!

Yeah, I'd love to see Arrow jump on these, especially since they've landed in the US as well I surprisingly saw the Pray For Death Arrow blu "in the wild" at FYE recently. But yeah, Arrow is a company that throws themselves into cult titles, knowing that audiences like us exist. Of course, we could still be years off before we see these titles on disc. Hell, the blu-ray.com news article announcing the 4K restoration of A Better Tomorrow was almost two years ago!

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=14290

Also, to stave off potential confusion, Cineteca di Bologna founded and developed L'immagine Ritrovata, which is why the former is mentioned in the article and not the latter. Anyway, the article that showed the Shaolin Wooden Men photo was from last fall, so they could be pretty far along with that one, if not completely finished. The video with Dragon Fist was just a couple of months back though. Like I said, for all we know, it could be a "Jackie Chan early years retrospective" that they may have at next year's HKIFF.

[Huseyin]

I've finally put the last 3 Fortune Star releases on my youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUea60M332s

[gskmeva]

It's still amazes me that Fortune Star even had access to what appears to be the original 35mm camera negatives for the restoration. Though I'll say that many of Jackie's films in the Lo Wei period are not his best, they are still very important in terms of historical significance in Jackie's film career. From what I can remember, each Lo Wei film with Jackie had mediocre box office success which was the very reason why Lo Wei sent Jackie on loan to Season Films to make Snake and Eagles Shadow and Drunken Master with Yuen Woo Ping. Speaking of Yuen Woo Ping, I'd would rather see Fortune Star fork out the money to have 4k restorations of the Once and Upon a Time in China series (1 and 2 specifically). I was fortunate to have watched the films in the early 2000 on 35mm during a special and limited release and let me say, it looked great, even compared to the HKL dvd that I had at that time. I personally have not seen the HK bluray releases but I've heard they're horrible! Anyway, hope we get to see more restored HK films in the near future.