SHAWS on itunes

[reason108]

Shaolin Temple is on there now. I was headed over there to pick up My Rebellious Son when I saw it added. 

[Chemical Lemon]

Thanks for the heads up reason108,  I was beginning to think we weren't going to see any more releases until the new year.

 

[Chemical Lemon]

 

I was also going through their sales catalog recently (which I think is old and out of date), and noticed that they've already gone through most of their HD movies.  They seem to target Western audiences with their iTunes releases, and I see about 28 HD titles left that would fit that target (possilbly 27, I'm having difficulty remembering if Dragon Creek was marketed as action but was really drama).  Several of these are the titles listed on Celestial's website as being on iTunes but aren't.  

 

All Men are Brothers

Bastard Swordsman

The Brave Archer          - listed as being available but isn't

The Brave Archer 2       - listed as being available but isn't

The Brave Archer 3       - listed as being available but isn't

Chinatown Kid

The Dragon Creek        - It's been a while but I think I remember this being more drama, I might be confusing this with something else though

The Dragon Missile

The Flag of Iron

The Flying Guillotine 2

Full Moon Scimitar        - listed as being available but isn't

Godfather of Canton

House of Traps             - listed as being available but isn't

Killer Constable          

Lady of Steel             

Life Gamble             

Martial Club

The Master Strikes Back

The New Game of Death

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman        - listed as being available but isn't

The Pirate

Pursuit of Vengeance

The Sentimental Swordsman

The Shadow Boxing

The Twin Swords

The Water Margin

The Weird Man           - listed as being available but isn't

Wits of Brats

 

They've already released several movies on iTunes that weren't marked as HD in their catalog.  Some are upscales I think (I think Anonymous Heroes and Spiritual Boxer are), and some I think were done after the catalogs as part of deals made with distributors, and more recently El Rey (Black Magic, Heads For Sale, My Rebellious Son, Shaolin Intruders).  But I think we can expect the bulk of the next 2 dozen or so iTunes releases to come from the above list.  Plus hopefully the few remaining titles they announced but never delivered (Brave Archer and His Mate, Buddha's Palm, Marco Polo).

 

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

Thanks reason108 and Chemical Lemon. For the heads up and for the catalog comparison list. 

 

Great to see another title added. I also thought the September / October releases were all we were going to get. And Shaolin Temple too. 

 

All I want in iTunes HD now are Judgement of An Assassin and The Deadly Breaking Sword. Anything else is icing on the cake ( I'll plunge for other titles, but those two are my absolute must haves in that format (and blu ray - hey a gal can dream right?)

[bobostilllives]

hi-- the list celestial sent me of iTunes releases also included DEADLY KNIVES--LADY PROFESSIONAL--DUEL FOR GOLD--CASINO--WHAT PRICE HONESTY--QUEEN HUSTLER--SEXY KILLER--FLYING DAGGERS--POLICE FORCE and a few others that I can't think of at the moment.  all are to include an English dub option. just have to be patient, I guess.

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

Thanks for posting that Bobo. (Darn, Sun Chung had nothing to do with Sexy Killer.)

 

They're still promising the Brave Archer trilogy since May so stay tuned. 

[Chemical Lemon]

hi-- the list celestial sent me of iTunes releases also included DEADLY KNIVES--LADY PROFESSIONAL--DUEL FOR GOLD--CASINO--WHAT PRICE HONESTY--QUEEN HUSTLER--SEXY KILLER--FLYING DAGGERS--POLICE FORCE and a few others that I can't think of at the moment.  all are to include an English dub option. just have to be patient, I guess.

These are pretty exciting releases.  I've seen you mention before that they intend to release anything that they have English dubs for, so there should be some great stuff waiting in the wings.  I assume the 250 or so they contracted with El Rey for last year are mostly English dubbed, but there may be some additional movies to wait for in the El Rey deal.  You probably posted it long ago, but if you find the list and have time I'd be interested in seeing what they have planned.  I might search and see if I can find a list of what's played on El Rey already that isn't available on digital platforms.

 

[reason108]

 

I was also going through their sales catalog recently (which I think is old and out of date), and noticed that they've already gone through most of their HD movies.  They seem to target Western audiences with their iTunes releases, and I see about 28 HD titles left that would fit that target (possilbly 27, I'm having difficulty remembering if Dragon Creek was marketed as action but was really drama).  Several of these are the titles listed on Celestial's website as being on iTunes but aren't.  

 

All Men are Brothers

Bastard Swordsman

The Brave Archer          - listed as being available but isn't

The Brave Archer 2       - listed as being available but isn't

The Brave Archer 3       - listed as being available but isn't

Chinatown Kid

The Dragon Creek        - It's been a while but I think I remember this being more drama, I might be confusing this with something else though

The Dragon Missile

The Flag of Iron

The Flying Guillotine 2

Full Moon Scimitar        - listed as being available but isn't

Godfather of Canton

House of Traps             - listed as being available but isn't

Killer Constable          

Lady of Steel             

Life Gamble             

Martial Club

The Master Strikes Back

The New Game of Death

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman        - listed as being available but isn't

The Pirate

Pursuit of Vengeance

The Sentimental Swordsman

The Shadow Boxing

The Twin Swords

The Water Margin

The Weird Man           - listed as being available but isn't

Wits of Brats

 

They've already released several movies on iTunes that weren't marked as HD in their catalog.  Some are upscales I think (I think Anonymous Heroes and Spiritual Boxer are), and some I think were done after the catalogs as part of deals made with distributors, and more recently El Rey (Black Magic, Heads For Sale, My Rebellious Son, Shaolin Intruders).  But I think we can expect the bulk of the next 2 dozen or so iTunes releases to come from the above list.  Plus hopefully the few remaining titles they announced but never delivered (Brave Archer and His Mate, Buddha's Palm, Marco Polo).

 

 

 

If I am not mistaken, All the ones that you have listed as "listed as being available but isn't", were available on iTunes for a short time. They were only on there for about a month or so then pulled; except, The Weird Man. It was on there up until Shaolin Temple was added; which was a day or so ago. And, I was about 1 day or so from purchasing Marco Polo when it was pulled a few weeks back. 

 

 

Celestial need to get their shit together on this issue. If they are not going to bother to put out blu-ray and our only option is iTunes then they need to make sure that we have access to these movies. Not everyone can afford to buy them on release day; or a bunch of them at once. Not to mention that we have no idea what is being released when. If it wasn't for this site here, there would be no up-to-date info at all. Is it a f*n lost cause or what? It is rather stupid to go to the effort of doing HD just to half-ass it when it comes to releasing stuff. At least with the dvd or blu-ray releases, you can still get stuff a year or years later. And, though the free streaming is nice, I would still like to have these in HD. I still prefer blu-ray but that is pretty much a pipe dream now. Releasing one or two a year is not even worth it. Why bother? I am thinking about complaining to them on their Facebook site but not sure it will do any good. If they have no idea what is being released when, they need to find out. They need to take whomever is adding these to iTunes and bust their ass. It doesn't make sense that Celestial would hand these off because this is hurting their business. I would gladly buy Marco Polo, Full Moon Scimitar, Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman and The Brave Archer series, etc. I didn't really care enough for The Weird Man for HD but others might. Maybe they have enough money already and don't need to make any more. (haha) You can't sell what isn't available. At least I have the dvd`s. As of right now, I have 23 HD Shaw films through iTunes (and maybe more by the time you read this); and, I hate the iTunes business model. (ha) But, I am doing it cause I love the movies. I plan on buying at least another 20 or 30 before I am done, if they become available. No plans to replace all of my Shaws collection in HD; just my faves. Of course, if/when we do get blu-ray, will re-purchase the ones I want, again. 

 

 

Also, I bought Spiritual Boxer and I think it is HD and not an upscale. It looks really good. And, if it is an upscale, well, it is 100 times better than anything that Fortune Star has put out; in regards to their Golden Harvest catalog! (haha) 

 

 

[Chemical Lemon]

If I am not mistaken, All the ones that you have listed as "listed as being available but isn't", were available on iTunes for a short time. They were only on there for about a month or so then pulled; except, The Weird Man. It was on there up until Shaolin Temple was added; which was a day or so ago. And, I was about 1 day or so from purchasing Marco Polo when it was pulled a few weeks back. 

 

That's interesting, what region are you in?  I'm in the U.S. and none of these have shown in the Celestial iTunes page here, at least not for more than a day or so, I would have seen them.  I have also been doing a straight search for each individual title, and many of the cast member names.  If you're in the U.S. I wonder if something else kept me from seeing them.  I've noticed a couple times when I mention a new addition that other people have some difficulty finding them.  I've never seen that consistently happen for more than the first day they're out though.  I assumed they didn't show up either because of all the subtitle issues they had with other releases in that batch meant they had to go back and work on them again.  Also thought possibly the recent deal they had made with El Rey required that some of them be exclusive for a time being.  I remember one of the El Rey announcements mentioned some of the movies would be exclusive, which is a fairly vague term and doesn't necessarily mean anything.  But anyway, if they were up here in the U.S. then they were virtually invisible (to me) for some reason.  I do pretty frequent searches, usually checking Celestial's iTunes page which is rarely more than a day or 2 behind.  But at least once a week I search by names of movies I expect to be released soon and actors/directors/producers/writers that frequently show up.

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

 

That's interesting, what region are you in?  I'm in the U.S. and none of these have shown in the Celestial iTunes page here, at least not for more than a day or so, I would have seen them.  I have also been doing a straight search for each individual title, and many of the cast member names.  If you're in the U.S. I wonder if something else kept me from seeing them.  I've noticed a couple times when I mention a new addition that other people have some difficulty finding them.  I've never seen that consistently happen for more than the first day they're out though.  I assumed they didn't show up either because of all the subtitle issues they had with other releases in that batch meant they had to go back and work on them again.  Also thought possibly the recent deal they had made with El Rey required that some of them be exclusive for a time being.  I remember one of the El Rey announcements mentioned some of the movies would be exclusive, which is a fairly vague term and doesn't necessarily mean anything.  But anyway, if they were up here in the U.S. then they were virtually invisible (to me) for some reason.  I do pretty frequent searches, usually checking Celestial's iTunes page which is rarely more than a day or 2 behind.  But at least once a week I search by names of movies I expect to be released soon and actors/directors/producers/writers that frequently show up.

 

What Chemical Lemon said about not seeing those releases in the U.S. iTunes store... 

 

I had difficulty finding the new Shaws after they were mentioned here, but late last week Apple finally fixed the search mechanism in the App store and iTunes. Now you can pull up Shaw film titles  and cast / crew names without quotes. I keep using celestial's iTunes link any way. 

[reason108]

 

That's interesting, what region are you in?  I'm in the U.S. and none of these have shown in the Celestial iTunes page here, at least not for more than a day or so, I would have seen them.  I have also been doing a straight search for each individual title, and many of the cast member names.  If you're in the U.S. I wonder if something else kept me from seeing them.  I've noticed a couple times when I mention a new addition that other people have some difficulty finding them.  I've never seen that consistently happen for more than the first day they're out though.  I assumed they didn't show up either because of all the subtitle issues they had with other releases in that batch meant they had to go back and work on them again.  Also thought possibly the recent deal they had made with El Rey required that some of them be exclusive for a time being.  I remember one of the El Rey announcements mentioned some of the movies would be exclusive, which is a fairly vague term and doesn't necessarily mean anything.  But anyway, if they were up here in the U.S. then they were virtually invisible (to me) for some reason.  I do pretty frequent searches, usually checking Celestial's iTunes page which is rarely more than a day or 2 behind.  But at least once a week I search by names of movies I expect to be released soon and actors/directors/producers/writers that frequently show up.

 

What Chemical Lemon said about not seeing those releases in the U.S. iTunes store... 

 

I had difficulty finding the new Shaws after they were mentioned here, but late last week Apple finally fixed the search mechanism in the App store and iTunes. Now you can pull up Shaw film titles  and cast / crew names without quotes. I keep using celestial's iTunes link any way. 

 

 

 

I am in the US. I just did a simple search using Celestial Pictures. It should bring up all the ones currently available. The last film they added was Shaolin Temple. When they added that one, they removed The Weird Man. I don't have the patience to try to discover a Shaws film by doing an individual search. haha. I use to go to Celestial`s web site and click off the link but they don't seem to update their Shaws list anymore and some of the films they show available were before but are not anymore. 

[Chemical Lemon]

I am in the US. I just did a simple search using Celestial Pictures. It should bring up all the ones currently available. The last film they added was Shaolin Temple. When they added that one, they removed The Weird Man. I don't have the patience to try to discover a Shaws film by doing an individual search. haha. I use to go to Celestial`s web site and click off the link but they don't seem to update their Shaws list anymore and some of the films they show available were before but are not anymore. 

Wow, that is so peculiar.  I occasionally have searched for Celestial Pictures, but in the past it returned only movies about space.  I am seeing all the SB movies now though.  But this makes the whole thing make less and less sense to me.  That they would be out there associated with Celestial, but otherwise completely invisible to searching, and now completely gone.  Thanks for the info, this is a little puzzling.  The only thing I can think of is that they intended to remove them (possibly because of errors, possibly because of exclusivity for El Rey), but getting Apple to remove the movies took some time so they just managed to hide them temporarily.  Well, here's hoping they make a re-appearance soon.  They are mostly Wu-Xia oriented, so possibly they're holding them back until lunar new year?  That seems unlikely though.  Especially since they're mostly late chang cheh, which wouldn't be that interesting to the Chinese Market.  On the other hand the Chang Cheh movies are mostly Fu Sheng, which probably still has some appeal in HK and Taiwan.

[reason108]

That's interesting, what region are you in?  I'm in the U.S. and none of these have shown in the Celestial iTunes page here, at least not for more than a day or so, I would have seen them.  I have also been doing a straight search for each individual title, and many of the cast member names.  If you're in the U.S. I wonder if something else kept me from seeing them.  I've noticed a couple times when I mention a new addition that other people have some difficulty finding them.  I've never seen that consistently happen for more than the first day they're out though.  I assumed they didn't show up either because of all the subtitle issues they had with other releases in that batch meant they had to go back and work on them again.  Also thought possibly the recent deal they had made with El Rey required that some of them be exclusive for a time being.  I remember one of the El Rey announcements mentioned some of the movies would be exclusive, which is a fairly vague term and doesn't necessarily mean anything.  But anyway, if they were up here in the U.S. then they were virtually invisible (to me) for some reason.  I do pretty frequent searches, usually checking Celestial's iTunes page which is rarely more than a day or 2 behind.  But at least once a week I search by names of movies I expect to be released soon and actors/directors/producers/writers that frequently show up.

 

 

What Chemical Lemon said about not seeing those releases in the U.S. iTunes store... 

 

I had difficulty finding the new Shaws after they were mentioned here, but late last week Apple finally fixed the search mechanism in the App store and iTunes. Now you can pull up Shaw film titles  and cast / crew names without quotes. I keep using celestial's iTunes link any way. 

 

 

 

Originally I searched for Shaw Brothers. That search never really pulled up anything. And, I would end up searching for the individual movie that people on this thread said was available. That kind of searching got old pretty quickly. Then, one day I just thought to search by Celestial Pictures. I was not expecting for it to find anything and then....it did. I was surprised but glad it did. It makes it easier to search. But, sometimes the "Genius" iTunes search engine thingy would bring up some other Shaw films. I really want those movies back on iTunes if there are no plans to put them out on blu-ray. That group of films were some that I was really interested in getting. But, I can't just go out and get everything I want at once. These are not being handled like dvd or blu-ray that you might be able to buy months later. It is like they put them on there and they are gone after a few months. However, some of the titles there have been on there for a while. Which also makes me wonder if they are only keeping the ones that sell or sell a certain amount. And adding new titles to replace every once in a while. It certainly has been haphazard with the way they are doing it. This time they only added that 1 title, Shaolin Temple. Normally, they add 2 or 3 titles at once. 

[reason108]

 

Wow, that is so peculiar.  I occasionally have searched for Celestial Pictures, but in the past it returned only movies about space.  I am seeing all the SB movies now though.  But this makes the whole thing make less and less sense to me.  That they would be out there associated with Celestial, but otherwise completely invisible to searching, and now completely gone.  Thanks for the info, this is a little puzzling.  The only thing I can think of is that they intended to remove them (possibly because of errors, possibly because of exclusivity for El Rey), but getting Apple to remove the movies took some time so they just managed to hide them temporarily.  Well, here's hoping they make a re-appearance soon.  They are mostly Wu-Xia oriented, so possibly they're holding them back until lunar new year?  That seems unlikely though.  Especially since they're mostly late chang cheh, which wouldn't be that interesting to the Chinese Market.  On the other hand the Chang Cheh movies are mostly Fu Sheng, which probably still has some appeal in HK and Taiwan.

 

Originally I searched for Shaw Brothers. That search never really pulled up anything. And, I would end up searching for the individual movie that people on this thread said was available. That kind of searching got old pretty quickly. Then, one day I just thought to search by Celestial Pictures. I was not expecting for it to find anything and then....it did. I was surprised but glad it did. It makes it easier to search. But, sometimes the "Genius" iTunes search engine thingy would bring up some other Shaw films. I really want those movies back on iTunes if there are no plans to put them out on blu-ray. That group of films were some that I was really interested in getting. But, I can't just go out and get everything I want at once. These are not being handled like dvd or blu-ray that you might be able to buy months later. It is like they put them on there and they are gone after a few months. However, some of the titles there have been on there for a while. Which also makes me wonder if they are only keeping the ones that sell or sell a certain amount. And adding new titles to replace every once in a while. It certainly has been haphazard with the way they are doing it. This time they only added that 1 title, Shaolin Temple. Normally, they add 2 or 3 titles at once. 

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

Thanks, reason108. I hope they don't pull any films in the future. Had I known those titles were up I would have jumped. I'll definitely be searching for Celestial Pictures going forward. Hell, they removed Weird Man...

[Chemical Lemon]

Well, The Weird Man is back up again.  Found it by searching for "Celestial Pictures" like reason said.  But I can also find it by searching for "The Weird Man" now, which I wasn't able to do before.  Now I'm not sure if it just goes up and down periodically, and just wasn't there in the past when I searched for it, or if it's now going up for good now.  It isn't currently showing in the SB itunes page 

https://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?path=shawbrothers

but movies frequently don't show there for a day or 2 after they're added.

 

If it shows up there in the next 2 days I say they've fixed whatever the issue is, and hopefully we'll start seeing the other "disappeared" movies.

 

Also, Mandarin and English dubs, English and Traditional subs, regular prices.

[Chemical Lemon]

Also shows up when searching for Chang Cheh, which I search for frequently.  So I take that as a good sign that they're resolving the issues with these movies.

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

Thanks as always, Chemical Lemon. Searching for all the names of folks I enjoy and Celestial Pictures, film titles too. Downloading The Weird Man in HD as we speak.   To the good people at Celestial Pictures: if you should happen to read this, Xiexie!

 

 

 Now, Celestial please pretty please release  The Deadly Breaking Sword and Judgement of An Assassin digitally and I will happily continue to buy other titles too (when budget allows.)

[Chemical Lemon]

The Braver Archer 3 is also up in the US now also.  This one you can't find by searching iTunes, but if you go into a movie that has the same underlying linking identities (in this case try "Men From the Monastery") you can follow the links off cast & crew (in this case Chang Cheh, Ni Kuang, or Alexander Fu Sheng).

 

I expect this will show up shortly under searching, but my guess is that iTunes searches use indexes that get updated on some regular schedule.  While the links to particular cast and crew entities are part of the deployment of the movie.  This helps explain some of the lag between movies showing up and why they can only be found in particular ways.

[Chemical Lemon]

for instance this link here goes to a particular artist based on ID.  There are a couple of these for Fu Sheng, which is a little disorganized, but this is the one currently linked to Brave Archer 3.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alexander-fu-sheng/id802916115

 

But if you go into iTunes and search "Alexander Fu Sheng" you won't come up with this (or at least you wouldn't have earlier).

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

And purchased... I also see your amazing post about the SB releases on iTunes, very much appreciated. Xiexie Chemical Lemon.

[reason108]

And purchased... I also see your amazing post about the SB releases on iTunes, very much appreciated. Xiexie Chemical Lemon.

Yes, thanks to Chemical Lemon for putting that list together for us. I picked up The Brave Archer 3. Let`s hope the missing ones get put back cause I need some new Christmas presents for myself.  

 

[Chemical Lemon]

Full moon scimitar is up in the US now. English/Mandarin dub. English/Traditional Chinese subs. 

 

36th chamber disappeared last night. I'm hoping when it comes back it has the English dub

[reason108]

Full moon scimitar is up in the US now. English/Mandarin dub. English/Traditional Chinese subs. 

 

36th chamber disappeared last night. I'm hoping when it comes back it has the English dub

 

 Is it just me or is it that every time they add a movie, they subtract a movie? Really surprised that it was 36th Chamber. Not what I thought they would remove. Things are just getting silly now and may prove the point that they have no idea what they are doing.  But, I will be picking up Full Moon Scimitar. I am hoping that by Christmas they will have returned all the ones that they pulled previously. It seems they are slowly going to re-add them; one at a time. 

 

 

 

 

--- Just picked up Full Moon Scimitar, Avenging Eagle and Killer Clans. 

 

[reason108]

Also had to pick up 5 Shaolin Masters, finally. And, for the first time ever, I bought an iTunes HD movie that I have never owned or even seen. That movie is Heads for Sale. I hope that I like it. Have heard some good things about it. But, I think that I have a Shaw Brothers addiction problem. If there are any others that suffer from this wonderful disease, please post.  Can someone just stop me from spending now. I am out of control, again.  Thanks!