THANK YOU so much for answering this long standing rights question so eloquently!! Sadly, this explains pretty much everything in regards to this library, and is the similar scenario where other media gets swept up into a giant conglomerate who simply doesn’t want to be bothered with handling something minuscule in their holdings that is also outside of their normal business realm. It’s like a much bigger version of the handful of films that are controlled by the Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical company and are in the same unavailable scenario. Or iconic hero characters from classic eras being locked away in the Condé Nast empire.
Fortune Star wouldn't let me touch the John Woo movies with a ten foot pole even back in my Joy Sales days. From my understanding, they were okay with me retranslating all non-remastered releases but have some kinda rule stating that all remastered films are to be left intact, including English subtitles. We had a huge debacle over Ringo Lam's "School of Fire". Got so bad that we caved in and just released it without any remastering. On a sidenote, upon finally watching School of Fire with my English translations for subtitles, I was not very happy with the end result. Turns out I was only given the Mandarin dub dialog subtitle transcript as reference and I wanted to translate directly from its original Cantonese from the very start.
Been wondering about this for a long time now! Thanks for clearing it up. Hopefully the situation gets worked out somehow, someway sooner rather then later.
Thanks for checking out the video, for how often i see people asking for the movies in comments sections it seemed like a good thing to get Frank to do while he was visiting Scotland.
Another issue that wasn't mentioned in the video but might further complicate things: Apparently there was a bit of a legal feud between Golden Princess and Fortune Star in the mid-2000s. The court documents are publically available online (search for case numbers HCMP 1556/2006 and CACV 61/2007).
thanks mate! really wIsh this wasn't the reality, but hoping this helps a little to clear up some of the frustration that gets falsely directed at the UK and US labels!
This is crazy. I snagged the HK Rescue Killer and Hardboiled on ebay. They look good. Too bad Quentin Tarantino, can't purchase the rights to these films. Great video guys. Blessings.
@@dannysavage8929 I actually ordered from HK Rescue and didn't get them. I lost $30 U.S. I ended up winning them on Ebay. I've only watched both once. I need to revisit them.
it is indeed mate, not officially, i don't normally condone bootlegs, but in the case of Hard Boiled and the Killer, just now, it's the only option. The super shady bootlegger Hong Kong Rescue's restorations are currently the best editions of Hard Boiled and The Killer and several other companies and individuals have all started bootlegging his bootlegs. Sloppy Seconds in the USA and Shamrock Media in Germany. the Shamrock editions are the only ones not on domestic recordable bluray discs.
@@TheFanaticalDragon I normally don't neither on bootlegs but it's the only way you can enjoy them as they were meant to be viewed. Same with Warners they don't just want you to buy but their entire HK catalog . They want an insane amount of money to own these movies from their catalog. As much as i'm not a fan of HKR as much as i was years back. I prefer the HKR Drunken Master 2 where Warner's can't sell a Jackie Chan movie without fans being so skeptical about it.
Eventually. Surely Criterion or Shout! will eventually make it happen. I do like the idea of Tarantino buying the rights. It’s not out of the realm of possibility. He has been very generous when it comes to film preservation like buying the New Beverly cinema.
Thats what I have too. But I also was fortunate enough to keep my Criterion collection copies as well. So if you can get a copy of those, for a DECENT price? Thats not to bad
maybe, not entirely sure i want to open that can of worms again, he's effectively vanished now, owing lots and lots of people money. His work still exists in the form of ebay bootlegs ( of his bootlegs). Putting his super shady business practices aside for a minute, his actual restoration and curation work (illegally) pulling together assets from multiple sources and making a 'definitive special edition' for Hard Boiled and The Killer are to date the best English friendly version out there for either movie. It's a shame, the whole situation is such a mess really.
@TheFanaticalDragon Thanks for the informative post. That makes sense. I've never really looked into bootlegs outside of true lies before the recent 4k restoration. But will look into killer, hard boiled and peking opera blues from HKR. For most other stuff I'm content with the HKL DVDs for now!
Truly such disappointing news to hear. I do hold out a little hope for the future, but nothing so soon. Great video with Frank Djeng. Need more news drops like these to clear the air.
Good to get that cleared up. At least now people know that picking up the Hong Kong or Korean Blu-rays are their best option. Dragon, you didn't tell me Frank had moved in!? Lol 💞
I was aware of the reason why we don't have these titles on new boutique labels but why is it that some of them are available in germany on new bluray releases
I recently bought The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow and Bullet To The Head on Hong Kong Legends DVD. Not HD but still pretty good quality, and not too crazy price (I think £20 for all 4).
The films are the most important thing at the end of the day, glad you got them all to add to your collection. The old HKL DVD’s are great! Plus most Bluray players auto-upscale.
@@TheFanaticalDragonahh those were the ones I must've bought off eBay. But the ones I've got.... Bloody good bootlegs. Would rather an official copy though. Next... manhunt.
@@TheFanaticalDragonI'm not sure I agree it matters at this point. They won't give us actual releases outside of Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. Get the best one of a bad bunch.
There were the Dragons Dynasty official blu ray releases. Indeed not widely available now and like gold dust but they were out there at one point. I know i was lucky enough to pick them up. 🙂
both upscales from the old DD DVD's though sadly. Japan got the best bluray release so far, its' that source that Hong Kong Rescue used for his bootleg version ( which in turn is the version Shamrock Media in Germany have released) It's all quite a mess isn't it.
I also have the Dragon Dynasty Blu-rays for both films in 1080i, which look awful on 4K TVs! I do have A Better Tomorrow in 4K Digital on AppleTV, which is under Fortune Star and surprisingly with Dolby Vision and Atmos
@@Dudge123 Depends which Tartan you had of Hard Boiled. The original with burnt in subs was terrible but the Collector's Edition with DTS is decent. The DD has dubtitles so the Tartan beats it there. I've only seen the DVDs of these releases so can't comment if the DD Hard Boiled BD was much better. But yeah you do need to set your expectations low for Woo films.
Get the Hong Kong Hard Boiled. It's great. 4K remaster. Sadly only a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 remix but it's acceptable. Much better than the Dragon Dynasty. Less than $20 too.
Didn't Arnie Venema say the master negatives for those films no longer exist in a few of his commentaries? So even if the rights did get sorted, wouldn't those potential releases still be on the same level as the Hong Kong Rescue releases?
I mean, someone could track down multiple interpositive for the best possible image quality possible, loss of master negatives hasn't stopped people from making some absolutely stunning restorations (first one I could think of from the back of my head is the Citizen Kane 4K restoration).
Even getting all the boutique labels to pool the money with one of them so they can buy the rights and then sort them out afterwards, the cost sounds too much. Story reminds of that pharma company that dabbled in movie production in the 70s, and now sits on the library, refusing to do anything with them. No Sleuth on BR as a result.
I wound up buying pretty good BR copies of The Killer and Hard Boiled off ebay only to discover they were essentially a copy of the hk BD rips of both But I'll be fkd if they're not the best versions of those movies I've ever seen. Next for me I reckon in my John Woo collection will be Manhunt
The Killer was screened at SIFF last June in a brand new 4K restoration. Unfortunately, they used AI software to do so, I would know if the result is good or crap, thanks.
The phrase Ai software in relation to film restoration hurts my soul....I did just watch his new The Killer re-imagining and it wasn't actually as bad as I was expecting, enjoyed it way more than SIlent Night, saw it the same week as the new the Crow remake, and that was a tough sit.
When you say Asia, what's meant? Because I only know of Hong Kong, Mainland China, South Korea and Japan releasing them. I'm not aware of Thai releases for example.
He's saying they can be sold in all asian countries. Yes, even Thailand... We can't and won't be able to get them and same with everywhere around the around.
@@GothamKnight84661 Exactly. Fortune Star can only sell to Asian countries. If no distributor in Thailand is interested than you won't see a Thai release. Besides, Thailand is bootleg heaven
thats a real shame but i guess maybe one day if someone has deep pockets, i have both on dvd , hard boiled on prism from 2004 in cropped letterbox, the killer on hong kong legends via the deagostini magazine series 2006, both seem pretty good quality to me, not blu ray but hey, so they obviously had the rights for dvd release over hear why should it be different for blu ray so for the stupid question, cheers
Explains why most of these, the best releases are still the British Hong Kong Legends DVDs. Man they were a good boutique label before we used that term.
@@frankdjeng5543Really glad i have the Fortune Star Aces Go Places Bluray Boxset I got about 5 -6 years ago!! And I’ve been wondering why none of the boutique labels have put them out and now I know! Thank You Sir.
I wonder if films like School on Fire and Bullet in the Head will get better physical media releases in Asia because it’s pretty obvious that they could benefit from a restoration. What’re your thoughts on this?
There is a general 'grass is always greener' element to bluray releases internationally it seems, the UK and US do a much better job of releasing Asian titles than most Asian labels and inversely, Asian labels often do a far better job of releasing Western Movies than US labels. seems backwards at times, but consumers often crave insights into other cultures over their own i guess. Thankfully Asia is evolving when it comes to Physical Media which has been in massive decline in HK and Korea over the past two decades. There are a number of really great boutique labels in mainland China ( WCL/Diskino/MLIFE) who focus in more on Chinese and HK cinema than the big Premium HK labels ( Manta Lab & HDzeta) who both tend to just focus exclusively on western titles. Korea fairs better with Fortune Star titles than HK, Nova Media have a pretty long standing deal with Fortune Star and have put lots of great releases of many of the titles which Eureka and 88 films have since made available in the UK as well as many which Eureka and 88 are not able to ( The Killer, A Chinese Ghost Story, A Better Tomorrow etc) The main issue most UK and US collectors tend to have with importing Asian blurays tends to be the lack of any accessible special features ( and sometimes lack of English subs) The UK and US labels really go the extra mile in terms of commissioning audio commentaries, documentaries and custom artwork. The HK releases iof HK movies n particular tend to all be bare bones. They just don't sell well enough over there for them to put more effort into them. Sorry for the long reply! it's a complicated issue!
I really appreciate the detailed response! I’ve picked up some titles from Asia. I was pretty happy with the HK blu ray release of A Better Tomorrow which looks quite beautiful even if I have some issues with the audio. I recently picked up the Nova release of Bullet in the Head during their sale and am looking forward to revisiting that film. I would love if there was an English friendly release of the uncut versions of School on Fire and Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind. Can you recommend a few physical media releases from Asia of HK films that you were particularly happy with?
I really like what Nova Media do! I really like their release of City on Fire, it's not the best looking bluray compared with the restorations we're used to seeing from the UK and US labels, but it's the best version of the film i've seen on bluray so far. Nova also have a few other smaller labels who they distribute, and they handle the ARA release of Shaolin Soccer which i'm a big fan of ( that particular release and the movie) Also If the Bluray.com forums are to be believed then Diskino/WCL are putting out a 4K UHD version of A Better Tomorrow in the forseeable future, and i'm a massive fan of Diskino's releases, their quality from the titles i've seen so far is extremely good, so keeping an eye on how that develops!
Well, the question will be if that were to happen for School on Fire, will fans will get to see it fully uncut / uncensored outside of bootlegs? The blu-ray that HK released on School on Fire is cut and heavily censored.
lol, i'd love to! this was just a flying visit to Scotland as part of his UK trip. We did livestream with Phat Samurai on Friday too though. you can check out that video on my page or on Samurai's :)
@@TheFanaticalDragon Will do, your channel is getting better and better. Try and get your lady wife to do a review, like Shaz and 'thingy' I can't remember his name...HKB, you know the ones. LOL
I think someone like Quentin Tarantino could make it happen. Even if he doesn't have the funds, he might know enough people who would want to put their money in. Either that, or somehow the funds can be crowdsourced.
@@andysmith1996 only for the right ? I was asking the total of the price including everything. I will purchase them so that everyone can have a good physical release to access.
Where and from whom? Unless it was from HK, Japan or Korea. It’s a bootleg. Germany puts out Hard Boiled and The Killer fairly often. None of them are official releases.
@@TheFanaticalDragon Nova Media is the only one with English subtitles I can find. That was back in 2016 and is now sold out. The first movie is available from them.
@ShanghaiRooster aye, and there’s a 4K uhd release of ABT1 coming from mainland China sometime soon from WCL/Disc Kino Our wee video is really specifically explaining why no US or U.K. label can release the films ;)
@@TheFanaticalDragon Yeah. It's not impossible; just needs a guy with a whole bunch of money to be willing to put it up purely with cinematic altruism as the reason, not with the idea of turning another profit for themselves. If I was in that position I'd do it myself, hooking up with some boutique company. The only stipulation would be the discs must be both region A and B (unless they were 4K of course). The other road would be if a new chief took over at this real estate company who was more open towards licensing these films.
not sure if i'll be getting it mate ( though ci am onsidering it as anything with Sex in the title brings in about a bazillion views lol ) The Game of Clones set wiped out my funds for a while, but we'll see, maybe.
This opens up the obvious question why don't Hong Kong or Korean labels put in the same effort Western and Japanese labels do. We'd all happily import from Hong Kong or South Korea, for North Americans they're even Region A, if the releases were any good but Hong Kong labels in particular put in very little effort. More than the DVD days but still not a lot.
1. Asia residents don't have the same large living space like we do in the west, so they have to pick and choose which film to collect for their limited shelf space. 2. They would much rather watch streaming content on their phones than on a TV 3. HK labels don't want to spend money on extras so they could care less about including bonus features.
there is still a little bit of a collectors market and there are a bunch of great Chinese and HK boutique labels, but they mostly release western movies
Criterion is restrained in their budget for procuring extras which explains why their recent HK releases like HEROIC TRIO/EXECUTIONERS have very little bonus features.
Very unlikely, there are lots of bootlegs out there already in various countries. In some cases being openly sold via Amazon and in high street retailers.
The Hong Kong The Killer is good enough. Again only a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 remix but it's okay. Proper 1080p24 unlike the poor Dragon Dynasty 1080i60. I'm not saying it's a great release but better than the Dragon Dynasty and perfectly acceptable.
So the film is just gonna deteriorate in a vault somewhere. There is a saying if you dont know how to swim then stay out the water.....they should stick to land like they use to.
Not outside of Asia no. But they'll both likely get decent 4K releases from HK or Mainland China sometime eventually. My money would be on WCL/Mlife/Diskino.They've already out out A Better Tomorrow 4K and are just about to release Once a Thief on 4K.
@@cubdukat this comment was 3 months ago when it was very much in limbo. Since then Paramount have secured the rights and announced a 4K remaster for 2025.
It's always funny Media collectors are always crying about the 1 or 2 movies.They can't get not realizing that there's millions of movies that they can get
John woo himself said to question are we going to get 4K release of your great films? His answer was simple. Nobody knows anymore where the rights are in any country blah blah blah blah blah. I’m sorry guys I respect you but I do believe if you look at the absolute details. You will see that the fact you’re saying right now I’m not entirely true that isn’t against your knowledge on all things great or brilliant but you can’t deny visual facts or the fact that I can buy this from another country, but spot on guys always respect
As we said in the video. You CAN buy official releases in Asia. all the German, Italian and any other non-Asia releases are all bootlegs. Non licensed releases of questionable quality. We made the video purely because literally any time any UK or US label releases any remotely Asian title the comments sections are endlessly full of people demanding that label release Hard Boiled or The Killer, and the truth is they can’t. I’m sorry you don’t agree.
THANK YOU so much for answering this long standing rights question so eloquently!! Sadly, this explains pretty much everything in regards to this library, and is the similar scenario where other media gets swept up into a giant conglomerate who simply doesn’t want to be bothered with handling something minuscule in their holdings that is also outside of their normal business realm. It’s like a much bigger version of the handful of films that are controlled by the Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical company and are in the same unavailable scenario. Or iconic hero characters from classic eras being locked away in the Condé Nast empire.
Hold on to your DVDs of these chaps. They're the best we're going to get.
Fortune Star wouldn't let me touch the John Woo movies with a ten foot pole even back in my Joy Sales days. From my understanding, they were okay with me retranslating all non-remastered releases but have some kinda rule stating that all remastered films are to be left intact, including English subtitles. We had a huge debacle over Ringo Lam's "School of Fire". Got so bad that we caved in and just released it without any remastering. On a sidenote, upon finally watching School of Fire with my English translations for subtitles, I was not very happy with the end result. Turns out I was only given the Mandarin dub dialog subtitle transcript as reference and I wanted to translate directly from its original Cantonese from the very start.
I was just wondering this a few days ago! I have even emailed Shout! asking for these titles. Now I understand.
Been wondering about this for a long time now! Thanks for clearing it up. Hopefully the situation gets worked out somehow, someway sooner rather then later.
Thanks for checking out the video, for how often i see people asking for the movies in comments sections it seemed like a good thing to get Frank to do while he was visiting Scotland.
Another issue that wasn't mentioned in the video but might further complicate things: Apparently there was a bit of a legal feud between Golden Princess and Fortune Star in the mid-2000s. The court documents are publically available online (search for case numbers HCMP 1556/2006 and CACV 61/2007).
This is a fantastic breakdown. Thanks guys!
thanks mate! really wIsh this wasn't the reality, but hoping this helps a little to clear up some of the frustration that gets falsely directed at the UK and US labels!
This is crazy. I snagged the HK Rescue Killer and Hardboiled on ebay. They look good. Too bad Quentin Tarantino, can't purchase the rights to these films. Great video guys. Blessings.
I’m glad I got those too. I didn’t think The Killer looked very good though.
@@dannysavage8929 I actually ordered from HK Rescue and didn't get them. I lost $30 U.S. I ended up winning them on Ebay. I've only watched both once. I need to revisit them.
You never know. He might someday! I wonder if he is aware of the issue. He probably has 35mm prints of those titles.
It's ashame that both these titles that are Woo's best work will never be released outside of Asia.
it is indeed mate, not officially, i don't normally condone bootlegs, but in the case of Hard Boiled and the Killer, just now, it's the only option. The super shady bootlegger Hong Kong Rescue's restorations are currently the best editions of Hard Boiled and The Killer and several other companies and individuals have all started bootlegging his bootlegs. Sloppy Seconds in the USA and Shamrock Media in Germany. the Shamrock editions are the only ones not on domestic recordable bluray discs.
And drunken master 2 in Europe
@@TheFanaticalDragon I normally don't neither on bootlegs but it's the only way you can enjoy them as they were meant to be viewed. Same with Warners they don't just want you to buy but their entire HK catalog . They want an insane amount of money to own these movies from their catalog. As much as i'm not a fan of HKR as much as i was years back. I prefer the HKR Drunken Master 2 where Warner's can't sell a Jackie Chan movie without fans being so skeptical about it.
@@AminaG-o6t Yes, in Germany!
Eventually. Surely Criterion or Shout! will eventually make it happen. I do like the idea of Tarantino buying the rights. It’s not out of the realm of possibility. He has been very generous when it comes to film preservation like buying the New Beverly cinema.
I have a copy of The Killer and Hard Boiled on DVD from a company called Dragon Dynasty. I believe you can still find them on ebay and amazon.
Thats what I have too. But I also was fortunate enough to keep my Criterion collection copies as well. So if you can get a copy of those, for a DECENT price? Thats not to bad
Would love to see a video on Hong Kong Rescue. Just to get a better understanding of it and your view on it
maybe, not entirely sure i want to open that can of worms again, he's effectively vanished now, owing lots and lots of people money. His work still exists in the form of ebay bootlegs ( of his bootlegs). Putting his super shady business practices aside for a minute, his actual restoration and curation work (illegally) pulling together assets from multiple sources and making a 'definitive special edition' for Hard Boiled and The Killer are to date the best English friendly version out there for either movie. It's a shame, the whole situation is such a mess really.
@TheFanaticalDragon
Thanks for the informative post. That makes sense. I've never really looked into bootlegs outside of true lies before the recent 4k restoration. But will look into killer, hard boiled and peking opera blues from HKR. For most other stuff I'm content with the HKL DVDs for now!
Truly such disappointing news to hear. I do hold out a little hope for the future, but nothing so soon. Great video with Frank Djeng. Need more news drops like these to clear the air.
Maybe i will step up in the future and purchase all the catalogue with my own money. Just as long the price is negotiable
Good to get that cleared up. At least now people know that picking up the Hong Kong or Korean Blu-rays are their best option. Dragon, you didn't tell me Frank had moved in!? Lol 💞
lol, we totally thought you and Shaz would be our first guests in the new house, Frank and his wife got in there before you. X
Available on DVD though so not all is lost then.👍
I was aware of the reason why we don't have these titles on new boutique labels but why is it that some of them are available in germany on new bluray releases
Because those German releases are bootlegs. Entirely unlicensed releases.
If there’s a HK classic that deserves a 4K release are these two gems. Same with the 1966 Green Hornet tv series, no official release till this day. 😣
I recently bought The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow and Bullet To The Head on Hong Kong Legends DVD. Not HD but still pretty good quality, and not too crazy price (I think £20 for all 4).
The films are the most important thing at the end of the day, glad you got them all to add to your collection. The old HKL DVD’s are great! Plus most Bluray players auto-upscale.
The Killer and Hard Boiled are out in Germany on BD. Bullet in the Head comes out august. Not 4K, but I gladly take those releases.
The German releases are all bootlegs
@@TheFanaticalDragonahh those were the ones I must've bought off eBay.
But the ones I've got.... Bloody good bootlegs.
Would rather an official copy though.
Next... manhunt.
@@TheFanaticalDragonI'm not sure I agree it matters at this point. They won't give us actual releases outside of Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. Get the best one of a bad bunch.
I've got The Killer on order. Looking forward to comparing it to my Hong Kong release.
The Hard Boiled Hong Kong blu-ray is from a 4K remaster. Looks great. Only a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 remix sadly but it's acceptable.
The fanatical dragon with the librarian Frank Djeng! Sad news but at least it’s understandable why those films can not get releases outside of Asia.
There were the Dragons Dynasty official blu ray releases. Indeed not widely available now and like gold dust but they were out there at one point. I know i was lucky enough to pick them up. 🙂
both upscales from the old DD DVD's though sadly. Japan got the best bluray release so far, its' that source that Hong Kong Rescue used for his bootleg version ( which in turn is the version Shamrock Media in Germany have released) It's all quite a mess isn't it.
@@TheFanaticalDragon Oh wow, I didn't actually know that. I was just so happy to upgrade from my terrible quality Tartan DVD release! 😂
I also have the Dragon Dynasty Blu-rays for both films in 1080i, which look awful on 4K TVs! I do have A Better Tomorrow in 4K Digital on AppleTV, which is under Fortune Star and surprisingly with Dolby Vision and Atmos
@@TheFanaticalDragon DD were only around a few years and the DVDs and BDs of Hard Boiled and The Killer were released at the same time.
@@Dudge123 Depends which Tartan you had of Hard Boiled. The original with burnt in subs was terrible but the Collector's Edition with DTS is decent. The DD has dubtitles so the Tartan beats it there. I've only seen the DVDs of these releases so can't comment if the DD Hard Boiled BD was much better. But yeah you do need to set your expectations low for Woo films.
Literally never heard of any of these movies. Are they worth watching?
lol, Well they’re no Silent Night, but good to see a young director finding his footing ;)
Get the Hong Kong Hard Boiled. It's great. 4K remaster. Sadly only a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 remix but it's acceptable. Much better than the Dragon Dynasty. Less than $20 too.
Didn't Arnie Venema say the master negatives for those films no longer exist in a few of his commentaries?
So even if the rights did get sorted, wouldn't those potential releases still be on the same level as the Hong Kong Rescue releases?
Yes, him and Mike Leeder both mentioned this.
I mean, someone could track down multiple interpositive for the best possible image quality possible, loss of master negatives hasn't stopped people from making some absolutely stunning restorations (first one I could think of from the back of my head is the Citizen Kane 4K restoration).
Oddly enough I want to buy Happy Ghost but not Bullet In The Head 🤔
I still have my Dragon Dynasty blu rays, not the best picture quality but better than nothing I guess.
Sucks but at least I still have my dragon dynasty dvds. They’ll hold me over until the day comes when they do come to blu ray or 4k
These Films are available on Blu Ray in germany. The Label called "T & G Vision Films".
Yes they are, but they’re not licensed, official releases. They’re both Bootlegs and both DvD upscales
Even getting all the boutique labels to pool the money with one of them so they can buy the rights and then sort them out afterwards, the cost sounds too much.
Story reminds of that pharma company that dabbled in movie production in the 70s, and now sits on the library, refusing to do anything with them. No Sleuth on BR as a result.
I wound up buying pretty good BR copies of The Killer and Hard Boiled off ebay only to discover they were essentially a copy of the hk BD rips of both
But I'll be fkd if they're not the best versions of those movies I've ever seen.
Next for me I reckon in my John Woo collection will be Manhunt
The Killer was screened at SIFF last June in a brand new 4K restoration. Unfortunately, they used AI software to do so, I would know if the result is good or crap, thanks.
The phrase Ai software in relation to film restoration hurts my soul....I did just watch his new The Killer re-imagining and it wasn't actually as bad as I was expecting, enjoyed it way more than SIlent Night, saw it the same week as the new the Crow remake, and that was a tough sit.
When you say Asia, what's meant? Because I only know of Hong Kong, Mainland China, South Korea and Japan releasing them. I'm not aware of Thai releases for example.
He's saying they can be sold in all asian countries. Yes, even Thailand... We can't and won't be able to get them and same with everywhere around the around.
@@GothamKnight84661 Exactly. Fortune Star can only sell to Asian countries. If no distributor in Thailand is interested than you won't see a Thai release. Besides, Thailand is bootleg heaven
@@GothamKnight84661I'm not so sure. Asia also includes South Asia which I don't think is meant.
thats a real shame but i guess maybe one day if someone has deep pockets, i have both on dvd , hard boiled on prism from 2004 in cropped letterbox, the killer on hong kong legends via the deagostini magazine series 2006, both seem pretty good quality to me, not blu ray but hey, so they obviously had the rights for dvd release over hear why should it be different for blu ray so for the stupid question, cheers
Probably applies to city on fire full contact tiger on beat dragon crime family prison fire 1+2 thanks for explaining
Also Aces Go Places Swordsman 1-3 I love Maria Legend of Wisely and so many others
Explains why most of these, the best releases are still the British Hong Kong Legends DVDs. Man they were a good boutique label before we used that term.
@@frankdjeng5543Really glad i have the Fortune Star Aces Go Places Bluray Boxset I got about 5 -6 years ago!! And I’ve been wondering why none of the boutique labels have put them out and now I know! Thank You Sir.
I wonder if films like School on Fire and Bullet in the Head will get better physical media releases in Asia because it’s pretty obvious that they could benefit from a restoration. What’re your thoughts on this?
There is a general 'grass is always greener' element to bluray releases internationally it seems, the UK and US do a much better job of releasing Asian titles than most Asian labels and inversely, Asian labels often do a far better job of releasing Western Movies than US labels. seems backwards at times, but consumers often crave insights into other cultures over their own i guess. Thankfully Asia is evolving when it comes to Physical Media which has been in massive decline in HK and Korea over the past two decades. There are a number of really great boutique labels in mainland China ( WCL/Diskino/MLIFE) who focus in more on Chinese and HK cinema than the big Premium HK labels ( Manta Lab & HDzeta) who both tend to just focus exclusively on western titles. Korea fairs better with Fortune Star titles than HK, Nova Media have a pretty long standing deal with Fortune Star and have put lots of great releases of many of the titles which Eureka and 88 films have since made available in the UK as well as many which Eureka and 88 are not able to ( The Killer, A Chinese Ghost Story, A Better Tomorrow etc) The main issue most UK and US collectors tend to have with importing Asian blurays tends to be the lack of any accessible special features ( and sometimes lack of English subs) The UK and US labels really go the extra mile in terms of commissioning audio commentaries, documentaries and custom artwork. The HK releases iof HK movies n particular tend to all be bare bones. They just don't sell well enough over there for them to put more effort into them. Sorry for the long reply! it's a complicated issue!
I really appreciate the detailed response! I’ve picked up some titles from Asia. I was pretty happy with the HK blu ray release of A Better Tomorrow which looks quite beautiful even if I have some issues with the audio. I recently picked up the Nova release of Bullet in the Head during their sale and am looking forward to revisiting that film. I would love if there was an English friendly release of the uncut versions of School on Fire and Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind. Can you recommend a few physical media releases from Asia of HK films that you were particularly happy with?
I really like what Nova Media do! I really like their release of City on Fire, it's not the best looking bluray compared with the restorations we're used to seeing from the UK and US labels, but it's the best version of the film i've seen on bluray so far. Nova also have a few other smaller labels who they distribute, and they handle the ARA release of Shaolin Soccer which i'm a big fan of ( that particular release and the movie) Also If the Bluray.com forums are to be believed then Diskino/WCL are putting out a 4K UHD version of A Better Tomorrow in the forseeable future, and i'm a massive fan of Diskino's releases, their quality from the titles i've seen so far is extremely good, so keeping an eye on how that develops!
That’s good to know! Thanks for the tip.
Well, the question will be if that were to happen for School on Fire, will fans will get to see it fully uncut / uncensored outside of bootlegs? The blu-ray that HK released on School on Fire is cut and heavily censored.
Do more videos with Frank!
By the way has he moved in next door then ?😆
lol, i'd love to! this was just a flying visit to Scotland as part of his UK trip. We did livestream with Phat Samurai on Friday too though. you can check out that video on my page or on Samurai's :)
@@TheFanaticalDragon Will do, your channel is getting better and better. Try and get your lady wife to do a review, like Shaz and 'thingy' I can't remember his name...HKB, you know the ones. LOL
If you have those criterion collections, hold onto them. Like I did
Guess I'll keep watching my Dragon Dynasty copies of the killer and hard boiled better than nothing lol.
This is such sad news!
I think someone like Quentin Tarantino could make it happen. Even if he doesn't have the funds, he might know enough people who would want to put their money in.
Either that, or somehow the funds can be crowdsourced.
How much for the price total to buy their whole catalogue ? Do you know.
@@YorgosL1 They said it was above US$1 million and possibly over US$10 million.
@@andysmith1996 ok maybe one day when i have that money then i can step up and buy the whole entire catalogue. That is definitely my goal
@@YorgosL1 That's for the rights. What would you do with them?
@@andysmith1996 only for the right ? I was asking the total of the price including everything. I will purchase them so that everyone can have a good physical release to access.
A Better Tomorrow just had a physical release and that was the whole series. Its sold out not, but now they're selling the individual movies.
Where and from whom? Unless it was from HK, Japan or Korea. It’s a bootleg. Germany puts out Hard Boiled and The Killer fairly often. None of them are official releases.
@@TheFanaticalDragon Nova Media is the only one with English subtitles I can find. That was back in 2016 and is now sold out. The first movie is available from them.
@ShanghaiRooster aye, and there’s a 4K uhd release of ABT1 coming from mainland China sometime soon from WCL/Disc Kino
Our wee video is really specifically explaining why no US or U.K. label can release the films ;)
@@ShanghaiRooster Im guessing Nova, but its from a UK distributor. Terracotta and its now sold out lol.
@@TheFanaticalDragon Yeah. It's not impossible; just needs a guy with a whole bunch of money to be willing to put it up purely with cinematic altruism as the reason, not with the idea of turning another profit for themselves. If I was in that position I'd do it myself, hooking up with some boutique company. The only stipulation would be the discs must be both region A and B (unless they were 4K of course). The other road would be if a new chief took over at this real estate company who was more open towards licensing these films.
I would like a review on the coming 88 release of Sex and Zen and all the extras🤣
If you will pardon the expression
not sure if i'll be getting it mate ( though ci am onsidering it as anything with Sex in the title brings in about a bazillion views lol ) The Game of Clones set wiped out my funds for a while, but we'll see, maybe.
@@TheFanaticalDragon Anything with Amy in is worth it. Cheers
This opens up the obvious question why don't Hong Kong or Korean labels put in the same effort Western and Japanese labels do. We'd all happily import from Hong Kong or South Korea, for North Americans they're even Region A, if the releases were any good but Hong Kong labels in particular put in very little effort. More than the DVD days but still not a lot.
1. Asia residents don't have the same large living space like we do in the west, so they have to pick and choose which film to collect for their limited shelf space. 2. They would much rather watch streaming content on their phones than on a TV 3. HK labels don't want to spend money on extras so they could care less about including bonus features.
@@frankdjeng5543 Thanks. Basically no real collector's market then.
there is still a little bit of a collectors market and there are a bunch of great Chinese and HK boutique labels, but they mostly release western movies
so - you’re saying there’s a chance then? 😂
Where there’s a hype there’s a way 😋
So we have to wait for an asian label to release a 4k restored uhd bluray...
pretty much aye, the Chinese Label WCL are releasing 4K UHD's of A Better Tomorrow and John Woo's Once a Thief soon.
This looks like a job for Criterion!!
They did Hard Boiled and The Killer on DVD, and every year there are rumours they’ll bring them to Bluray. But so far sadly not. We can only hope!
Criterion is restrained in their budget for procuring extras which explains why their recent HK releases like HEROIC TRIO/EXECUTIONERS have very little bonus features.
I wonder if the would really bother chasing down bootlegs of these films if released by a small enough company.
Very unlikely, there are lots of bootlegs out there already in various countries. In some cases being openly sold via Amazon and in high street retailers.
The Hong Kong The Killer is good enough. Again only a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 remix but it's okay. Proper 1080p24 unlike the poor Dragon Dynasty 1080i60. I'm not saying it's a great release but better than the Dragon Dynasty and perfectly acceptable.
So the film is just gonna deteriorate in a vault somewhere. There is a saying if you dont know how to swim then stay out the water.....they should stick to land like they use to.
Not outside of Asia no. But they'll both likely get decent 4K releases from HK or Mainland China sometime eventually. My money would be on WCL/Mlife/Diskino.They've already out out A Better Tomorrow 4K and are just about to release Once a Thief on 4K.
Yet again another reason to hate property developers and estate agents
lol, yes indeed.
@@TheFanaticalDragon They're abunch of evil people!
They're evil!
Similar to the situation with Kevin Smith's Dogma.
Weinstein owns the rights and wants something like $5m for the license.
I thought they sold the rights to Lionsgate.
@@cubdukat this comment was 3 months ago when it was very much in limbo.
Since then Paramount have secured the rights and announced a 4K remaster for 2025.
Korean blu-rays always have English subtitles.
Mostly yes, there are a few exceptions, but most Nova, Plain Archive, Kimchidvd, Bud Blu and Cj Entertainment ones tend to.
Yikes 😱
Yo, Vinegar Syndrome we know you got the money. Make it happen!!!!
😂
someone call tarantino please
I think he’s still smarting from the entire Dragon Dynasty thing…
It's always funny Media collectors are always crying about the 1 or 2 movies.They can't get not realizing that there's millions of movies that they can get
very true!
John woo himself said to question are we going to get 4K release of your great films? His answer was simple. Nobody knows anymore where the rights are in any country blah blah blah blah blah. I’m sorry guys I respect you but I do believe if you look at the absolute details. You will see that the fact you’re saying right now I’m not entirely true that isn’t against your knowledge on all things great or brilliant but you can’t deny visual facts or the fact that I can buy this from another country, but spot on guys always respect
As we said in the video. You CAN buy official releases in Asia. all the German, Italian and any other non-Asia releases are all bootlegs. Non licensed releases of questionable quality. We made the video purely because literally any time any UK or US label releases any remotely Asian title the comments sections are endlessly full of people demanding that label release Hard Boiled or The Killer, and the truth is they can’t. I’m sorry you don’t agree.