Shout! Factory / Scream Factory

[Finch]

Guess I'll be importing the Pathe disc from the UK, assuming Orbit and others can still source from abroad when the film goes on release. Still no word from the courts whether the DeMinimus exception will be reinstated. Tick tock.

[nicolas]

That sucks. I wonder how Marshall got that wrong.

Cliff said that Shout put out Marshall’s Doomsday recently and he may have had that in mind while posting.

In the UK, Pathé apparently have a home video deal with Studiocanal, so it’ll probably be coming from them.

[dwk]

Probably end up being cheaper to pick up the UK disc from Orbit or Diabolik than getting it from LL.

[Mr Sausage]

Cross-posting this news here:

Hard Boiled (as well as City on Fire and A Better Tomorrow I and II) are on Tubi with Shout! Factory "Hong Kong Cinema Classics" logos. Dubbed and original versions. Impossible to tell with Tubi's streaming quality if these are the 4K restorations—and I have not seen the films in decades—but they look very good.

EDIT: Just noticed that they're also on VOD services to rent/buy in 4K.

And both Better Tomorrows have the original sound effects/mix, making these the best current versions to watch.

Tubi now also have Peking Opera Blues and A Better Tomorrow III. Shout's really getting these out there.

[hearthesilence]

I didn't realize there had been a replacement program to deal with the audio issue on the Dead Ringers Blu-ray (where the audio channels are swapped). I don't even remember which retailer I bought mine from, much less if my account still exists (or has the order listed somewhere). Anyone have experience with Shout Factory's replacement programs?

[Finch]

November titles:
A Better Tomorrow Trilogy 4K
Hard-boiled 4K
Renfield Steelbook
John Carpenter's Vampires Steelbook
The Howling Steelbook
Spotlight 4K
Snowden 4K
The Beastmaster 4K

[dwk]

Hard Boiled has the old Criterion commentary as one of the extras. Safe to assume that this will be the case for The Killer.

[hanshotfirst1138]

This is stupidly overpriced, but I already pre-ordered anyway. Now when do we get The Killer?! And when does A Chinese Ghost Story go up on Tubi?!

[dwk]

The A Better Tomorrow set will have an workprint of Part II and the Taiwanese cut of Part III

[beamish14]

The A Better Tomorrow set will have an workprint of Part II and the Taiwanese cut of Part III

That workprint is a pretty massive deal. Wow.

[yoloswegmaster]

The A Better Tomorrow set will have an workprint of Part II and the Taiwanese cut of Part III

That workprint is a pretty massive deal. Wow.

Details on how the workprint for ABII was located

[ryannichols7]

Hard Boiled has the old Criterion commentary as one of the extras. Safe to assume that this will be the case for The Killer.

the question is whether Arrow will have the same ability to use the tracks, as their editions should be far more reasonably priced. cool turnaround on how quick these came out and they did seem to do good stuff.

Shout and Criterion maintain a pretty good relationship as well

[pzadvance]

This is stupidly overpriced, but I already pre-ordered anyway. Now when do we get The Killer?! And when does A Chinese Ghost Story go up on Tubi?!

Criterion announced the Chinese Ghost Story trilogy would be on the Channel next month

[rrenault]

Hard Boiled has the old Criterion commentary as one of the extras. Safe to assume that this will be the case for The Killer.

the question is whether Arrow will have the same ability to use the tracks, as their editions should be far more reasonably priced. cool turnaround on how quick these came out and they did seem to do good stuff.

Shout and Criterion maintain a pretty good relationship as well

is Hard-Boiled confirmed to be with Arrow?

[dwk]

Yes, Shout licensed the UK rights to the Goldwn Princess catalog to Arrow.

[ryannichols7]

and for the record, Imprint will be releasing this catalog too. so consumers have plenty of choice with these editions

[Finch]

With Imprint's prices and their ridiculously over-sized sets for a single title, I honestly struggle to see anyone other than the Aussies going for their editions when Arrow's and Shout's (and quite likely the Italians, too) discs are going to go for a lot less money even before you figure in custom duties. Peking Opera Blues will be my last Shout pre-order for their HK titles for the time being.

[domino harvey]

I can’t disagree that many of their releases are overpriced, but one thing Imprint is doing at a level at or better than any other boutique label is commissioning extras, though

[Finch]

Fair point. They do stack them. I'm curious to see what Arrow have lined up for their extras for the Golden Princess titles. Could be that some features are shared across all labels and some might go the extra mile to differentiate themselves further.

[swo17]

I can’t disagree that many of their releases are overpriced, but one thing Imprint is doing at a level at or better than any other boutique label is packaging movies in pumpkins

Fixed

[domino harvey]

They’ve had some great announcements lately but Imprint is going to peak right around January

[Mr Sausage]

So the new subtitles for The Killer use what I'm assuming are more literal translations of Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee's nicknames, Shrimphead and Little B, rather than the standard Dumbo/Mickey Mouse that John Woo approved of. It also uses Chow Yun-Fat and Chu Kong's Chinese names, Ah Jong and Fung Sei, which is fine, but I found it jarring due to years of seeing them called Jeff and Sidney. I don't remember if John Woo approved of the English names or not.

Anyway, the restoration looked lovely. I saw it projected digitally and I've never seen it look so good. In fact it's so clear that I finally noticed, after decades of watching the movie, that Danny Lee has one super long hair growing off a mole on his right cheek (is this a Chinese custom or superstition? I know Lam Suet has the same thing going on).

My wife, who was raised on Bollywood, commented that: "This is just a Bollywood movie! Only instead of singing and dancing everyone kills each other. And it's way gayer."

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Anyway, the restoration looked lovely. I saw it projected digitally and I've never seen it look so good. In fact it's so clear that I finally noticed, after decades of watching the movie, that Danny Lee has one super long hair growing off a mole on his right cheek (is this a Chinese custom or superstition? I know Lam Suet has the same thing going on).

Moles are traditionally considered auspicious, especially with long hairs that connote longevity.

IIRC "Shrimphead" and "Little B" were used in the HK Rescue subtitles, so it's interesting that those literal translations are now "official" (though the film has had so many different subtitles over the years that they may well have already been used in some legitimate release). IMO "Little B" is literal to a fault—the Cantonese term (細B) is a pretty common way of referring to small children, but I don't think that's terribly obvious from the English equivalent. Apparently 細B was also John Woo's childhood nickname.

On the subject of subtitles, those used for Shout's theatrical and streaming releases of Peking Opera Blues (and I would assume their disc releases as well) are a mixed bag. They're nowhere near as bad as the notorious original subs—for which Nansun Shi apologized in a letter to the New York Times—but while I have no idea whether the translator was a native speaker of Cantonese, it's obvious they weren't a native speaker of English. There's lots of clunky phrasing I wouldn't expect otherwise (e.g. "You guys don't be so audacious!"), and while they're rarely downright ungrammatical, there are still some telling slip-ups, like dropped articles and the use of "loan" where the intended meaning is clearly "borrow" (Chinese languages normally use the same word for both and leave the distinction to context). I didn't have any other issues with the restoration, which looked fine on the big screen.

[Finch]

I wish I could cancel that Peking Opera Blues pre-order with Orbit. Fuck. Ah well, on the trading pile it goes when it arrives.

This settles it for me definitively. Arrow all the way for the Golden Princess catalogue.

[hanshotfirst1138]

So the new subtitles for The Killer use what I'm assuming are more literal translations of Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee's nicknames, Shrimphead and Little B, rather than the standard Dumbo/Mickey Mouse that John Woo approved of. It also uses Chow Yun-Fat and Chu Kong's Chinese names, Ah Jong and Fung Sei, which is fine, but I found it jarring due to years of seeing them called Jeff and Sidney. I don't remember if John Woo approved of the English names or not.

Anyway, the restoration looked lovely. I saw it projected digitally and I've never seen it look so good. In fact it's so clear that I finally noticed, after decades of watching the movie, that Danny Lee has one super long hair growing off a mole on his right cheek (is this a Chinese custom or superstition? I know Lam Suet has the same thing going on).

My wife, who was raised on Bollywood, commented that: "This is just a Bollywood movie! Only instead of singing and dancing everyone kills each other. And it's way gayer."

Wasn't it supposed to be 14 titles? A bit disappointed that A Chinese Ghost Story Trilogy is Blu-ray only.

Likewise, especially given that that streaming is 4K!

On the subject of subtitles, those used for Shout's theatrical and streaming releases of Peking Opera Blues (and I would assume their disc releases as well) are a mixed bag. They're nowhere near as bad as the notorious original subs—for which Nansun Shi apologized in a letter to the New York Times—but while I have no idea whether the translator was a native speaker of Cantonese, it's obvious they weren't a native speaker of English. There's lots of clunky phrasing I wouldn't expect otherwise (e.g. "You guys don't be so audacious!"), and while they're rarely downright ungrammatical, there are still some telling slip-ups, like dropped articles and the use of "loan" where the intended meaning is clearly "borrow" (Chinese languages normally use the same word for both and leave the distinction to context). I didn't have any other issues with the restoration, which looked fine on the big screen.

There was some criticism of their subs for City On Fire as well. The person criticizing it and the person who did the subtitles had a conversation about it over at Blu-ray.com. I’m not saying this to be confrontational or anything, I’m just asking, what do you feel wasn’t probably conveyed in the subtitles? Apparently, Hong Kong Cantonese is quite vernacular, so translation may be difficult, especially for a period piece.