HK AND CULT FILM NEWS: March 2007

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Invincible Armour Trailer

Hmm now where is that music from??? :) As I said this film is amazing and if you don't have it yet this trailer should convince you otherwise. Thanks to drunkenmaster the person who put this up on youtube. I forgot to thank the other two youtubers for their uploads, so a belated thank you also.

Enjoy!

Sonny Chiba: Shadow Warriors Season 1

BCI sent me the first season of Sonny Chiba's Shadow Warriors, so expect so manjor indepth reviews on these discs. The set is 7 Discs and 27 Episodes of PURE SONNY CHIBA! The release of a non-anime Japanese TV program is something of a landmark and something that HK Film News looks forward to reviewing in-depth over the next few weeks disc by disc. I told you guys earlier not to worry about the site abandoning Asian Action. Big thanks to Cliff and BCI!

Shadow Warriors is set to retail for 79.99 and will be released on April 17th.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Remeber when the Sci-Fi Channel Didn't Suck?

I usually peg it around the end of MST3K, but any pick is a valid one. As I posted on Classic Horror Film Board, can anyone imagine Sci-Fi doing this now? This was back in 1994.

Expansion in Progress! More Genres and More Reviews!

Just a small update with some big news. I've recently decided to expand the scope of this site to include all sorts of genre films (horror, sci-fi, Fulci :), Godzilla, etc). Kung Fu and HK coverage isn't going to stop one bit though (and neither will our name). We just figured that because Kung Fu and HK will not always be briming with news and DVDs and there is no reason the site should slow down because of it. So expect DVD reviews of everything from The Sword, the new Mario Bava box set, Old School Horror and Sci-Fi, FUCLI, 1970s Bigfoot Films, and much much more. Incidentally if you want to write reviews for the site just drop me an email with a small sample review and a little information about yourself. I'm looking to add more reviewers to this site.

Lee Van Cleef and Hwang Jang Lee

If you've ever seen Invincible Armour (and if you haven't go see it right now, seriously), you'll must likely remember the piece of music that plays as the theme and throughout the film. Its actually the title track from the Italian Spaghetti Western Day of Anger. Now I've always wondered what the film was like and if it compared to the awesome nature of Invincible Armour. Well wonder no more because here is the trailer complete with badass music. Needless to say Lee Van Cleef is a major badass much like Hwang Jang Lee in Invincible Armour.

Knight of Old Cathay Screencaps.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Nope, not dead!

Hey,

Sorry for all the lack of postings lately, but I've been having to take care of some family and school matters. Luckily all things should soon be resolved favorably. I have a lot of free time coming up past this Sunday, so look for a pickup of updates.

Thanks
Ian

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Spiritual Boxer Dubbed Clip

Another Shaw film turning up on UK TV with a dub and one of the clearest sounding ones ever, which indicates that it most likely has been re-mastered. Thanks to tigerstyles at kung fu fandom.

Beautiful Swordswoman

Here are some caps for Beautiful Swordswoman, expect a review soon. More caps for other films will follow.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Shaw Brothers May and June Celestial Schedule

Thanks to dragonsdenuk.com for posting this schedule.

Basically May 24th is going to be awesome for Masked Avengers which I have to see since seeing a clip of I think Lu Feng descending on this amazing cylinder from above. June 17th is going to be even better. Killer Constable for the fact that it inspired apparently parts of The Killer (and that it is apparently awesome) and Dragon Missile since no one has seen this film since it first played as an attempt by the Shaws Brothers to counter Jimmy Wang Yu's Master of the Flying Guillotine. It got crushed and disappear (although I have read a report of a person who claimed to have seen it dubbed in the Caribbean in the last decade during a theatre run). Still I think there is going to be something for everyone.

Celestial Pictures Release Schedule

May 10th
Pursuit of Vengeance (1977, martial arts)
Black Tavern (1972, martial arts)
Valley of the Fangs (1970, martial arts)

May 24th
Shaolin Abbot (1979, martial arts)
Forever and Ever (1966, huangmei opera)
Loving You (1995, action)
Crimson Palm, The (1963, huangmei opera)
Masked Avengers (1981, martial arts)

June 7th
Dragon Missile, The (1976, martial arts)
Tales of Larceny (1973, comedy)
Six Assassins (1970, martial arts)
Killer Constable (1980, martial arts)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Dragon Dynasty DVD Specs: Righting Wrongs(aka Above the Law)

from hkflix.com

Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1

Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Audio Commentary by Bey Logan

Yuen Biao Interview (20 mins.)

Cynthia Rothrock Featurette (15 mins.)

Peter Cunningham Featurette (25 mins.)

Trailers

DVD-9

It should be noted that these are not final specs on the disc. It is well know that Righting Wrong existed in two distinct cuts with footage unique to each version. There are rumors circulating that Dragon Dynasty is at the least attempting to get this extra footage. Hopefully we will learn more soon!

Crash Titles Start Tomorrow.

Just to let you know I haven't forgotten :)

Monday, March 19, 2007

Let's have a big welcome to our new reviewer!

In his own words let me welcome Arif aka Crazy88:

A 17-year old Fan of World Cinema, with aLove for: Giallo's, Kung Fu and Martial Arts Movies, Horror, Shaw Brothers,Italian Crime Flicks, European Horror, Grindhouse, Italian Spahgetti Westerns, Japanese Cinema, Samurai Movies, Italian Horror, KoreanMovies, Gangster films, HK movies, Expolitation Cinema, etc...


From me:
So expect a wide variety of reviews that while not always HK related
will still be of interest to genre fans (because you know The Beyond
 rocks). So welcome aboard Arif.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Crash Cinema Discs Have Arrived!

Just a small update to let you know that the retail review discs of The Sword, Knight of Old Cathay, and Beautiful Swordswoman arrived in the mail. Expect reviews and caps over the next couple of days!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Updates Coming!

Lots of good news to tell my fellow readers. I can assure you the drought of news is over.

1. The reviews and screencaps for the Crash Cinema discs are coming. James at Crash Cinema has been kindly working OT to ensure the review discs arrive and I can tell you that they should be coming by Monday/Tuesday at the latest.

2. Expect a special review of a fan made special edition of Elton Chong's Deadly Shaolin Longfist created by Shaolindogpaw.

3. Specs on some upcoming Dragon Dynasty titles.

4. A Godzilla DVD contest (yeah its not kung fu but, hey its Godzilla :))

5. A new reviewer who will bring grammar and punction to reviews on this, unlike mine and who does just some great all around reviews.

So stay tuned throughout the week!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Dragon Dynasty 2007 Schedule!

http://www.dragondynasty.com/news/show/5

April

Born to Fight: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition

May

Shanghai Express: Special Collector’s Edition
Above the Law: Special Collector’s Edition

June

36th Chamber of Shaolin: Special Collector’s Edition
King Boxer: Special Collector’s Edition
The One Armed Swordsman: Special Collector’s Edition
My Young Auntie: Special Collector’s Edition

July

Hardboiled: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition
Last Hurrah for Chivalry: Special Collector’s Edition:

August

Crime Story: Special Collector’s Edition
Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin: Special Collector’s Edition

September

City of Violence: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition
Dragon Heat: Special Collector’s Edition

October

Tai Chi Master: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition
Hapkido: Special Collector’s Edition

November

Quentin Tarantino presents The Shaw Brothers’ Collection (titles to be confirmed)

December

Fist of Legend: 2 Disc Ultimate Edition
Dreadnaught: Special Collector’s Edition

Monday, March 12, 2007

Killer Clans English Dub Clip!

Big thanks to tigerstyles over at Kung Fu Fandom for posting this exclusive clip of Killer Clans dubbed in English that recently aired on UK Gold 2 TV.

ENJOY!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

More Shaw Dub News: Killer Clans and Small Site News

According to various reports both on kung fu fandom and flashlegs rare forum, the recent playing of Killer Clans on UK Gold 2 was dubbed in English. Futhermore, the English dubbing was not new, but an original dub done during the first release of the film. Killer Clans was a film that while appearing on rumoured dub lists that have circulated in fandom, to the best of anyones knowledge have never been released anywhere on homevideo (legally or illegally). Coming up in about two weeks on UK Gold 2 is Spiritual Boxer which should also been an old school dub (as records of it were found in the Library of Congress). Anyone else hoping House of Traps comes up soon?

Big thanks to tigerstles, ironfistedmonk 2003, markgyway

Sorry, for the lack of any updates recently, but I was out of town. So if you wrote me an email, I haven't been able to go through them until today. However, look forward to a big week coming up with screencaps and reviews of Crash Cinema's latest releases plus more!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

UK Shaw Dub All Stars: New Shaw Dubs May Have Been Found and More!

Big thanks out to a whole bevy of KFF fandom posters (if I miss anyone email me):Tigerstyles, Monkey King, Ninja Sinai, Kermit, and Linn.
http://tinyurl.com/2hmvrl

Now if you hate English dubs (and that's cool) just skip this post. You'll find something good today, I promise.

Recently Shaw Brothers films have started playing on the pay UK Gold TV service in the United Kingdom. Now this in itself is nothing extraordinary, or that 36th Chamber of Shaolin played with an English dub track. What is extraordinary is that the dub track was apparently remastered and sounded better then a recent Image release of Legendary Weapons of China which apparently had hiss and noise present on it. Image apparently didn't have any option to have remastered English language audio tracks, which makes one wonder who decided to do this. Now it is entirely possible that Celesital has decided to do this to increase the marketability, but it should be noted that 36th Chamber of Shaolin is owned by Dragon Dynasty, which means we will not only be getting old school English dubs, but maybe ones cleaned up and in mono, which will make listening to them an entirely new experience.

The second and even better part of this story is that in response to an email to UK Gold, a poster was told that all films would be dubbed in English (which I know must be pissing someone off, but like I said just ignore this update) and would be a entire film series of Shaw films. Two of the know titles would be KILLER CLANS and SPIRITUAL BOXER. While a dub apparently exists for Spiritual Boxer in the Library of Congress and most likely with Celestial, Killer Clans was never th0ught to be dubbed (and no proof has surfaced previously). Now there is a chance that this a new dub similar to one that appeared on the Australian Siren releases so until we have confirmation we shouldn't go completely nuts, but we will not in the next couple of days when Killer Clans airs this Friday in the United Kingdom. Still this could be a very good Shaw Brothers weekend for dub fans!

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Crash Cinema's 2007 Releases.

If you click on the links you can see the press releases for the title. I'm looking forward to reviewing The Sword which hopefully should arrive any day.

http://www.crashmediagroupinc.com/crash2007DVDs.htm

Crash Cinema Presents:

2007 DVD Releases:

January

Chamber of the Old School Killas, (3 DVD box set) volume I.

Broken Sword

Flying Swordsgirl

February

No titles

March

Knight of Old Cathay

Beautiful Swordswoman

The Sword

April

Iron Mistress

Bloody Duel Life and Death

May

Son of Swordsman

Axing of Coffin

June

Thirteen Worms

The Last Days of Hsin Yang

July

Terrible Killer

Wandering Knight

August

Scholar Swordsman

Seven Darts

September

Duel In the Planes

Begging Swordsman

October

Jade Faced Cat

Man, Ghost, Fox

November

Ace of Swordsman

Sword Renounced

December

Titles announced week of 08/06/2007

Jack Stiller and Red Sun DVD knows no shame!

Jack Stiller aka FarEastPirate issued this statement on Kung Fu Fandom general interest section. (http://p081.ezboard.com/bkungfufandom) It seems as if he feels he is above the law. He also included articles to claim that because priacy is so rampant that he is unstoppable. I doubt however if the IRS would be happy with the fact that he more than likely (no proof just opinionh here) hasn't declared taxes on the over 10,000 USD he must make per MONTH from his ebay store (stiller66@aol.com is his ebay nick). So what will happen next?

In NYC its only a misdemeanor to sell pirated films it has the most Lax laws concerning pirating films.

Also they have their hands so full with Sidewalks of NYC crawling with Movie theater Bootlegs. The MPAA is only interested in the 7 major motion picture studios and new films.

And to bust someone they need to buy an enormous amount of DVD's to make the bust. And they need alot of evidence to do that.

this is not a Europe Fascist regme . its a free country were people have to much rights.

Robert Tai's Rambo! Enter The Youtube Clips!

From Ninja: The Final Duel. Robert Tai really must have loved Rambo: First Blood Part II, because in the first twenty minutes (as far as I've watched the film so far) he's used Jerry Goldsmith's Rambo theme at least a half-a-dozen times. Since I finally figured out how to add youtube clips expect a l0t more clips from movies featuring all sorts of weird wonderful things that we love about Kung Fu and Hong Kong Films (ie the light saber fight in Pedicab Driver or the bizarre Beardy wins the fight music in Boxer Rebellion). When you click the youtube tag here you know its going to be fun.

Whirlrwind Knight DVD review and screencaps!

Some good news with this film. The credits are really really beat up and there is no company logo (so I couldn't tell you if First Films or United Faming Bowl Film Co made it), BUT thats it. The picture while worn and such (not as good as Eight Immortals but loads better than King of Kings) is very easy on the eyes when it comes to watching the film and the colors are decent too. The audio is hissy, but its nothing kung fu fans have not dealt with before (it is bad during the credits). Still very watchable so if you have any interest in the plot than put this flick on preorder, because based on my spot checking this disc looks like a winner.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Rarescope Cover Scan!

Thanks to Cliff at BCI for this cover scan for The Elimination Pursuit which just came out on February 20th from Rarescope.

A Small Update on When Boots Attacks!

I spoke earlier today to a person a TWC and boy was he not happy when he saw this. I gave him links to the blog and he saw the pictures. He was pretty shocked when I told him this. He said they were going to "take corrective measures immediately". We will just have to see what will happen.

New Dragon Dynasty Shaw Release Dates!

Big thanks to Bobo at KFF for spotting this. Interestingly all of these entries list the audio as Chinese and English and specifically TWC as publisher. The dates for all of these seem to be 4/10/07. Keep in mind that these have not been confirmed yet, but all are available for pre-order at amazon.com

Here are the entries:
My Young Auntie
http://tinyurl.com/2n4xde

36th Chamber of Shaolin
http://tinyurl.com/2se2mk

Five Fingers of Death (was actually under King Boxer)
http://tinyurl.com/33cmjt

One Armed Swordsman
http://tinyurl.com/39xmvn

New Dates and Specs For Dragon Dynasty Titles!

According to hkflix.com Shaolin Wooden Men and Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin have been rescheduled from 4/17/07 to 10/7/07. While this is unfortunate, it seems to be that despite some fears (such as the wording on the Dragon Dynasty Shaw entries at hkflix.com), that these titles have not been postponed indefinitely. Interestingly Hapkido aka Lady Kung Fu still has a release date of 4/17/07. Now this film was originally in the same wave as the two Jackie Chan films. This most likely means one of two things. First, the page just hasn't been updated or second, it is still scheduled for 4/17/07. Hopefully we will know soon. Born to Fight (the Thai remake) has also been rescheduled by only a week from 4/17/07 to 4/24/07. No word on the Shaw titles yet.

On the brighter side of things purported specs for Born to Fight have been posted as asiandvdguide.com
http://adg.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=1032&st=480&#entry17310

Born To Fight (2004) DVD Special Features:
- The Making Of Born To Fight featurette (65 min DD exclusive)
- Feature commentary with Hong Kong Cinema Expert Bey Logan
- Born To Be Wild EPK
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- U.S. Promotional Trailer

Thanks to hanshotfirst1138

Monday, March 5, 2007

When Bootlegs Attack! Red Sun DVDs in FYE and Suncoast (with pictures) and why we all lose in the long run.

Recently, if you've visited a FYE or Suncoast, you may have noticed a lot of Kung Fu movies popping up in store shelves. DVDs such as classic Shaw Brothers films and other Hong Kong films claiming to be remastered and offering English dubs.

The truth is that these DVDs are actually from known bootleg outfit Red Sun DVD (aka Bonzai Media, HK Video (not the French company), and Panmedia), who are infamous for using stolen video masters from Celestial (the owners of the Shaw Brothers library) and other legitimate companies, and the fact their bootlegs are factory pressed (meaning, not DVD-Rs). They simply remove the Chinese audio track and replace it with an English dub. After years of shoddy tv sourced copies fans have been used too, not surprisingly these titles have sold quite well. This can be seen by simply looking at the best seller list at www.hkflix.com. Who despite knowing of the illegal nature of these products, still sell them.

Red Sun DVDs have been responsible for the cancellation of many planned Region 1 US DVD releases including an Angela Mao boxset, a Joseph Kuo boxset,etc. This is due to the fact that Red Sun's "owner", Jack Stiller, often floods marketplaces online and many American malls with inferior bootlegs by his company of titles that were in planning stages. This in turn caused companies to abort their planned releases and ensures market control for himself.

While this is intolerable enough, it seems that Red Sun DVD has reached a new level of audacity: Being stocked at large US retail shops. Dragon Dynasty is a label from The Weinstein Company set to release many Shaw Brothers, Fortune Star (Golden Harvest, Cinema City, etc), and other greats of Hong Kong and Asian cinema. The rights owned by the company have been reported on several film sites, but may also be seen by simply watching a trailer found at the Dragon Dynasty website (www.dragondynasty.com). This highlight reel shows, Shaw Brothers films Crippled Avengers aka Mortal Combat among others.

The problem is, FYE and Suncoast are now stocking Red Sun versions of these films, as can be seen in this photo taken at the FYE in the King of Prussia Mall (one of the largest commercial malls in the country). These pictures show that not only have these bootlegs been entering the mainstream retail market, but they are being sold as regular product by these stores (as evidenced by a barcode indicating that these titles are a part of store inventory and not a used dvd). Another picture shows Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (once again showing a regular barcode). Though not pictured,in less than five minutes bootleg Red Sun DVDs of One-Armed Boxer and Invincible Shaolin were also found, often near legitimate Dragon Dynasty and other releases.

The sad truth is that not only will these Red Sun DVDs harm the legitimate market for upcoming releases of Shaw Brothers DVDs by flooding the market. They will also cut out shelf space for legitimate Kung Fu releases, as independent dvd labels are having trouble getting their products into major stores. A fact recently talked about in this New York Times article:

http://tinyurl.com/2wtdws

These bootlegs are only going to help exacerbate theproblem. The main question is, what will happen? When I talked to an FYE employee, he got very nervous when I told him these were bootlegs of films owned by TWC. He quickly put the ones I showed him behind the register, but this is just one step. The best thing we can do is pass this information along, both to fans telling them to avoid these bootlegs, and to the companies. This is to ensure that TWC and others take appropriate action to remove these bootlegs from the market. If TWC allows these to remain in FYE and Suncoast, it would seem to indicate Harvey Weinstein is impotent in stopping the bootlegging of his own products, Even worse, the selling of them side by side with his own releases. However, given the power and the infuence of TWC, I don't think we as fans will have to fear this. If we as fans support Red Sun, we are only dooming ourselves to the disappointments of the past and a bleak future. The only question is, what will happen next?

Young Avengers DVD Review and Screencaps

This film comes to us via the good folks of First Films, so you know the film at the very least it should be worth a view. Once again sound quality is fine, clean and free of hiss. Image quality is great no of the problems of King of Kings or even Whirlwind Knight. The print is midly worn, but does not suffer from too much damage at any point in time from my scan. The colors and encoding are once again great and I highly recommend picking this title up if you are interested in the story in the least. I can happily say there are no quality issues you should be afraid of when getting this great disc.