2013 reprints of IVL Shaw Brothers DVDs (?)

[Stephe]

Recently, a kungfucinema.com member offered a number of brand-new

IVL DVDs for sale. I thought to myself, "What luck! brand new copies of

some of the harder-to-get out-of-print titles."

The post to Kung Fu Cinema Forums > General > Marketplace is titled

HK Movies - VCDs/DVDs For Sale, and it comes from

http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18693. It says:

[start]

Here are a list of (rare) VCD/DVDs available for sale. Please contact me for price and the price depends on the condition (brand new/used, rare or not). PM for more information.

DVD - Brand New - all HK official releases:

Hex (1980, IVL/Shaw Bros)

Bruce Lee & I (1976, IVL/Shaw Bros)

The Mighty Peking Man (1977, IVL/Shaw Bros)

Lost Souls (1981, IVL/Shaw Bros)

Killer Snakes (1975, IVL/Shaw Bros)

Love Swindlers (1976, IVL/Shaw Bros)

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978, IVL/Shaw Bros)

Dirty Ho (1979, IVL/Shaw Bros)

The Beasts (1981, Pearl City)

Lonely Fifteen (1982, Pearl City)

The Imp (1981, Mei Ah)

The Eye (2002)

Wong Kar-Wai - moments (box set with 2046 + in the mood for love)

Revenge A Love Story (2010)

Election (2005, 2DVDs with special features)

Song Of The Exile (1990)

Nomad (1982, Mei Ah)

Wonder Women (1987, Joy Sales)

VCD - Brand New:

The Legal Illegals (1981, Megastar, starring Alan Tang)

Don't Kill Me Brothers (1981, Megastar, starring Alan Tang)

Law Don (1979, Megastar, starring Alan Tang)

I Do (1983, Megastar, starring Alan Tang)

Pale Passion (1984, IVR/Shaw Bros, starring Eddie Chen i.e. Ngaai Dik)

Life After Life (1981, Megastar)

Brother of Darkness (1994, Universe)

A Moment Of Romance (1990, Megastar)

All Of A Sudden (1996, Fitto Mobile)

Conduct Zero (1986, Fortune Star)

Corpse Mania (1981, IVL/Shaw Bros)

The Gold Connection (1979, directed by Kuei Chih-Hung)

Conduct Zero (1986)

All Of A Sudden (1996)

VCD - Used:

Jumping Ash (1975, Film City)

Health Warning (aka Flash Future Kung Fu) (1983, Film City)

The Criminals (1976, IVL/Shaw Bros)

Don't Stop My Crazy Love For You (1995, Ocean Shores)

Red To Kill (1994, Ocean Shores)

Too Many Ways To Be No. 1 (1996, New City)

Stars & Roses (1989, Mei Ah)

News Attack (1989, Ocean Shores)

Last edited by hkmoviefever; 09-01-2013 at 02:22 AM.

[end]

I rather like the movie Mighty Peking Man and already have the IVL VCD

and the Taiwanese Deltamac DVD, but I thought it would be nice to have

the IVL DVD, too, with its snazzy slipcover -- sealed! So I private messaged

the kungfucinema.com member and received a sealed DVD with no slipcover.

What the heck? At first, I thought it might be a used DVD that had been

re-sealed, then I thought that it might be a bootleg. I did an eBAY search

on Mighty Peking Man IVL and found the following auction:

THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN (Region 3) Shaw Brothers IVL HK DVD (New, Sealed)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360447155131

Near the top of the auctioneer's description is the following:

[start]

This DVD is genuine and was manufactured and distributed by the licensed vendor in Hong Kong.

Item condition: The DVD is brand new and factory sealed. This seems to be a reprint will no longer comes with the slip-cover.

[end]

Alrightly, then: a "reprint." That could mean a number of things.

I clicked on See other items, then clicked on DVDs & Blu-ray Discs (747),

and in the search box, typed in shaw "no longer comes with the"

http://www.ebay.com/dsc/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=1&_nkw=shaw+%22no+longer+comes+with+the%22&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313&_odkw=shaw+%22no+longer+comes+with+the%22

I got 7 hits, which were THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN, LOST SOULS,

THE KILLER SNAKES, King Boxer, Magnificent Wanderers, Return of

the One Armed Swordsman, and One Armed Swordsman.

That means that of the eight titles available from the kungfucinema.com

member, three are available on eBAY with the notice, "This seems to be

a reprint will no longer comes with the slip-cover."

So, does that mean that IVL reprinted some of their DVDs towards the

end of 2013, or did a bunch of pirate discs -- so good as to be virtually

indistinguishable from the real thing -- suddenly appear in Hong Kong

and online?

The eBAY seller with the seven reprint titles, wilchan888, is located in

Hong Kong, if that makes any difference.

[HAZ]

I have gotten a couple factory sealed IVL's with no slipcover before. The same thing happened with my first copy of Dirty Ho.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Out of about 40 original IVL Shaws, only 13 of mine have slipcovers, and they were all bought factory sealed. The later batches didn't have it, guess it was too costly.

[Takuma]

IVL stopped doing slipcover years ago when they were still releasing Shaw films on dvd for the first time. None of the films in the later batches ever had slip covers. Probably re-prints made at that time (I don't remember when this was, maybe 2008 or something) also didn't have covers.

edit: TibetanWhiteCrane was faster than me

[Stephe]

I have gotten a couple factory sealed IVL's with no slipcover before. The same thing happened with my first copy of Dirty Ho.

How recently did you obtain the factory sealed IVL's sans slipcovers? The

thing that stands out is that the eBAY seller states flat out that he thinks

the DVDs he's selling are reprints, and he's located in Hong Kong.

The DVD I received was Mighty Peking Man, which was released in 2003.

All IVL DVDs from 2002 to 2004 came with slipcovers. Some IVL DVDs

released in 2005 came with slipcovers, too, but IVL DVDs released in

2006 and 2007 did not. I don't know what the 2005 cut-off date was.

Dirty Ho was released June 23, 2005 but actually had a slipcover. Proof

of this is on eBAY right now. A sale which ended this past September

20th has a picture of it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281171881903

Since 2007, Celestial has issued some new films (i.e. films made after

1985) to IVL DVD, and has also released various Blu-Ray discs, but

reprints of IVL DVDs originally released between 2002 and 2007 aren't

something that I'd ever heard anything about -- until now.

Stephe

[Sheng]

To shed more light on the matter: IVL stopped issuing slipcases from January 2006. All titles released before that date originally came with the slipcase, later reissues more often than not didn't. Furthermore all original or first issues came with the Celestial catalogue, second or later print runs didn't include those. The first title I remember having no slip was 14 AMAZONS. After that all IVL Shaws came without them. But until the series was stopped at the end of 2007 all first prints included the yearly catalogue. And to clarify the assumptions about "reissues": browsing fairly regularly through HK shops I can tell you that IVL did reissue a great number of their more in-demand titles on a regular basis at least from 2008/9. Hope this helps!

[HAZ]

How recently did you obtain the factory sealed IVL's sans slipcovers? The

thing that stands out is that the eBAY seller states flat out that he thinks

the DVDs he's selling are reprints, and he's located in Hong Kong.

The DVD I received was Mighty Peking Man, which was released in 2003.

All IVL DVDs from 2002 to 2004 came with slipcovers. Some IVL DVDs

released in 2005 came with slipcovers, too, but IVL DVDs released in

2006 and 2007 did not. I don't know what the 2005 cut-off date was.

Dirty Ho was released June 23, 2005 but actually had a slipcover. Proof

of this is on eBAY right now. A sale which ended this past September

20th has a picture of it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281171881903

Since 2007, Celestial has issued some new films (i.e. films made after

1985) to IVL DVD, and has also released various Blu-Ray discs, but

reprints of IVL DVDs originally released between 2002 and 2007 aren't

something that I'd ever heard anything about -- until now.

Stephe

I think that some of the original DVD's shipped missing slipcovers on occasion. It can happen from time to time. The same thing happens with US releases. I have recently got a Dirty Ho with the the slipcover because I am a nerd

I don't think IVL is doing any reprinting.

[Drunken Arts]

This is quite an interesting thread, as i am new to shaw bros films and iv bought quite a few IVLs myself, I started in Hong Kong just a month or 2 back, there was a large Shaw Brothers section in HMV in Causeway Bay, just seeing some covers and titles got me buying some while i were out there.

Anyways, i always wondered why some had Slipcases and most didnt, Clan Of The White Lotus and Crippled Avengers always had a Cardboard cover, i went into 3 different HMVs and visited HK Records while looking for them, and they always had the slipcase, I just assumed at first they were the "Fan Favourite" kinda films.

So anyways i bought those two films, after doing some "Research" on here as to ones to buy next i bought, Masked Avengers, Kid With Golden Arms, House Of Traps and Flag Of Iron. These like i would say between 80-90% of the DVDs on the shelves, did not have slipcases.

So up in the hotel room [without a DVD player....] im reading the backs and i notice, the 2 with the cardboard covers have the Dolby Digital logo on the back where as the ones without all had MONO written on the back, so i also assumed it had to do with that too, so Slipcarded films were "fan favourites" with "digital dolby" sound...

Meh i dont know, while not really answering any of your question, these slipcases have had me thinking about them ever since i seen one, i just look over to the DVDs and wonder why.. lol

[Sheng]

This is quite an interesting thread, as i am new to shaw bros films and iv bought quite a few IVLs myself, I started in Hong Kong just a month or 2 back, there was a large Shaw Brothers section in HMV in Causeway Bay, just seeing some covers and titles got me buying some while i were out there.

Anyways, i always wondered why some had Slipcases and most didnt, Clan Of The White Lotus and Crippled Avengers always had a Cardboard cover, i went into 3 different HMVs and visited HK Records while looking for them, and they always had the slipcase, I just assumed at first they were the "Fan Favourite" kinda films.

So anyways i bought those two films, after doing some "Research" on here as to ones to buy next i bought, Masked Avengers, Kid With Golden Arms, House Of Traps and Flag Of Iron. These like i would say between 80-90% of the DVDs on the shelves, did not have slipcases.

So up in the hotel room [without a DVD player....] im reading the backs and i notice, the 2 with the cardboard covers have the Dolby Digital logo on the back where as the ones without all had MONO written on the back, so i also assumed it had to do with that too, so Slipcarded films were "fan favourites" with "digital dolby" sound...

Meh i dont know, while not really answering any of your question, these slipcases have had me thinking about them ever since i seen one, i just look over to the DVDs and wonder why.. lol

Films like MASKED AVENGERS or HOUSE OF TRAPS never had slipcovers because they were released after January 2006, simple as that. Check the IVL-Shaw release schedule and you can easily tell which release originally came with or without a slip.

HAZ is wrong when he believes that IVL never reissued titles. They did this frequently from about 2008/9. Reissues never included the catalogues but earlier runs still appeared with slips, at least until they ran out of them. (I presume they initially printed more slipcovers than DVD's, pretty much like a lotta record companies did back in the day when more sleeves were printed than actual records)

There are titles that I noticed appearing again and again while browsing in HK stores, others never seemed to reappear.

[Stephe]

To shed more light on the matter: IVL stopped issuing slipcases from January 2006. All titles released before that date originally came with the slipcase, later reissues more often than not didn't.

Between 2003 and 2012, I bought mostly IVL VCDs, with the occasional

VideoVan VCD from Malaysia or Singapore, or Mainland China Zoke

DVD, or Thai United Home Entertainment DVD, because I didn't have a

region-free player, but since then, I've obtained a region-free player and

have increasingly opted for the HK IVL DVDs and Taiwanese Deltamac

DVDs.

Sheng says that all DVDs from 2006 onward came without slipcovers.

I previously mentioned that I thought that the change came in 2005,

because I could have sworn I'd gotten IVL VCDs that came without

slipcovers.

I just went and accessed the Celestial release guide for 2005 (from the

now-defunct asiandvdguide site) that I have on my hard drive (it's also

at http://wayback.archive.org/web/20091003091103/http://www.asiandvdguide.com/shaw_brothers_2005.html), then went

into my collection of IVL VCDs to ascertain when the slipcovers were

discontinued.

It seems that the last IVL VCDs to come with slipcovers were those

released October 6th, 2005, which was Batch 66. From this period, I

have the Betweeen Tears and Smiles VCD.

Beginning with November 3rd, 2005, which is Batch 67, IVL VCDs no

longer came with slipcovers. From this period, I have Flying Dagger and

The Wandering Swordsman.

From November 17th, 2005, which is Batch 68, I have 7-Man Army and

The Fantastic Magic Baby, neither of which have slipcovers

From December 1st, 2005, which is Batch 69, I have The Hidden Power

of Dragon Sabre; Sex, Love and Hate; Song of Tomorrow; and Ten

Tigers of Kwang Tung, none of which have slipcovers.

From December 22nd, 2005, which is Batch 70, I have Blue Skies and

Magnificent Wanderers, neither of which have slipcovers.

Strangely, my copy of the 1977 version of Dream of the Red Chamber,

which is listed as having been released January 25th, 2005, which is

Batch 49, didn't come with a slipcover.

Furthermore all original or first issues came with the Celestial catalogue, second or later print runs didn't include those.

Interesting. Sadly, even though I have 300 IVL VCDs, I think only about

a dozen of them came with a Celestial catalogue. (I am assuming that

you're referring to the stapled booklets.)

The first title I remember having no slip was 14 AMAZONS. After that all IVL Shaws came without them.

14 Amazons was first released January 5th, 2006, which is Batch 71.

But until the series was stopped at the end of 2007 all first prints included the yearly catalogue.

I never knew.

And to clarify the assumptions about "reissues": browsing fairly regularly through HK shops I can tell you that IVL did reissue a great number of their more in-demand titles on a regular basis at least from 2008/9. Hope this helps!

It does. Thanks.

Stephe

[reason108]

Great thread.

I recently picked up The Brave Archer 2 and 3. BA3 did not come with an slipcover or booklet though it states it was released in 2004 and I bought it from dddhouse. I would guess that what I have is a reprint. Does anyone know what other signs I would look for just to confirm? I think my collection would look better with a slipcover for BA3.

[Sheng]

Sheng says that all DVDs from 2006 onward came without slipcovers.

I previously mentioned that I thought that the change came in 2005,

because I could have sworn I'd gotten IVL VCDs that came without

slipcovers.

I just went and accessed the Celestial release guide for 2005 (from the

now-defunct asiandvdguide site) that I have on my hard drive (it's also

at http://wayback.archive.org/web/20091003091103/http://www.asiandvdguide.com/shaw_brothers_2005.html), then went

into my collection of IVL VCDs to ascertain when the slipcovers were

discontinued.

It seems that the last IVL VCDs to come with slipcovers were those

released October 6th, 2005, which was Batch 66. From this period, I

have the Betweeen Tears and Smiles VCD.

Beginning with November 3rd, 2005, which is Batch 67, IVL VCDs no

longer came with slipcovers. From this period, I have Flying Dagger and

The Wandering Swordsman.Stephe

I was strictly refering to DVD releases here, I only own a few IVL VCD's (those that never made it on DVD).

The catalogues I was refering to were initially CD-sized small with a number of pages (yes, the "stapled" ones!), from approximately 2004 on they consisted out of a DVD-sized folding inlet with the year of release on it. Those were included in all DVD's I ever came across (I own roughly 250), but never in the reissues. Maybe the catalogues were not included in the VCD's, I wouldn't know. (then again, the size wouldn't fit into a VCD case unless you fold up the thing to half-size, so I guess that might explain the absence of catalogues...)

By the way, maybe the slips were discontinued from late 2005 already... Dunno exactly because I don't have my release schedule in front of me at the moment, but the original DVD releases of WANDERING SWORDSMAN and FLYING DAGGER were already without slips, that is true.

[Sheng]

Great thread.

I recently picked up The Brave Archer 2 and 3. BA3 did not come with an slipcover or booklet though it states it was released in 2004 and I bought it from dddhouse. I would guess that what I have is a reprint. Does anyone know what other signs I would look for just to confirm? I think my collection would look better with a slipcover for BA3.

Well, you bought a later issue, simple as that. BA 3 did come with a slip and a booklet, like every other IVL DVD release in 2004.

[Guest Markgway]

I threw all my slipcovers and booklets in the bin.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

I threw all my slipcovers and booklets in the bin.

Oooh, classic Markgway:smile:

[Guest Markgway]

I've got a slipcase for Killer Darts if anyone needs it?

[HAZ]

Just to clarify, I don't think IVL is printing any Shaw DVD's as of 2013. I don't think there are any recent reissues. Does IVL still have the licence?

[Sheng]

Just to clarify, I don't think IVL is printing any Shaw DVD's as of 2013. I don't think there are any recent reissues. Does IVL still have the licence?

No, in 2013 and, I think, already in 2012 they didn't reissue any titles.

[The Silver Fox]

If it means anything I've bought dvd's from the ebay seller you mentioned(I can't remember specifically which ones) but they were all legit. All IVL's should be in clear cases.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Yeah, I bought from that guy too, never any problems.

[Tex Killer]

Wonder now did IVL actually ever made any Shaw reprints( without inserts in them)...as this guy is selling loads of titles which LOOKS like legit some rare stuff, even factory sealed. And says they are copies..I checked all my ivls without insert(around 16, including all genres) and in some other post here(I do not find it now) was spotted barcode area is one where can tell difference..Did not do it before as almost all were bought from dddhouse..

BUT if (pirated) cover sheets are made better in barcodes...

Would like to get hold of release or two he is selling to check out...



I mailed IVL did they re-release titles....

https://www.ebay.com/sch/fatima_video/m.html?_trksid=p3692

[ShawAngela]

They clearly mention that these are copies and if you carefully look at the covers, you'll see that on the bottom left, it's not like the legit IVL releases : the color seems to be brown  instead of being purple or blue or camaieu blue, like all the

1 hour ago, Tex Killer said:

Wonder now did IVL actually ever made any Shaw reprints( without inserts in them)...as this guy is selling loads of titles which LOOKS like legit some rare stuff, even factory sealed. And says they are copies..I checked all my ivls without insert(around 16, including all genres) and in some other post here(I do not find it now) was spotted barcode area is one where can tell difference..Did not do it before as almost all were bought from dddhouse..

BUT if (pirated) cover sheets are made better in barcodes...

Would like to get hold of release or two he is selling to check out...



I mailed IVL did they re-release titles....

https://www.ebay.com/sch/fatima_video/m.html?_trksid=p3692

other IVL releases I own. And the cases seem to be slim cases instead of full size cases...

[Tex Killer]

9 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

They clearly mention that these are copies and if you carefully look at the covers, you'll see that on the bottom left, it's not like the legit IVL releases : the color seems to be brown  instead of being purple or blue or camaieu blue, like all the

other IVL releases I own. And the cases seem to be slim cases instead of full size cases...

If you mean area "fully restored from original film", brown was definitely "legit" color at IVL...Not have all Shaws at hand not so can`t do detailed compare to but at least "Knight of knights" (slip case) have brown bar..

[ShawAngela]

Sorry, I made a mistake, then, but still, from what I understand of what they wrote, they did copies in order that people can see some rare gems that are out-of-print such as The rescue IVL or Lady is the boss IVL or Tigress of shaolin IVL and so on...

[Tex Killer]

3 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

Sorry, I made a mistake, then, but still, from what I understand of what they wrote, they did copies in order that people can see some rare gems that are out-of-print such as The rescue IVL or Lady is the boss IVL or Tigress of shaolin IVL and so on...

If they are easy to differiante from legal releases, ok but if they are too good copies those can go forward as price of genuine disc which is not ok at all.

But maybe ebay wrong selling place to such things...