Police Story I & II (Shout Factory BD Reviews)

[Guest Markgway]

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Police-Story-Blu-ray/63281/#Review

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Police-Story-2-Blu-ray/63282/#Review

Upscales again.

No mention of whether the subs are genuine or dubtitles nor if the previous sync issues are still present.

[Killer Meteor]

Oh well, more money saved.

[newgen2005]

Makes me laugh how companies like Shout Factory and Kam & Ronson buy these upscales!! It looks like we are never going to get anything better, just repackaged rubbish!

How long does Fortune Star have the rights for these titles?

[Killer Meteor]

Fortune Star has had them since 1993 I think...Star TV certainly has anyway.

I wonder if what is needed is for a company like Criterion or BFI to propose a fresh transfer, if nothing else then for the heavy hitters like the Bruce Lee flicks. It would help if the better companies looked beyond arthouse stuff when it comes to Hong Kong movies.

[razorclam]

I doubt it will be Criterion. I've been hounding them for years. The only time they've ever responded was concerning the films of King Hu. It wasn't a response saying we've got them. it was a, "we wish we had them" response. That was about 3 or 4 years ago via facebook.

[reason108]

Wonder if these will have reversible covers like the "Crime Story/The Protector" blu?

[tenebre]

As much as i would love what you all want.... until one of us becomes insaely rich and can offord to release this stuff ourselves... it wont happen.

These are essentially "cult" catalog titles... they cant sell enough to spend the money to give these releases the treatment they deserve :-(

the process is extremely time consuming and SUPER expensive... these titles will never sell the units needed.. unless there was a super twilight time ... like limited to 3k copies and each movie was $60+ dollars...

the originals simply are not well preserved so the amount of work needed is just brutal :-(

[masterofoneinchpunch]

I doubt it will be Criterion. I've been hounding them for years. The only time they've ever responded was concerning the films of King Hu. It wasn't a response saying we've got them. it was a, "we wish we had them" response. That was about 3 or 4 years ago via facebook.

I've also hounded them for years. They just are not too keen on China/Taiwan/Hong Kong/ South Korea, putting out only a few films from those locations (I think they could have re-put out the John Woo films if they really wanted the rights to them). They at one point told me they were considering to put out Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day, but that did not happen as of yet. I do think they will more likely put art-house fare out like more Wong Kar-wai (if they could get the rights) and more likely Taiwanese directors like Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang and of course Ang Lee if they can get the rights.

I'm completely surprised they had not gone after some Mainland directors like Zhang Yimou like Red Sorghum or heck even HK auteur Johnnie To (they even had him do a top 10 film list which I thought was going to be an indication they were going to put out a film of his like MOC's Mad Detective but nothing came of it).

Now I certainly would pick up a Criterion Police Story, I just do not think it is ever going to happen.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Nobody cares about these movies, other than us.... nobody!

Unless some one from the fanbase with millions of dollars to back a new label, and zero interest in seeing any kind of return on that investment, other than fan praise, steps up.... we're gonna have to take what we can get. Which is not that bad, if you ask me. And let's face it, the aforementioned dream scenario is not gonna happen.

[razorclam]

I think the bad economy has made movie collectors very frugal. It'll bounce back (I hope). I'm sure I'm not the only one scheming on getting rich. I'm currently starting an animation studio with a friend, and one of my long term goals is to save at least one of these treasures.

[Guest Markgway]

Criterion are very snobish about Hong Kong Cinema. Even the most artistic and lauded film is ignored (unless it has Wong Kar-Wai's name on it). But Japanese films... they can't get enough of!

[Killer Meteor]

Criterion's Japanese titles came as part of the Janus Films Collection mostly.

The HK companies are frequently unreliable. I'm told most US and UK companies don't bother with them. Which is probably why they often end up with companies that are on shaky ground e.g Media Blasters.

[Takuma]

The HK companies are frequently unreliable. I'm told most US and UK companies don't bother with them. Which is probably why they often end up with companies that are on shaky ground e.g Media Blasters.

That makes sense. Just look at the companies that do bother with HK companies. They ask for an HD transfer, they get upscale. They ask for mono, they get downmix. I hardly even bother with HK films as a viewer anymore

Secondly, why would Criterion release Police Story? Yes, it's a fantastic crowd pleaser movie, but it's nothing like a Criterion movie. They are an arthouse label (except for a handful of US hit movies released probably just to finance the obviously-poorly-selling arthouse titles that may generate losses), Police Story is a major mainstream action comedy.

Criterion are very snobish about Hong Kong Cinema. Even the most artistic and lauded film is ignored (unless it has Wong Kar-Wai's name on it). But Japanese films... they can't get enough of!

What Hong Kong titles would you suggest for Criterion to release?

[andi81]

I would love to see a Criterion Blu Ray of PAINTED FACES!!!!!!

[masterofoneinchpunch]

HK Titles I have suggested to Criterion (I've done several more that I cannot remember now; I did mention Police Story but yeah I would not expect them to do that):

The Mission (1999)

Boat People (1982)

Shanghai Blues (1984): substitute your favorite Tsui Hark.

Center Stage (1992)

Coprods:

Farewell my Concubine (1993)

Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

To Live (1994)

I wouldn't say anymore Wong Kar-wai since I don't think they will wrestle the titles like Happy Together away from Kino.

I've also suggested several Mainland films like Spring in a Small Town and Red Sorghum.

[Jay Stone]

Criterion are very snobish about Hong Kong Cinema. Even the most artistic and lauded film is ignored (unless it has Wong Kar-Wai's name on it). But Japanese films... they can't get enough of!

I wouldn't say that, they did release Supercop on Laserdisc.

[Guest Markgway]

What Hong Kong titles would you suggest for Criterion to release?

School on Fire would be a good place to start.

[andi81]

A Criterion Blu Ray doublefeature with WARRIORS TWO and PRODIGAL SON would be unbelievable.

[Killer Meteor]

That makes sense. Just look at the companies that do bother with HK companies. They ask for an HD transfer, they get upscale. They ask for mono, they get downmix. I hardly even bother with HK films as a viewer anymore

Secondly, why would Criterion release Police Story? Yes, it's a fantastic crowd pleaser movie, but it's nothing like a Criterion movie. They are an arthouse label (except for a handful of US hit movies released probably just to finance the obviously-poorly-selling arthouse titles that may generate losses), Police Story is a major mainstream action comedy.

What Hong Kong titles would you suggest for Criterion to release?

Most of the HK movies I get these days are the old 4:3 transfer kind from Vengeance Video. I feel better paying a couple of quid for a disc i know will be subpar then £10 on a disc that may well be screwed.

I think Criterion should do the Bruce Lee films, if only Shout hadn't gotten them.

[reason108]

Least ye forget. Criterion released The Killer and Hard Boiled on dvd.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Least ye forget. Criterion released The Killer and Hard Boiled on dvd.

Also on Laserdisc, but they went OOP pretty quickly which unfortunately resulted in several well-known bootlegs of both products (I have both real and one additional bootleg for Hard Boiled). They seemed to have lost interest in Woo years ago. I think if they really wanted to they could have got the rights back to both.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Never got what the big deal was with Criterion. Out 2000+ movies I only have one Criterion, Le Samourai, and the extras on that are not too exciting.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Never got what the big deal was with Criterion. Out 2000+ movies I only have one Criterion, Le Samourai, and the extras on that are not too exciting.

I have somewhere over 500 Criterions. Criterion is indeed weak in China/HK/Taiwan/Southeast Asia/Silent but it has one of the most impressive arthouse (and historically important) France/Germany/Japan/US/Russia/many other countries collections. They are quite good at extras (sometimes going into sycophantic like many extras but overall among the best in the business), it has many editions which were supervised by the directors and/or cinematographers etc..., some of the best transfers and a smart business model which has kept them in business and consistently better than labels like Kino (which has improved quite a bit over the years though, I collect many Kinos as well).

They have some great releases of Melville besides Le Samourai (why didn't that get a commentary, that bugged me), all of Kurosawa's available films and much more.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Maybe it's just that I was never that interested in the movies they put out, aside from a few choice ones. Got rest of Melville flicks in the optimum versions, and im not into arthouse or old school jidai geki.

Im sure if I saw their full catalog, there would be more titles I would go for.

[tenebre]

Maybe it's just that I was never that interested in the movies they put out, aside from a few choice ones. Got rest of Melville flicks in the optimum versions, and im not into arthouse or old school jidai geki.

Im sure if I saw their full catalog, there would be more titles I would go for.

I am the same way.. i have maybe 20ish or so. Their releases are awesome but the tend to go for socially accepted "art" movies over anything else. so lots of genres get ignored.

I wish they had "cult" line that did focus on sub genres and less "movie snob" circle types of movies. Their prints are always great and extras usually go for broke