Member laagi Posted April 1, 2018 Member Share Posted April 1, 2018 I think by now it's safe to say there are barely any rare titles which aren't stored away somewhere. I mean either the distributor have it in their catalogue or some private collector in his storage. I'm positive that in the coming years (yes, it will take time) we will see more of these released one way or the other. Although to be completely honest I don't see companies putting any effort into this. As seen by WB and they even have some of the most sought after titles ever... Pedicab Driver! anyone. They couldn't even be bothered to make it a decent release. Although and that's very sad to say it's still the best this movie has ever looked and probably will look. But as can be seen here, the interest and the willingness to actually buy the movie is too little for companies to make a profit. And by profit I mean not becoming filthy rich. I'll give you an example: I wanted to release a official Blu-Ray of "Dreaming the Reality". Did a transfer of my own 35mm (which BTW cost a small fortune) and reached out to the distributor. If my memory serves right a license for 3 years will cost $10K! and that's for one country (distribution rights) only. Now you do the math. I think the problem of these "rares" not having shown up is really companies don't care to release them. And somehow I understand. Look at even famous titles who are still waiting to have a decent release. What more for those obscure titles!? It's a niche genre and at the same time it's also plagued by people not willing to spend a single dollar for what they're watching. For whatever reason and I'm not pointing fingers here. I'm guilty as well when it comes to this. After having uploaded the entire movie on youtube I had 100K views (before it was taken down)! Imagine each individual just would have given a single dollar or even just 50 cents. Guess how much I got? That's right and here we are. Sorry if this gotten a bit out of hands here. Just wanted to give my thoughts to this topic. It's just bothering somehow to see all this discussion about rares this and rares that. Peace & Love... I'm out 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member spannick Posted April 1, 2018 Member Share Posted April 1, 2018 20 hours ago, Killer Meteor said: New Game of Death is, to my knowledge, still owned internationally by the German company Atlas, who liecensed it for a decent DVD in the US and UK back in the 00's. i think atlas has closed down forever and the movies may be in a limbo now. so it's even worse. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted April 1, 2018 Member Share Posted April 1, 2018 2 hours ago, laagi said: I think by now it's safe to say there are barely any rare titles which aren't stored away somewhere. I mean either the distributor have it in their catalogue or some private collector in his storage. I'm positive that in the coming years (yes, it will take time) we will see more of these released one way or the other. Although to be completely honest I don't see companies putting any effort into this. As seen by WB and they even have some of the most sought after titles ever... Pedicab Driver! anyone. They couldn't even be bothered to make it a decent release. Although and that's very sad to say it's still the best this movie has ever looked and probably will look. But as can be seen here, the interest and the willingness to actually buy the movie is too little for companies to make a profit. And by profit I mean not becoming filthy rich. I'll give you an example: I wanted to release a official Blu-Ray of "Dreaming the Reality". Did a transfer of my own 35mm (which BTW cost a small fortune) and reached out to the distributor. If my memory serves right a license for 3 years will cost $10K! and that's for one country (distribution rights) only. Now you do the math. I think the problem of these "rares" not having shown up is really companies don't care to release them. And somehow I understand. Look at even famous titles who are still waiting to have a decent release. What more for those obscure titles!? It's a niche genre and at the same time it's also plagued by people not willing to spend a single dollar for what they're watching. For whatever reason and I'm not pointing fingers here. I'm guilty as well when it comes to this. After having uploaded the entire movie on youtube I had 100K views (before it was taken down)! Imagine each individual just would have given a single dollar or even just 50 cents. Guess how much I got? That's right and here we are. Sorry if this gotten a bit out of hands here. Just wanted to give my thoughts to this topic. It's just bothering somehow to see all this discussion about rares this and rares that. Peace & Love... I'm out I don't know if you are checking back in, but I have to agree. Film restoration in Kung Fu movies brings out the cheap seats. There is also this. A certain amount of the people that will pay (and they are out there) only want an "official" restored release. These people want a DVD they can hold that isn't a bootleg, etc. Which is fine for Shaw Brothers, the umpteenth restoration of a Bruce Lee movie, Golden Harvest and a few others, but these obscure films are an obvious gamble. My obsession is to get the Cathay films, but look what happened with Hoker. They obviously didn't make the money they wanted and they stopped releasing the titles. Now, forget about it. Negatives destroyed, the only thing left is the TV versions on Betamax and who knows if they will ever release them? I spoke to a film curator and he said the reality of film preservation of all kinds will eventually depend on piracy. And this is the guys job. Only so much time to watch all this stuff as well. Half the time I spend more time trying to either find or sub these things. I have movies I have done weeks of work on that I literally have not watched the finished product straight through. Right now trying to get a 16 mm print of To Kill A Rover and then transfer it, but I honestly don't know what the price is. You all know I was trying to get Fabulous Protectress, but it turns out the guy wanted $1500 for A COPY OF THE 35MM PRINT. Roll that around in your head. No rights, no print that I could donate to a film library, just a DVD and the Betamax of the movie. He would then sell the 35 mm again. According to the curator most of these you can by the rights and everything for that price. Anyway, I have seen To Kill A Rover, so I know it is worth the time. The reality is as well, as Big Rogie said on here "Just because it's rare doesn't mean it's good!" 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted April 1, 2018 Member Share Posted April 1, 2018 I don’t know much about rares so forgive me if I’m taking this thread on a tangent, but... Ate there any rares that are considered classics in terms of fights and choreography? Are there any rare that are up there with your “7 Grandmasters”, “The Buddhist Fist”, “Shaolin vs Lama” etc. etc.? While I may never actually get to see any of these lost gems, for some reason it excites me, as a collector, to know there is an amazingly choreographed film out there that’s completely unseen by my eyes. Call me a glutton for punishment, if you will. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member panku Posted April 1, 2018 Member Share Posted April 1, 2018 (edited) On 3/30/2018 at 3:26 AM, globe said: 179006_RecklessCricketThe_1080p_25_x264_screener_feature_10mins.mp4 171023_ShadowGirl_1080p_25_x264_screener_feature_10mins.mp4 Thanks for posting these screener samples. I see the catalog numbers list the year in them, do you know if the 3 digit number that follows is the original release order, for example 006 was the 6th film they released that year, 007 is Shaolin Rescuers or whatever film came out next? or are those numbers assigned randomly? Shadow Girl is the 28th film I have on my list for 1971, but if 5 of those don't exist anymore that would leave Shadow Girl at 23, so it does seem like this is how they might have numbered them. Edited April 1, 2018 by panku 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted April 1, 2018 Member Share Posted April 1, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Drunken Monk said: I don’t know much about rares so forgive me if I’m taking this thread on a tangent, but... Ate there any rares that are considered classics in terms of fights and choreography? Are there any rare that are up there with your “7 Grandmasters”, “The Buddhist Fist”, “Shaolin vs Lama” etc. etc.? While I may never actually get to see any of these lost gems, for some reason it excites me, as a collector, to know there is an amazingly choreographed film out there that’s completely unseen by my eyes. Call me a glutton for punishment, if you will. I agree. I never understood the hype for some of those called rares. But than again that's just a personal opinion. Having seen the sample of "The Big Boss Part II" (BTW, is it just me or has this movie become synonymous with this whole topic) I was like "man, what a turd" But I can see the excitment for rares, it's the thrill of the hunt I guess. Anyway, I'll be as happy as any bloke once these "treasures" will surface! Edited April 1, 2018 by laagi 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member De Ming Li Posted April 3, 2018 Member Share Posted April 3, 2018 On 4/1/2018 at 1:50 PM, NoKUNGFUforYU said: Much more. Only about a third of Cathay's stuff is on DVD, while Hoker has all the Union films restored on DVD except Ghostly Face, which is available as a fan custom project. Were the Union films exclusively Taiwanese productions, including all filming locations being in Taiwan? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member odioustrident Posted April 3, 2018 Member Share Posted April 3, 2018 On 4/1/2018 at 2:02 PM, Drunken Monk said: I don’t know much about rares so forgive me if I’m taking this thread on a tangent, but... Ate there any rares that are considered classics in terms of fights and choreography? Are there any rare that are up there with your “7 Grandmasters”, “The Buddhist Fist”, “Shaolin vs Lama” etc. etc.? While I may never actually get to see any of these lost gems, for some reason it excites me, as a collector, to know there is an amazingly choreographed film out there that’s completely unseen by my eyes. Call me a glutton for punishment, if you will. If there is a lost film with a focus on shapes from a top choreographer we don't know about it. Many of the lost rares from that period are comedies with action on the side. A number of bashers we don't have seem ahead of the game and very entertaining. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted April 3, 2018 Moderator Share Posted April 3, 2018 On 01/04/2018 at 5:50 AM, NoKUNGFUforYU said: Much more. Only about a third of Cathay's stuff is on DVD, while Hoker has all the Union films restored on DVD except Ghostly Face, which is available as a fan custom project. 3 hours ago, De Ming Li said: Were the Union films exclusively Taiwanese productions, including all filming locations being in Taiwan? I actually got through watching 'The Ghostly Face' for the first time recently, and to answer your question @De Ming Li - no, not all Union Films were exclusively filmed in Taiwan, as this one takes place on the Indonesian island of Bali (possibly the only kung-fu movie that's ever been filmed there?). I gave it the full review treatment here - http://cityonfire.com/the-ghostly-face-1973-review-panji-the-skull-face-polly-shang-kuan/ 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted April 3, 2018 Member Share Posted April 3, 2018 I would love to find this one too, especially knowing that it has been restored and subbed ! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted April 4, 2018 Member Share Posted April 4, 2018 Another one that would be of interest : http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=5130&display_set=eng 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member De Ming Li Posted April 4, 2018 Member Share Posted April 4, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, ShawAngela said: Another one that would be of interest : http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=5130&display_set=eng Wasn't even aware of the existence of this Shaw, thanks again! Edited April 4, 2018 by De Ming Li 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Kwok Choi Posted April 6, 2018 Member Share Posted April 6, 2018 On 29/03/2018 at 8:40 PM, globe said: 177020_MagicRingThe_1080p_25_x264_screener_nonremastered_feature.mp4 Magic Ring indeed! This was very popular in my neck of the woods in the mid - to late 70s . Multiple re-releases in cinemas, almost every 6 months. Awesome movie, remember a lot of the plot vividly all those years ago. Sadly there was no video at the time and I have never seen a single frame of this movie since. It did very well at the box office every time it was re-released. I can never understand why Celestial didn't remaster this classic on DVD amongst others. Come on guys, trust me it will sell and make a profit, if not bill me 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted April 6, 2018 Member Share Posted April 6, 2018 18 minutes ago, Kwok Choi said: Magic Ring indeed! This was very popular in my neck of the woods in the mid - to late 70s . Multiple re-releases in cinemas, almost every 6 months. Awesome movie, remember a lot of the plot vividly all those years ago. Sadly there was no video at the time and I have never seen a single frame of this movie since. It did very well at the box office every time it was re-released. I can never understand why Celestial didn't remaster this classic on DVD amongst others. Come on guys, trust me it will sell and make a profit, if not bill me I wouldn't be too worried to be honest. It's only a matter of time for these movies to pop up. At least now we know that Magic Ring isn't lost but just waiting to be released by the distributor. A fate many other titles seem to share. So fingers crossed we won't have to wait another 30 or 40 years 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted April 6, 2018 Member Share Posted April 6, 2018 1 hour ago, Kwok Choi said: Magic Ring Chia Ling is so beautiful in this clip !! I strongly hope that I'll be bale to watch this movie one day...before I become totally senile, afraid of watching the fights or dead !! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Kwok Choi Posted April 6, 2018 Member Share Posted April 6, 2018 On 2/25/2018 at 9:13 PM, panku said: Black Guide / Hong Kong Connection was available on Super 8 Yeah this is Black Guide indeed, not the mediocre "lost" rare early 70s Hong Kong Connection starring Ting Hon 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shaw golden Posted April 6, 2018 Member Share Posted April 6, 2018 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shaw golden Posted April 6, 2018 Member Share Posted April 6, 2018 (edited) Back to the Black Guide this rare gem has a few aka's such as The Rats and The Hong Kong Connection, screened in matinee cinemas in 1975 but was butchered by at least 1/2 hour by the bbfc, screened at late night at crown cinema leyton totally uncut around 1979. I still have the 1979 flyer for this film and will post when found Edited April 6, 2018 by shaw golden 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shaw golden Posted April 7, 2018 Member Share Posted April 7, 2018 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted April 7, 2018 Member Share Posted April 7, 2018 6 hours ago, shaw golden said: This looks funky to say the least. I mean the guy in the left corner what the hell is he fighting against 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted April 7, 2018 Member Share Posted April 7, 2018 15 hours ago, shaw golden said: The Rats Isn't The Rats the movie with Alan Tang and Adam Cheng ? It seems to me that they aren't mentioned in the cast of Black Guide and if it's an aka, then, it's very confusing for people who want to get one or the other !... And I'm getting mad thinking that I'll probably never see again Beauty Heroine !! I only remember one or two scenes of it (particularly the last scene, that lead to a sad ending...I hate sad endings !! ) and the rest of the movie is sadly lost in my memory !! If only there could be a miracle with someone putting it out in any language, it would be the 7th Heaven for me, knowing that two of my favourite actors (yes, I have a looot of favourite actors ! ) Hong Hoi and Wang Ping are the leads, together with " kung fu Mama " Tse Gam Guk !! 16 hours ago, shaw golden said: And this poster is so beautiful and perfectly summarizes the plot : it's another movie showing the Chinese villager's struggle against the Japanese invaders, if I remember well... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shaw golden Posted April 7, 2018 Member Share Posted April 7, 2018 6 hours ago, ShawAngela said: Isn't The Rats the movie with Alan Tang and Adam Cheng ? It seems to me that they aren't mentioned in the cast of Black Guide and if it's an aka, then, it's very confusing for people who want to get one or the other !... you are correct their are two rats movies and two hong kong connections,all together three different films, very confusing??! rats (1973)....adam cheng black guide (1973)...aka the rats...aka the hong kong connection hong kong connection (1973)...helen ma what a mix up ? 6 hours ago, ShawAngela said: And I'm getting mad thinking that I'll probably never see again Beauty Heroine !! I only remember one or two scenes of it (particularly the last scene, that lead to a sad ending...I hate sad endings !! ) and the rest of the movie is sadly lost in my memory !! If only there could be a miracle with someone putting it out in any language, it would be the 7th Heaven for me, knowing that two of my favourite actors (yes, I have a looot of favourite actors ! ) Hong Hoi and Wang Ping are the leads, together with " kung fu Mama " Tse Gam Guk !! i am totally in shock that anybody has seen this movie, it is on the top of my hit list of finds and i desperately want to see it, everything about this movie looks A1 class and i couldnt agree with you any more the scenery and setting and cast is fantastic maybe you can enlighten us about when,how you saw this film....kung fu mama rules 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator thekfc Posted April 7, 2018 Moderator Share Posted April 7, 2018 4 hours ago, ShawAngela said: And I'm getting mad thinking that I'll probably never see again Beauty Heroine !! Does this also goes by the title "La Souer de Bruce Lee"? Oui? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shaw golden Posted April 7, 2018 Member Share Posted April 7, 2018 1 hour ago, thekfc said: Does this also goes by the title "La Souer de Bruce Lee"? Oui? i also was thinking the same, French title for film but cant track down film just the French artwork 5 hours ago, ShawAngela said: And this poster is so beautiful and perfectly summarizes the plot : it's another movie showing the Chinese villager's struggle against the Japanese invaders, if I remember well... the plot looks like you says... french vhs? 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted April 7, 2018 Member Share Posted April 7, 2018 I saw it when I was around 15 years old in a cinema and yes, the French title was La soeur de Bruce Lee. A collector on ebay recently told me that this movie only made its way in France and that a friend of his in Germany (where they both live ) is always talking about this movie and would like to find it... I wonder if The rats (Adam Cheng) also only made its way in France, since I found it only in French language... These lobby cards of Beauty Heroine are superb and make me more and more eager to find this movie !! I don't recognize Hong Hoi in the first picture with Wang Ping ; does anyone know who this guy is ? 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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