Does anybody have the HK version of OUATIC #1 and can compare it to the US version? I have only heard horrible things about the US transfer, but the OUATIC US Trilogy seems a great price and was wondering if it was worth it, or should I buy the oringial HK from DDDHOuse?

Thank you.

- The Dimension version of Project A is cut and dubbed, go with the Megastar version, which is probably a bit more expensive.
- Legend of Drunken Master (Drunken Master II to us real HK movie fans) is also dubbed and a couple of seconds cut, but there isn't really a better version out there. I have the Thakral version which I'm reasonably satisfied with, though the complaint always is that it is formatted at 1.85:1 instead of 2.35:1. The original language is worth much more to me.
- New Line version of Rumble In the Bronx is dubbed and cut quite a bit, to the point where part of the movie in the middle doesn't make sense. Also, kinda neat to see Uncle Bill's bride (who is black) singing Cantonese bridal songs. I have both the New Line and Thakral versions (same as the China Star version), which has no subtitles unfortunately. Tossup.
- No idea which version of Young Master you have, but it probably can't beat the HK Universe version of the movie.

The other ones you're ok with.

- Police Story IV is not out in HK at all, so stick with what you've got for the time being.
- I have an affinity for the Criterion LD version of Police Story 3 (Supercop) which includes both the Cantonese and English tracks, rather than either the U.S. or Megastar release. But if you had only a DVD choice and you needed it soon, I'd go with the Megastar one.
- Since you've listed just about all of JC's movies, might as well include Crime Story (Megastar), Heart of Dragon (I have the Universe one, which is good), and My Lucky Stars (Universe), all excellent movies. Keep in mind that Heart of Dragon and Crime Story are atypical JC characters, they're both serious movies. In My Lucky Stars he has more of a extended cameo role and he's not the star in the movie.


Many people on the DVDTalk forums know that I pimp DDDHouse a lot, and for good reason - their prices and customer service generally are the best on the net. Hivizone is an excellent place as well, what differentiates them is their 20-DVD maximum for CC orders (has this changed at all?) and higher shipping costs.

[Edited by Yellow Hammer on 05-13-01 at 08:37 PM]

Matthew had been missing new DVDs stuff from the Guide for the last month or so, but it's there now. That's probably what Trigger is referring to. Other than that should be pretty complete, although I'm sure one can always find obscure DVD versions of Asian movies out there.

It doesn't have alot of Tai Seng DVDs that are newly released - I only noticed that they are missing a few items recently because I was looking for a few newly released ones. It's mostly complete - just not completely complete.

You guys are going to roast me, but I liked the US version of Gorgeous better than the HK one (although I only saw the HK version once)... I thought the HK version moved too slowly and didn't have a very good pacing. I consider the two versions as two different cuts and I prefer the US cut of the film. The US version does have alot cut from it, but it also has a few scenes in it that aren't present in the HK version - so either way you go (for those completists out there), you're going to be missing something. If you're that much of a stickler about it - I'd say get both. The US version has a nice commentary and a featurette (which is also available on the HK disc) and a music video and it's also a fantastic transfer.

This was much debated, and my opinion is that one is no better than the other qualitywise. I think a lot of people are down on the US version because they expected it to be superior to the HK and it wasnt. They both are flawed to some degree in that they could be a bit better, but its unlikely you'll see that happen. The HK has a soft picture and really echo drenched sound. The US has a grainier picture. For the price and extras, i say go with the cheapest, the US version.

After reading this review:

http://www.dvdcult.com/rev_KungFuPOD.htm

I just went and picked this up for $7.99 at Suncoast. I pretty much agree with what the reviewer said. The fight choreography isn't up to par with the Shaw Brothers' late '70s work, but this is a good-looking movie, good story, and some decent fights. It has relatively high production values and some interesting camera work and editing---it's kind of a nice piece of kung-fu movie evolution and history, as you can see a lot of elements that were in a lot of later KF movies.

Also, the comedy value is pretty high with some classic old-school dubbing, as well as a pretty funny trivia game. Good entertainment value for the price, especially if you're an old-school fan.

I went back and re-visited Kid with the Golden Arms the other night... it wasn't as bad as I thought. It at least had somewhat of a story (albeit a really stupid one) and some of the action was actually impressive. I still think Five Element Ninja was a heaping load of dog turds. And to think that it came out a few years after Kid With Golden Arms... it's shameful. There are so many many better films than that. It can't even hold a candle to films in the same genre made in the same era. Kid With Golden Arms was at least somewhat decent, but still wasn't anything to get excited about.

I know I'm treading on thin ice by bringing this up again, but I did watch it the other night after all - and I also watched Tsui Hark's 1986 masterpiece - Peking Opera Blues, and it made me wonder how much I'm required to lower my expectations in order to properly enjoy films like 5 Element and Kid w/ Golden Arms. Peking Opera Blues was awesome and it came out just 4 years after 5 element ninja - so why did 5 element ninja look like it was made in the 60's as a joke? Can someone please explain to me why this is such a respected film? Please go into detail because I just don't get it. I appreciate old school kung fu films, but the ones I've seen blow these two crappy flicks away. I'm not talking about comparing Peking Opera Blues to these 2 films because Peking Opera Blues isn't a kung-fu film... anyway - somebody explain the attraction to me and why these are such good films and try to do it without saying I know dick about Kung-Fu.

Boy - I was in a mood I guess. Sorry

Trigger, I would recommend a book to you called "Hong Kong Action Cinema", by Bey Logan. He has a nice chapter on the Shaw Brothers film history, and it's a pretty well-balanced critique of some of those films, and gives them credit for their role in the history of HK cinema.
I also didn't like 5 Element Ninja-----although I thought the weapons choreography was superb, the movie as a whole was so cheesy I couldn't even really appreciate the fight scenes. I really enjoyed Kid With the Golden Arm, though. As Bey Logan says, the quality of Cheng Cheh's work varies widely, which is to be expected as he directed over 70 films in 15 years. Still, he was a great innovater in bringing traditional Chinese martial arts and themes to the screen, and many of the people who started out under him, like Lau Kar Leung, Gordon Liu, Chen Kwan Tai, and John Woo took some of his ideas and film techniques in great directions. Also, for me the Shaw Brothers movies just had a certain appealing "feel" to them, with higher production values and talent than other KF movies being churned out at the time. And, I still feel the Venoms guys were just some of the most physically talented performers ever to appear on film, and a lot of the stars of the 90's new wave wire-fu movies were just not capable of doing fights and acrobatics at their level.

I look at old-school kung fu movies as kind of like watching the original King Kong. Sure, it might not look as great as Jurassic Park, but you can still appreciate the craft, effort and creativity of the people who made the older ones. (in the same vein, see my earlier link to the review of "Kung Fu--Punch of Death".)

That'll do for an explanation I guess, but I still don't see what you see in those films. I remember films of that era having way more structure and higher budgets (and yes, I'm talking about HK films) with better fights and everything else. Perhaps I have to read that book in order to appreciate them, but I honestly don't think it will help. I'll try to stop saying things about these films

Also - I have had Jet Li's The Legend 2 on pre-order for awhile now at DeepDiscountDVD and they just sent me an email saying it was discontinued from the studio. Huh? They aren't making it? Why not? Anybody know anything about it?

I ordered Shiri from DDDHouse... I emailed to find out if it was Special Edition. I think there's a bit of a communication gap here. I think I'm getting the region 3 DTS normal release... What's the difference? Anyone? I know there's a Shiri thread, but this thread needs a bump anyway.

Here's the mail:
He says it's special edition DVD-9, but I don't know if that's the 2 disc set or what? Same features? Help.

Trigger,

When I was shopping for the Shiri 2 DVD set, I saw that DDDHouse had the Region 3 DTS version for HK$180. I didn't think this was the 2 DVD set edition because the 2 DVD set is ALL REGION and the cover looks very different than DDDHouse's picture. Also, the extras on the 2 DVD set was NOT in the description.

If you have a region free player then I say just keep this DVD as the 2 DVD set is much more expensive. You can always ask Johnny if there are 2 DVD's in the set you are buying. If he already shipped it and you don't have a region free player, you can always Ebay it.

HKDVD

I did ask him if it had 2 discs as you can see in my email above... He didn't answer - he just said it was special edition. I didn't want to bug him with more emails cuz we had been going back and forth quite a bit. I bought 20 DVDs in one shot. Yikes... We'll find out soon enough I guess.

It is indeed only one disc, and non-anamorphic at that. I ordered it a couple of weeks before the 2 disc was released.

GDHFPPS! That sucks... are there special features on it? Crap.

I'm not into kung fu movies anymore but I used to enjoy Bruce Lee and the Shaw brothers films.

One recent kung fu movie I can recommend is "A Man Called Hero." I'm sure you've heard of it. The scene at the Statue of Liberty puts X-Men's version of the scene to shame.

For drama, nothing beats films starring Gong Li. I'd recommend:

Raise the Red Lantern
Farewell My Concubine
Emperor and the Assasin
Jou Do
Shanghai Triad

King of Masks is a heartwarming film too.

Old school martial arts films have a charm that new films lack. Its sort of like the film noir movies of the 40’s when studios would make tons of them fast and cheap, usually involving similar plots and characters, but having an attractive style and several unique gems or series. Old school kung fu was made much in the same way, with the Shaw Bros and Golden Harvest putting out franchises like Jimmy Wang Yu’s One-Armed Boxer/Swordsman films, Gordon Lui/Lau Kar Lueng collaborations, or the Venoms films. There was such a great glut of entertainment, that if you find even a handful of older kung fu films that you like, you are bound to find many more that will entertain you. The days of the traditional, period setting, straightforward fight film are dead, and now HK films lean more towards sleek action knock offs and general modern gunplay, thrillers, and so forth.

There is less trickery. Usually the martial artists in 70’s early 80’s kung fu are actually well trained martial artists and not good looking soap opera stars or pop singers. Therefore, there was no need for fooling the viewer with rapid editing or crazy camera angles, much of the fights are framed wide and with little fx. Sure, there are exceptions, and sometimes the fx is a plus in an innocent, low budget bad horror or Godzilla makeup kind of way. But, the whole style issue has sort of marred many trained performers, like Donnie Yen and Jet Li, whose recent films (Black Mask, Romeo Must Die, Ballistic Kiss) are heavy on gimmicks and modern settings, and pale to their more traditional fight work. People praise Fist of Legend and Drunken Master 2 as being some of Jet and Jackies best work- well it’s also their most traditional work, reflecting back to the old school days, yet they still didn’t spawn more alike films.

Since the modern elements and casting have taken over, the old school fight film is something no longer being produced. Don’t get me wrong. Peking Opera Blues, Chinese Ghost Story, and Police Story, are great modern films, and there is a reason that style stuck. It’s impossible to make a good fight film with any of the current slate of HK stars because they don’t have any fight skills or training, and that’s just sad. They figured out how to replace the martial arts actor with pinup talent, who could get away with mocking and mimicking. And, it is more profitable to just recycle a cop film plot instead of a Shaolin Temple setting and sell it to the world. Even with trained stars, I long for the days of punch-kick, spin, punch-kick-Jackie Chan instead of the newer Jackie that replaces those human stunts and fights with explosions and car chases. Its just that I sometimes appreciate the actual talent demonstrated between two guys who know kung fu staging a fight, over the gloss and sheen of a rapidly edited fight between two stuntmen or pretty boy actors.

Well, I'm used to the quality of films like the Magnificent Butcher from that era, so those 2 that I mentioned look really bad when compared... as far as the look and feel goes. I guess it's just a personal preference. I don't know. Not my thing. Watching those 2 films doesn't bring back memories of watching Kung Fu Theatre all throughout my childhood.

Yesterday I got my package from Pokerindustries. I got Drunken Master 2 (uncut and original language) and Drunken Master 3 (Andy Lau/Burned in subs) and Duel to the Death. Watched a bit of Drunken Master 2 looking for the missing scenes and I think the US version is much better - and also Jackie doesn't even do the can or man dub so if you want to hear his voice, you have to get the US version anyway. DM3 was actually pretty good. It wasn't great, but it was totally worth watching. Duel to the Death was interesting. There were exploding ninjas and talking disembodied heads and a giant ninja that splits into many ninjas and a naked female ninja and alot of bad-mouthing between the Japanese and the Chinese - it reminded me of the old feud between Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J. However, it wasn't all that exciting. I found myself dozing off a bit during all the talking. The end battle was pretty decent. It was alot of trampoline flying through air shots which were silly and the story was pretty weak. If you haven't seen it and can find it for rent or for cheap - it's worth watching. Can't wait until my DDDHouse shipment comes.

Watched Running Out Of TIme tonight - I had seen parts of this somewhere before, but can't remember where or when. Anyway - it was pretty damn good. I checked out the Dub track and the commentary track after I finished the flick - the dub seems to change alot of the story details and it changes the whole tone of the film. The commentary seems pretty interesting, but difficult to understand at times. There's an american guy and 2 asian guys all speaking english and only one of them can do it all that well. So Armageddon sucks huh?

Hey Iaido, you summeed up my feelings exactly in your last post. I totally agree with the comments you made a couple of post before this one. Sure the old 70's flicks were low-budget in comparison to todays flicks, but you can not knock the athleticism and skills these guys had. Out of all the different genres within the HK film world, the old skool will always be the best IMO. I am really hoping they will release more of the older classics on dvd soon.

Hey - I'm not trying to knock old-school, just Chinese Super Ninja... I think you guys just like it because a guy steps on his own intestines or whatever... the movie is crap even for low budget 70's Kung-Fu. It looks worse than Kid With the Golden Arm, but it was made after. I like old-school kung-fu - I have stated many times that I grew up on it, but that particular film isn't even in the same league with most of the stuff I'd seen.

Hey Trigger,

Everyone has their own likes and dis-likes. To me, Chinese Super Ninjas is an awesome movies. Its probably on of my favorite dvds. Not only is it one of the cleanest transfers of a shaw bro's flicks that I have seen, but the movie is non-stop fights. I thought the fights were extremely creative and varied alot (especially the fights with the weapons). I certainly never liked it because somoenone steps on their own intestines. The sets and look of the film are up to par with any other shaw brothers film, ad I thought the story was tight. its all taste though. I love alot of old skool flicks and love them all, but several of my friends find them repetitive and cheesy. On the other had, I happen to dis-like many new skool films which many people regard as the best of the genre. Swordsmen 2, Bride with White Hair, and Butterfly and Sword are all regarded by many as great newer (early 90's) hk fantasy flicks. To me, not even Jet Li and Donnie Yen (two of my favorite current HK Stars) could save these movies. I have these dvds and they are only collecting dust, where as Shaolin Master Killer, Kid with the Golden Arm, Chineese Super Ninjas, Five Deadly Venoms, and Crippled Avengers are in my dvd player at least once a month. Its just personal taste.

Hey JHosk,

To check out tones of upcoming DVDs in the old school
Kung Fu genre, check out:

spam

That's fair enough - I guess we just know different old-school kung-fu flicks. I hadn't seen Chinese Super Ninja until I bought it recently. Maybe I got the wrong movie - cuz the one I saw sounds nothing like the one you described except for the stepping on his own entrails part. Anyway - That's cool that you like it, and I'm sorry I keep bringing it up. I also won't get into an arguement about Swordsman 2 or the others you mentioned

My DDDHouse shipment isn't here yet... I'm getting impatient.

Someone tell me what they thought of Running Out Of Time - I liked it. I think the comparisons to The Negotiator are quite a stretch since it's nothing like that film. The story seemed very classic HK and all it was missing was a scene with 3 guys pointing guns at each other in a stand-off. (or did they do that?)

edit: This was posted in a different forum and I'm curious to know as well, so any help?
[Edited by Trigger on 05-24-01 at 03:29 AM]