Nice. And it will be even nicer if they release them in both regions, but i won’t hold my breath.

Seeing TAI CHI MASTER getting its due reminds me that there are still a few solid Michelle Yeoh movies that have been off the radar for years, including WONDER SEVEN, WING CHUN, AH KAM, PROJECT S, HOLY WEAPON and the wild BUTTERFLY & SWORD. Many of these had production or distribution ties to Golden Harvest which I would think might make them easier to access or restore materials for.

Trailers and clips for the curious:

Wow - nice to see one of the boutiques finally moving far away from the usual Hong Kong action pictures. Well, SEX AND ZEN definitely has some ‘action’ in it , but the New York-shot AUTUMN’S TALE is an absolute classic HK-style romantic drama from longtime duo Mabel Cheung and Alex Law that wouldn’t be out of place in the Criterion Collection, and IMMORTAL STORY is from a director, Yonfan, whose filmography is barely known in the west because, like Cheung and Law, he doesn’t do action pictures. He’s nearly as much a visual stylist as Wong Kar-wai, and probably less idiosyncratic in a good way. And like Wong, most of his films were only modestly popular at home. The films of Cheung and Law often deal with diasporas and displacement among Hong Kongers and/or Chinese in a socially conscious way, a thoughtful counterbalance to the heightened-reality action pictures Hong Kong has come to be known for. I’d love to see more of their work given a chance over here (EIGHT TAELS OF GOLD with Sammo Hung and Maggie Cheung, CITY OF GLASS with Shu Qi and Leon Lai, THE SOONG SISTERS with Maggie and Michelle Yeoh, even their Jackie Chan documentary TRACES OF A DRAGON). Nice to see these three filmmakers getting some attention from a boutique label. I’d imagine these won’t sell in similar quantities to 88’s previous titles, but I’ll give them credit for broadening horizons, something I’ve been trying to do for decades.

Mind you, the new artwork on these is really chintzy, so I hope we at least get reversible sleeves with the original poster art.

And I refuse to get my hopes up that the SEX AND ZEN “deluxe edition” is actually a boxed set of the complete trilogy, because why would they?

Criterion seems to have An Autumn’s Tale on the docket too since it has Janus logo’s on the Channel stream.

Well there ya go!

And since I’m a glutton for punishment, here are the trailers for the SEX AND ZEN full trilogy that is probably not included in 88’s “deluxe edition” . . .

These are generally not safe for work, btw.

August titles up on Amazon UK

Bodyguard from Beijing UHD
Bodyguard from Beijing BD
Black Cat 2
Legacy of Rage
The Blood Beast Terror (Tigon Collection)
Doomwatch (Tigon Collection)
Orgasmo (The Italian Collection)
Island of Terror
Crawlspace

September:

Finally, I can unload some more old Hong Kong DVDs! Not to mention at last getting one of the never-on-disc-anywhere gems from my Ziieagle player with TO KILL A MASTERMIND.

I’d heard some rumblings ages ago that MAGNIFICENT BODYGUARDS was getting a 3D restoration, so that’ll be nice to see the way it was meant to be (probably worth posting that in the 3D thread as well). I’m reasonably certain – but happy to be corrected – that it was the only made-in-Hong Kong 3D movie from that era. The earlier SHOGUN WOMEN and DYNASTY were coproductions with Taiwan, and the rest were all made during the more recent 3D run and most had 3D disc versions.

Cool to see the EROTIC GHOST STORY films being released together, too, albeit after many of us bought their edition of the first film. I wonder if they’ll pull the same trick with SEX & ZEN.

In always have trouble telling which 88 Films releases are for which region. I see the UK ratings on a couple of those pics, so I’m assuming those won’t be released by them in North America? I really wish they’d just set up a separate U.S. website for themselves instead of making us rely on social media and their U.S. retailers to post them (or in my case, stumbling across them in a couple of video stores here). Even the ‘88 Films USA’ page on their UK site only lists one title.

88 are not really good with communication. It’s unfortunate.


Only the Shaws are US releases.

MVD is their US distributor.
This is the store page:
https://mvdshop.com/collections/vendors?q=88films

This is the site for wholesale. Stuff will drop here before it even gets announced:
https://mvdb2b.com/?site_id=label&vendor=88FILMS

Thanks! Glad I’m not the only one who feels it. It doesn’t help that searching some other U.S. retailers (like Diabolik, or even Amazon) often results in seeing both their UK and US editions, and then having to differentiate just in case they’ve region-coded them despite having rights for both sides of the pond.

Magnificent Bodyguards is US too.

Well, another Jackie Chan title to pick up.

Two if you count Golden Lotus!

This makes sense considering it was basically treated as a public domain title for decades on VHS and DVD (presumably it was?). I kinda hoped any company that ponied up for the 3D restoration would be able to release it in whatever regions they wanted to. I just hope they used a 3D restoration company that knows what they’re doing with a vintage film like this because it was very much filmed with pop-outs in mind. I haven’t seen the 3D Film Archive mention anything about this title on their site or social media, so I assume they weren’t involved. Fingers crossed.

A new Japanarchy title:

Amazon is now showing a date of October 15th for the Project A set... 6-month delay from the original date. Damn. They posted on social media the other day that the first movie was done.

I’ve seen the first two GUTS (or ENTRAILS) movies via the Synapse DVDs which I got when on of the cult video stores here went out of business years ago. They’re probably worth viewing elsewhere if you can before paying what I presume will be a hefty price for that 88 box. I haven’t seen the third one, but the first two are more ‘Pinku’ than horror, meaning more draggy, softcore-but-still-fogged sex scenes than horror, although the gory transformation at the end of the second film elevates it, a little. It would be interesting to see if they got new interviews with the director or ported over the ones from the Synapse discs. In those, he annoyingly comes off as an evasive idiot of purpose, making them complete wastes of time (in part because I think even he knows there’s little to say about the films beyond their somewhat engineered “cult” status).

Looks like 88 is doing a limited run of lenticular covers for MAGNIFICENT BODYGUARDS using Kung Fu Bob’s artwork. I can take or leave his work (and no denying his talent), but I really wish they’d done this treatment on one of the original Hong Kong posters instead.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9NT7..._web_copy_link

I was looking for an 88 title at MVD, and noticed some new titles that aren’t even on 88’s site yet: THE KUNG FU INSTRUCTOR, THE KID FROM KWANGTUNG, and FACETS OF LOVE. The latter is yet another step away from the martial arts stuff, so props to 88 for that. Director Li Han-Hsiang (oddly listed as Li Hsang-Han in the MVD blurb when he’s never been billed that way afaik) did a number of these ‘adult’ pictures at the time and FACETS, like his previously announced GOLDEN LOTUS, has an early (and credited) appearance by Jackie Chan. These are listed as October releases and like the September batch, appear to have no special features, unless 88 is keeping those under wraps?

The November lineup is here!
All out on 25th November:
From Beyond (UHD/BD)
From Beyond (Blu-ray)
The Legend Of Fong Sai Yuk 1&2 - Deluxe Limited Edition (UHD)
The Legend Of Fong Sai Yuk 1&2 - Deluxe Limited Edition (Blu-ray)
Eyeball WEB EXCLUSIVE Deluxe Limited Edition Dual Format (UHD/BD)
Eyeball Deluxe Limited Edition Dual Format (UHD/BD)
Eyeball UHD
Eyeball Remastered Blu-ray
I Am A Nymphomaniac
Knife Under The Throat
Barfly
Virgin Witch
Mortuary
Apartment Wife: Affair In The Afternoon
Woods Are Wet

Our final releases of the year - here's what December has to offer☃:
Dragon Fist UHD/Blu Dual Format WEBSITE EXCLUSIVE
Dragon Fist UHD/Blu Deluxe Edition
Dragon Fist UHD
Dragon Fist Blu-ray
Sex And Zen - Deluxe Edition
Story Of A Cloistered Nun
Sweden Porno: Blonde Animal
Watcher In The Attic
Masters Of The Universe - Deluxe Edition
Madame Claude

Ooh, new Jackie Chan!

It sounds like Miracles/The Canton Godfather is on the way and getting the UHD treatment.

Lady Assassin is slated for February.