Shaw Brothers fans: your worst nightmare has come true
 

http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=11872

It's official: Celestial has signed a deal with the devil known as Harvey Weinstein. The company that bought a 760 film library and made an appropriately big deal out of the fact that many of these films have not been seen complete and uncut...and, in some cases, not seen at all...since their theatrical releases has condemned its own product to an utterly disgraceful fate in the huge North American market. The few films that Miramax actually bothers to release will almost certainly be censored, Americanized, and dubbed, with no original language track. And Celestial, confusing the fact that Harvey Weinstein is merely an Oscar whore with lots of money to throw around with the myth that he is some sort of marketing genius, has just helped hammer another nail in the coffin lid of Hong Kong cinema.

Anyone who believes that I'm jumping the gun has only to look at Miramax's track record to see that my statements are firmly based in reality. I can only hope that there are enough true movie lovers out there to ensure that this business venture is a colossal failure.

Can't play Region 3 DVDs? Now is the time to remedy that situation. You can bet your liver that Miramax will attempt to prevent the real versions from being imported by North Americans, and they'll probably try to get the English subtitles removed from future printings, too. Their pettiness knows no bounds, and if you think I'm exaggerating...well, just wait and see.

:(

See another thread in the international forum for more disgusted reactions ;)

skokefoe.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! :yack:

If they screw up Five Deadly Venoms for me... I'm gonna... I'm gonna... do something!

I wish Tarantino had bought and released these, he'd respect them.

That's probably true (Rolling Thunder's releases of Chungking Express and Sonatine ( the latter not yet on R1 DVD) were well done). But if I were Tarantino, I would really have to ask Weinstein "What the f**k are you doing to the HK films that I love that you get distribution rights to??" I dunno, would he have any kind of influence, considering how much money Pulp Fiction made for Miramax? (but who am I kidding, Hollywood only cares about $$$ not integrity) :(

Yes, just like the recut, dubbed abortion of "Quentin Tarantino Presents" Iron Monkey.

I'm sure Quentin respects the films, but the sad fact is that he doesn't release the films, Miramax does.