LorenzoL

It does kind of sucks that there won’t be a box set for 1-4 for the In the Line of Duty series. Magnificent Warriors is excellent and does deserve an HD upgrade.

I’ll be surprised if they ever release 5-7 on HD.

Brian T

Good point about those early Chan releases, but honestly, even some of Bob's recent Chan covers (like Killer Meteors and Half A Loaf) have been looking a little rushed.

Agreed about the Tiger Cage artist (Sean Longmore). He's got a great sense of balance, even when overstuffing the panel with bodies and heads. Not sure if he did the cover for 88's RIGHTING WRONGS set, but that's another winner.

Truth is, most of these artists aren't working from scratch like a lot of the original HK poster artists. They're basically compositing elements from stills and/or frame grabs and running them through a dozen Photoshop filters for a painterly effect, but some just have a stronger sense of composition and spatial relationships, some less so. They're all still very talented folks. If anything, the artists commissioned early on in this revival have led to other, sometimes superior, artists coming out of the woodwork, so it's a win overall because we finally get some variety.

rocket1312

Some of Kung Fu Bob's art is better than others, but I much prefer him to the guy Eureka uses on a lot of their stuff.

But then I don't really care what the art looks like as long as the disc is good. If Eureka has any major advantage over 88, it's that they know how to author a bd with a proper resume feature.

dex14

Oh yea, totally. He seemed really overworked... but I guess that isn't necessarily bad for us since it means a lot of releases! But yea, they should start spreading the work out a bit. Now that these are growing in popularity, that may be what is going in.

Brian T

Presumably you're referring to Darren Wheeling. Early on, it seemed like he and KF Bob were the only two guys producing covers, and their styles were thankfully unique from one another, but I think both of them had their misses, perhaps due to increasing demand for their services. I much preferred Wheeling's sense of color, but as with Bob some elements in his compositions seem like they should've been 'weighted' differently. Admittedly, a lot of this stems from my personal opinions as a graphic designer and illustrator, so I'm bound to nitpick no matter what I look at.

Mind you, I likewise don't care what the artwork looks like as long as I'm given the option of flipping the sleeve to display the original Hong Kong artwork (which is really all that matters to me, visually and historically). Unfortunately, Eureka rarely seems to bother.

rocket1312

I just don't think Wheeling is a particularly strong illustrator. His figures are ugly to me. They look like what you referenced above, which is a bunch of lazy Photoshop filters. The line of Sammo titles on that beige background are particularly dull. Bob's art can be a little too cluttered, and like you I find some of his recent work wanting (especially the Shaw stuff), but something like Snake in the Eagles Shadow is far better, imo, than anything Eureka has put out.

dex14

These Yeoh titles will likely be released Region A from Arrow.

LorenzoL

dex14

What does that even mean, Bentley???

Brian T

Sometimes I click through on those Twitter posts, and I often regret it. The comments – yeesh! I do get weary of these teases, but such is the world we live in. Hell, just these little morsels will prompt gawd knows how many YouTube videos "announcing" the news with nothing more than the titles. Oh well, now to ignore this stuff until the actually listings go up.

dex14

Maybe Arrow will do a box.

LorenzoL

I’m hoping that Arrow will bring it here in NA…

dex14

From the comments I’ve seen so far from the ones working on these, Arrow will definitely be putting out those 3 for Region A.

They haven’t even announced their release of the Mao films yet to though…

Brian T

Considering Yeoh has had arguably the best, longest and most diverse career in American television and films of pretty much any Hong Kong star – even turncoat Jackie – and has an impressive list of shows still in the pipeline (including all the Avatar movies), a company would have to be insane not to release these in North America. And yes, preferably as a set, but as you say they certainly seem to be taking their sweet time announcing their US Mao set.

dex14

According to Frank Djeng, there is a big announcement coming for a November release. They also will hopefully be releasing more Joseph Kuo in 2023.

dex14

Hmmm. So Irongod says no on Arrow releasing them in the US, but there is clearly something going on with those titles. Djeng said he thought they would be Arrow. Bentley has definitely teased something about them in the US... I guess we shall see.

LorenzoL

It will be interesting to see which other Boutique NA label will pick them up? So far it has been Arrow, 88 Films with a US Distributor and one by VS for HK films. Criterion released some of them for Jackie and the Infernal Affairs. Could they be the one to pick up the titles for Yeoh?

Brian T

As important as at least two of them are to HK cinema overall (and all three are to the development of Yeoh's career for sure), they don't seem like Criterion-level 'important' to these eyes, but you never know!

Vinegar Syndrome actually has two Hong Kong titles so far, and they claimed the first one was going to be the "first of many more" or something like that, so perhaps they nabbed these as well? Seems an odd fit, but considering RIGHTING WRONGS originally made marginally more money at the Hong Kong box-office than each of the Yeoh pictures, plus all of them have pretty much held equal standing down through the ages, I guess they're fair game for VS as much as for any other company.

I do hope that of these and other HK classics in the pipeline for North America don't end up spread across a zillion boutique labels, though (kind of like what's happening with the Category III stuff). I do admire how 88 Films, Eureka and Arrow have each been able to build sizeable 'libraries' and with reasonably consistent packaging, booklet and content design. Who knows, maybe Shout will get back in the game now that most (all?) of their HK titles have gone OOP? These definitely seem a bit too far up the food chain for the likes of Unearthed or Error 4444, who seem more interested in the sleaze classics.

dex14

Maybe 88 has Region A rights and will do a box set of the whole series! One can hope.
Or they are doing UHDs? There is just so much on the horizon... Better start saving.

LorenzoL

I guess this is a confirmation tweet with the possible dates for those who weren’t sure with just the screenshots

LorenzoL

Which other HK title did VS released besides Righting Wrongs?

dex14

Ebola Syndrome.

LorenzoL

Thanks! I forgot about that.

dex14

dex14

Looks like The Dead and the Deadly.