2006: The Digital Odyssey

by **MrBooth** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:15 am

Mmm, hadn't realised those were all Joy Sales releases. I hope we're not just going to get yet more releases of the same John Woo/Chow Yun Fat/Jackie Chan films anyway!

And I hope they refuse Fortune Star's awful surround-sound "remixes" :evil:

by **Mike Thomason** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:32 am

MrBooth wrote:Mmm, hadn't realised those were all Joy Sales releases. I hope we're not just going to get yet more releases of the same John Woo/Chow Yun Fat/Jackie Chan films anyway!

And I hope they refuse Fortune Star's awful surround-sound "remixes"

Given that all of the Johnny Mak titles except the "Possessed" films had new DTS and 5.1 remixes only, I think you can take it as a given that the "big" titles will all go a similar route (while "smaller" titles will remain monaural).

As for your first comment, being that back in December I was informed that fifty of the "Chow Yun Fat/Jackie Chan/Mr Vampire/Chinese Ghost Story/selected action movie titles" were the first to go from the Deltamac/FS agreement, no prizes for guessing what some of the first re-release titles will be...

At least with Joy Sales handling things now, we might possibly get single disc releases of some of these films -- instead of having to buy the box-set packages that FS dictated to IVL they were only allowed to release in HK. Well, maybe...I'm being optimistic...OTOH, Joy Sales do package their titles well...

by **Knetan** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:02 am

hey,

thanks for the info and while I have sourced all I want for now, in addition to a few campy or thrashy titles surely, I think the direction for Joy Sales needs to be sharpened up if they're going to compete with Deltamac's buget line even! Am mainly referring to sound, which turned up in 2.0 on the Posessed discs but in 5.1 only on Long Arm Of The law III. Sure, if there's no other option I'll get it but as always, I reseve the right to be annoyed.

The majority of Hong Kong companies still don't know, as someone put it, their arses from their elbows.

Sorry to vent again...feel free to disown me as forum friend.

by **Mike Thomason** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:34 am

Knetan wrote:The majority of Hong Kong companies still don't know, as someone put it, their arses from their elbows.

The important thing to remember is NOT to blame the distributors releasing the Fortune Star titles -- Fortune Star themselves dictate policy, release patterns, and how their catalogue is to be released (right down to the packaging).

Any company (yes, even bigwigs like Intercontinetal and Media Asia) who agrees to release their titles has to play by their rules and do as they're told if they wish to distribute their film library -- if you must vent at someone, vent at Rupert Murdoch and the people he has put in place as heads of acquisition, distribution, marketing and so on within the Star Group executive body, as it is Newscorp who owns Star and its film subsiduary Fortune Star (who inturn owns the Golden Harvest library).

by **Knetan** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:35 pm

hey,

even though you gave a more detailed answer than I could ever give, you're very correct that the anger should be directed higher so to say. So now it's Fortune Star competing with their own budget line and I think I can predict the winner...harking back to my preferences.

by **Mike Thomason** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:41 pm

To be honest, and under the proviso that Joy Sales have acquired the whole Golden Harvest library (as opposed to a small portion thereof ala the IVL contract -- which was around fifty odd), the best thing I can think Fortune Star could allow them to do is thus:

1. Premium titles (your Woos, Chow Yun Fats, Jackies etc) given the usual treatment: 16x9 transfers, multiple audio options, trailers, photo galleries and perhaps (if possible) the odd extra like interviews. That way, the premium titles can be premium priced and the flagship titles.

2. Budget range consisting of lesser known and (likely to be) less visible of well-known titles (akin to films like In Between Loves, Changing Partner, Fatal Vacation etc) given the modest budget treatment: 16:9 transfer, monaural audio and minimal if any extras (ie: trailer only, or not). These can then be priced at a budget benchmark and run alongside the main releases to bolster the release scehdule/bring in additional $$. Much like Mei Ah do with the back catalogue re-releases ($60HK for B-titles, $80HK+ for lead titles).

Just a thought...

by **Knetan** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:37 pm

hey,

still don't mind getting as much as I did as I have my doubts personally if Fortune Star are even going to surpass their budget range on both audio and image levels (sorry to be repetitive, am not dictating everyone else's opinion here though). Which brings us ALMOST to the end of the deltamac spending spree concerning variying Hong Kong cinema quality:

DVDs:
Moon, Star & Sun
Mr. Smart
Nuaghty Boys
Midnight Girls
Plain Jane To The Rescue
Brief Encounter In Shinjuku
The Yuppie Fantasia
By Hook Or By Crook
The Queen Of Underworld
Story Of Kennedy Town
A Killer's Blues
One Husband Too Many
The Other side Of Gentleman
Lucky Encounter
Laughing Times (now this will surely suuuucck...or?

)
Midnight Whispers
She Starts The Fire

Some mentioned twice but never knew until shipping which ones were going to end up being shipped.

Vcd's
The Perfect Wife
The Perfect Match
Play Catch

by **Mike Thomason** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:12 pm

A Side, B Side, Seaside (Hong Kong) (DVD)
My Wife Is A Gangster 2 (South Korea) (DVD)
Perhaps Love (Hong Kong) (DVD)

by **Mike Thomason** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 3:13 pm

After a bit of creative accounting...

Perfect Killers (Thailand) (DVD)
Dek-Dane (Thailand) (DVD)
The King Maker (Thailand) (DVD)
A Chinese Tall Story (Hong Kong) (DVD)

Have decided to divert off back to Thai and South Korean cinema for the time being; have been watching a bit of late and been finding them both a lot more rewarding than Hong Kong cinema, for me, for now... :wink:

by **Knetan** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:48 pm

hey,

hehe, you should always follow instinct, plow your own path and so on. I know you aren't one of those narrow minded types who proclaim Hong Kong cinema dead, thinking it only has to offer action. Welcome back anytime buddy.

Some late Deltmac vcd's while browsing around:

Mummy Dearest (HK)
Great Pretenders (HK)

by **Mike Thomason** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:01 pm

Well...I have to admit, I'm looking forward to seeing A Chinese Tall Story next week, and Moonlight In Tokyo later in the month...but I've got things like Home Sweet Home and Perhaps Love here to watch...and am just finding it hard to summon up the inspiration to actually get around to doing so. I guess I've just been a bit underwhelmed by the films that have been drawing accolades across the 'net of late -- SPL, Election, and a couple of others all left me with a kind of "meh" feeling; films that were honestly really neither here nor there...just average run-of-the-mill productions with a bit of extra spit, polish & gloss, that's all.

Yet, I've recently watched Thai tearjerker Kwan & Riam (based on a very famous literary work), Thai horror opuses Necromancer and Buppha Rahtree, Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's Hotel's Angel (from 1974) and South Korean comedy My Wife Is A Gangster 2 and found facets within all of them that refreshingly connected with me at a different level than some of the recent HK productions. I go through this phase a couple of times a year -- I'll always support HK movies, but every now and then I need a break from them.

I'll be back to the old faithfuls in a month or two (maybe three), I'm sure...

by **Brian Thibodeau** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:29 pm

Funny, I'm gearing up to throw myself BACK IN to Hong Kong cinema in another month or so after nearly a year-long withdrawl - I can barely wait! This is probably the main reason I don't bring much to the party around here lately! :oops:

Basically, the piles of American, Japanese and Korean DVDs grew to such ridiculous heights over the past year I simply had to buckle down and start watching them over the past month or so, and will likely continue to do so for a few weeks to come (although I could honestly live without seeing another cookie-cutter Korean romantic comedy for at least a couple of those weeks). The Hong Kong discs are stacked even higher, but for some weird, pedantic reason, I felt I couldn't properly appreciate them with all these "other" films staring me in the face every time I opened the walk-in closet door!

Since I mentioned it waaaay back at the beginning of this thread, I'll follow up by saying that I finally watched SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE a couple of weeks ago and loved it. Actually, we watchd the B&W version first, loved it, then later I watched the color version by myself and loved that one even more. Cool as the fade-to-B&W edition is, it feels like a rather obvious subtextual gimmick.

Recent additions to the Asian DVD piles:

-THUNDERBOLT (recent New Line DVD which, despite most websites claiming it to be 94 minutes, is ACTUALLY the full 111 minutes - woo hoo!)

-THE TRUTH: FINAL CHAPTER (I hate the first two installments of this trilogy, but I simply HAD to find out how much dumber these two characters could get!)
+
-Mob Sister
-Dragon Squad
-SPL 2 Disc
-Election
-Also picked up a tonne of old Shaw stuff on DVD and VCD, but for the life of me, I can't remember the titles at the moment as I'm not at home and those cool sleeves started to blend in my mind once I hit the 150 mark several months ago! (plenty of cool 60's Spy spoof comedies and sex farces, I know that much!)

-Rahtree

-Red Shoes
-The Wig

-Dogora, Matango, Varan, The Mysterians (Tokyo Shock special editions)
-Terror Beneath the Sea
-Atragon on the way.

If I've got time later, I'll finish the list!

by **Mike Thomason** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:36 pm

Brian,

Good call on Buppha Rahtree -- that was great. Great inasmuchas it was slow going to begin with, but accelerated fast once Buppha became a ghost...and the twist ending even surprised me!

Mob Sister...ugh! Possibly the worst movie of last year...

Have been meaning to watch my DVDs of The Truth series, but y'know...

I have copies of The Red Shoes and The Wig sitting here collecting dust -- worth a watch? Or save 'em for a rainy day?

As for Lady Vengeance -- I was all poised to import one, then my fiancee rang me and told me she'd bought me a copy in Malaysia. She was going to send it to me, but we both have have more pressing financial commitments on our plates at present. So I should see it in May...

by **Brian Thibodeau** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:14 pm

I have copies of The Red Shoes and The Wig sitting here collecting dust -- worth a watch? Or save 'em for a rainy day?

Can't say for sure. I haven't watched 'em yet, but hope to soon! Korean horrors invariably engender mixed responses from me. They almost always look fantastic, and contain their fair share of goosebump moments, but they so rarely follow through on their own logic, it's frustrating (the Korean RED EYE immediately comes to mind). I suppose TWO SISTERS is one of the rare exceptions to date, at least in my book.

Yeah, Rahtree was one of the most enjoyable film festival experiences I've had in a long time. Much of that was due to it's past-midnight screening, a packed house of punchy nighthawks, and my easily-creeped-out girlfriend screaming her head off beside me - along with everybody else!

by **Mike Thomason** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 10:55 am

Since we all last met and shared our purchases, this is what came to pass in my neck of the woods (trip is all paid up, and I've been working overtime for the remainder):

1. The Tiger Blade (Thailand) (DVD)
2. The Promise (China) (DVD)
3. Moonlight In Tokyo (Hong Kong) (DVD)
4. Fright Pack: The Walking Dead (entailing: City Of The Living Dead, Dead Heat, Hell Of The Living Dead, House By The Cemetary, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie & Nightmare City) (US/Italy/Spain) (DVDs)
5. The Shopaholics (Hong Kong) (DVD)
6. A Killer's Blues (Hong Kong) (DVD)
7. Against All (Hong Kong) (DVD)
8. Thank You, Sir (Hong Kong) (DVD)
9. Born To Gamble (Hong Kong) (DVD)
10. Crazy Romance (Hong Kong) (DVD)
11. City Hero (Hong Kong) (DVD)
12. Funny Triple (Hong Kong) (DVD)
13. Frida (US/Mexico) (DVD)

Carry on regardless...

by **Brian Thibodeau** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 6:43 pm

Is AGAINST ALL back in print?

I thought I had the damned thing on DVD until I actually decided to watch it, and couldn't find it! It MIGHT be here somewhere, but I'm having more and more doubts each time I go searching that it was ever here at all.

by **Mike Thomason** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:50 am

Brian Thibodeau wrote:Is AGAINST ALL back in print?

No, no...I was just lucky enough to find an online retailer that still had it in stock! It was quite amusing, for me, to see the listings at HKFlix and DDDHouse for some of the above Deltamac Fortune Star titles go from "in-stock" to "out of print" after I made my orders...

by **Mike Thomason** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 4:02 pm

Anyway...

49 Days (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Cocktail (Hong Kong) (DVD)
My Kung Fu Sweetheart (Hong Kong) (DVD)

...carry on regardless.

by **Knetan** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 5:54 pm

hey,

will get Cocktail eventually. Always after mild acclaim coming of Herman Yau movies.

by **Mike Thomason** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:25 pm

...and the very last of the 2005 Hong Kong movies on my list...

B420 (Hong Kong) (DVD)
China's Next Top Princess (Hong Kong) (DVD)

...well, apart from The House...but that's a disc for another day...

by **Mike Thomason** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:07 am

Having had Ju-On: The Grudge 2 forever on disc, I decided (upon finding it in a bargain bin today) to add the following to my library:

Ju-On: The Grudge (Japan - original) (DVD)

by **Mike Thomason** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:53 am

Just for a complete change of pace...

The Wild Geese (Great Britain) (DVD)

...and for a regular pace...

2 Become 1 (Hong Kong) (DVD)

by **Mike Thomason** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:25 am

Color Of Night: Director's Cut (United States) (DVD)
The House (Hong Kong) (DVD)
The Heirloom (Taiwan) (DVD)

by **Mike Thomason** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 12:14 pm

And then, I deviated far, far away from Asian cinema...

Cannibal Holocaust (Deluxe Collector's Edition) (Italy) (2-DVD)

by **Mike Thomason** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:08 pm

Cello (South Korea) (DVD)
The Red Shoes (South Korea) (DVD)

by **Mike Thomason** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:23 pm

Now that I'm back from Malaysia...my May haul...

Art Of Seduction (South Korea) (DVD)
Bet To Basic (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Bewitching Attraction (South Korea) (DVD)
The Bodyguard (Thailand) (DVD)
Crazy Marriage (South Korea) (DVD)
Days Of Tomorrow (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Duellist (South Korea) (DVD)
Fearless (China) (DVD)
Fight Back To School 1 – 3 (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Friend (South Korea) (DVD)
Ghost of Mae Nak (Thailand) (DVD)
H (South Korea) (DVD)
Hocus Pocus (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Innocent Steps (South Korea) (DVD)
I’ll Call You (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Isabella (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Jin Pin Mei 1 – 5 (Taiwan) (DVDs)
The Maid (Singapore) (DVD)
Marriage With A Fool (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Married To The Mafia 2 (South Korea) (DVD)
A Millionaire’s First Love (South Korea) (DVD)
A Moment To Remember (South Korea) (DVD)
My Girl & I (South Korea) (DVD)
No Blood No Tears (South Korea) (DVD)
No More Love, No More Death (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Nowhere To Hide (South Korea) (DVD)
Oh My God (South Korea) (DVD)
Please Teach Me English (South Korea) (DVD)
Project X (South Korea) (DVD)
The Protector (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Red Eye (South Korea) (DVD)
Running Wild (South Korea) (DVD)
Sepet (Malaysia) (DVD)
Shadowless Sword (South Korea) (DVD)
Shiri (South Korea) (DVD)
Spooky Encounters (Remastered version) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance (South Korea) (DVD)
Timeless Romance (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Twins Dragons (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Typhoon (South Korea) (DVD)
The Unborn (Thailand) (DVD)
Vampire Cop Ricky (South Korea) (DVD)
When Romance Meets Destiny (South Korea) (DVD)
Windmill Palm Grove (South Korea) (DVD)
With Or Without You (Hong Kong) (DVD)
You Are My Sunshine (South Korea) (DVD)

...and with that, I retire my involvement in this thread as, apart from a couple of infrequent stragglers, it has been a gigantic disaster of non-participation.

by **ewaffle** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:20 am

White Dragon wrote:And then, I deviated far, far away from Asian cinema...

Cannibal Holocaust (Deluxe Collector's Edition) (Italy) (2-DVD)

A good friend of mine, a very learned and gentle man, is quite an expert on zombie and cannibal movies--he also has a good collection of Italian giallo movies.

He considers Cannibal Holocaust, a movie that I haven't seen due to his discussion of it, to be one of the indispensible classics of that genre.

by **Brian Thibodeau** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:07 pm

...and with that, I retire my involvement in this thread as, apart from a couple of infrequent stragglers, it has been a gigantic disaster of non-participation.

I'm not sure a lot of us can afford to keep up with you anyway! :lol:

In my imagination, I run a close second (yeah, right!), but I tend to pick up gigantic batches a few times annually when my work schedule, which has been brutal this year, allows me time to get to the big city to stock up! Otherwise, my loose change is used up on non-Asian stuff from the big sales at places like Amazon and Deepdiscount DVD, items largely unworthy of listing here.

by **Brian Thibodeau** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:15 pm

He considers Cannibal Holocaust, a movie that I haven't seen due to his discussion of it, to be one of the indispensible classics of that genre.

If you're gonna see one, that's the one to see. While I watched it straight through the first time, I've had to skip certain sequences on subsequent viewings (which are generally rare) due to the violence toward live animals (the actress hanging by her fake breasts from meathooks? No big deal. Watching a real turtle meet his maker? Count me out).

I'm hardly a member of PETA (not enough knowledge of bombs, I'm afraid), and I'm well aware of what many animals the world over are put through in order to feed the higher species, but there's something disturbing about filming such sequences for use in a fiction film, even if the creatures were ultimately put to good use off camera. Then again, the Italians gave us the Mondo genre, and if you've ever seen any of the Jacopeti & Prosperi originals, you'll know the practise has a deeply entrenched history.

by **ewaffle** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:09 pm

...and with that, I retire my involvement in this thread as, apart from a couple of infrequent stragglers, it has been a gigantic disaster of non-participation.

I would disagree that it has been a disaster. I have enjoyed reading your lists of acquisitons, although my own entire library of Asian movies may have fewer items than are listed in one of your longer posts. My own lack of participation is because I still mainly rent DVDs--of the 75 or so in my queue at Netflix, for example, all but 3 or 4 are Asain.

So while your initial plan for the thread may not have been accomplished it is still something which I would imagine more than one person here has appreciated.

2006: The Digital Odyssey

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