Member mpm74 Posted December 28, 2010 Member Share Posted December 28, 2010 Is FUNimation releasing any more Shaw films after Lady Hermit and Sword of Swords? Anybody know the scoop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BigDruDogg Posted December 28, 2010 Member Share Posted December 28, 2010 I don't have any official info, but my opinion. An I think once Lady Hermit drops in February they'll be done. Back in January 08 BCI acquired the 15 Shaw titles, and after release just 2 they went out of business. Funimation bought the rights to those acquired titles and is just finishing up releasing them. But, I seriously doubt, they'll try to get more films, as I posted on other threads. I think the Shaw Bro/Kung Fu niche is just too small of a market for them to pump more money into that. Especially since they just filed for bankruptcy and merged with another company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mpm74 Posted December 30, 2010 Author Member Share Posted December 30, 2010 That makes sense. FUNimation still releases many Japanese films, so I imagine there is still some hope. I guess it just depends on the overall sales of the Shaw Brothers titles so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member John Posted January 8, 2011 Member Share Posted January 8, 2011 FUNi shared the same parent organization with BCI eclipse, Navarre; they shut down BCI and handed the materials BCI had been working with to FUNi, who had no prior engagement with anything beyond live action Japanese and Korean content up to that point. Being saddled with the obligation, it's painfully obvious that these titles are not a priority for them as demonstrated by a surprising lack of competance with poor PAL/NTSC converted transfers (e.g. 14 Amazons) and have delivered more than a few lacklusters covers on their cases. BCI did all the work with these materials, so really there was nothing FUNi could do but fuck it up. These are the same guys who authored some of the poorest anime DVDs up until the last couple years; poor bitrate due to overstuffing the discs with episodes and alternate angles, cropping 4:3 content into 16:9...on Blu-ray no less. I've read they couldn't even be bothered to get a master from a real 35mm print and went with some drab 16mm garbage instead. Whatever nonsense they went about, the end product (Dragonball films) was one of those situations where you need to stick with the DVD. So all things considered, I neither foresee FUNi releasing anything beyond whatever BCI left them nor do I find myself looking forward to any further "surprises". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member spannick Posted January 8, 2011 Member Share Posted January 8, 2011 you should also mention that AFTER the 14 Amazons / Shaolin Handlock debacles they have issued the best NTSC DVDs for Shaw Movies like SWORD OF SWORDS, SHAOLIN RESCUERS and INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN - all progressive NTSC Speed Versions with Full Bitrate on a DVD-9 with Original Chinese Mono and English Mono. and HK Godfather was also perfect - and it's the ONLY release worldwide. None of the Crap Well go or even HK DVDs were ever that good (and the'll never be able to) . so i'd rather see Well go ... well, go down i am sure there won't be more from Funinmation - seeing their total lack of interest to even put accompanying Shaw Trailers on their Shaw DVDs, but only Modern Japanese dreck nobody cares for who buys a Shaw Movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 SWORD OF SWORDS INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN Do these have decent subtitles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bronx Rican Posted January 8, 2011 Member Share Posted January 8, 2011 Judging from Life Gamble and Shaolin Prince, which showed no discernible improvements, it may be more or less the same subs as Celestial's for those films. Again, I've gotta talk about the English audio. Why such a crapshoot for all of these companies? Do they all hire the same people? This time, I come away thoroughly satisfied with Shaolin Prince: some of the best work I've heard yet syncing up the dialogue (which I know by heart), with very few timing issues and NO noticeably unnatural stretching. Then I listen to Life Gamble, and HOLY HELL! Never heard the English dub before, but I can safely say this is by FAR the worst, and blows the previous 'worst' title-holder (Flag of Iron) right out of the water. Anyone can tell how bad it is: "Wwwhhhhennnn yyouuuuu mmmakkke a wwwweappponnnnnn..." "Wwellllll ifff yyouu mmmakke annnyyy mmmove-I-shall-certainly kill her." "Yyyyyouuuuuusssssseeeeeeeeettthhhhhisssssss?" Everyone's drunk now; it's far too extreme. When even the music can be heard suffering from the effects, it's much too much. It's now right at the top of my 'fix-it' project list. Basically, my verdict is Funimation has done not much better or worse overall than the others, so I wouldn't mind if they continued releasing Shaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Sheng Posted January 9, 2011 Member Share Posted January 9, 2011 Since I generally don't give a monkey's about all those silly SB dubs ("old skool", "new dub", whatever, Jones...) I'm more than pleased with the recent batch of Funimation Shaws. Spannick accurately pointed out the reasons why they should be snapped up as long as they're around. That's the most we can expect in these days & times... Extras like those on that fabulous OPIUM AND THE KUNG FU MASTER blu ray or on the earlier DD discs are nothing but a distant dream. I also suspect that Funimation pulls the plug on their Shaw releases after they're through with what they inherited from BCI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member John Posted January 9, 2011 Member Share Posted January 9, 2011 you should also mention that AFTER the 14 Amazons / Shaolin Handlock debacles they have issued the best NTSC DVDs for Shaw Movies like SWORD OF SWORDS, SHAOLIN RESCUERS and INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN - all progressive NTSC Speed Versions with Full Bitrate on a DVD-9 with Original Chinese Mono and English Mono. and HK Godfather was also perfect - and it's the ONLY release worldwide. None of the Crap Well go or even HK DVDs were ever that good (and the'll never be able to) . so i'd rather see Well go ... well, go down I know! I know...I am just so BITTER about BCI eclipse shutting down, Spannick! But I concede, if the rest of the titles you mention are as good as my copy of The Duel, then I've got to snap up these discs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Pai Mei Posted January 9, 2011 Member Share Posted January 9, 2011 I miss BCI too, but I feel I must defend funimation a bit. I don' think think they deserve all this hate. One thing to note is that the dvds of Opium and the Kung Fu Master and Life Gamble that funi relaesed have higher bit rates than the BCI releases. Both companies released these as dvd-9s, and we all know that funi doesn't add special features unlike BCI. However, instead of funi adding the exact same video presentation that BCI did, they decided to fill up the dvd space with a better image quality (technically speaking according to the higher bit rates). Not to mention funi also found and added the English dub for Life Gamble. This behavior leads me to think that they do care, at least a little bit about the Shaws they are distributing. I actually rank funi up there with Tokyo Shock. Yes, they aren't quit as good as TS, but they do get extra points for releasing more than one or two Shaws a year. I remember a post in the massive TKAM thread that someone said that funi had emailed them and expressed interest in TKAM. This may be rumor, but it at least gives me a little hope that funi will continue their involvement with the Shaw collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member John Posted January 9, 2011 Member Share Posted January 9, 2011 Well sure, if they knock off the Drunken Remasters I'm game:wink:. I've been hurt before is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bronx Rican Posted January 12, 2011 Member Share Posted January 12, 2011 No hate at my end; overall, Funi's done as well as the others. I'm just curious about the English audio issues, because this periodic butchering has happened with every US distributor, from Well Go's Two Champions of Shaolin and Dragon Dynasty's Return to the 36th Chamber, to Media Blasters' Kid with the Golden Arm and 5 Element Ninjas to Funi's Life Gamble. It leads me to speculate that they all farm the audio work out to the same people. I was so relieved to see Five Venoms got off light. I want to see how it goes with Shaolin Rescuers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted January 15, 2011 Member Share Posted January 15, 2011 No hate at my end; overall, Funi's done as well as the others. I'm just curious about the English audio issues, because this periodic butchering has happened with every US distributor, from Well Go's Two Champions of Shaolin and Dragon Dynasty's Return to the 36th Chamber, to Media Blasters' Kid with the Golden Arm and 5 Element Ninjas to Funi's Life Gamble. It leads me to speculate that they all farm the audio work out to the same people. I was so relieved to see Five Venoms got off light. I want to see how it goes with Shaolin Rescuers. I think the English audio issues are down to Celestial being OTT with the noice reduction. A lot of their Chinese tracks sound similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bronx Rican Posted January 19, 2011 Member Share Posted January 19, 2011 I think the English audio issues are down to Celestial being OTT with the noice reduction. A lot of their Chinese tracks sound similar. NR is a whole 'nother subject; I can generally live with that, even if the sound is overly muffled. I'm all about the unnatural lengthening of certain lines of dialogue in order to match lip movements or match the Chinese dialogue. It's sorta like those videos where they time-stretch George W. Bush's speeches to make him sound drunk. I really think I'm gonna give a demonstration on youtube one of these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Nakadai Posted January 23, 2011 Member Share Posted January 23, 2011 Funi will never bother acquiring any new shaw licenses... However if there's a new crappy live action Death Note film i'm sure they'll be down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member John Posted January 24, 2011 Member Share Posted January 24, 2011 Maybe they'll sell the licenses to Media Blasters and then THEY can put out Blu-rays! If only... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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