How Pan & Scan Ruins Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Tried to watch Tough Guy just a bit ago. Just terrible. One guy with the knife was not even in the frame, then Chen Sing out of frame. Ugh.

[TheKungFuRobber]

Just an update on the Hitman Buddha project. I've completely restarted the project. I've done a frame accurate job of plastering the German print onto the HK version, which is represented at it's theatrical 24FPS rate and am now working on restoring the opening credits. I made a preview video of my progress. Please note that this is an early stages video and the final version will be much better. I have opted not to bother removing the dust and scratches from the German print as I don't want to end up reducing some of the details of the film. The print is already in good shape other than being heavilly cut. The hardest part of the whole process is tracking down the missing scenes or reconstructing them from multiple sources. Much of them will be taken from the VCD with the cropped Betamax master blended over the scenes using tracking, which should look fine in the final cut.

This project is proving to be absolutely horrible. I am trying so hard to reconstruct as many of the cut scenes as possible. The German distributors were really asinine morons for what they did to this film, there are even segments only 9 frames long cut from the film in parts for absolutely no logical reason. I sometimes question whether the lengthy cuts were intentional or if Megamax didn't have access to some of the reels and just released the film incomplete. Either way, there is 18 minutes of cut footage to incorporate into the film. I wonder if Toby Russell has a complete 35mm print of the film somewhere.

[DragonClaws]

18 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

This project is proving to be absolutely horrible. I am trying so hard to reconstruct as many of the cut scenes as possible. The German distributors were really asinine morons for what they did to this film, there are even segments only 9 frames long cut from the film in parts for absolutely no logical reason. I sometimes question whether the lengthy cuts were intentional or if Megamax didn't have access to some of the reels and just released the film incomplete. Either way, there is 18 minutes of cut footage to incorporate into the film. I wonder if Toby Russell has a complete 35mm print of the film somewhere.

 

Great work on the opening scene @TheKungFuRobber, and it's not even finished yet, impressive.

 

I hope you keep up the good work, makes my old Eastern Heroes DVD, used a print that was left to fade in the sun.

 

[TheKungFuRobber]

5 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Great work on the opening scene @TheKungFuRobber, and it's not even finished yet, impressive.

 

I hope you keep up the good work, makes my old Eastern Heroes DVD, used a print that was left to fade in the sun.

 

I made a second update video on the opening credits. I've made a lot of changes. I'm not sure which colour looks better though for the titles, yellow or red.

Also, as for the old Eastern Heroes DVD, it looks like it was pulled from a septic tank. It's a fucking disgrace. Even the FLK version is false widescreen in parts. For the parts they didn't have on the VCD I'm sure they just added black bars onto a fullscreen print which looks like it was ripped from YouTube or something.

[DragonClaws]

11 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

I made a second update video on the opening credits. I've made a lot of changes. I'm not sure which colour looks better though for the titles, yellow or red.

 

I prefer the yellow TxT, it stands out more, for me at least.

 

11 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

Also, as for the old Eastern Heroes DVD, it looks like it was pulled from a septic tank. It's a fucking disgrace. Even the FLK version is false widescreen in parts. For the parts they didn't have on the VCD I'm sure they just added black bars onto a fullscreen print which looks like it was ripped from YouTube or something.

 

To think, I made a two bus journey, and coughed up £16 for that very same DVD release, during a College break, in my teenage year's. I never posted on Kung u movie forums then, and had very little knowledge of the genre or releases.

[TheKungFuRobber]

Just a hint of where I am with the progress now.

[TheKungFuRobber]

Subtitling the film now.

[TheKungFuRobber]

 

[saltysam]

looks great

[TheKungFuRobber]

29 minutes ago, saltysam said:

looks great

Thank you.

[DragonClaws]

 

Great job @TheKungFuRobber, the openin/intro has always remained a favouite of mine. Hwang Jang Lee, is every shady wallet thief's worst nightmare.

[DragonClaws]

 

Got round to watching the superb HD print of Snake & Crane Arts of Shaloin last night. Only waited well over a decade, to see this in a restored Widescreen print. One of the extras features an interview with fimaker Steve Lawson, and features some great full screen VHS VS Remastered WideScreen comparison's. Reminds me of just how bad the film used to look, the print I had on VHS, was sourced from the Ocean Shores tapes. It looked even fuzzer than the VHS clips used in the bonus features.