Discotek Media

[Taijikid]

Over the weekend my son received a notice from HKFlix about a new release of the 1993 Herman Yau/Anthony Wong movie Taxi Hunter. The DVD will be released in three weeks from a group called Discotek Media and will be available through both HKFlix and Amazon. I did not see a listing for the DVD at YesAsia or Buyoyo.

I have a VCD of the movie; but my son is interested in purchasing a DVD for his own shelves, and like me, he wants to avoid dealing in pirated films. Does anyone here know anything about Discotek Media? Should I trust that their releases are legitimate?

Thanks for your help. Vicki

[dleedlee]

Over the weekend my son received a notice from HKFlix about a new release of the 1993 Herman Yau/Anthony Wong movie Taxi Hunter. The DVD will be released in three weeks from a group called Discotek Media and will be available through both HKFlix and Amazon. I did not see a listing for the DVD at YesAsia or Buyoyo.

I have a VCD of the movie; but my son is interested in purchasing a DVD for his own shelves, and like me, he wants to avoid dealing in pirated films. Does anyone here know anything about Discotek Media? Should I trust that their releases are legitimate?

Thanks for your help. Vicki

Discotek Media is a US distributor that's why you don't see them on Yesasia or Buyoyo. They also released stuff like Ebola Syndrome and lots of anime titles but I've never bought any of their titles so I can't tell you about the quality of their releases.

I settled for converting my old Taxi Hunter LD to DVD.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Diskotek is legit. You should be able to find online reviews, for what they're worth, of several of their available titles. They seem to do a pretty good job overall. I've long wondered about an association between Asian Cult Cinema "author" Thomas Weisser, his wife Yuko, and the company. Weisser did liner notes for ZERO WOMAN: RED HANDCUFFS; his wife contributes an interesting anecdote on SAYANORA JUPITER. I don't know if they turn up on other releases. The Diskotek website only mentions the company being started by "two diehard cult, Asian, and anime film fans". Could one be Thomas Weisser? Who knows. I almost don't want to know, really. His error-ridden books on Asian cinema and his bootleg-ridden Video Search of Miami company (which keeps on keepin' on even today, 12 years after he sold it) should not have earned him the right to go legit, if indeed he has with Discotek.

[Taijikid]

Dennis and Brian--

Thanks for your responses. I will advise my son to go ahead and give them a try. If their mission is to give legitimate new life to old Asian movies, then they have my support.

When I looked at their catalog, it struck me as being heavy on Cat III-type fare, with a few exceptions like my favorite Miike movie The Happiness of the Katakuris. I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Weisser were somehow involved with the company. I too had a couple of his books and a brief subscription to his magazine. I think I passed them all on to my son, who has more tolerance than I do.

Vicki

[Brian Thibodeau]

I think I passed them all on to my son, who has more tolerance than I do.

Hopefully he never tried to read them in public (or at school!), what with those classy back cover photos of topless Asian actresses and all!

Weisser definitely had a thing for the naughtier stuff. Not a bad thing in and of itself, but with him it seemed a bit too fetishistic sometimes.

On a related note, the cult film magazine Cashiers du Cinemart once featured a spoof review of a fictitious new book by Weisser that, if you know his work, is one of the funniest damned things ever written about him. Thankfully, it's available on the web :

http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives ... 20Classics