Member Master Iller Posted March 20, 2019 Member Share Posted March 20, 2019 Does anyone know if a really good version of Shaolin Invincible Sticks even exists? The copy on amazon prime is the letterbox and poor, i think i saw some clips on youtube of it in widescreen and looking better. Does a good copy exist on DVD? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079893/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted March 20, 2019 Member Share Posted March 20, 2019 Yes there are some decent versions out there. To be honest I wasn't impressed with the stick fighting in that movie. I guess I was expecting something where they break out the staff short staff , 3 section staff, 2 section staff and so forth but what we got was a little bit of Southern Shaolin staff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Master Iller Posted March 20, 2019 Author Member Share Posted March 20, 2019 yeah, ive seen the movie already, it's ok. but ive used it in a music video and I'm wondering if there is a better version that i could do a remake with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted March 20, 2019 Member Share Posted March 20, 2019 8 hours ago, Master Iller said: yeah, ive seen the movie already, it's ok. but ive used it in a music video and I'm wondering if there is a better version that i could do a remake with Best version is on the Japanese letterbox tape. It is presented in Mandarin with Japanese subtitles and is fully uncut, and is the only version presented in the full 2.35:1 scope. The UK DVD is a pan/scan and cut version which is English dubbed only. I'm not sure about the Eastern Heroes tape, I think it is a hard subbed Mandarin version which is cropped to 4x3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Master Iller Posted March 20, 2019 Author Member Share Posted March 20, 2019 @TheKungFuRobber Thank you. Do you know if the Japanese subtitles are hardcoded in that version? also, where could I buy this version? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted March 22, 2019 Member Share Posted March 22, 2019 On 3/20/2019 at 7:18 PM, Master Iller said: @TheKungFuRobber Thank you. Do you know if the Japanese subtitles are hardcoded in that version? also, where could I buy this version? The Japanese subtitles are hardcoded in the VHS. There is a bootleg available from FLK Cinema which is the Jap VHS but with the English dub added to the print (but sadly without retaining the Mandarin dub as a seperate audio track). I have it, it is not very sharp but is the best version we have. Good movie, I really enjoyed it. http://flkcinema.com/product.php?mid=820 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kevenzz Posted March 26, 2019 Member Share Posted March 26, 2019 I think I prefer the fullscreen vengeance dvd over the widescreen japanese vhs... this one is so low resolution and blurry... it's really hard to watch on a 55 inch tv for me. Edit: there is an HD trailer for this movie released by Severin films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted March 27, 2019 Member Share Posted March 27, 2019 On 3/26/2019 at 10:50 AM, kevenzz said: I think I prefer the fullscreen vengeance dvd over the widescreen japanese vhs... this one is so low resolution and blurry... it's really hard to watch on a 55 inch tv for me. Edit: there is an HD trailer for this movie released by Severin films. It makes me very angry, that they are restoring trailers to pristine condition for kung fu movies but not the films themselves. If the trailers exist and are in such good shape then the prints definitely exist too. Hence why I never bought the Kung Fu Trailers of Fury DVD. That said, when I release Hitman in the Hand of Buddha, that will be another long awaited classic restored to 1080p, and if better source footage surfaces for the missing 17 minutes of footage I will surely make an updated custom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted March 27, 2019 Member Share Posted March 27, 2019 So, the trailers are separate from the films. There are actual trailers for movies where the negative does not exist, films like Hong Kong Connection, etc. Also, easier to restore a short, 2 minute trailer and then put it on something like Trailers of fury. I hear you though. I remember watch a few documentaries where a brief clip of Polly Kwan doing a Tae Kwon Do form looks immaculate, but they just restored that one bit. Same with Broken Oath, though that has been fixed up since then. Imagine how I feel, trying to get these Cathay films, meanwhile the heir to their film library could care less, but at the same time will not relinquish the rights or even stream the standard definition Betacams. PS, one other thing to consider is that some films may be incomplete, with missing reels, etc. That reminds me, I have to call the Berkeley Film Archive about Black Panther from Cathay ( not the Chen Sing film, btw) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted March 28, 2019 Member Share Posted March 28, 2019 Yes. Survival of a trailer does not mean the film survives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted March 28, 2019 Member Share Posted March 28, 2019 9 hours ago, Killer Meteor said: Yes. Survival of a trailer does not mean the film survives. I know this and should have made myself clearer, but what I really meant was the orignal movies featured in the Trailers of Fury compilation in the form of their cinema trailers, at least from my perspective should not really be so obscure. These were distibuted all over the world, but nobody even thought about making decent widescreen masters because companies never saw a demand at the market after they released the VHS tapes and therefore remastering the films was seen as a waste of money. Not even Snuff Bottle Connectikon or Yellow Faced Tiger have a decent release and I know for sure they would be in good demand. The Arrow DVD of Yellow Faced Tiger is an abomination (that said, the film itself is not great but it is interesting to see Wong Tao attempting to be Bruce Lee, with Chuck Norris as the bad guy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted March 28, 2019 Member Share Posted March 28, 2019 Really nice print of Shaolin Invincible Sticks here, which is from the Eastern Heroes tape. Shame it's cropped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted March 28, 2019 Member Share Posted March 28, 2019 Not to belabor the point, but what the heck. These films in many ways were considered disposable by their very creators. Some of them were simply made as tax dodges, etc, as well as they were produced for a small initial audience. Also, many people of the Asian Persuasion themselves consider Shaw brothers, etc, low brow, young (my 18 year old son, for instance) and old (my wife and inlaws). Just not a lot of sentiment tied to these films. My friend in HK has said that Shaw Brothers sets would never be like Disneyland, as there is no local reverence, the prime interest is from overseas. Most people like the post Shapes stuff, even back in the 90's my sci fi fan roommate only wanted to watch stuff like the Seventh Curse, Yes Madam or Meals on Wheels. As I said, Cathay could care less. Also, as far as VOD goes, 99% of what is coming out in HD on VQQ, etc, is Shaw Bros, Golden Harvest and Cinema City. The independents from Taiwan that were remastered are random, probably from a public domain, or very cheap source of a good negative. And those have slowed to a crawl. I think the thing you should do TheKungFuRobber, is keeping making your carefully constructed customs! It is up to guys like us to get the stuff that falls through the cracks while people remaster old Bruce Le movies that showed to empty theaters in Chinatown in the 1980's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted March 28, 2019 Member Share Posted March 28, 2019 21 minutes ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said: Not to belabor the point, but what the heck. These films in many ways were considered disposable by their very creators. Some of them were simply made as tax dodges, etc, as well as they were produced for a small initial audience. Also, many people of the Asian Persuasion themselves consider Shaw brothers, etc, low brow, young (my 18 year old son, for instance) and old (my wife and inlaws). Just not a lot of sentiment tied to these films. My friend in HK has said that Shaw Brothers sets would never be like Disneyland, as there is no local reverence, the prime interest is from overseas. Most people like the post Shapes stuff, even back in the 90's my sci fi fan roommate only wanted to watch stuff like the Seventh Curse, Yes Madam or Meals on Wheels. As I said, Cathay could care less. Also, as far as VOD goes, 99% of what is coming out in HD on VQQ, etc, is Shaw Bros, Golden Harvest and Cinema City. The independents from Taiwan that were remastered are random, probably from a public domain, or very cheap source of a good negative. And those have slowed to a crawl. I think the thing you should do TheKungFuRobber, is keeping making your carefully constructed customs! It is up to guys like us to get the stuff that falls through the cracks while people remaster old Bruce Le movies that showed to empty theaters in Chinatown in the 1980's. Well, of course they were considered disposable by their creators. I'm going to upset a lot of people in saying this, but really these movies were low brow and laughable. We just happen to be among the crowd who enjoy watching trashy kung fu movies, which have virtually no cult following so to speak outside of our own niche fandom. Also, yes Chinese folk don't really like their older movies very much, and you can't really blame them. When the most prominent film makers in Hong Kong are people like Godfrey Ho and Tomas Tang, I'd expect nothing different as the association will be made with the dross of the past. Young people also in general just don't like old movies. Only the more popular movies from the big studios even have DVD releases in Hong Kong, the stuff like Seventh Curse, Yes Madam and Wheels on Meals from Golden Harvest and D&B, and even then, Golden Harvest doesn't really exist anymore, their studios are now apartments, only the cinema circuit survives. So much for one of the biggest film production companies in the world. Nowadays I think most people in Hong Kong prefer watching international movies dubbed into Cantonese. I think that the movies which do have enough of a cult following for it to be worthwhile, are slowly being restored, but for us fans, it just doesn't cut it. I'm not completely giving up on my custom projects, but I'm going to be taking things a lot less frequently, and also restoring non martial arts movies. I want to do a custom of Peter Jackson's 'Meet the Feebles', which is yet to even see a blu-ray release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted March 28, 2019 Member Share Posted March 28, 2019 My main issue with Shaolin Invincible Sticks is the really annoying bald pervert spoilt son. So shrieky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted March 28, 2019 Member Share Posted March 28, 2019 12 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said: My main issue with Shaolin Invincible Sticks is the really annoying bald pervert spoilt son. So shrieky! Yeah, that's my main issue with virtually all independent kung fu movies. Every director from Taiwan was imitating Ng See Yuen by including stupid physical comedy in kung fu movies. Personally, I can't really stand most kung fu movies made after 1977. Golden Harvest knew how to make good movies, with proper scores by Joseph Koo and decent acting. You had actors such as Wang Yu, Carter Wong, Angela Mao, Bruce Lee, Han Ying Cheih, Hwang In-shik, Yasuaki Kurata, Lee Hoi San and Casanova Wong who could actually act and appear as tough guys, and movies were not always centred around some stupid virtuous plot. I'm going to make an unpopular statement and say that Shaw Brothers movies are overrated and Golden Harvest was a better studio all round, and the only one which adapted to the times with their productions. Even Ninja in the Dragons Den is pretty grating, with the obnoxious perverted sidekick, portrayed by Tai Bo, who I think should have been cut from the movie entirely (not to insult Yuen Kwai, he is a good director). Seasonal took a long time to move on to making new projects, but to be fair they did a good job with Legend of a Fighter as their last "traditional" kung fu movie, and I think that the film does a good job at reflecting the pre-Drunken Master era of martial arts cinema and features some good acting perfomances from Kurata and Beardy. Seasonal also introduced Chow Yun Fat with The Head Hunter (1982) being his first starring role. It's not a great movie, but was a step in the right direction away from the comical kung fu trend which they had created with Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted March 29, 2019 Member Share Posted March 29, 2019 Yeah, a lot of the comedy is far too much. It's just white noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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