Any chance these DVDs might be one day available in NTSC?

[INCspot]

I've been trying to find good quality Chinese language versions of the following Jackie Chan movies: Shaolin Wooden Men, Dragon Fist, and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin that are NTSC compatible. The Columbia ones have scenes missing, from what I've heard, and I'd like to get a complete a film as possible. On the other hand, I can't stand English dubbing. So I've been hoping to find an NTSC compatible Chinese language versions of these films, and as far as I can tell, they don't exist (I've also had hit-or-miss luck with VCDs).

Am I out of luck on this? Has anybody heard of any plans to release these in the future? (Dragon Dynasty was supposed to release Shaolin Wooden Men and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin, but I heard those were canceled).

Also, while I'm on the subject, how good are the Columbia versions of Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Fearless Hyena? Any missing scenes, grossly inaccurate subtitles, etc., or are these as good as any HK versions I'd be likely to find?

Thanks!

[OldPangYau]

I miss the days of having more time to work on DVD projects, otherwise I could've made custom NTSC-DVDs from the PAL sources (just a matter of careful converting of the frame rates, really).

If anything, JoySales might've been the best chance of a company releasing these films in NTSC format (albeit with region 3 encoding).

As for Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master... well... how do I put this...

The Columbia release of SITES is currently the best. 2.35:1 anamorphically enhanced widescreen format, a pretty decent transfer (albeit not "scratch free") with better color/contrast balance than the HKL version, and completely uncut. The opening credits are in English rather than Chinese (one of the few things the HKL version got right), but otherwise, this version is pretty perfect... for now. At least in the A/V department. The subtitles are "dubtitles" (something present on EVERY Columbia DVD of the JC Seasonal and Lo Wei films). The subtitles were the other thing HKL got right.

As for Drunken Master... oy vey... while the best LOOKING release of the film, in my opinion (once again, full 2.35 widescreen format, unlike the disasterous HKL crop), due to having access to an incomplete Cantonese track, there are sections of the Cantonese track that reverts the audio to English. Hell, switching to Mandarin would've been far less jarring!

I can't remember, but I think the French DVD has the full Cantonese track... not sure though. Even the Mei Ah DVD doesn't have a full Cantonese track.

[Michael L.]

A better chance is Blu Ray... because barring the regions, 1080 is 1080 (yeah, yeah p or i, but they are still compatible). When you make a dvd or Blu Ray, you can use the exact same set up and literally press a button to change the region. But to move from PAL to NTSC you have to recompress everything, which is time consuming. If you are going to go to the trouble of remaster/restoring something, why put it out in an NTSC format? At best, you'll do that as an addition to a Blu Ray release. And yes, plenty of companies are still putting out standard DVDs, but these are movies that exist (albeit in a worse edit) on standard def.

[chen lung]

I've been trying to find good quality Chinese language versions of the following Jackie Chan movies: Shaolin Wooden Men, Dragon Fist, and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin that are NTSC compatible.

You'd be somewhat hard-pushed to find them at all, let alone in NTSC:smile:.

HKL had some good ones (namely because of the re-translated subtitles and uncut remastered 2:35:1 anamorphic video), but for the majority, the problems were particularily in the sound department (wrong language, lack of mono, shit remix or downmixes), or the video wasn't as good as it could have been (stains, etc). With 'New Fist Of Fury', it uses the visuals of the shorter Cantonese re-issue (leaving the somewhat inferior dubtitled Columbia DVD to be the better option).

The subtitles are "dubtitles" (something present on EVERY Columbia DVD of the JC Seasonal and Lo Wei films). The subtitles were the other thing HKL got right.

Actually, 'Shaolin Wooden Men' and 'Spiritual Kung Fu' had re-translated subtitles - being mono was also the only attributes of those horrible discs.

I can't remember, but I think the French DVD has the full Cantonese track... not sure though. Even the Mei Ah DVD doesn't have a full Cantonese track.

Apparently, it does. No English subs and the image doesn't look as good.

[John]

The Columbia release of SITES is currently the best. 2.35:1 anamorphically enhanced widescreen format, a pretty decent transfer (albeit not "scratch free") with better color/contrast balance than the HKL version, and completely uncut. The opening credits are in English rather than Chinese (one of the few things the HKL version got right), but otherwise, this version is pretty perfect... for now. At least in the A/V department. The subtitles are "dubtitles" (something present on EVERY Columbia DVD of the JC Seasonal and Lo Wei films). The subtitles were the other thing HKL got right.

As for Drunken Master... oy vey... while the best LOOKING release of the film, in my opinion (once again, full 2.35 widescreen format, unlike the disasterous HKL crop), due to having access to an incomplete Cantonese track, there are sections of the Cantonese track that reverts the audio to English. Hell, switching to Mandarin would've been far less jarring!

I can't remember, but I think the French DVD has the full Cantonese track... not sure though. Even the Mei Ah DVD doesn't have a full Cantonese track.

I'm pretty sure I read it did? I wouldn't be surprised, in any event; French people seem to have channelled their collective cultural power into film and pastries. I've been telling myself I'll grab stuff like Hard Boiled and Drunken Master and just rip the subs off my Mei Ah versions to create a MegaZord master disc off the two. I think I'll have to run out of new and interesting remasters to buy before that happens, though!

So, is the Colombia SITES > Mei Ah Remastered SITES?