2006: The Digital Odyssey

[Mike Thomason]

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.

Thanks for that.
When I start to see my own alias listed in a thread more than anyone else's, I tend to evaluate the topic as a bit of a fizzog...
Well, bed calls - gotta sleep - thanks for the feedback & cheerio

[Andras Hernadi]

Just recently I had the chance to pick up LOADS of Hong Kong dvds
for bargain prices,ex-rentals for 2Euros each. I had the chance...
but I resisted... and came away with only 4 titles.
I don't know what happened to me.There were a couple of boxes full of
that stuff and I asked myself: what I'm gonna do with all this s**t?
Do I need a dvd of WEB OF DECEPTION? (the 1997 movie mind You)
Or DEVIL'S WOMAN? How about LOVE AND THE CITY?
Some years back,the answer would have been "hell,yes!".But something
has changed. I'm going to discuss this issue with my psychiatrist.
FYI the 4 films are
9413 (Francis Ng's directs)
FLOATING LANDSCAPE (sounds like not my type of movie but I loved her GLASS TEARS)
CASE OF THE COLD FISH (or GOLD FISH)
SEALED WITH A KISS (to upgrade a crappy vcd copy)

I really would like to pick up something from HK but they keep on
releasing the same movies again and again. And I look at the pre-order
section on DDDHouse and it makes me weep.I think they have more
Korean and American new-releases than hk product

[ewaffle]

Andras Hernadi wrote:

Just recently I had the chance to pick up LOADS of Hong Kong dvds for bargain prices,ex-rentals for 2Euros each. I had the chance... but I resisted...

My situation was a bit different. "Mediaplay" is a chain of stores that sells books, magazines, DVDs and CDs and doesn't do a very good job with any of them. But there were some real bargains, some of which I picked up--ten HK movies from the 70s, full screen and cropped, dubbed but still watchable for US$12 for example. There were plenty of other HK product in the US$4 to 8 per disc range. I would pick up a few every couple of weeks until one day I found that they had closed all their stores in Michigan.

Strike while the iron is hot and all that--one reason that I envy White Dragon and Brian who have good retail sources at good prices and for whom the iron, if not always hot is at least warming up.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Ed

No need to envy - just shop online!

While Toronto, which is about three hours down the road from me, is a fantastic resource for Asian enclaves wherein one can find plentiful DVDs and VCDs to add to the pile (both legit and bootleg, unfortunately), the long drive and high gas prices tend to limit the frequency of visits. Thankfully, my girlfriend now lives there (as I hope to soon, as well), as do a couple of other friends, so accommodation is much more reasonable these days, which affords a little more time to browse for the good stuff.

That said, I still find online shopping to be cheaper on a per-disc basis for legitimate discs - Asian and homegrown. In fact, since I live on the Canada-U.S. border, a few years back I purchased a mailbox at a mall postal outlet in Ed's home state of Michigan. All my online purchases are sent there - DDDhouse, Amazon, Ebay, Koreandvds.com, Deep Discount. When I pick them up, I simply decide whether to declare everything (if the total value is low enough to elude duties on the way back) or open a few items and hope that I can invent a story as to why they're in the car and I'm not claiming them.

In my early days of online shopping, before I clued in to the benefits of border living, I would have everything shipped to my Canadian home address. Probably one in every five parcels was hit with some form of import or customs fee that, at worst, could eliminate the savings I'd accumulated over the course of three or four orders. Thus the decision to take advantage of the USPS was born.

While there was no MediaPlay near me as there was near you, Ed, my nearby American mall did have a Suncoast Motion Picture Company. Unfortunately, they went teets up so fast that I never even KNEW they were going out of business, so I probably missed out on a lot of their deals (I WON'T miss their irritating salesgeeks, though).

Truth be told, I never found many bargains at places like Suncoast, Circuit City and MediaPlay when I would visit them. They tended to be places I'd browse in order to see what was new before going online to order from the usual suspects! The Best Buy chain, at least in my area, tended to have a wider selection and generally better prices, ironic considering they were owned by the same company as Suncoast, where everything was about US$5 higher.

[Mike Thomason]

Amazing! I say bye-bye to the thread and people start posting in it! I guess that should tell me something, really...

Oh well, to continue where I left off:

Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper (Italy) (DVD)
The Art Of Fighting (South Korea) (DVD)
The Art of Seduction (South Korea) (DVD)*
Art Museum By The Zoo (South Korea) (DVD)
Asingha: Stop to Run (Thailand) (DVD)
Blood & Bones (Japan) (DVD)
Christmas In August (South Korea) (DVD)
Contamination (Italy) (DVD)
Eaten Alive! (Italy) (DVD)
Emanuelle & The Last Cannibals (Italy) (DVD)
The Garden of Heaven (South Korea) (DVD)
The Great Yokai War (Japan) (DVD)
Green Chair (South Korea) (DVD)
He Was Cool (South Korea) (DVD)
Hinokio (Japan) (DVD)
I Wish I Had A Wife (South Korea) (DVD)
Jealousy Is My Middle Name (South Korea) (DVD)
Kamikaze Girls (Japan) (DVD)
The Last Witness (South Korea) (DVD)*
Mapado: The Island of Fortunes (South Korea) (DVD)
Marathon (South Korea) (DVD)
Match Point (Thailand) (DVD)
My Boss, My Teacher (South Korea) (DVD)
Ocean Butterfly (Thailand) (DVD)
Phone (South Korea) (DVD)**
The Romance (South Korea) (DVD)
Sad Movie (South Korea) (DVD)
Shiri (South Korea) (DVD)*
The Shoe Fairy (Taiwan) (DVD)
Silmido (South Korea) (DVD)***
Two Guys (South Korea) (DVD)
Vampire Cop Ricky (South Korea) (DVD)*
Windmill Palm Grove (South Korea) (DVD)*
Yellow Emanuelle (Italy) (DVD)

* these replace the absolutely lousy Malaysian copies I bought
** this is an upgrade from the rather average Thai disc
*** this is an upgrade to a DTS version from the DD5.1 Korean version

These, coupled with the majority of titles I picked up in Malaysia, should see me through for the rest of Winter.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Amazing! I say bye-bye to the thread and people start posting in it! I guess that should tell me something, really...

Some of us posting still can't post massive lists the way you can, though. I suspect you might have the best paying job around here, know a very reasonably priced source, as you suggested in another thread, and have a very understanding spouse! My girlfriend gets the whole movie thing (as well as she can), but she'd be afraid to pick things up for me for fear of needless duplication! Which just as often happens when I buy movies myself!

[Andras Hernadi]

show me a dead thread and I'll bring it back

[Andras Hernadi]

Dragon,ever think about doing an on-line dvd list,maybe that would
be ideal for your listings. I try to find one right now,but none of them
is really good for Hong Kong films so far.

[Mike Thomason]

While I'm waiting for Undercover Hidden Dragon to be released at month's end, I thought I'd pick up some other new titles...

Black Night (Hong Kong/Japan/Thailand) (DVD)
Her Fatal Ways (Digitally remastered edition) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Her Fatal Ways II (Digitally remastered edition) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Murder, Take One (South Korea) (DVD)
Twin Dragons (Digitally remastered edition) (Hong Kong) (DVD)

[Mike Thomason]

Some of us posting still can't post massive lists the way you can, though. I suspect you might have the best paying job around here, know a very reasonably priced source, as you suggested in another thread, and have a very understanding spouse!

Hey Brian,

Best paying job? Nah, I just lead a fairly simple lifestyle, that's all. I only go out when I need to or have social functions to attend (and am not a big drinker or partier), buy clothes when I need them but have never been a slave to fashion trends or designer labels, and eat and live economically but comfortably. The DVD thing is just a hobby too...

Reasonably priced source(s)? Hit the nail on the head! I'm not into lavish special edition DVD boxsets with foil embossed sleeves and pen-sets/t-shirts/ephemera included; I just buy DVDs to see the films (or, in a number of cases, collect old favourites) and that's it. If there's a special edition of something or a more modest release, I usually opt the second route (unless I thought the film was really special, which is rare). The majority of the Korean titles I namecheck come from my wife's home state, where we can both pick them up at modest prices. Everything else largely comes from Hong Kong, where the exchange rate is ultra low for me. I can ship new films direct to myself cheaper than I can see them in the cinemas, so DVD is a much attractive option for me.

An understanding spouse? Yes, she's good like that. She buys me new Korean titles where she can afford to too -- so we have similar interests.



PS: I just got word that my wife has scored me copies of The Customer Is Always Right (Korea), Forbidden Quest (Korea) and also a superior quality edition of Bewitching Attraction (Korea); and will be sending them down soon! Hahaha, this never ends...

[Brian Thibodeau]

I think you fit the m.o. of a lot of us, whether we can all admit it or not. One of the reasons I have as large a collection of DVDs as I do is for reasons similar to your own. Outside of my girlfriend, I have a very small circle of close friends. About four, actually. I've lost touch with others over the years, but when I do go out, it's always with one of those four and/or their respective spouses and girlfriends. I have plenty of acquaintances via my old schoolmates and current co-workers, but I virtually never socialize with them outside the office, or running into them in, say, a grocery store for a quick chat.

In years past, before the naturally reclusive gene began to exert itself, group activities involving more than two people or two couples always used to leave me, at the end of the evening, wishing I'd stayed home with my girlfriend (and, before she came along, by myself) watching movies or reading books out on the patio. Even family gatherings became, and still are for the most part, rather tedious affairs that seem counterproductive now that I'm more wizened in my ways and selfish with my time!!

(I will admit to being a bit of a fashion slave these days, but that generally happens to me when a girlfriend is in close proximity who actually cares enough about what she wears to make me care about what I wear! We both like a good drink at the end of a stressful day, but we usually have it at home, where mixed drinks don't have a 400% markup!)

We do, however, spend a lot of time outdoors canoeing, kayaking, biking and swimming, as well as day-travelling to places where we can do more of the same, but since we always rent the supplies, there's no financial pinch. All of it does cut into my movie-watching time, though, but those are definitely times I'd rather NOT be watching movies.

As others here will no doubt attest, having a significant other can drastically reduce the number of films one can actually watch compared to when one was unattached. As you seem to be waiting for your wife to make her way down to your neck of the woods, you've clearly got a window of opportunity here, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those movies go unwatched a lot longer than you'd originally intended once she's actually there to enjoy your time together.

[Mike Thomason]

As others here will no doubt attest, having a significant other can drastically reduce the number of films one can actually watch compared to when one was unattached. As you seem to be waiting for your wife to make her way down to your neck of the woods, you've clearly got a window of opportunity here, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those movies go unwatched a lot longer than you'd originally intended once she's actually there to enjoy your time together.

Yes indeed, and I'm well aware of the fact that once my wife is here then a whole new cycle of life will begin -- and there will undoubtedly be inordinate amount of time spent educating her on the wills, wiles, and various cultural aspects of Australian society and the way of life here. It's a very BIG step, and one that's going to necessitate quite a significant amount of my time to undertake (as my wife has lived nowhere but her own country, nor travelled abroad outside of a two week visit here last year, in all her life). At present I've got enough movies on the backburner that, if I watched one a night, I'll have enough to keep me going for the next two to three months without adding any additional discs into the mix!

But the fact remains, once my wife's immigration visa is approved and she moves down, there will be a lot less time to do a lot of things I have done to wile away the hours while I've lived on my own. And that will probably definitely mean seeing my internet usage drop off considerably; I won't say that I'll be bidding my farewells in the next three to six months, but I can guarantee the online world will see markedly less of me than ever before -- I can foresee my time spent herein dwindling away to a couple of hours a week in the short-term once life moves on to the next phase...

[Mike Thomason]

Anyway, to continue where I left off before we digressed...

Superkid (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Swing Girls (Japan) (DVD)
Undercover Hidden Dragon (Hong Kong) (DVD)

...I figured that'd keep me going until Joy Sales can figure out which Fortune Star titles they want to release next.

Whoops! Almost forgot, my wife bought me...

The Customer Is Always Right (South Korea) (DVD)
Forbidden Quest (South Korea) (DVD)

[Mike Thomason]

And so, July begins with an eclectic purchase mix:

Dream Lovers (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (UK) (DVD)
Half Twin (Hong Kong) (DVD)
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (UK/Hong Kong) (DVD)
Robotrix (Hong Kong) (DVD)
Taste The Blood Of Dracula (UK) (DVD)
Wolfen (USA) (DVD)

Plus, some bonus Korean flicks from my wife...

Almost Love (South Korea) (DVD)
Blue Sparrow (South Korea) (DVD)
The King & The Clown (South Korea) (DVD)
Princess Aurora (South Korea) (DVD)

...it's good to be the King.

[Mike Thomason]

As you seem to be waiting for your wife to make her way down to your neck of the woods, you've clearly got a window of opportunity here, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those movies go unwatched a lot longer than you'd originally intended once she's actually there to enjoy your time together.

Further to that last comment of mine about awaiting the visa approval -- it was approved two weeks ago and my wife's Spouse Visa will be issued this month. Where I was expecting a minimum of three months before we heard back on it all, it only took three weeks from date of lodgement. So, there you go -- looks like she's coming sooner rather than later!

Make the most of me while I'm still around, as it could be as little as two or three months before I disappear from the internerd indefinitely...

[Mike Thomason]

Duran Duran: Greatest (UK) (DVD)
The Elephant Keeper (Thailand) (DVD)
Gunman (Thailand) (DVD)
Gunman II (Thailand) (DVD)
Sexphone & The Lonely Wave (Thailand) (DVD)
Spicy Beauty Queen of Bangkok (Thailand) (DVD)

Edit: Well, I am devastated! Having found all of the above Thai DVDs in a bargain sale at Thai CD Express, being listed as "in stock and ready to ship", I get an email stating that the majority of them are out of stock, their bank only allows three days to process payment, and my order has been cancelled! Unbelievable!

[MrBooth]

The Elephant Keeper (Thailand) (DVD), Gunman (Thailand) (DVD), Gunman II (Thailand) (DVD)

Good choices!

[Brian Thibodeau]

So you're saying those GUNMAN movies aren't crap? I spotted one of those in a Toronto store on the weekend but passed on it due to recent purchases of a string of Thai thurkeys as of late. Anywhere I can find reviews and/or pictures from these films?

[MrBooth]

Gunman 1 is excellent! Gunman 2 (aka Salween, not a sequel to Gunman 1 in any sense) is just good. The Elephant Keeper is maybe the best of the lot though

As for reviews... some dude wrote some crap about Gunman & TEK here:

http://www.brns.com/thaifilms/pages/thairev33.html
http://www.brns.com/thaifilms/pages/thairev16.html

For some reason he never got round to reviewing Gunman 2... slacker!

[Mike Thomason]

The Elephant Keeper (Thailand) (DVD), Gunman (Thailand) (DVD), Gunman II (Thailand) (DVD)

Good choices!

Yes, I now have every one of Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's films commercially available on DVD! I held off on the Gunman movies until the Elephant Keeper came back into print...

[MrBooth]

The Elephant Keeper (Thailand) (DVD), Gunman (Thailand) (DVD), Gunman II (Thailand) (DVD)

Good choices!

Yes, I now have every one of Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's films commercially available on DVD! I held off on the Gunman movies until the Elephant Keeper came back into print...

Me too, although 3 or 4 have been sitting unwatched in a case for several years now... I binged on his films when they started issuing them, but quickly concluded they'd definitely released his best work first (mainly those three), and the quality tailed off fairly sharply!

Still waiting for them to release "Citizen" though, which seems to be his most highly regarded film. I started watching "Citizen II", but decided I needed to see the original first (since it's featured in flashbacks and references a lot)... but then it never came out

[Brian Thibodeau]

Thanks for that, gents! Guess I'll have to grab those next time I'm back in the city in a couple of weeks. Saw them at this new little Thai grocery/housewares/gift shop that's only been open awhile. THey had some other stuff there, but I can only look at so many covers of gnarled creepy zombie ghost women holding severed heads before I start glazing over. I was fortunate I spotted these at all!


Speaking of Toronto, and addressing Mike's earlier beef that he was the only one contributing to this thread, I've got a few minutes to list the goodies I grabbed this weekend.

While Toronto crawls with bootleggers these days (20 in the biggest Chinese mall alone!), there are still a few good guys trying to stay above board. One such place, a little gifty/snacky/entertainmenty kind of place in a mall crawling with bootleggers has been a favourite haunt for the last year or so, mainly for their sizable collection of price-reduced catalogue product (in both DVD and VCD format). Normally, their VCDs ran around $5 - $10 Canadian, and their DVDs, outside of new releases, were always 3 for $20. Interestingly, they always maintained a healthy supply of the Celestial Shaw Brothers VCDs which, when they were no longer new releases, could be have 3 for $15 and NO TAX!!

Well, this past weekend, the older Shaw VCDs were 3 for $10 and no tax. ALL the other VCDs they had in stock, were 4 for $10, and all the DVDs were $5 for $20!! Clearly they must be getting out of the game, since the mall they're in is overrun with bootleg shops (you'd swear you were in Hong Kong, man!) selling first-gen quality DVD-Rs for as little as 10/$30 (down via cutthroat business practises from early pricing of 3/$20).

Anyways, I've always given business to this little shop because of their competitive prices for legitimate product. While you can't look in any direction without seeing these ubiquitous "copy shops" it's nice to know there are still those who at least tried to stay clean. While this little shop I'm talking about isn't actually closing, and still gets in new releases on VCD and a handful on DVD, I suspect I'm going back in the weeks ahead to continue cleaning them out.

To wit, here's my haul from this weekend. Nothing spectacular, and I deliberately grabbed some drive-in style junk 'cuz I'm funny that way, but I figured I couldn't let Mike have all the fun:


4/$10 VCDs (all HK stuff)

SOME LIKE IT COOL
KUNG FU POLICE (Jackie Lui, I think)
A WEDDING OR A FUNERAL (Sam Lee)
MALEVOLENT MATE (Tommy Wong)
LOVER OF THE SWINDLER (Big Tony Leung)
TROUBLESOME NIGHT 19 (now I just need to find 6-18. Oy!)
FINALE IN BLOOD
AH KAM
HAPPY GO LUCKY
MY SASSY BOYFRIEND (Cheung Tat-Ming)
THE LAW ENFORCER (Danny Lee)
THE SHOOTOUT (Aaron Kwok, Sean Lau)
DEVIL AND MASTER (Alex Fong)
THE END OF THE STUMER
1999 THE DEADLY CAMP
PROFILE IN ANGER (Bryan Leung)
SHE STARTS THE FIRE (Chingmy Yau)
LADY IN BLACK (Brigitte Lin, Big Tony Leung)


3/$10 Shaw VCDs
THE 82 TENANTS
SEX BEYOND THE GRAVE
WHOSE BABY IS IN THE CLASSROOM
DEATH VALLEY (already had this on DVD. Damn!)
THE KILLER DARTS
THE DELINQUENT
SEX FOR SALE
PALE PASSION
ALL MEN OR BROTHERS (had this one too!)
THE INFORMER (Danny Lee)
DEMON OF THE LUTE
LET'S MAKE LAUGH
YOUNG LOVERS ON FLYING WHEELS
THE SUGAR DADDIES
POLICE FORCE
SUNSET
LOVE SWINDLER
WOMAN OF THE NIGHT
TEMPTRESS OF A THOUSAND FACES
HEX
THE SEXY KILLER
36 SECRETS OF COURTSHIP
INTERPOL 009
THE ANGELS STRIKES AGAIN
THE LADY PROFESSIONAL
PUPPY LOVE

Suffice it to say, most of these have original stickers still on 'em for $9.99 - $10.99, so I can safely say I saved a bundle!

But wait, there's more!

5/$20 DVDs

MEMENTO (Wong Hei)
BODY LOVER (Lilly Li, Julie Riva)
SEVEN ANGELS
CARRY ON PICKPOCKET
PAULINE'S LIFE

(I must confess to indulging my morbid curiosity on that last one, especially considering it's unsubbed)


And since I'd saved so much, I naturally had to treat myself to some new releases, for these I go to any one of about three shops right in downtown Toronto that still carry all legit product, but at drastically reduced prices thanks to all the crooks surrounding them. This netted:

ELECTION 2
BET TO BASIC
ROARING DRAGON BLUFFING TIGER (Anthony Wong, Colling Chou)
TWINKLE TWINKLE LUCKY STAR (the Nat Chan/Anita Yuen one)
DEVIL KILLER (a Grace Lam sleazefest)
FAITHFULLY YOURS (Stephen Chow/Cheung Man)
DRAGON IN FURY (Dragon Shek/Gordon Liu)
COCKTAIL (Candy Lo)
HALF TWIN (ditto)
UNDERCOVER HIDDEN DRAGON
MARRIAGE WITH A FOOL
MURDER TAKE ONE (Korean)
All for between $7 and $11 each, no tax)
and three Music Video compilation DVDs (totals about 98 songs) that were bargain binned at $5.99 each. I'm a sucker for HK Pop and damned proud of it!


Plus, for about $11.99 apiece:
FEARLESS
THE PROMISE
MAREBITO (Japan)


Sadly, this is not the biggest haul I've ever made in a single weekend. In a way, I probably have the bootleggers to thank, since they've driven down the price of legitimate movies so steeply.

Of course, I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend time in those same bootleg shops, but largely because they, too, carry small helpings of legit stuff, I guess so they can make some flimsy excuses to the cops every time they're busted and back in business a day later. Thanks to this practise, I found one shop that stocks a large selection of Phillipines movies—all with English subs—that are most definitely not boots (and trust me, I know how to tell without ever seeing the disc.) Of course, I'm not about to ask HOW they got them, but I couldn't resist picking up:

MULAWIN: THE MOVIE (2005)

for $10, largely thanks to it's cool cover featuring the cast in their action figure-like costumes. So far, it's not bad. Not good, certainly, and kinda cheesy with rather chintzy special FX, but all in all it brings back memories of the shoddy but plucky 70's Filipino actioners I used to pick up on video back in the late 80's and early 90's, only now they've learned how to apply a bit of spit and polish.

[Mike Thomason]

Me too, although 3 or 4 have been sitting unwatched in a case for several years now... I binged on his films when they started issuing them, but quickly concluded they'd definitely released his best work first (mainly those three), and the quality tailed off fairly sharply!

Still waiting for them to release "Citizen" though, which seems to be his most highly regarded film. I started watching "Citizen II", but decided I needed to see the original first (since it's featured in flashbacks and references a lot)... but then it never came out

Hi again Simon,

Hehe, you'll all be VERY pleased when I get Eyes Wide Screen (my Asian movie review site) off the ground again in the near-to-not-too-distant future, as I've got something special coming for the world of the internet in relation to the Prince's film library. In short, I had the good fortune of having a Thai lady come to my aide, via email, who used to work in the Thai TV industry and she's been extraordinarily helpful in translating ALL of the most pertinent information relating to his films -- I don't believe that this has been done to extent we've achieved in collaboration anywhere, let alone the internet medium.

I've also held off watching "Citizen II" (actually directly translated as "Thongpun's Freedom") for exactly the same reason; additionally, the Prince's most widely acclaimed film, "Grounded God", simply isn't available anywhere yet in an English subtitled presentation. Also, I'd hazard a guess that the three above mentioned titles may not physically be the "best" of his output, which is more personal opinion than anything else, but as I've watched everything I have (all films barring "Taxi Driver" [Citizen I] and "Grounded God", which are unavailble, and the original "Last Love", whose negative has long since been lost). The films I have enjoyed the most have been (as well as a taster of "things to come"):

HIS NAME IS KARN (1973) (aka: He Is Karn, Dr. Karn) (Kao Chu Kaan) - a brilliant piece of work based upon the much loved novel by famous female writer Suwannee Sukhontha; this got the Prince in much trouble with the government of the day as it pulled no punches in its exploration of civil service corruption.

HOTEL ANGEL (1974) (often mistakenly referred to as either "Angel" or "Angel Hotel") (Theptida Rongram) - a rather solid study of the Thai prostitution industry, and how rural girls are deceived with false promises into it.

IF YOU ARE STILL IN LOVE...(1980) (erroneously referred to by numerous dubious translations like "The Yellowing Sky", "Before The Storm" etc) (Ta Ter Yung Me Rak) - an adaptation of Yoji Yamada's "The Yellow Handerchief", this really captivated me and Sorapong Chatree is outstanding in one of his better mid-period roles.

NONG MIA, STORY OF CHAOPHAYA (1990) (aka: Song for Chaophraya) (I am currently waiting on direct translations for this one, as my assistant is in the last term of her current semester here and thereby unavailable at present) - a rather startling, and affecting, story of common folk who work the rivers in the sand trade which features a great performance by Chartchai Plengpanich.

...there is more, but we'd be here all night if I started on this subject properly -- plus I'd have no surprises up my sleeve for EWS's relaunch. All I'll say is...keep your eyes peeled, as there's a wealth of previously unavailable information on the way!

[Brian Thibodeau]

Interesting to note that GUNMAN II features a co-screenplay credit by the Prince and Stirling Silliphant, the famous Hollywood screenwriter whose resume is prolific if not always filled with memorable projects, particularly in his later years (but at least he kept working). GUNMAN II appears to be his next-to-last project before he died in Thailand in 1996. And who can forget the lovely Tiana Alexandra....

[MrBooth]

Looking forward to that Mike! I liked Hotel Angel and Norng Mia quite a bit... haven't watched Dr Karn and what I believed to be "The Yellowing Sky". Maybe soon

[Mike Thomason]

An older title, but one of my all time favourites (from any country):

The Bride With White Hair (Hong Kong) (DVD)



...and also...

Bamboo House of Dolls (Hong Kong) (DVD)
The Sexy Killer (Hong Kong) (DVD)

[Mike Thomason]

It must be my lucky day today (17/07), coz I have now managed to source both of the below titles:

Ghost Eyes (Hong Kong) (DVD)*
Lust for Love of a Chinese Courtesan (Hong Kong) (DVD)**

* HKFlix still had these in stock; paid a bit more, but I now have one!
** This was released locally! So I've scored the R4 version for $13AUD.

[Mike Thomason]

Crying Out Love, In The Centre Of The World (Japan) (DVD)
Election 2 (Hong Kong) (DVD)*
We Are Family (Hong Kong) (DVD)

* I thought the first film was rubbish, lord knows why I've ordered the sequel! It must be a slow time for HK movies...

[Mike Thomason]

Let's try a couple of those Thai films again, and see how far I get with them this time...

Dumber Heroes (Thailand) (DVD)
Sexphone & The Lonely Wave (Thailand) (DVD)
Spicy Beauty Queen of Bangkok (Thailand) (DVD)

...and, it's a win! These all shipped since I posted this! Sweet!

[Mike Thomason]

Bravo, My Life (South Korea) (DVD)
Daisy (South Korea) (DVD)
Navy Boys (Thailand) (DVD)
Welcome To Dongmakgol (South Korea) (DVD)
Without Words (Hong Kong) (DVD)

Am I going too fast for you all yet?

(Whoops, lost one to the forces of OOS items again!)