Guest Chinatown Kid Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 I very curious about this guy and was trying to find out some info on him. How did he get his start? I heard he worked for World Northal at one time and run off with a bunch of their tv prints which turned up on vhs which he sold from his now defunct Dragon Video company. I ordered several movies from him back in the early 90's when he advertized in magazines like Black Belt and Inside Kung Fu. I could tell the Shaws I ordered from him were tv print boots but several Ocean Shores videos of Billy Chong I got from him where originals in their original cases. Those OS's weren't cheap and he sold them for about 60 dollars a pop. Most of his movies he put out under his Video Asia name were a crime with aweful pic quality and pixalation, I learned to avoid those like the plague. Evidently he isn't worried about his reputation or he never had one in the first place or he wouldn't have put out such crap as that. Also heard he was a Bruce Lee "Historian" or something to that effect and was wondering what makes him an authority on Lee? Also, is this guy really Chinese and is his last name Tan his original last name or did he change it to that? I've seen him in interviews and he looks like a white guy to me. I suprisingly liked his commentary on his Bruce Lee: The Man/Myth dvd and found it entertaining and funny at times. His Death By Misadventure dvd was quite entertaning and informative as well. Most of his Video Asia stuff is aweful though and a crime against buyers that pay their hard earned money to wind up with crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chinatown Kid Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Geez, I guess nobody wants to know this guy or his story. :\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WalkOn Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Didn't mean to ignore you're post, but you basically summed it up. This guys is a big collector, especially on Bruce Lee material. He's done too many things that makes me wonder about his true motives, so I tend to stay away from his "projects" unless others highly recommend it. That's all I can say on this guy without saying something too offensive, sooooo, if I don't have anything else nice to say about someone.... I don't say anything, especially if it's just my opinion and I don't personally know him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest morgoth Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 The Bruce Lee Box set had a bunch of problems. The Joe Lewis commentary, I bet he is glad you wasted his time for that! But it was extremely informative. Now is he is the main guy behind Video Asia, I think he lets his company speak well enough for him and you can't really say anything good about that company. Other than South Shaolin Master, I can't think of any outstanding releases by them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chinatown Kid Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Walk On I understand you not wanting to start mudslinging at the guy, I don't know the guy personally either but his Video Asia company pretty much speaks for it self if really. I don't want to start a flame war on the guy but was just curious of his background. I wonder what happened to his Dragon Video mail order company? That company used to be one of the few I could find back in the early 90's to get my Kung Fu fix. He had everything from Shaw, Jackie, Ocean Shores vids, Sonny Chiba, Lone Wolf and Cub, just about all the asian made flicks and even some American martial art movies with Jim Kelly and Joe Lewis. It's a shame he put out such crappy quality discs through his Video Asia company and scared the fans away. I wonder if he has ever studied or is a practicioner of any martial arts? His last name tan sounds Chinese but he doesn't look Asian for that matter. Seems like I remember hearing he changed his last name to Tan but don't know if it's true. I have the Cinema of Vengeance disc and see that he and Toby Russell teamed up for that production according to the credits. Russell seems like a nice and knowlegable guy on the RKM site with a solid reputation, I wonder how he got mixed up with Tan? Since he and Toby are friends I don't want to try and smear Tan since I don't know all the facts about him or what he has contributed to the genre. He did help me see alot of flicks in the 90's that otherwise I wouldn't have had axcess to although they were rather steep in price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Linn1 Posted December 6, 2006 Member Share Posted December 6, 2006 I've known very few people that have worked with Tan that don't at some point regret it. During the Dragon video days, he advertised a Bruce Lee book that was going to publish his collection of pictures, which is considered to be the best in the world perhaps outside of the Lee estate itself. He took orders for the book and then fleeced all the fans, moved away, and I didn't hear of him again until Cinema of Vengence came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killer meteor Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 He was still flaunting that book on the HKL Fist Of Fury DVD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chinatown Kid Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 Man what a dirty con to play on people, very unscrupulous, I have to say I'm not suprised to hear this though. Thanks for that info Linn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gfanikf Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Hmm that book scam makes perfect sense why I've heard rumors of people wanting his head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Atomic Mystery Monster Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 Here's a combination of what I've heard about George Tan and some stuff I found in a Google search I was inspired to do after reading this thread: Here's a link to an interview with him. As you can see by the picture of him, he's not asian. Apparently, he changed his last name to "Tan"; his (supposed) original last name was once mentioned in the forums awhile back. It should be noted that he claims to own the copyrights to some Bruce Lee photographs in the interview. If you go to Library of Congress' website or copyright.gov and search for his name, nothing comes up. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that he never registered or that he doesn't have the copyright to those. From what I understand, the online listings are incomplete at the moment. Another mention of George Tan and copyrights. Bey Logan on George Tan. According to this, Bob Wall doesn't seem to like George Tan very much. This old thread mentions Tan and someone named "Martin Barab", but I don't know what the connection between the two is. According to this, a former World Northal employee named Ivory Harris identified Tan as an intern who swiped tapes from them. A bizarre link between Elvis and George Tan. No, really. As noted in previous posts, Tan ran a mail-order bootleg video company called "Dragon Video" in the 1980's. I've also heard that he changed its name to "Shaw Video" at one point. Here's his Internet Movie Database profile. If you poke around rec.arts.movies.production, you can find a listing for George Tan and Vengeance Productions (in regard to the movie MR. X). It's been rumored that Tan was a major supplier for the infamous bootleg companies Xenon/Arena Video and Ground Zero Entertainment. However, there are only a few confirmed links between Tan and those companies. Xenon released SHAOLIN DOLEMITE, a cut-and-paste of Rudy Ray Moore footage and NINJA THE FINAL DUEL that George Tan was involved with. Ground Zero Entertainment released TOP FIGHTER I-II and (yet another) cut-and-paste FISTS OF LEGENDS II: IRON BODYGUARDS, projects that Tan was directly involved in. Ground Zero also had an "Eastern Heroes" line, which is also linked to you-know-who (more on this later). Then came VideoAsia/Fortune 5 DVD, a bootleg company that's rumored to have actually been run by George Tan instead of him just acting as a print source. VideoAsia released his documentary DEATH BY MISADVENTURE and he was present on the special features and commentaries for many of their releases. I think he provided some "rare Bruce Lee pictures" to the (cancelled) "Ultimate Editions" of THE BIG BOSS and FIST OF FURY, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly. Personally, I've always been suspicious of the fact that VideoAsia did a cut-and-paste movie (THE REAL BRUCE LEE 2) and the fact that VideoAsia did a MASTER WITH CRACKED FINGERS Special Edition like Xenon. Then again, Xenon's was supposedly sourced from PAL VHS tapes while VideoAsia's was stolen from a Japanese DVD. These "connections" could be just coincidences, though. It's also worth noting that VideoAsia was infamous for terrible quality prints AND technical issues like out-of-synch audio, DVDs only playing in DVD-ROM drives, and only being able to watch the fight scenes in a movie. Their TERROR TALES and TALES OF VOODOO lines were infamous for using English dubs with foreign subtitles and for often cropping the subtitles out of the frame for the majority of a film's running time. Sadly, these releases made some companies cancel some of their planned releases. You can read more on the subject (along with more VideoAsia technical issues and ebay ID suspected of being linked to VideoAsia) here. Also noted in that thread is Ventura's (the company that distributed VideoAsia titles) so-called bankruptcy and the disappearance of VideoAsia. While Googling for "VideoAsia," I stumbled across the website for the Golden Media Group. Said company has listings for the VideoAsia library (and a note about Fortune 5), Eastern Heroes (with cover art from Xenon releases, including a fake Jackie Chan movie), and "Golden Star Films" (with Brentwood cover art). Why is this important? Here's a quote from Ron Van Clief's website: "...THE RON VAN CLIEF COLLECTION WILL BE RELEASED WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION ON DVD/VHS EASTERN HEROES GEORGE TAN PRODUCER OCTOBER 2006 RELEASE". This shows a definite connection between Xenon and George Tan. This also strengthens rumors of a connection between George Tan and VideoAsia. And which company is distributing the Ron Van Clief collection? BCI Eclipse, aka Brentwood. This might also explain why BCI's "Kung Fu Theater" double feature releases contain SHAOLIN DOLEMITE and MR. X (both by Tan). It also might help further prove the Xenon-George Tan connection, seeing as how BCI reissued MASTER OF DISASTER (an illegal combination of THE NEW KIDS IN TOWN and scenes from the Hong Kong version of Jackie Chan's THE PROTECTOR), which was previously released by Xenon. I also stumbled across an article that says Ground Zero Entertainment "licensed" movies from Eastern Heroes after Xenon's license expired. Hell, it might even explain why some of the "Kung Fu Theater" and "Eastern Horror" releases have VideoAsia-esque touch to them (VHS quality, use of subtitles that get cropped or matted out, etc.). Perhaps Cliff Mac could help shed some more light on this mystery? This isn't an insult or accusation directed at Cliff; this is just a request for help. I'll even be nice enough to link you to IFD Films, the rights owner to NINJA THUNDERBOLT (which was released under the "Kung Fu Theater" line) so you can check if whoever you licensed it from actually had the rights to it. You should double check with them about the other ninja movies BCI has put out, along with titles from "Asso Asia" or that have Dragon Lee in them (GOLDEN DRAGON SILVER SNAKE, DRAGON ON FIRE, RAGE OF THE DRAGON, etc), just to be safe. And if it turns out that George Tan really is behind all this, I'd strongly recommened dropping his titles, see who really owns the rights to those movies, and take the proper action against someone who falsely claims to own the rights to movies/footage that aren't theirs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chinatown Kid Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Wow, thanks for all that info AMM! Definately sheds alot more light on the "Tan" man. 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 I can't believe Bob Wall lying his ass off in that interview about GOD. :lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fabhui Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 Here's what I know about George Tan: He owns the largest collection of Bruce Lee photographs, the majority of which remain unseen. He was a guest at one of Chris Alexis' 'Tracking The Dragon' conventions in the early 90's in the UK. He took a lot of people's money that day for pre-orders of his forthcoming 'Tracking The Dragon' book series. As any Bruce fan knows these books never ever saw the light of day and the fans that handed over their hard earned cash to George Tan never received a refund! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tigerstyles Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 i was there at the tracking the Dragon convention.. he was there and i met him.. got some photos in the loft. i was only 19 at the time.. thought he was a celeb!! bought a photo from him for the late Bob Wall to sign.. Tan seemed a bit arrogant! i recall the forthcoming book thing. but inever put any deposit down for them,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chinatown Kid Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 It's a wonder that some of these people he's ripped off hadn't got a hold of him and kicked his ass by now, all 100 pounds of him by the looks of that photo in the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest limubai2000 Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 He's almost certainly not asian, he looks more hispanic/caucasian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chinatown Kid Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 That fareastpirate dude said he was Greek in another thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Atomic Mystery Monster Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 I once heard that he's Italian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mpm74 Posted August 13, 2014 Member Share Posted August 13, 2014 Does anyone have Tans' contact info/official website? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted August 13, 2014 Member Share Posted August 13, 2014 I don't know but I'm taking a wild stab at this...he was originally credited as a producer on the film WHITE TIGER, that after being shot two years ago, is finally seeing the light of day after legal disputes. I have a feeling the dispute was between him and Karen Kaing, who is now credited as the sole producer of the film. In any case, these are all pretty insane stories involving one helluva mystery man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mpm74 Posted August 13, 2014 Member Share Posted August 13, 2014 I don't know but I'm taking a wild stab at this...he was originally credited as a producer on the film WHITE TIGER, that after being shot two years ago, is finally seeing the light of day after legal disputes. I have a feeling the dispute was between him and Karen Kaing, who is now credited as the sole producer of the film. In any case, these are all pretty insane stories involving one helluva mystery man. Yeah, I heard about that. Everywhere that guy goes, there's controversy. He also did some linear notes on Shout! Factory's Bruce Lee set. I still say he's one of the most knowledgeable persons when it comes to Bruce! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted August 14, 2014 Member Share Posted August 14, 2014 I think you meant "liner". George Tan doesn't usually take a "linear" approach. He will be a hard man to find, there are lots of people looking for him. Here's a couple links to start your investigation- https://myspace.com/bruceleetribute https://myspace.com/videoasia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Phantom Dreamer Posted August 14, 2014 Member Share Posted August 14, 2014 Myspace? Wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member mpm74 Posted August 14, 2014 Member Share Posted August 14, 2014 I think you meant "liner". George Tan doesn't usually take a "linear" approach. He will be a hard man to find, there are lots of people looking for him. Here's a couple links to start your investigation- https://myspace.com/bruceleetribute https://myspace.com/videoasia I already give up. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted August 14, 2014 Member Share Posted August 14, 2014 That is too bad. I think you could have found him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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