Not really, because I can't rip the isolated score to my PC for listening later. I'd actually find more value in their releases if it did include a physical CD.

Warner Bros. They'll probably release it as an Archive Edition someday.

Probably around the same time we get HD BD releases of JLU .

when they get around to also releasing 'Wolfen' ...

Why not?

Saw this posted over at blu-ray.com:



Jackie Chan's Drunken Master and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow are coming at some point down the road. The Japanese blu-rays look great, so I would expect nothing less from TT. I am concerned about the audio/subtitles though. The Cantonese dub on Drunken Master is incomplete and is patched on the Japanese blu-ray with a different Cantonese track (which is still better than the US dvd which was patched with the English dub). It's not too noticeable, but disappointing nonetheless. The subs are a bigger issue. The US Sony dvds for both titles had dubtitles. Blech! Twilight Time doesn't strike me as the kind of operation that will do their due diligence to make sure these issues get addressed. I could live with the patched dub on Drunken Master if the subtitles were top-notch, but I'm not optimistic. Still, it'll be nice to see some of Jackie's classics finally get decent (if not perfect) treatment on blu-ray in the US.

I suppose if HK flicks are licensed to anybody, it'd be TT. Apparently Shout's Chan releases were decidedly subpar though. The materials for HK cinema are so badly kept. Plus as pointed out, there's the matter of the subtitles. Fuck, it sucks being an HK fan. It seems to me that the subtitle issues could be easily solved by hiring an actual translator, but apparently that's difficult for some reason. Hopefully, if these releases are good, it'll open the door to Shout releasing more HK content, though with the legal tangles and Disney's death-grips, probably not. The Dragon Dynasty foul-ups still hang heavily in my mind.

I think the state of the physical materials for HK films is overstated. It's just a matter of the rights holders having the desire and the money to do anything worthwhile with said materials. All one has to do is look at the transfers Miramax and New Line did for all of those cut and dubbed Jackie Chan/Jet Li travesties from the 90's. In many cases they blow the doors off of the HK transfers because the American companies have the resources and skill to do good work. Fortune Star (the Chinese company that controls all of the classic Golden Harvest films), on the other hand, is sending out decade old DVD upscales and horrifying 7.1 remixes for use on all of their licensed blu-rays around the world. They're also, by all accounts, an absolute pain in the ass to deal with. The same could be said for Celestial, who own the Shaw Brothers catalog. If the market for these films was bigger (especially in their home territory), maybe that would change. But it's not. And it won't.

I think the Asian copyright owners are worried a proper, lavish American edition would end up outselling their own releases in Asia.

I doubt it. I think part of the reason why these films aren't treated better is that there isn't much of a market for them in China. And what market there is, isn't concerned with quality. Heck, VCD is still a viable format over there.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH is available for pre-order today.If you missed out on it the first time TT released it.



Pre-orders for February 25, 2015, at 4 pm EST.(Today)
Release Date: March 10, 2015

Also

THE BOUNTY (1984)
SOLOMON AND SHEBA (1959)
THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1964) (limited edition of 5000) Limit to 3
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959) (New 4k Restoration) (limited edition of 5000) Limit to 3
U TURN (1997)

Just ordered my "First Men in the Moon." Not sure if I want "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

'U Turn' was such an ugly ugly movie - couldn't bear to see it again.

preordered First Men, Journey and The Bounty/

Just thinking about "Journey to the Center if the Earth" and I haven't watched in many years (I have it in SD) and I wonder if it's worth it to upgrade it to HD???

have anything to trade? (since I'm upgrading from the prior edition)

Thanks for the reminder. I bought The Bounty.

I hate the price but it is a favorite of mine. I found a used CD I wanted for a decent price to take the pain off of the shipping cost a little.

I wouldn't mind seeing Journey To The Center Of The Earth but I haven't watched it in a crazy number of years and don't feel like being pissed I paid so much for it. With these type releases and pricing, I am only buying movies that I know for sure I love from here on out.

Well, reluctantly, I'll be doing the same from now on with these $35+ releases. I just can't justify that price for a marginal release and / or one I haven't seen in years which I thoroughly enjoyed back then. I'd gladly spend $10, $15, perhaps even $20 (s&h and tax *included*) for, while I rightly balk at $35+.

It just doesn't seem good for those of us who like catalog releases. Well, it *is* good for Twilight Time, and the unscrupulous scalpers who make a living preying on those who, for whatever reason, love these films and didn't get the chance to buy them before they sold out. (self-fulfilling prophecy there?)

Signed Fright Night this Wed...I already purchased the unsigned edition, but will try again for the signed copy (which will probably sell out in a New York minute, but I have to try anyway).

It looks like I got in and my order was placed, they sent me a confirmation e-mail which contains an order #, so I will assume it is all good.

I don't know, Shout! cater specifically to the fan market, and I heard that their transfers of the Police Story movies were pretty lackluster. With the Weinsteins out of the picture, I keep hoping it'll wind up with a distributor who gives a damn, but so far, not so much. But like you said, Fortune Star seem to be deliberately difficult to deal with. Why including the mono is so stinking hard, I'll never know. But you're right that in pretty much every territory including its home, the market is small, and the idea of anyone going back to the master elements-damaged or not-seems unlikely .

Given how Draconian the Chinese government probably is about imports?

The Shout! Factory Police Story transfers are lackluster because they are the same sd-upscales that Fortune Star sends out to any licensee around the world. The only legit HD release of Police Story anywhere is the Japanese blu-ray which contains the Japanese cut of the film with burned in Japanese subtitles. It was obviously scanned from a release print (hence the burned in subs) and it looks kind of rough, but it's still better than the crappy upscales. Unfortunately it does not have English subs.

I'm guessing Fortune Star's grip on the masters is cast-iron?

At this point, I don't even think Fortune Star have the original negatives in order to do a proper HD restoration. HK film industry was notorious for filming on the cheap and not properly storing their films.

BTW, in the other forum, they are very optimistic that the TT release of the "Drunken Master" will be done correctly with the correct language, dubs and subtitles. I, on the other hand, I'm going to take a wait and see approach since I know that TT does not do the restoration themselves and they use whatever materials are provided to them. I just don't see them spending the necessary money to treat this movie correctly.

At least Celestial is willing to remaster their movies to HD even though its for streaming but I have yet to see Fortune Star, even attempt to properly remaster their most popular movies in their library. Look at the "Police Story" trilogy for example. All upscales.

What's kind of funny is that 10-12 years ago when Fortune Star aquired their catalog, they had new scans done for all of them and in most cases they blew the doors off of the previous Media Asia transfers. They even made an effort to put the original mono tracks on the dvds even though they couldn't be bothered to sync them correctly. In a lot of ways they were the best thing to happen to HK films. It wasn't until the transition to blu-ray that either their short sightedness or technical ineptitude or whatever was exposed.

Celestial has their own set of issues, but at least the Shaw stuff is getting out there in HD in one form or another.

As for the TT Drunken Master and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, I appreciate the enthusiasm at that other site as it seems they have someone with contacts at TT, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Sometimes when too much is asked of a release, what's truly important gets lost amongst the noise. Rather than focusing on multiple dubs, branching credit sequences, extras, etc., the focus should be on making sure the original cantonese track is used and that the subtitles are properly translated. The subs are what worry me the most.