Yet another Weinsteinian indignity for SPL/Sha Po Lang

[Brian Thibodeau]

For those of you who were getting your hopes up that the infamous Weinstein brothers were finally going to prove they have respect for all the Hong Kong movies they've stored between their big pimply arse cheeks for so many years, I'd like to introduce you to....

KILL ZONE
www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.538573/qx/details.htm

No, it's not a new movie starring Jean Claude Van-Damme or Steven Seagal, or even David Carradine, or even David Heavener for that matter. And it's not some lensed-in-the-Phillipines "Vietnam" war epic from Cirio Santiago (although if this was 1993, that's exactly what it would be, and what it actually WAS).

Nope, it's festival fave SPL, also known as SHA PO LANG, and while it's not loved by everyone around these parts (and I wouldn't DARE say all the hype from fanboys like myself raised their expectations impossibly high...not at all), it's clear the folks at "Dragon Dynasty" wanted to make sure a few more people would treat it like some non-descript programmer.

And now, with it's catchy new title, it's ready to join the pantheon of skipped-over-on-the-video-store-shelf, direct-to-video garbage toplining wannabe martial arts "stars" that have littered the North American home video marketplace for over two decades now.

I'm just glad the "Genius Products" people never got a hold of Johnnie To's PTU. Probably would have renamed it DEADLY CITY or NIGHT KILLS to keep the Wal-Martians from being scared away by a title they might actually have to LEARN something about in order to better enjoy the film contained therein.

Harvey Weinstein. Tosh!

[Fan]

Direct-to-video? It's expected. But the rename...Really, does it sound more attractive than "SPL" to Americans?

[Brian Thibodeau]

To some Americans (and Canadians), it might.

Such Americans (and Canadians) wear baseball caps and live in their parents' basements and have Katana swords on little racks on top of their TVs.

They will think "KILL ZONE" is an appropriate title.

. . .

[Gaijin84]

that new title is so dumb - meaningless drivel that has nothing to do with anything in the movie. AARGHHH!!! thanks for ruining my day Harvey

[bkasten]

No, it's not a new movie starring Jean Claude Van-Damme or Steven Seagal, or even David Carradine, or even David Heavener for that matter.

ROTFLMFAO!

[Brian Thibodeau]

http://column.hkmdb.com/brian/








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[bkasten]

http://column.hkmdb.com/brian/
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[Brian Thibodeau]

Thought of a better headline. Though the original better illustrates my feelings towards Harvey and his pals.

http://column.hkmdb.com/brian/

[Harlock]

if the movie is uncut , i dont see that as a big deal, hope it will have a french dub here in canada...

[Mike Thomason]

Although I can see why this would bother many of my North American and Canadian friends, I have to say, for me, this is something of a storm in a tea-cup. My reasons?

1. I first read about SPL nearly a year ago on the internet, and bought the Hong Kong DVD release back in January of this year. Thus, the film (once again, for me) is old news; I saw it back in January, after reading all of the positive online hyperbole, and have since moved on.

2. I've largely never supported ANY North American releases of Hong Kong movies, and I fortunately live in a country where the "Weinstein influence" has pretty much zero impact on me. Anything Miramax/Dimension/Disney/Columbia have released from the Asian market into the US arena have, by and large, been old news to me by the time their US domestic releases have come to pass. Essentially, I source what I want to see from Asia...from Asia!

3. SPL has been licensed for Australian DVD release by Eastern Eye, a sub-label of Madman Entertainment (who released the uncut Thai version of ONG BAK on DVD into the Aussie market). Unsurprisingly, they're treating the Australian market with much less "ignorance" than the US distributor and retaining the film's name...

http://www.madman.com.au/actions/catalo ... ethod=view

...thereby, the film is once again making it into the local scene as it was intended, and as it was originally named (inclusive of a brief explanation in the marketing materials as to what "Sha Po Lang" means).

Though I can appreciate the general disillusionment felt by HK cinema fans over the "dumbed-down" sell of the film in the US, I can't say any of it will affect me in any way, shape or form. That said, nice to see one of us is still fighting the good fight against the corporate raiders who are insistent on the generic "general populace/cattle mentality" sell for HK movies to the US market...

[Brian Thibodeau]

I wouldn't take my rants here and in the blog too seriously. I reference David Heavener for goodness' sake, a man whose films I've seen! Despite my long-windedness, I'm ultimately just havin' a little fun, like when I paint rice-picker hats on Detroit radio Djs.

I'm am truly not losing sleep over this—I just tend to sound like I am. But I do like to remind people as often as I can to buy foreign as it were, when if comes to Asian cinema. I know in these forums, that's kind of a moot point, but if even one new convert is influenced away from the Weinstein DVD, then it was worth a try. If not, who cares?

This is indeed a storm in a teacup to me as well, though I do genuinely enjoy ranting about subjects regarding which other writers feel a simple reference is sufficient! I'm hardly taking on any corporate raiders in a tiny blog that few people read! Brevity is not my strong suit. At least not yet...

As I mention near the end of the blog entry, I import virtually all of my Asian DVDs (or buy them in Chinatown shops) and have since the beginning nearly ten years ago, so my only concern with writing the article is addressing the very "cattle mentality" attitude of U.S. distribs toward Hong Kong (and Asian) product that Mike mentions. And like Mike, SPL was old news for me about a month after the Toronto Film Festival in September 2005, but that didn't dim my love for the film or its title (though I am aware it was less than enthralling to our Aussie correspondent!).

As to disillusionment, I doubt many true fans of Asian cinema will be affected any more than Mike was at this news, and any newbie picking up KILL ZONE at the local Best Buy may never be aware of it's original title. True fans have probably already seen the film and have moved on to the next big thing. Despite my ravings, the issue is not a big one to me, just more of an excuse to add something, anything to my blog before it gets taken away from me for lack of upgrades!

I still believe, as I long have, that the Weinsteins are bad news for Asian cinema (no shock, I know). When the Dragon Dynasty label was announced, though, many websites responded with wholly uncritical reprints of the company's press release and editorials along the lines of "Hey, maybe those Weinstein fellas aren't so bad after all. Maybe they got their act together and we should give them a chance. Looks like they're finally treating their acquisitions with respect yadda yadda yadda."

Next thing you know, KILL ZONE.

If it's uncut, that's a plus. It's got a couple of bonus features that are not on the HK disc. So that's a plus. (well, sort of: one's a Bey Logan/Donnie Yen commentary, the other a "martial arts demonstration" by Jacky Wu; hardly repeat view material in either case!).

Hearing Donnie, Sammo, Simon and the gang in French on a Canadian disc would be an interesting experience...not sure if that will happen, Harlock, but you never know! We'll have to wait until "HARVEY WEINSTEIN'S ZONE DE MISE à MORT" hits our neck of the woods.

[Harlock]

hehe, we have already many jackie chan and some others like infernal affair in french, in infernal affair one guy is dub by the jackie chan dubber, its weird

[Mike Thomason]

Hey Brian,

A playful lend, nothing more -- nothing less.

Just to set the record straight: I didn't mind SPL -- any film that indulges my fantasy of killing Donnie Yen is a good thing, no? But, as I'd not long rewatched Yuen Woo Ping's TIGER CAGE (1988) it all looked rather more familiar to me than it should have; that and the fact that I've never enjoyed the way that Yen just keeps on recycling the same old moves and choreography in every film he works on! The alleyway fight between Yen and Wu was a similar scene from THE TWINS EFFECT rehashed, and the majority of the climactic fight was just the larger part of Yen's finale choreography from BLADE II repeated.

It had good parts, it had bad parts -- much like any film designed for mainstream consumption these days. But then, I preferred the INFERNAL AFFAIRS series to the ELECTION series -- I thought CRAZY 'N THE CITY was a rather middling rehash of James Yuen's prior CHANGING PARTNERS -- and I thought that 2 YOUNG, IT HAD TO BE YOU, A CHINESE TALL STORY, WAIT 'TIL YOU'RE OLDER and INITIAL D were the top five HK movies of last year (with MOONLIGHT IN TOKYO tailing a late-running sixth); so maybe I am as mad as a cut snake after all?

Cheers & no offense meant or intended

[mrblue]

hehe, we have already many jackie chan and some others like infernal affair in french, in infernal affair one guy is dub by the jackie chan dubber, its weird

The Dimension/Miramax North American DVD releases usally have French and Spanish dubs, and they do tend to re-use the same voiceover actors quite a bit.

Anyway, I'm not surprised at the re-titling. At least it's not as bad as "Sammo Hung's The Specialist" or something like that, and it is subtitled/uncut as far as I can tell. Plus the cover artwork is actually from the movie, unlike most of the Jackie Chan stuff, where it looked like they kept re-using outtakes from the Rumble in the Bronx cover.

[bkasten]

add something, anything to my blog before it gets taken away from me for lack of upgrades!

Huh?

[Brian Thibodeau]

Hey, you never know!


I've got a couple things on the backburner, but can't get 'em up there yet, so no real worries, of course. [/i]

[Brian Thibodeau]

Update on the special features on "KILL ZONE" (or Super Police Legend, as it was mockingly called on one site!)

http://www.kaijushakedown.com/2006/08/killzone_dvd_fi.html

Seems like they ditched the press conference stuff that's on the HK disc and replaced it with two "anatomy of a scene" featurettes for the film's two biggest fights. Those I'd like to see. Apparently, Donnie Yen won't be included on the audio commentary after all, just Bey Logan (zzzzz), but Yen WILL provide commentary for the two fight featurettes, which might be OK in light of his similar work on the PRINCESS BLADE special edition, but still, it would've been good to ALSO hear him on the main track as well, or even a subtitled Wilson Yip! Come ON-how difficult can it be to nail these guys down for a few hours?

And the film is still called KILL ZONE.