riotinmyskull

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http://www.funimation.com/hongkongconnection/

looks like they're the titles that BCI had before they closed shop.

SHAOLIN HAND LOCK - 3/23/10
THE 14 AMAZONS - 3/23/10

the other titles: Sword of Swords, The Duel, The Lady Hermit, Invincible Shaolin, Soul of the Sword, Life Gamble, Shaolin Rescuers, Shaolin Prince, Bastard Swordsman, Opium and The Kung Fu Master, The Supreme Swordsman, Return of Bastard Swordsman, Hong Kong Godfather

let's hope they start doing some blu-ray releases as well

Algus

This is relevant to my interests.

Furious confirm on BD releases too...the only kung-fu BD I have is that Sister Street Fighter disc

R. Hilton

Love the promo reel. Great to see the Bastard Swordsman discs being released.

Brian T

Good news. Hope they last with the series. It'd be nice to see them licence additional titles as well, if these editions do reasonably well. Considering how many fantastic Shaw titles—in ALL genres—weren't licensed by the likes of BCI, Dragon Dynasty, Media Blasters, whomever, Funimation seems to have a broad enough catalog and mindset that one hopes they might be able to think outside the Martial Arts box Bond-ian spy adventures? Dark contemporary crime thrillers? Horror? Romance? So much to choose from, but I guess we'll have to live with these for now. Fingers crossed, though.

asianxcore

That trailer is pretty cool.

Definitely excited about this news.

cdmac2007

But I can bet ya these will have no extras. We (BCI) had extras shot for these first few releases, but when they shut BCI down and just threw everything into boxes, Funimation won't be able to find what we created.
But, at least they are coming out.

Brian T

Perhaps they'll be cheaper as a result? That'd be cool. I can live without special features if the price is set accordingly, as it usually was on the 500+ Hong Kong editions I've picked up over the years.

Solid Snake

.....interesting. Need to see reviews of whatever they pop out before I get happy.

Ash Ketchum

The friggin' trailer went too fast for me to note all the titles. Can someone list all 15 of them here?

I did note BASTARD SWORDSMAN, LADY HERMIT, THE DUEL and INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN. These four are in the top 25% of the hundreds of Shaw titles I've seen. They're much higher-profile and more promotable than SHAOLIN HANDLOCK (a comparatively weak one) and 14 AMAZONS (has its charms and definitely worth seeing, but not one of the greats).

riotinmyskull

Sword of Swords, The Duel, The Lady Hermit, Invincible Shaolin, Soul of the Sword, Life Gamble, Shaolin Rescuers, Shaolin Prince, Bastard Swordsman, Opium and The Kung Fu Master, The Supreme Swordsman, Return of Bastard Swordsman, Hong Kong Godfather

Solid Snake

You can move that cursor you know, bro.

Giles

what no '8 Pole Diagram Fighter' ???? (I want this on bluray!)

Ash Ketchum

Thanks for that list. To my earlier recommendations, I'd add RETURN OF BASTARD SWORDSMAN and SHAOLIN RESCUERS (that's six of the total). The others aren't bad, they're just all fairly lesser Shaw Bros. I should add that INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN and SHAOLIN RESCUERS are among the better Five Venoms films.

nezumi

IIRC, The Weinstein Company / Dragon Dynasty holds the distribution rights to this movie.

I'm looking forward to Hong Kong Godfather. I remember watching a clip from the finale some time ago, and I've wanted to watch it in its entirety (the finale, I mean).

davidh777

Looks like these are 19.98 list

riotinmyskull

HONG KONG GODFATHER - 4/27/10

http://www.amazon.com/Hong-Kong-Godf...dp/B00347AK06/

Sessa17

Hong Kong Godfather is $17.99, but the other 2 new Funimation Shaw releases are $14.99.

riotinmyskull

i have a feeling it will drop before release. same list price just amazon is giving a bigger discount to the other two.

riotinmyskull

anyone pick up the 2 initial releases? i have them on order via columbia house so i should have them soon. just curious about the quality.

R. Hilton

Watched Shaolin Handlock yesterday. Stereo English soundtrack is very good, haven't tested the "Mono" Mandarin or the subs yet. Print looks good. The movie itself is a quickie shot on location in Thailand and passably entertaining. Both discs come with the Funimation Shaw trailer, trailers for non-Shaw releases, and a printed checklist of future Shaw releases.

riotinmyskull

just watched SHAOLIN HAND LOCK. it's interlaced and some ghosting is present - still didn't look too bad though. probably the best we'll ever get. i'll watch 14 AMAZONS sometime later this week.

The Running Man

The releases are garbage. The video is a bad PAL to NTSC conversion and the subtitles are embarrassing.

Instead of trying to re-translate the subtitles, like how Media Blasters is doing, in the case of Shaolin Handlock they just proof read the Celestial subtitles which could've used an improvement. In the case of 14 Amazons, it's even worse. They actually made up the majority of the subtitles.

The last time this was done was with the Weinstein's and their release of the bastardized version of "Tom Yum Goong". Previously when they had Miramax, they also made up the subtitles for Hero, Infernal Affairs, Iron Monkey and Shaolin Soccer.

To see that Funimation, a company that offers high quality translations for their Japanese releases, is undergoing a similar practice for Chinese films is disgusting.

If anyone is interested I can provide contact information for Funimation so that people can write and tell them to cease that practice. If they are going to release these movies, they ought to give it the same respect and care with the subtitle translations as their Japanese lines. Otherwise, why are they releasing these titles? Give them to Media Blasters who would do a far better job.

I have written to them and I hope others here as well are willing to spend a few moments to send them that message. Perhaps with enough people sending them this complaint they will view these films more seriously.

Sessa17

Glad I didn't pre-order these, sounds awful.

asianxcore

Sucks to hear that

riotinmyskull

HONG KONG GODFATHER review: http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2010/...ed-dvd_12.html

looks like they did a good job on this one!