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Chemical Lemon

I'm glad it's finally working, there's nothing worse than buying something you're really looking forward to and having it not work. Im hoping they release something new this weekend, I'm going to use my Father's Day privileges to force my wife to watch something SB with me. I'm thinking of Clan of the White Lotus, but something I haven't seen in a while would be a big treat.

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I'm glad it's finally working, there's nothing worse than buying something you're really looking forward to and having it not work. Im hoping they release something new this weekend, I'm going to use my Father's Day privileges to force my wife to watch something SB with me. I'm thinking of Clan of the White Lotus, but something I haven't seen in a while would be a big treat.

I just wish that some more of these films would hit blu-ray with English subs. But, after bills are paid, will probably pick up another Shaws or two.

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I just wish that some more of these films would hit blu-ray with English subs. But, after bills are paid, will probably pick up another Shaws or two.

To be honest I think this is a better option. Blu-ray DB discs of Shaw Brothers movies, with some serious thought given to authoring and production of the final overall package can be items to be cherished for life.The HD itunes do not even do justice to Dragon Dynasty's SD dvds. Plus there is an HDCP hand shake issue with the majority of HD TV systems and other displays so technically one is limited to the mercy of their computer device and its given display with contents challenging to be retrieved if things go kaput.It can also be a headache and might be even illegal to find a more tangible way of ripping and burning the files to dvd.

I guess it is less expensive and a lesser effort overall on the companies to upload content on itunes and the like but imagine if all these titles were available on Blu-ray Zone 0, A B C for the benefit of diehard fans and initiates alike wouldn't this make matters more merrier for all parties concerned?

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Lady Jin Szu-Yi

Yes, blu ray would be a great option for more SB films. I'd gladly buy more than a few to support this option and I'd buy titles outside of those I already enjoy. Digitally I am reconsidering and will probably rent more than buy.

That said, this Apple user is not very happy with the turns Apple are taking lately. Most importantly, what happens when the rights lapse and/or your hard drive dies? Stuff out of luck really.

but still... this being the only official way to see / buy some of these films now, the choice is up to the consumer. I'll buy and rent as I see fit...

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The joys of having a physical copy, then unwrapping and adding it to your shelves, I enjoy that aspect and sadly that trend is going out of style. Whatever I buy in the digital app stores I don't treasure it as much as a physical copy.

We all saw this trend before back in 2004-05 when publishers finally moved away from vhs to dvd. However at that time we had an upgrade in both quality and space-efficiency. This time we trade away packaging art and novelty for space-free and convenience while not having any quality upgrade, or even downgrade if you factor in uncompressed audio from blu ray disc.

Having said that with the lack of physical distribution and permanent packaging, as consumers we don't have to spend ridiculous amount of money on out-of-prints. Movies are also cheaper to distribute, thus more contents will be published at cheaper price. Human mistakes or bad judgements like crappy dubtitles, audio remix, re-edit versions eventually become non-existent. Finally seeing a remastered Shaw with the right dub, original mono, and english subtitle all in one place is a wonderful thing.

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Chemical Lemon

Shaolin Mantis and Men from the Monastery are both up on US iTunes.  Both with Mandarin and English dubs.  Normal HD:$8 SD:$4 pricing.

 

It's good to see them releasing movies again (Just a coincidence that the forum went back up just a couple days before?  Not possible).  But also a little weird.  There are still 10 movies (listed below) on their website as being available that are not.  That last batch of movies they released seemed to be riddled with issues which took them a while to sort out. Maybe they pulled the remaining ones to rework them before they get released.

 

Brave Archer and His Mate

Buddha's Palm

Full Moon Scimitar

House of Traps

Marco Polo

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman

The Brave Archer

The Brave Archer 2

The Brave Archer 3

The Weird Man

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Shaolin Mantis and Men from the Monastery are both up on US iTunes.  Both with Mandarin and English dubs.  Normal HD:$8 SD:$4 pricing.

 

It's good to see them releasing movies again (Just a coincidence that the forum went back up just a couple days before?  Not possible).  But also a little weird.  There are still 10 movies (listed below) on their website as being available that are not.  That last batch of movies they released seemed to be riddled with issues which took them a while to sort out. Maybe they pulled the remaining ones to rework them before they get released.

 

Brave Archer and His Mate

Buddha's Palm

Full Moon Scimitar

House of Traps

Marco Polo

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman

The Brave Archer

The Brave Archer 2

The Brave Archer 3

The Weird Man

Wow thanks for listing this! I step away from checking for a few weeks and I miss everything!

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Oh my! They have added Shaolin Mantis and Men From the Monastery! I too have been out of the loop. As much as I hate not having blu-ray available for these films, I still don't want to miss out on what I can get. The strange thing is, Celestial have not been updating their web site. Some of these newer iTunes releases are not listed on their site as being available yet. I would think that Celestial should be shouting from the roof-tops about the new releases instead of just sneaking them in. 

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Wow thanks for listing this! I step away from checking for a few weeks and I miss everything!

Shaolin Mantis and Men from the Monastery are both up on US iTunes.  Both with Mandarin and English dubs.  Normal HD:$8 SD:$4 pricing.

 

It's good to see them releasing movies again (Just a coincidence that the forum went back up just a couple days before?  Not possible).  But also a little weird.  There are still 10 movies (listed below) on their website as being available that are not.  That last batch of movies they released seemed to be riddled with issues which took them a while to sort out. Maybe they pulled the remaining ones to rework them before they get released.

 

Brave Archer and His Mate

Buddha's Palm

Full Moon Scimitar

House of Traps

Marco Polo

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman

The Brave Archer

The Brave Archer 2

The Brave Archer 3

The Weird Man

 

Yeah, I remember seeing those titles listed before on iTunes. I hope they make a return and are not pulled for good. 

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Lady Jin Szu-Yi

I just did a double take and bought Shaolin Mantis! YAY! :khi8g:

 

I was lamenting just a little bit that I exhausted their David Chiang releases a couple of weeks ago. Note to self:  lament like that more often. 

 

 screen shot from HD version...

SMantis3.jpg

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Lady Jin Szu-Yi

Shaolin Mantis and Men from the Monastery are both up on US iTunes.  Both with Mandarin and English dubs.  Normal HD:$8 SD:$4 pricing.

 

It's good to see them releasing movies again (Just a coincidence that the forum went back up just a couple days before?  Not possible).  But also a little weird.  There are still 10 movies (listed below) on their website as being available that are not.  That last batch of movies they released seemed to be riddled with issues which took them a while to sort out. Maybe they pulled the remaining ones to rework them before they get released.

 

Brave Archer and His Mate

Buddha's Palm

Full Moon Scimitar

House of Traps

Marco Polo

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman

The Brave Archer

The Brave Archer 2

The Brave Archer 3

The Weird Man

I was wondering why they did not release anything over the summer. Thanks for the update, Chemical Lemon. 

 

 

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Chemical Lemon

Yeah, they seem to release movies in batches with huge gaps between the batches.  Usually about 2 a week until they've exhausted whatever movies they have queued up.  It's a little frustrating because they do a poor job advertising what's been released when.  Checking their page on iTunes seems to be the easiest way to find them, although sometimes the movies take a while to show up there too.  A couple of times I've checked, and then searched for Ti Lung, Fu Sheng, or Chang Cheh and there were a couple new movies that weren't on their iTunes page.  And of course they frequently link under different spellings of actors/directors names, or even completely different people (Men From the Monastery was listed as directed by Chang Chen, the actor).  If their posts on facebook are accurate it sounds like they don't have much control over when their movies get added to iTunes, which might be why everything seems so chaotic.  They might have as little idea what's up on iTunes as we do.  It's always exciting though when a new movie shows up, it's a sign that there's a good chance some more will show up soon.  I was really looking forward the last set of releases that never showed up, so I hope they're still in the queue.

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Lady Jin Szu-Yi

The huge gaps are good to know. I stopped checking after a few weeks hoping that last batch would show up.


I would look under actors mostly and then release date.


Sure, I'm probably the only person in the States who wants an HD copy of The Weird Man but still...I hope that last batch is in the works. iTunes / Apple can be pretty wonky with what they release and when, but considering what's already up, I don't think it's a content issue. It would be nice if Celestial kept on top of announcing these somewhere in their social media. But I just hope they release more. soon

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To be honest I think this is a better option. Blu-ray DB discs of Shaw Brothers movies, with some serious thought given to authoring and production of the final overall package can be items to be cherished for life.The HD itunes do not even do justice to Dragon Dynasty's SD dvds. Plus there is an HDCP hand shake issue with the majority of HD TV systems and other displays so technically one is limited to the mercy of their computer device and its given display with contents challenging to be retrieved if things go kaput.It can also be a headache and might be even illegal to find a more tangible way of ripping and burning the files to dvd.

I guess it is less expensive and a lesser effort overall on the companies to upload content on itunes and the like but imagine if all these titles were available on Blu-ray Zone 0, A B C for the benefit of diehard fans and initiates alike wouldn't this make matters more merrier for all parties concerned?

Based on my limited Shaws HD iTunes downloads, there certainly is not much (if any) difference between them and the Dragon Dynasty (Vivendi/ArcEntertainment) and Tokyo Shock dvd releases. There are subtle improvements over the Image Entertainment dvd releases. And, of course, the iTunes HD releases are a lot better than the original Region 3 Celestial dvd releases. The blu-ray releases that I own are better than their iTunes and dvd equivalents. The blu-ray image is smoother and sharper than the iTunes version.  

 

 

Here is my iTunes list that I used to compare to either dvd or blu-ray (where available):

Challenge of the Masters

Clan of the White Lotus

Dirty Ho

Executioners of Shaolin

Heroes of the East

Legendary Weapons of China

Mad Monkey Kung Fu

Martial Arts of Shaolin

Masked Avengers

My Young Auntie

Shaolin Mantis

The Super Inframan

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter

 

 

 

 

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Chemical Lemon

The Shaolin Avengers is up on US iTunes now.  Usual details, Mandarin/English dubs, English/Traditional Chinese subs

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Chemical Lemon

Heads for Sale is up in the US.  Kind of surprised about this one.  Mandarin and English dubs, English and Traditional Chinese subtitles.

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They need to put these films back on the list:

 

 

Brave Archer and His Mate

Buddha's Palm

Full Moon Scimitar

House of Traps

Marco Polo

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman

The Brave Archer

The Brave Archer 2

The Brave Archer 3

The Weird Man

 

 

 

 

 

Was it really technical issues or were they not selling and they pulled them? 

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Just picked up Men from the Monastery. Celestial really need to update their website and stay on top of this. 

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Lady Jin Szu-Yi

Agreed. They mentioned Men... and Shaolin Mantis on their Twitter. So that's something anyway. 

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Chemical Lemon

My Rebellious Son is up in the US now too.  Not showing in their Celestial's iTunes list yet either (this is pretty typical when they first go up, sometimes don't show for a couple days).  I found it by searching Ni Kuang.  Cantonese and English dubs, English and Traditional Chinese subtitles.

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Lady Jin Szu-Yi

Thanks, as always, Chemical Lemon, My Rebellious Son is an interesting late Sun Chung Shaw Brothers entry with a nice performance from Fu Sheng.  

 

EDIT: *Sigh.* NOT There, but Heads for Sale is (I am eventually going to pick that up in SD.)

 

I'll check back in a couple of days. 

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Chemical Lemon

When you say "NOT There", do you mean My Rebellious Son?  On US iTunes?  It should be, I just searched and downloaded it.  I think it's not in their iTunes page yet, you have to search the name specifically.  Or search for "Alexander Fu Sheng", "Sun Chung", or "Ni Kuang".  It seems to take some time for them to link everything up correctly. 

 

Thanks, as always, Chemical Lemon, My Rebellious Son is an interesting late Sun Chung Shaw Brothers entry with a nice performance from Fu Sheng.  

 

EDIT: *Sigh.* NOT There, but Heads for Sale is (I am eventually going to pick that up in SD.)

 

I'll check back in a couple of days. 

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