lazy bob - were you referring to me? And are you talking about Bichunmoo or whatever? I'll let you know what I think. It's coming to me soon.

Yellow - I'll post my "review" of China Strike Force as soon as I watch it (for anyone interested) - it'll be coming probably early next week from DDDHouse.

I have about 30 to watch, but I'll put these 2 at the top of my list.

Yellow Hammer - I don't know if you found these yet, but I remember you were looking for DVD replacement cases that fit the larger HK DVD cover artwork. I found at DDDHouse under the category of "Other" down at the bottom they sell them for HK$5 each. That's cheaper than the ones you can get here. Dimensions = Width 292mm, Heigth 190mm. There's a pic, but DDDHouse won't let me grift it. If you have already found this on your own (which you probably have) then nevermind

yeah, I found them - at DDDHouse. I was the one who made the suggestion to him to sell these things! Thanks for bringing it up though, I didn't realize he had it on the site until you mentioned it. I'm pretty sure he can get the clear colored ones as well. Now if only Johnny could find some of the MeiAh blue ones I'd be really happy.

I bought some DVDs on eBay which had Mandarin only language options. The covers on them look funny too, but I didn't think anything. I read somewhere on these forums that they're bootlegged/pirated copies from China. Is this true? I know some movies are filmed originally in Mandarin, like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and some of the more independent/artsy movies, but movies like Storm Riders and Once Upon A Time in China (as I recall) are in Cantonese. Help?

These are the larger sized ones though right? I mean they'll fit/replace MeiAh cases? I had a couple come in broken a few orders back and I've been trying to find a replacement since.

true, true. Guess I'm into color coordination. Mei Ah is a strange animal. A couple of my Mei Ah DVDs actually have cases that are the smaller size, like the ones they use in the U.S.

I'm still looking for someone who has the non-cardboard DVD cover for the following Mei Ah movies:

All's Well Ends Well 97
It's A Wonderful Life
Bodyguards of the Last Governor
Chinese Odyssey - Cinderella
Tricky Brains
Love...Love

I would love to get scans for these sheets. I can trade scans if need be.

what are the movies, and is there a link of the cover anywhere?

Perhaps they are HKL DVDs - Hong Kong Legends. These come from Region 2 and are great DVDs, but often only include the Mandarin dub. Or else perhaps they are NTSC regionless bootlegs of these editions. As Yellow Hammer suggested - if you post a screenie of the covers, perhaps we could recognize them.

Also - has anyone been able to contact the dude who runs AsianDVDguide.com? The site is still down - I think he's being a big baby. I wish he'd put the database back up - even if it never gets updated again - it's still a valuable resource.

Also - this thread is quite long and I still think it would be a good idea to keep it running even though this new forum incorporates HK films. I think it's a good place for general info. I wouldn't try to prohibit people starting other HK threads since that's what this forum is here for, but I kinda feel like this particular thread is a friendly (usually) chatroom. I also still feel that it saves the trouble of scouring through hundreds of HK related posts about the same few topics to find the info you want. If I'm the only one who thinks this way, I won't start up a new One and only thread... I'd just like to get some feedback on this subject.

I don't think a one and only thread is needed now that we have our own forum section. That's just my opinion tho.

Clint

No, they are most likely from Mainland distributors Wa or Guang Dong Tung Ah, or Taiwanese distributors such as Thunder Media (Ritek). The Storm Riders disc in question is released via Thunder Media, and the OUATIC disc is released via WA. Legit releases for the Mainland and Taiwan commonly feature Mandarin only sountracks so as not to compete against their HK versions (unit costs on say a WA disc and Universe disc of the same film are substantially different). The hk dvd bootlegs aren't mandarin only, that is restricted to the bootleg vcd scene where films are often redubbed by the bootleggers themselves. Bootleg dvds would have cantonese only, or both cantonese and mandarin. Post some links if you are unsure of other titles and I'll verify the authenticity.


HKL only released a small handful of Mandarin only discs, and no longer intend to do so. There are no known bootlegs of HKL discs, nor have bootleggers converterted PAL discs to NTSC. Pal bootlegs are released as pal. The discs in question will originate from WA or Guang Dung Tung Ah. These are sold frequently on Ebay as they cost about 2-4 USD for resellers and can frequently be sold to newbies who don't know better for many times that amount.

It's his site and he is free to do whatever he pleases with it. The only people I see being big babies are those who whine about it's demise, no offence. Matt has no intenion of re-opening any time soon and I can't say I blame him. There are plenty of other resources available across the net that can be made use of to recover that information, save for the Japanese/Taiwan sections of the database.

Glad to see you have no intention of using the 36 Deadly Styles to prevent other people from posting their own threads. IMHO you'll want seperate threads for seperate subjects. All these one and only threads just turn into a mish mash of unrelated postings that take just as long to sort through, if not longer. They have a tendency to wander all over the place with regards to topics.

I agree. It's a pain in the @$$ to navigate this thread or find a bit of info buried in this mess.

Since my last post, I've viewed 3 HK films:

Deadful Melody - This was a lot better than I had been led to believe by the quantitative lack of reviews. While not the best HK film ever, this was better than most, especially in movie production values, ie plot, acting, script, pace, editing, etc. I like a film that has a variety of different types of scenes, and this one fills that requirement. It even has a running gag that goes the length of the film, and is both comic and tragic at the same time. A good cast, filled with the usual collection of HK lovely ladies including Brigitte Lin, and fantasy martial arts action from Yuen Biao.

Saviour of the Soul - An odd film, this was not quite as good as some of the reviews led me to believe. It has a similar look and feel as Heroic Trio, with the same unspecified modern HK settings, and similar lighting. However, the plot is quite different, with a much bigger romantic element. While the cinematography was good, it was not as exceptional as a few of the reviews seemed to indicate. In short, it is an average HK film, entertaining if the style matches your tastes, but nothing you can't miss with impunity.

Ashes of Time - I was unfortunate enough to rent the World Video DVD version of this film, which has very poor picture quality and equally poor subtitle translations. My impression is that I would not have liked this film, even if I had a great transfer with accurate subtitles. It's one of those art films, where you feel that all of the characters are idiots, and you have no sympathy for any of them, and no interest in following what happens to them. (This is not to say that I don't like art house films, I like quite a few, such as the films of Werner Herzog.) So, I definitely recommend that you avoid the World Video version of this film like the plague, and give a second thought to whether you want to see the film at all.

I LOVE STEPHEN CHOW! This guy is so funny. I'm thinking about ordering some of the titles that were mentioned.

I just got a bunch of his films in today - like 15 of them... my thoughts on them will trickle in as I watch them.


To all - You've been heard and I guess you're right - this thread is not as needed as it once was - still - it's a popular thread. It's difficult to muddle through this thread to find a particular piece of info - true - however, it serves as a great place to hold a random chat session about general topics. So - I've decided to change the name of the thread and make it a sort of a Newbie Help and General Discussion thread. The first post will contain information that gets asked alot repeatedly and will keep the repeat posts down to a minimum by serving to answer these most frequent questions - an F.A.Q if you will. Hopefully by encouraging general discussion, it will keep the thread on the first 2 pages so the newbies can find it.

So - I'd like for anyone interested in this idea to help me out by helping me pick a name for the thread (One and ONLY won't do anymore) based on what it's function is... Also - I need some suggestion as to what the most commonly suggested films are for people to start out with - my first post has what I think is appropriate, but I want to make sure most of you agree. Additional suggestions are welcome. The first post should include stuff like - where to buy (with Geoff's links as well as the best overseas sites), info about subtitles vs. dub and Can vs. Man, answers to a few common questions (like "why are they flying?"), and whatever else you guys can suggest. So help me out if you can. Thanks.

The Blade (1995) - Not yet on DVD

I bought this one at play247..

[b]== Michelle Yeoh ==

Butterfly and Sword
Wing Chun

You can buy these at pokerindustries.com as most of the titles mentioned in this mail....

Rico-Chan

I repeat:
To all - You've been heard and I guess you're right - this thread is not as needed as it once was - still - it's a popular thread. It's difficult to muddle through this thread to find a particular piece of info - true - however, it serves as a great place to hold a random chat session about general topics. So - I've decided to change the name of the thread and make it a sort of a Newbie Help and General Discussion thread. The first post will contain information that gets asked alot repeatedly and will keep the repeat posts down to a minimum by serving to answer these most frequent questions - an F.A.Q if you will. Hopefully by encouraging general discussion, it will keep the thread on the first 2 pages so the newbies can find it.

So - I'd like for anyone interested in this idea to help me out by helping me pick a name for the thread (One and ONLY won't do anymore) based on what it's function is... Also - I need some suggestion as to what the most commonly suggested films are for people to start out with - my first post has what I think is appropriate, but I want to make sure most of you agree. Additional suggestions are welcome. The first post should include stuff like - where to buy (with Geoff's links as well as the best overseas sites), info about subtitles vs. dub and Can vs. Man, answers to a few common questions (like "why are they flying?"), and whatever else you guys can suggest. So help me out if you can. Thanks. Or - if you're trying to tell me something by not replying - I guess keep doing that and I might get the hint.

Here's an idea, how about we break Asian DVD talk discussions into the following:


The OFFICIAL HK Action DVD thread

The OFFICIAL HK Drama/Comedy DVD thread

The OFFICIAL HK OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU DVD thread

The OFFICIAL Korean DVD thread

The OFFICIAL Japanese DVD thread

How 'bout it????

I am just gonna hold out until there is an OFFICIAL HMONG THREAD.

I personally would like a discreet OFFICIAL ASIAN THREAD (HK,China, Korea, Japan etc.) and then an OFFICIAL EVERYTHING NOT-ASIAN THREAD

Well - I'm not trying to go there - I think this forum will be fine without the one and only threads or "official" threads. I just think it would be nice to have a Newbie thread to answer the standard questions (as you can see duplicate and triplicate threads beginning to emerge) and serve as a place for general HK chat like this thread has done. Perhaps Yellow Hammer can devise such a thread if y'all are bitter about me starting it. I'm not the HK expert here anyway. Anyway - thanks for the input and if you feel this is a decent idea, please give me ideas for the first post of the newbie/chat thread as well as what a good title for the thread should be... "OFFICIAL Newbie HK DVD & Discussion"? catchy?