Upcoming English-friendly GERMAN DVDs & Blu-Rays

[Yihetuan]

On 8/19/2023 at 1:59 AM, lastninja said:

According to https://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=20306 the movie "A Man Called Hero" gets a Blu-ray release restored to full runtime.

 

"The Duel" gets the same treatment.

 

Can't find infos about subtitles for both, though. Does anyone here know more?

 

On 8/19/2023 at 8:11 AM, Yihetuan said:

I contacted Cargo directly & they emailed me the reply and I posted it a few pages back.

ok, I found the email. There will be English subs for both regardless what is listed on the back cover. Amazon.de says both will only come with the English dub but that is incorrect according to Martin at Cargo Distribution.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Yihetuan

[Yihetuan]

TG Vision Gate is planning on releasing John Woo's Bullet in the Head on February 23rd of next year on blu ray. No details as of yet and artwork is not finalized. But will come in 2 cover variants.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Yihetuan

[Yihetuan]

TG Vision Gate is releasing King Hu's Raining in the Mountain on November 24th in a limited scanavo blu ray edition. German premiere in HD. Details and technical specs not available.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Yihetuan

[Yihetuan]

Imperial Pictures will release Jimmy Wang Yu's Knight Errant on October 13 on blu ray. This is supposedly a "new" edition that differs from the previous release but I don't know the details. This one is verified to be English friendly like the previous release.

[Yihetuan]

Update: The artwork for Bullet in the Head has been released for the two cover variants.

[Yihetuan]

Virtual Combat aka Grid Runners starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson is coming out on blu ray on November 17 & in mediabook on Sept 25 from WMM. English friendly of course. Two cover variants for each format.

 

[lastninja]

On 5/3/2023 at 10:02 PM, saltysam said:

The Valiant Ones from  Cargo in July, english and mandarin audio apparently

 

 

The Hong Kong Film Archive release of "The Valiant Ones" has burnt-in Chinese and English subtitles. I would like to know if the German Blu-ray used the same picture master and if this is also the case here? How does that work with the German subtitles? Are these shown over the burned-in Chinese and English subtitles?

[saltysam]

i've read elsewhere that the german blu of The Valiant Ones is the same burnt in sub print but they've cropped the image to cover up the burnt in subs

[Yihetuan]

18 minutes ago, saltysam said:

i've read elsewhere that the german blu of The Valiant Ones is the same burnt in sub print but they've cropped the image to cover up the burnt in subs

I saw this too. I tried to find the review that mentions this but I think it was a review posted on Amazon Germany. Anyway, the HKFA is the superior release.

[Yihetuan]

5 hours ago, lastninja said:

The Hong Kong Film Archive release of "The Valiant Ones" has burnt-in Chinese and English subtitles. I would like to know if the German Blu-ray used the same picture master and if this is also the case here? How does that work with the German subtitles? Are these shown over the burned-in Chinese and English subtitles?

 

41 minutes ago, saltysam said:

i've read elsewhere that the german blu of The Valiant Ones is the same burnt in sub print but they've cropped the image to cover up the burnt in subs

Someone posted screen caps & it shows how severely cropped the Cargo release is in comparison to the HKFA.

[saltysam]

English friendly allegedly,coming  in November

[ShawAngela]

8 minutes ago, saltysam said:

English friendly allegedly,coming  in November

I guess that these are Shaolin temple and Shaolin kids  ?

The use of the cover of Martial arts From shaolin on the second one is confusing...

[Yihetuan]

20 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

I guess that these are Shaolin temple and Shaolin kids  ?

The use of the cover of Martial arts From shaolin on the second one is confusing...

You mean Kids from Shaolin. Shaolin Kids is a different movie with Carter Wong & Polly Shang kuan.

[Drunken Monk]

2 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

I guess that these are Shaolin temple and Shaolin kids  ?

The use of the cover of Martial arts From shaolin on the second one is confusing...

Yea, it‘s strange. All the artwork on the second cover depicts scenes from Martial Arts from Shaolin. But I imagine it’s still Kids from Shaolin what with the first two being non-Shaws.

[ShawAngela]

8 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

You mean Kids from Shaolin. Shaolin Kids is a different movie with Carter Wong & Polly Shang kuan.

Yes, of course, thanks for correcting me !

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

On 5/15/2023 at 10:25 AM, Yihetuan said:

filmart's next SB release #14 of Flag of Iron is scheduled for June 30 release. It will have English subtitles.

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0C4XYDJTN?ie=UTF8&tag=bdde-110-100-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=1638&creative=6742&creativeASIN=B0C4XYDJTN

This time they fortunately used the Mandarin soundtrack.

[ChillyChong]

Those john woo movies have to be bootlegs or no eng subs/dubs. Or most unlikely something strange has happened and they at last allow european releases engfisch friendly

[Yihetuan]

The US/South Korea co-production 3-D monster film, A*P*E* (aka King Kong's Great Counterattack) is being released in a limited edition hartbox blu ray on Sept 7 from HCE. English audio.

 

[Yggdrasil]

On 8/26/2023 at 2:25 PM, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

This time they fortunately used the Mandarin soundtrack.

Subtitles in sync this time too, lol?

[Yihetuan]

On 8/26/2023 at 11:20 AM, ChillyChong said:

Those john woo movies have to be bootlegs or no eng subs/dubs. Or most unlikely something strange has happened and they at last allow european releases engfisch friendly

The Killer now has a placeholder at Amazon.de and it is listed as having English subtitles.

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0CG8CZKJJ?ie=UTF8&tag=bdde-110-100-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=1638&creative=6742&creativeASIN=B0CG8CZKJJ

It's currently available for pre-order at jpc.de

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/movie/detail/-/art/the-killer/hnum/11584333&subid=blu-ray-news/?iampartner=138&subid=blu-ray-news&ref=partner.jpc.de

Edited August 31, 2023 by Yihetuan

[Kevin Chan]

On 8/25/2023 at 10:17 PM, Yihetuan said:

 

Someone posted screen caps & it shows how severely cropped the Cargo release is in comparison to the HKFA.

I somehow forgot that most of the stuff that this label is releasing is really dubious. I have never watched a King Hu movie, but I was curious, so last week when I had the opportunity to buy that release of The Valiant Ones, I did.

And what can I say.. I did not enjoy the film. I read high praise of King Hu all the time, but it doesn't seem to be my cup of tea, this movie in particular. It seems to be a very low budget production, with most of the film taking place in the woods, aside from maybe only 3 or 4 other locations. It almost felt like an enactment because there is so few players involved on what looks like a rather small location. There are weird cuts where this general is supposedly traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles within seconds to share a few words with his superior, only to seemingly be back at base camp later that same day. My guess is that this movie is stylistically very close to the classic Peking Opera. The actually quite simple story was presented in a very confusing manner, although that could be the German dub's fault. It was quite hard for me to understand who was on which side, especially during the first half of the movie.

What certainly did not help was the presentation. The colours were very much on the green/blue side and looked very much washed out. Reminds me of a very heavy case of L'immagine Ritrovata. Ok, bad colours shouldn't be a problem to a fan of Hong Kong cinema, but yes, the cropping during scenes with dialogue was very very distracting. The image composition was completely destroyed by it, characters were very much off center when they talked. Terrible.

Sure it was great seeing all these familiar faces. No, Jackie Chan is nowhere to be seen. I think I will return this disc because it screams bootleg and in general is a very unenjoyable experience.

Edited September 1, 2023 by Kevin Chan

[Yihetuan]

Now up for pre-order at Amazon.de. Anyone here brave enough to take the leap of faith?

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0CG8CZKJJ?ie=UTF8&tag=bdde-110-100-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=1638&creative=6742&creativeASIN=B0CG8CZKJJ

[KUNG FU BOB]

On 8/12/2023 at 11:21 PM, Yihetuan said:

John Woo's The Killer is being released for the first time uncut in Germany from a 2K remaster in December. Audio and subtitles TBD.

 

On 8/13/2023 at 5:02 AM, saltysam said:

That looks like HKR's cover !

 

On 8/13/2023 at 9:49 PM, Yihetuan said:

People are wondering if this a legit release or just a HKR reissue but BbA films responded that it's totally legit and even had it classified by the FSK.

 

 

On 8/16/2023 at 3:30 AM, AslanBey said:

"That looks LIKE...??"

Not wanting to call the devil but what happened to HKR? Is he still active?? 

 

On 8/16/2023 at 12:41 PM, Yihetuan said:

Yes, he is but that's all I can say.

 

On 8/22/2023 at 7:22 AM, Yihetuan said:

TG Vision Gate is planning on releasing John Woo's Bullet in the Head on February 23rd of next year on blu ray. No details as of yet and artwork is not finalized. But will come in 2 cover variants.

 

On 8/26/2023 at 2:20 PM, ChillyChong said:

Those john woo movies have to be bootlegs or no eng subs/dubs. Or most unlikely something strange has happened and they at last allow european releases engfisch friendly

 

On 8/31/2023 at 1:27 PM, Yihetuan said:

The Killer now has a placeholder at Amazon.de and it is listed as having English subtitles.

 

18 hours ago, Kevin Chan said:

I somehow forgot that most of the stuff that this label is releasing is really dubious. I have never watched a King Hu movie, but I was curious, so last week when I had the opportunity to buy that release of The Valiant Ones, I did.

 

14 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

Now up for pre-order at Amazon.de. Anyone here brave enough to take the leap of faith?

 

First of all, I've worked for several German distributors over the last decade and was surprised when I was told by many inside sources that most of the country's distributors of genre stuff were not licensed to do so and were simply bootleggers. I know for certain that FilmArt and TVP- The Vengeance Pack are legitimate companies, and I've personally seen the hoops they've had to jump through with certain companies they license titles from. I cannot vouge for any of the other companies. Keeping this in mind...

What I'm about to say is purely hypothetical.

Recently in this thread, after seeing cover art used for some of the Hong Kong Rescue bootleg releases being used to promote upcoming German releases of films that most industry people have confirmed are NOT available for licensing outside of Asia someone asked what ever happened to Jacob (who ran HKR). After 88 Films and Eureka released officially licensed versions of certain films that Hong Kong Rescue had previously put out, I asked Jacob why he was still selling copies of these titles that now had received legitimate releases, despite originally claiming he wouldn't do that. He explained that he was reluctant to let his hard work go to waste. When he was last heard from he was working on a release of BULLET IN THE HEAD. This is only speculation, but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that he has hooked up with a German company that will release his versions of films since he can't personally keep up with orders for them on his own. In this case, he'd undoubtedly be compensated for his work and a bootlegger would easily sell copies of these much sought-after titles. 

Did anyone else here connect the dots and come to this same conclusion?

[Kevin Chan]

33 minutes ago, KUNG FU BOB said:

This is only speculation, but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that he has hooked up with a German company that will release his versions of films since he can't personally keep up with orders for them on his own. In this case, he'd undoubtedly be compensated for his work and a bootlegger would easily sell copies of these much sought-after titles. 

Did anyone else here connect the dots and come to this same conclusion?

I get your train of thought, but still IMO it seems unlikely. While Jacob did scam people (I don't really think it was on purpose, he just couldn't keep up with the orders), he always made sure to communicate what the value of his custom editions was and how much efforts it took. Cleaned up transfers, choice of audio tracks, extensive bonus materials collected from multiple releases world wide, ...

Yet the dubious German distributors provide almost no such information. They won't tell you which version exactly is included. They rarely do multiple cuts. They rarely include bonus materials aside from maybe some trailers. The booklets are sometimes badly written or formatted. It's just shiny on the outside but what exactly is the value? They just spit out release after release. And those releases tend to lose their value very quickly because once they are sold and people see that aside from the movie there is not much else included, nobody is willing to pay close to the 30 or 40 EUR that were asked initially.

This strategy doesn't match Jacob's approach. Although I could be wrong, because by your theory, he would get paid so why would he care? But then again, I get the impression that he does (or did) care that his work gets appreciated.

Side note:
Indeed I returned my copy of The Valiant Ones to Amazon today and was already refunded. I refuse to take part in such shady tactics, and refuse to accept this low of an effort and pay 22 EUR for it, even if someone on the HKCAS Facebook group tells me that the release is legit.

[Kevin Chan]

After yesterday's trouble with The Valiant Ones I wanted to give King Hu a second chance. So today I have watched The Fate of Lee Khan. It came out in 1973, 2 years prior, and I found it much more interesting. It was almost like a Chamber Play, with the bulk of the movie taking place at the Spring Inn which is basically a Spy's Nest. You get some nice introduction to the characters, different perspectives of the Inn and its customers, and everyone seems to have a secret. I guess it's also loosely resembling actual historical events? The strong female characters including Angela Mao, and interesting visuals were also a big plus, in addition to a lot of familar faces (again). I'm becoming a fan of Bai Ying, who plays a similar cool role as in The Valiant Ones.

The presentation on the disc is also much better. The German dub is suprisingly good. Not sure if it's a new one. It does sound new, but prior to the Blu-ray the movie has only been broadcast in German TV and had no home video release. So it could be the dub from these broadcasts or a new one.

The Blu-ray is not english friendly, though.