Shout Factory gets even lazier with The Big Boss/Fist of Fury

[newgen2005]

Just going through this French box set and have noticed that the Game of Death 2 disc has 2 versions of the movie, one (19gb) has French audio running time of 96 mins and the other version (17gb) has Cantonese with a running time 88 minutes! I haven't watched the movies so I don't know what the difference is!! Seems odd that the Cantonese version is shorter!

[Keung]

Perhaps the French print has the greenhouse fight at the beginning? That's all I can think of...

EDIT: Never mind, I thought we were talking about Game of Death 2.

[makone]

So the french blu of Game of death is the same as the universe dvd ? or is it the version with the chi hon tsoi fight in the middle ?

The tower of death has at least 3 different running times, international cut God2 being the longest. hong kong 2nd (no greenhouse fight) and the korean version ( no Bruce)

[newgen2005]

I am talking about Game of Death 2

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

The Bernard Dauman version, whic I presume is the french print, has the greenhouse fight in the BL talking HJL scene as a flashback, and maybe some other bits and pieces.

[newgen2005]

I will check it out, seems strange that the international cut is longer than the Asian cut!

[makone]

I am talking about Game of Death 2

yeah, that part of my post was aimed at spannicks post.

The international version of god2 had the greenhouse fight inserted, while gh had already used it in the hong kong print of god.

[newgen2005]

yeah, that part of my post was aimed at spannicks post.

The international version of god2 had the greenhouse fight inserted, while gh had already used it in the hong kong print of god.

Thanks for clearing that up!

I'll send you a PM about Game of Death Japanese cut!

[makone]

The Bernard Dauman version, whic I presume is the french print, has the greenhouse fight in the BL talking HJL scene as a flashback, and maybe some other bits and pieces.

Thanks for that info, I never knew anything about the french releases other than the vhs big boss.

[newgen2005]

French version is up for trade guys

[Jay Stone]

I've always found that defence something of a cop out... along the lines of 'we were only following orders!'

Not defending them, just stating they they themselves don't "remaster" anything, they license the films and what we get what was given to them by the licensee.

[Son Of A Gun]

All the blurays have messed up colours. Red/pink skin tones and a Turquoise tinge on almost everything. Shout's will be no different. No point even hoping.

Look, they couldn't even get the colour of his jacket right. It's meant to be purple/brown.

[newgen2005]

All the blurays have messed up colours. Red/pink skin tones and a Turquoise tinge on almost everything. Shout's will be no different. No point even hoping.

Look, they couldn't even get the colour of his jacket right. It's meant to be purple/brown.

Shocking, you don't realise how bad they are until you see them side by side! The person/s that mastered these should be fired!

Surely there must be someone at Fortune Star that actually cares enough about these films to redo them all! It can't be that hard for a big company like them to pull it off!? Surely!

[Son Of A Gun]

You would think so, yeah. But doubt it'll ever happen.

[OldPangYau]

Well, this was the official response from Shout Factory on Facebook when I asked them about the double feature DVDs:

"This was something of a no-frills release. Since I know you're a big-time fan, I'd recommend holding off for the time being. Sorry to be cryptic, but I really can't say more than that right now!!"

So, we can assume the blu-rays will at least be better than this... hell, almost *anything* is better than this! But, they're probably just using the same HD masters, plus the upconvert "HD" transfer of Game of Death. Meh, we'll see what happens.

[David Rees]

Apparently there double feature dvd of Killer Meteors and New Fist Of Fury are cut and English dubbed only as well.....oh dear, is this company in the 21st century?

[OldPangYau]

Apparently there double feature dvd of Killer Meteors and New Fist Of Fury are cut and English dubbed only as well.....oh dear, is this company in the 21st century?

Using Fortune Star's master, I'm not surprised that New Fist of Fury is the cut version... but cut AND dubbed? Good lord, the Columbia DVD was a better option! At least that one had Mandarin and the extra 40 minutes!

[Guest Markgway]

Fans of Hong Kong Cinema seem to be one of the few groups that it's perfectly OK for companies to fuck on a regular basis. Does any other strand of fandom have to put up with this?

[Secret Executioner]

Fans of Hong Kong Cinema seem to be one of the few groups that it's perfectly OK for companies to fuck on a regular basis. Does any other strand of fandom have to put up with this?

Horror and sci-fi movies also seem to get quite half-assed releases - especially when you get into rather obscure material: only one dub, next to no bonus features and sometimes, you end with a (very) poor VHS transfert.

The early R1 releases of Godzilla films are perfect examples of this: only the English dub (thus only the usually butchered US version), next to no bonuses and the worst was with Destroy All Monsters: no menu and no chapters. The film basically plays in a loop.

I feel lucky though that there's a company called Bach Films in France that actually gives better stuff to MA fans than to horror/sci-fi fans - they also have a very nice catalogue in all 3 genres and nobody else has released these films on DVD in France most of the time so one can't really complain. I have several of their releases and the MA movies often feature a couple of bonus trailers when horror/sci-fi DVDs don't.

This company also released a nice collection of serials and these are probably the releases in which they put the most effort. I only have the Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (1936, starring Buster Crabbe and Charles Middleton) DVD and it looks INCREDIBLE. Besides a great quality you also get the original dub with well-done subtitles, teasers for other serials, bonus interviews with specialists and a nice booklet discussing the history of the genre and offering a list of "must-see" titles.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Being a fan of Euro crime/poliziotteschi & Giallo is no picnic either. Though I will say that many of the titles released does get proper respect, but there are tons of stuff that still haven't even made it past VHS, if that.

[Son Of A Gun]

Remember the bluray companies aren't to blame so much. They put out what they're given, right? Someone stop me if I'm wrong here. 'lol I think this issue was covered earlier in the thread though.

If they only get given rubbishy 5.1 and 7.1 audio mixes, and only one language dub and upscales....then that's what they put out. The question is, if the bluray distributors chose to use their initiative and take a different language dub or mono track from another source, such as Laserdisc or Betacam tape etc..... Would they need special permission to use those audio tracks? They don't have to tell anyone where they got them from.

Remember HKL's first few releases. They were given Mandarin dubs only, instead of original cantonese. And Tartan dvd put out Wong Kar Wai's "As Tears Go By" in mandarin instead of it's original cantonese. When asked why, Tartan said, "We tried to get Cantonese but they only gave us Mandarin" .

[Guest Markgway]

You can find mono tracks on almost any VHS or LD.

That means either the Fortune Star contract forbids sourcing from other companies/materials or the distributors can't be arsed locating them.

Whatever the case it's the fans that lose out... as always.

Given Shite Factory's reputation I had high hopes. My mistake.

[OldPangYau]

That means either the Fortune Star contract forbids sourcing from other companies/materials or the distributors can't be arsed locating them.

I've wondered if FS has tried to stop companies from getting external extras... but then it makes me wonder how Paramount Japan managed to get the Japanese cuts of Fist of Fury, Game of Death, and Police Story, *in HD*, as extra features on their respective blu-rays.

Hell, I've heard rumors that FS was partly responsible for red tape not being cut for the Big Boss deleted scenes to finally come out... then again, what rumor *hasn't* there been in regards to the Big Boss deleted scenes?

[reason108]

I've wondered if FS has tried to stop companies from getting external extras... but then it makes me wonder how Paramount Japan managed to get the Japanese cuts of Fist of Fury, Game of Death, and Police Story, *in HD*, as extra features on their respective blu-rays.

Hell, I've heard rumors that FS was partly responsible for red tape not being cut for the Big Boss deleted scenes to finally come out... then again, what rumor *hasn't* there been in regards to the Big Boss deleted scenes?

Perhaps they want to wait until all of the people that really give a sh*t and know anything about it are dead. Then they can release the "recently" found footage to a bunch of teens that have no idea who BL is.

[spannick]

Remember the bluray companies aren't to blame so much. They put out what they're given, right? Someone stop me if I'm wrong here. 'lol I think this issue was covered earlier in the thread though.

If they only get given rubbishy 5.1 and 7.1 audio mixes, and only one language dub and upscales....then that's what they put out. The question is, if the bluray distributors chose to use their initiative and take a different language dub or mono track from another source, such as Laserdisc or Betacam tape etc..... Would they need special permission to use those audio tracks? They don't have to tell anyone where they got them from.

Remember HKL's first few releases. They were given Mandarin dubs only, instead of original cantonese. And Tartan dvd put out Wong Kar Wai's "As Tears Go By" in mandarin instead of it's original cantonese. When asked why, Tartan said, "We tried to get Cantonese but they only gave us Mandarin" .

no matter what others tell you, this can be done. if you don't like the Audio you're given, you just look elsewhere. nobody will ever check (or even recognize) that it's NOT their crap Audio Tracks. talking from experience, not forum knowledge here.