The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
06-08-24 | 06:11 PM
#2276
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
I’ve read that Shout is done with their Shaw acquisitions now, so it’s these four plus the Brave Archer and Ti/Chiang sets. Happy to be corrected on that.
It’s indeed impressive how many we’ve gotten on Blu, and in decent special editions to boot. I’d be curious how that total (so far) stacks up against the number of DVD era releases from Tokyo Shock, Dragon Dynasty, Funimation, Image, etc). Even if it’s more, I suspect there are some titles from that era that haven’t been upgraded yet, which makes me wonder what will happen when Arrow releases Volume 4, which is supposed to be their last one, isn’t it? Maybe the singles will continue from various labels? There are nearly a thousand Shaw films after all, and Celestial put out 760 on disc in Hong Kong (plus an additional 200-ish never-on-disc-anywhere titles in the 668-movie Ziieagle player, albeit many with edits), and even factoring out the films that wouldn’t sell over here, there’s still one heck of an impressive chunk of martial arts movies that might stay out of reach.
It’s not hard to be grateful for what we’ve gotten so far, but I do hope that the quality of all of these boutique presentations and (presumably) the sales figures would prompt Celestial/IVL/Shaw to let Shout, Arrow, 88 Films et al continue dipping into their Shaw vaults in perpetuity rather than releasing a finite number of titles.
It’s indeed impressive how many we’ve gotten on Blu, and in decent special editions to boot. I’d be curious how that total (so far) stacks up against the number of DVD era releases from Tokyo Shock, Dragon Dynasty, Funimation, Image, etc). Even if it’s more, I suspect there are some titles from that era that haven’t been upgraded yet, which makes me wonder what will happen when Arrow releases Volume 4, which is supposed to be their last one, isn’t it? Maybe the singles will continue from various labels? There are nearly a thousand Shaw films after all, and Celestial put out 760 on disc in Hong Kong (plus an additional 200-ish never-on-disc-anywhere titles in the 668-movie Ziieagle player, albeit many with edits), and even factoring out the films that wouldn’t sell over here, there’s still one heck of an impressive chunk of martial arts movies that might stay out of reach.
It’s not hard to be grateful for what we’ve gotten so far, but I do hope that the quality of all of these boutique presentations and (presumably) the sales figures would prompt Celestial/IVL/Shaw to let Shout, Arrow, 88 Films et al continue dipping into their Shaw vaults in perpetuity rather than releasing a finite number of titles.
Last edited by Brian T; 06-08-24 at 06:17 PM.
06-08-24 | 07:27 PM
#2277
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
I’ve read that Shout is done with their Shaw acquisitions now, so it’s these four plus the Brave Archer and Ti/Chiang sets. Happy to be corrected on that.
It’s indeed impressive how many we’ve gotten on Blu, and in decent special editions to boot. I’d be curious how that total (so far) stacks up against the number of DVD era releases from Tokyo Shock, Dragon Dynasty, Funimation, Image, etc). Even if it’s more, I suspect there are some titles from that era that haven’t been upgraded yet, which makes me wonder what will happen when Arrow releases Volume 4, which is supposed to be their last one, isn’t it? Maybe the singles will continue from various labels? There are nearly a thousand Shaw films after all, and Celestial put out 760 on disc in Hong Kong (plus an additional 200-ish never-on-disc-anywhere titles in the 668-movie Ziieagle player, albeit many with edits), and even factoring out the films that wouldn’t sell over here, there’s still one heck of an impressive chunk of martial arts movies that might stay out of reach.
It’s not hard to be grateful for what we’ve gotten so far, but I do hope that the quality of all of these boutique presentations and (presumably) the sales figures would prompt Celestial/IVL/Shaw to let Shout, Arrow, 88 Films et al continue dipping into their Shaw vaults in perpetuity rather than releasing a finite number of titles.
It’s indeed impressive how many we’ve gotten on Blu, and in decent special editions to boot. I’d be curious how that total (so far) stacks up against the number of DVD era releases from Tokyo Shock, Dragon Dynasty, Funimation, Image, etc). Even if it’s more, I suspect there are some titles from that era that haven’t been upgraded yet, which makes me wonder what will happen when Arrow releases Volume 4, which is supposed to be their last one, isn’t it? Maybe the singles will continue from various labels? There are nearly a thousand Shaw films after all, and Celestial put out 760 on disc in Hong Kong (plus an additional 200-ish never-on-disc-anywhere titles in the 668-movie Ziieagle player, albeit many with edits), and even factoring out the films that wouldn’t sell over here, there’s still one heck of an impressive chunk of martial arts movies that might stay out of reach.
It’s not hard to be grateful for what we’ve gotten so far, but I do hope that the quality of all of these boutique presentations and (presumably) the sales figures would prompt Celestial/IVL/Shaw to let Shout, Arrow, 88 Films et al continue dipping into their Shaw vaults in perpetuity rather than releasing a finite number of titles.
As for further Shaw Bros. releases, it looks like 88 is diving back in this fall with:
The Golden Lotus
The Shadow Boxing
To Kill a Mastermind
The Golden Lotus is certainly outside of the typical American comfort zone and To Kill a Mastermind has to this point, if I'm not mistaken, been unavailable outside of the Ziieagle box.
Edit: Here's the list of all of the titles that got US DVD releases. There were 102 total across multiple labels. 75 of those titles have received (or will soon receive) a blu-ray release in either the US or the UK. The titles with no release are marked with an asterisk. A couple of those have releases in countries like France or Germany, but not many.
Spoiler:
Last edited by rocket1312; 06-08-24 at 08:21 PM.
06-08-24 | 11:11 PM
#2278
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Nice detective work! 
I cringed a bit at the realization that I have virtually everything in that DVD list except for about six of them I missed back in the day, and the eventual OOP prices were ridiculous (and still are). I know I even upgraded some of them when Wellgo and Image did some four packs in space-saving packages.
I just noticed the 88 announcements elsewhere tonight and was really surprised to see TO CATCH A MASTERMIND. I have the Ziieagle box (boy, that thing wasn’t cheap, but it was so cool) and I’ve long lamented the sheer number of movies on it – including many martial arts films – that never got a physical media release anywhere, even from IVL in Hong Kong during their impressive run in the early 00s (which would put the actual number of films they released overall much closer to the original 1000, an impressive feat no matter how you slice it). It’s about damned time someone from one of these boutiques actually considered what’s been hiding in that box for years now! As I mentioned, though, there are around 200 Ziieagle-exclusive titles in the box. In fairness, I’m not sure what portion of that is martial arts films (or other action pictures), but I remember it being substantial the last time I skimmed through it, so there’s a good chance we may die of old age before many of those see the light of day, not to mention some of those asterisked titles on your DVD list. I guess I’ll just have to cross my fingers reeeally hard . . .
I cringed a bit at the realization that I have virtually everything in that DVD list except for about six of them I missed back in the day, and the eventual OOP prices were ridiculous (and still are). I know I even upgraded some of them when Wellgo and Image did some four packs in space-saving packages.
I just noticed the 88 announcements elsewhere tonight and was really surprised to see TO CATCH A MASTERMIND. I have the Ziieagle box (boy, that thing wasn’t cheap, but it was so cool) and I’ve long lamented the sheer number of movies on it – including many martial arts films – that never got a physical media release anywhere, even from IVL in Hong Kong during their impressive run in the early 00s (which would put the actual number of films they released overall much closer to the original 1000, an impressive feat no matter how you slice it). It’s about damned time someone from one of these boutiques actually considered what’s been hiding in that box for years now! As I mentioned, though, there are around 200 Ziieagle-exclusive titles in the box. In fairness, I’m not sure what portion of that is martial arts films (or other action pictures), but I remember it being substantial the last time I skimmed through it, so there’s a good chance we may die of old age before many of those see the light of day, not to mention some of those asterisked titles on your DVD list. I guess I’ll just have to cross my fingers reeeally hard . . .
Last edited by Brian T; 06-08-24 at 11:23 PM.
06-27-24 | 06:31 PM
#2279
Senior Member
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Usually there’s leaks by now the day before their drops 👀…nothing yet??
06-27-24 | 06:54 PM
#2280
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From: Greenville, South Cackalack
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
06-28-24 | 09:20 AM
#2281
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
07-25-24 | 04:13 PM
#2282
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
I just saw on Facebook one of the October releases is Trick R' Treat.
07-25-24 | 07:09 PM
#2283
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
07-25-24 | 08:17 PM
#2284
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
If there's no new extras I'll stick to my Shout Factory bluray.
07-26-24 | 09:30 AM
#2285
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
07-26-24 | 10:34 AM
#2286
DVD Talk Hero
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Doesn’t Arrow usually have a 50% off sale around this time of year, along side Criterion? There’s a few titles I still want to grab, but I’m willing to wait a bit.
07-26-24 | 11:05 AM
#2287
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From: Greenville, South Cackalack
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Barnes and Noble was running the two side-by-side but have started running them successively, where Criterion is first and Arrow follows afterwards. (Actually, I think it's more Kino/Criterion/Arrow.)
07-26-24 | 11:36 AM
#2288
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
The Camp Arrow sale is going on now if you’re talking about buying direct.
07-26-24 | 11:45 AM
#2289
DVD Talk Hero
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Thanks guys. Yeah I meant either sale to be honest.
07-26-24 | 01:59 PM
#2290
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Does anyone know if Arrow corrected the framing issues on Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth (1992) from their earlier releases?
07-26-24 | 03:50 PM
#2291
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Gotta give them credit on that J-horror set, even though most the films are somewhat second-tier efforts that only got attention because they came out in the wake of THE RING. I recall buying every one of them except Persona on Hong Kong DVDs or VCDs in Chinatown media shops here because THE RING was just so unique at the time, and suddenly I was seeing all this seemingly ‘adjacent’ stuff in those shops, most of it simply released to capitalize on the earliest part of the ‘wave’ in Asian countries and diaspora communities before it eventually spread to the mainstream in the west. Most of them also got U.S. DVD releases that still turn up used pretty cheap. SHIKOKU is by far the best of them, so no surprise that the set leads off with it, but they all aim for that unsettling slow burn that worked so well in RING, some pulling it off more successfully than others (I thought INUGAMI and ST. JOHN’S WORT burned so slowly they almost flatlined). Still, I might be tempted to revisit some of these with 20-plus years of hindsight when the box goes on sale some day.
08-29-24 | 05:24 PM
#2292
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
FINALLY!!
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08-29-24 | 05:38 PM
#2293
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Friday The 13th is now $24.99 on Amazon for the 4k edition. I went ahead and preordered it at that price.
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Adam Tyner (08-29-24)
08-29-24 | 05:54 PM
#2294
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
08-29-24 | 06:08 PM
#2295
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
I ended up ordering Friday The 13th from Amazon because I couldn't find anything else I wanted from B&N to qualify for free shipping there. 
08-29-24 | 06:36 PM
#2296
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08-29-24 | 07:17 PM
#2297
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
My favorite Raimi by far. Can’t wait to replace my dvd copy.
08-29-24 | 07:54 PM
#2298
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
08-29-24 | 09:22 PM
#2299
DVD Talk Legend
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
I happened upon a Blu-ray of Blackhat at the used store and used a coupon to get it for $10 so that's going to be my Arrow sale haul for now.
08-30-24 | 10:02 AM
#2300
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From: Greenville, South Cackalack
Re: The Official Arrow Films 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
