criterionforum.org

Sick is a lot of fun.

dwk wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 6:32 pm Tommy (1975) UHD is also coming under the Shout Select label.

Yes! Holy shit this is my all time favorite film and this is something I never expected to actually happen. I just hope this means that we’re getting the extras from the UK disc and not the barebones US Blu-Ray.

dwk wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 6:32 pm Tommy (1975) UHD is also coming under the Shout Select label.

I saw the 4K restoration at the cinema 12 months ago and it was sensational.

Aunt Peg wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 11:12 pm

dwk wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 6:32 pm Tommy (1975) UHD is also coming under the Shout Select label.

I saw the 4K restoration at the cinema 12 months ago and it was sensational.

Did it overwhelm as the end approached you or make your lungs hold breath inside?

I'm not that familiar with the Slam Dunk series, but The First Slam Dunk was the highest grossing film of the Japanese box office in 2023.

The series is very good. It’s been regularly voted in Japan as the greatest comic series of all time.

The book is wonderful but waaaayyy too long to catch up with, and many of the volumes are probably out of print. It doesn’t matter. The film, The First Slam Dunk, which is written and directed by the original mangaka, Takehiko Inoue, is completely independent of the series and can be thoroughly enjoyed solely on its own.

And, Colin, I do think you will enjoy it. Inoue (a first time director!) masterfully animates it, and it is very, very touching.

And if you do like it, I can’t recommend Inoue’s incredible samurai manga series, Vagabond, enough. It chronicles, in beautiful epic detail, the technical development and spiritual journey of the samurai, Musashi Miyamoto (the historical figure who was the basis for the Samurai Trilogy from 1954-56). That, and his deeply moving wheelchair basketball series, Real, are truly incredible works of comics.

TechnicolorAcid wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 11:31 pm

Aunt Peg wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 11:12 pm

dwk wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 6:32 pm Tommy (1975) UHD is also coming under the Shout Select label.

I saw the 4K restoration at the cinema 12 months ago and it was sensational.

Did it overwhelm as the end approached you or make your lungs hold breath inside?

The whole experience was phenomenal. I'd never seen Tommy on the big screen and over and over again on VHS/DVD/Blu Ray over the decades.

Funnily enough it is playing again in Sydney this coming Sunday & Wednesday at the Randwick Ritz!

Another February release:
Chinese Odyssey Parts 1 and 2 (1995) Blu-ray (Shout Select)

dwk wrote:Another February release:
Chinese Odyssey Parts 1 and 2 (1995) Blu-ray (Shout Select)

Oh, lovely. This is routinely cited as one of the best and/or most important Hong Kong films ever made. Critic Jessica Yeung on Letterboxd even reads it as a difficult, densely allusive movie. Sounds fascinating. A good opportunity for me to further explore Stephen Chow after an inadvertent introduction to him earlier this year as part of my attempt to fill in my Corey Yuen gaps.

I recall the first part being relatively straightforward but the second part being really confusing, It probably didn't help that I had no frame of reference towards the source material that it was loosely adapted from.

I think the second part is also a parody of Ashes of Time? I haven’t read the source material, but a friend in high school made me sit down and watch a famous 80s tv adaptation on Chinese VCDs, so I have some frame of reference.

Jessica Yeung’s rec has me interested:

“Jessuca Yeung” wrote:Still think this's Chow's best and most difficult film - taking considerations of its allusions, real-life references (Athena Chu as Chow's love interest), and Buddhist philosophy.

jazzo wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2024 11:56 pm And if you do like it, I can’t recommend Inoue’s incredible samurai manga series, Vagabond, enough. It chronicles, in beautiful epic detail, the technical development and spiritual journey of the samurai, Musashi Miyamoto (the historical figure who was the basis for the Samurai Trilogy from 1954-56). That, and his deeply moving wheelchair basketball series, Real, are truly incredible works of comics.

I have the first three-in-one paperback volume of the Vagabond series, entirely bought on impulse just after finally watching the Samurai Trilogy a few years back, and being interested to see another take on the Musashi Miyamoto material. That was before I got into my more recent manga-buying phase though so it stayed at just that volume for a while. Though I note that in the new year Viz is going to be bringing the series out in a run of larger hardback deluxe editions, so that may just prove to be the incentive to collect it!

No one seems to have reviewed the 4K "Aguirre the Wrath of God" Issued by Shout! Factory. Does it look better than the bfi Blu Ray from their Herzog box? Is the Blu Ray included with the 4K the same as what was in the Shout! Herzog box, or is it different? Do we think the bfi will follow with their own4K version? I am surprised that this was completely ignored.

Disappointingly, according to the disc’s producer on Twitter, Robert Rodriguez refused to participate in any extras for the forthcoming edition of the Faculty (though he approved the final package)

domino harvey wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2024 8:33 pm Disappointingly, according to the disc’s producer on Twitter, Robert Rodriguez refused to participate in any extras for the forthcoming edition of the Faculty (though he approved the final package)

I really wish these disc producers would try to get more screenwriter commentaries (unless, of course, they turned down the chance as well).

MifuneFan has started to find Shout/Scream's March releases:
Night of the Creeps UHD
Bring it On UHD

Some more March release found by MifuneFan

Forbidden World (1982) 4K UHD

Ghost Cat Anzu Blu-ray (GKIDS)

Shaw Brothers Classics: Vol. 6:

Swordswomen Three
The Twelve Gold Medallions
The Black Enforcer
Duel For Gold
Finger of Doom
Na Cha and the Seven Devils
Shadow Girl
Swordsman at Large
The Black Tavern
The Young Avenger
Crazy Nuts of Kung Fu.

Tommy has been announced although rather disappointing that for now it’s barebones, especially considering the wealth of extras on the UK discs including a commentary with Russell himself and Mark Kermode (which is delightful and packed with fun production stories). This is my #1 favorite film of all time so I’m getting this anyways but for anyone else, I would advise possibly waiting for further details to pop up before getting it.

I’ll just put this here:
John Woo, Chow Yun-fat Classics Among 156-Film Golden Princess Library Acquired by Shout! Studios

Given how awful Shout's subtitles often are and their habit of shoveling out old masters as site exclusive limited edition, this is a borderline monkey's paw situation.

Now watch Shout parse the most requested titles out across several boxsets with no standalones. Hopefully they won't be this cynical. Variety says they have worldwide rights but maybe they could collaborate with Arrow again and at least give the most popular films a 2K or 4K restoration, and sub-licence those to Arrow. Outside of Studio Canal, I can't think of any other UK label who'd have the money for such a project.

Frank Djeng is working on some of those at least, according to Facebook.

Finch wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 5:53 pm Now watch Shout parse the most requested titles out across several boxsets with no standalones. Hopefully they won't be this cynical. Variety says they have worldwide rights but maybe they could collaborate with Arrow again and at least give the most popular films a 2K or 4K restoration, and sub-licence those to Arrow. Outside of Studio Canal, I can't think of any other UK label who'd have the money for such a project.

Boxsets and site exclusives are definitely going to be their release strategy, but no chance they team with a UK label. Why would they? What is going to happen is they will buy the current masters from Fortune Star and release those.

I guess Frank Djeng has said that there possibly be some sublicensing outside the US. Shout's deal with 101 Films in the UK expired and all their releases went OOP in December, so maybe they are looking for a new UK partner. I wouldn't hold my breath for a deal with a "better" label, but, unless there is bad blood between them, maybe Cliff MacMillan's history with Shout and current position at Arrow could make a deal possible.