Guest June Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO AFTER DEC. 20 2007????? How are we going to get our dose of "Shaw Brothers" kung fu dvd's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teako170 Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO AFTER DEC. 20 2007????? How are we going to get our dose of "Shaw Brothers" kung fu dvd's? I believe REM said it best.... zeo0_3gN190 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peringaten Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Are we implying there to be no more releases following said date? Sure I saw something stating more batches through the beginning of next year. Don't ask me where or its legitimacy; can't remember. I don't believe anything or bare speculating much til I see solid proof which way anything's going from Celestial or IVL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teako170 Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Are we implying there to be no more releases following said date? Sure I saw something stating more batches through the beginning of next year. Don't ask me where or its legitimacy; can't remember. I don't believe anything or bare speculating much til I see solid proof which way anything's going from Celestial or IVL. Actually this comes up every year ... however I did read somewhere (beyond the forums) that this might truly be the end (of the world as we know it). Only time will tell. ....hmm, do I dare post a YouTube clip of Asia? Nah, I just ate lunch... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member bubbabgone Posted October 24, 2007 Member Share Posted October 24, 2007 It may not be the end of the world as we know it, but for sure it will be Everybody Hurts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teako170 Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 It may not be the end of the world as we know it, but for sure it will be Everybody Hurts. Yup. Shiny Happy People we will be no more.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest June Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 An email response: Dear customer, Thanks for your letter! We regret to inform you that there are no films will release in 2008. If you have any question, please don’t hesitate to contact us again! Best regards, MovieSuper Customer Service www.moviesuper.com Unit 2, 27/F Wyler Center, Phase 2 200 Tai Lin Pai Road Kwai Chung, Hong Kong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SadShawFan Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 Unfortunately after December 2007 there will be no more Shaw DVDs by IVL/Celestial. They stop at roughly 620 +/- movies and even though gems like "The Killer", "Black Magic 2" or "Battle for the Republic of China" can still be found in their catalogue of titles to be released they simply will not be available (!) as they will be scrapped due to the premature expiring of the contract between both companies!!! Btw: Here is the official statement of IVL-Intercontinental Video (a subsidary of the new Kadogawa Intercontinental Holding): "Up to 2006, we have released in excess of 500 titles of the famous Shaw library and until the end of the year 2007 we will continue releasing most of the remaining 120 titles but we are sorry to report that we will not be able to complete the projected release of the whole library in question!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Winfred Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 My email enquiry to a Celestial exec regarding the release of Lily Ho's The Brain Stealers met with this response which gives hope........"Due to remastering problems, this movie's release has been delayed to probably early next year." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Karlos Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 The contract was only ever for 5 years so that's that, sadly! Shame they've come to the end with soooooo many classics unreleased but, on the whole, it's been a good run. I, for one, never thought I'd get to see most (if any) of these classics in any form so I'll always be grateful to Celestial for giving me the chance. It'll be with great sadness that I make my final order this Dec, knowing that'll be the end for me and my SB collection. I'll miss getting my yearly list in January, ticking off the ones I want and then waiting....! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest clfnole Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 Don't you think someone else would pick up the contract for the remaining films? Why also wouldn't they just extend the contract for the remaining films with Celestial/IVL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venom10463 Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 I'm pretty sure if Celestial don't extend their contract, someone else will release the remaining films. Celestial probably have most of the remaining films already remastered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Von Humboldt Fleischer Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 I don't know about that. If Celestial have spent money on restoring these movies, but don't think that they can even recoup their investment by releasing them, it isn't going to look like a hot economic prospect to outside companies either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr. Vampire Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 Yes and No... While I appreciate the opportunity to have seen all (and I do mean ALL, well, almost all) these films, IMO Celestial ponged on this whole deal early on in a number of ways, and this - of course - would be their end game in the whole mess, to pull out prematurely. There were many things that they could have done to increase their sales (skip the licensing deals and sell R0 discs with english dub, if any, added) but they didn't seem to get how to promote SB to the masses. I am still waiting for my official SB logo shield T-Shirt but I stopped holding my breath on that one when I saw the designer-yuppie silk shirts they came out with. Some other company might do better with what's left (Panorama?). Damn, I don't even want to think about what's left over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Linn1 Posted October 26, 2007 Member Share Posted October 26, 2007 There were many things that they could have done to increase their sales (skip the licensing deals and sell R0 discs with english dub, if any, added) but they didn't seem to get how to promote SB to the masses. I am still waiting for my official SB logo shield T-Shirt but I stopped holding my breath on that one when I saw the designer-yuppie silk shirts they came out with. But business-wise that made no sense. Just as an example, look at Image's releases, they just made it half way through the first batch they bought, yet Celestial were paid all their money up front. And they certainly made more money than they would have pressing discs, shipping them overseas, and finding a way to distribute them in the US. By the time they started making money, they may have broken even. Why worry about producing DVDs, you can be paid to let others do it for you? Their logo is now known all over the world, with people paying them for the right to do so. They wouldn't have made even half the money they have for these films, because companies like Tai Seng would have imported them for a song, which were exactly Tai Seng's plan after deals broke down with Celestial years ago. Let alone, if they had made R0 discs, they wouldn't have sold the films to all the other countries they did. They made a killing at the end of the day for something they were doing for a TV station. For the record, there will be deals made for releasing films that will not be released by IVL. And all it takes for someone to put out Shaw Brothers merch, is one of the people making deals for dvd releases setting up something via their distribution deal. The end of IVL releases is NOT the end of Shaw Brothers releases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tantao3,son of tantao2 Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 ...in my humble opinion i can not imagine that someone will release the rest of the 170+ shaw/celestial titles...there is some "good stuff" not released yet (i.g. to kill a mastermind etc.), but most of these unreleased titles are not the a-class titles which will "bring back the money"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShawBrothers Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 The end of IVL releases is NOT the end of Shaw Brothers releases. i doubt any company will do "remaining" non kungfu or horror, so many 60's and 70's i wanted to see, this is sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Von Humboldt Fleischer Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 I'm rarely the voice of optimism, but judging from what Linn says the outlook isn't all that bleak. Releases might slow down to a trickle, but they'll still come. IVL aren't the only distributors in the world. In the meantime, if you're anything like me, you probably still have dozens of movies you haven't gotten round to watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest vengeanceofhumanlanterns Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 All I know is if they renig on releasing The Bloody Parrot this Dec. 2007 I'm goin postal! We need cooler lookin smilies. If they can just follow through with that one release this year my Shaws collection can rest in peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teako170 Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 Yes, over the last five years there have been many issues with these releases. Yes, certain films will not be released (at least by IVL). Yes. Yes. Yes. But -- at the end of the day, is our cup half full or half empty? Think about this the next time you watch that crappy boot of Opium. The next time you squint to read the subtitles in House of Traps. Sure, things could have been (much) better. But hey, 2002 is soooo long ago. Funny how quickly we forget what it was like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member bboyninku Posted October 26, 2007 Member Share Posted October 26, 2007 Although there are still many titles we would like to see remastered, in the end we should be glad that we were blessed with all the amazing titles that were remastered. Celestial not only took the time to release all these films, but did an amazing job on remastering 90% of their titles. (At least the ones I was concerned with) We got the entire Lau Kar Leung library, Venoms, and many classics sprinkled through those as well. I mean there were ones that people probably never seen until they were re-released by Celestial! Ones like Disciples of the 36th Chamber, Secret Service of the Imperial Court, and Lion Vs. Lion are a few that I believed had little to no circulation before Celestial released them. Let's all be thankful of what Celestial has done since 2002. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chemical Lemon Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 It's important to remember that the SB movies are at a very early stage in their release cycle. Unlike most 60's/70's/80's movies, almost none of these have received legitimate releases prior to 2003. It looks like Celestial was formed for the purpose of shovelling out and profitting on these movies with as little work as possible. So the remastering was done as part of the purchase price, and Celestial was using them to prop up their tv station and then releasing as many of them as they could as quickly as they thought the market could support them, doing the smallest amount of work possible to make back as much of the investment as they could as soon as they could. I very much doubt that ALL of the remaining 170 SB movies they have will be released, but over the next 10 years I bet most will. In particular I think we can expect the remaining remastered movies in that catalog to get a release sometime soon (with an exception of maybe Starry is the Night, which it sounds like has some kind of rights issue). They did pretty good though, there are only 13 movies in that catalog that aren't currently planned for release. Starry Is The Night The Purple Shell Young Passion Black Magic 2 The Brain Stealers Lets Fall In Love Call Of The Sea Operation Lipstick The Villains The Killer Has No Return The Killer Killers On Wheels Forever Diamonds and it sounds like they've already remastered "Love With an Alien", so that one seems likely to be released too. I expect now that they've gone through the "fast as possible, as little work as possible" phase, 2 things will happen. First, they'll realize if they want to milk movies for more money they'll need to put more work into them. Second, it will be cheaper for companies to get the rights to release these movies. I expect eventually, after they've had these movies for a long time, it will be cheap enough that even the least attractive movies can be released for the niche market. This all requires a lot of patience, though, which is tough to have if you've been waiting to see these since the 60's/80's. I'm actually kind of happy. I could use the break, to save some money and catch up on the stack of movies I haven't had time to watch. I'm also very much looking forward to upcoming region 1 releases with english dubs. As uncool as it may be to dig the english dubs, I really do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest venomchamber Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 Yes, the time went by very fast, but in its wake I have been fortunate enough to obtain films I never thought I'd have the chance to see even in bootleg form, let alone digitally remastered in widescreen ShawScope! Before 2002 I had never seen Chen Kuan-Tai's THE TEAHOUSE, BIG BROTHER CHENG, BIG BAD SIS, or IRON BODYGUARD, Ti Lung's debut in DEAD END, Ti Lung's directorial debut films YOUNG LOVERS ON FLYING WHEELS and THE DRUG ADDICTS, David Chiang's directorial debut A MAD WORLD OF FOOLS, Chang Cheh's surreal Monkey film THE FANTASTIC MAGIC BABY, Chu Yuan's THE BASTARD and THE LIZARD, Danny Li Hsieu-Hsien as THE OILY MANIAC and in THE RIVER OF FURY, THE VENGEFUL BEAUTY (an excellent sequel to The Flying Guillotine), Gordon Liu as GODFATHER OF CANTON, Chen Wo-Fu in THE SHADOW BOXER, Lo Lieh & Ku Feng in THE FUGITIVE or Lo Lieh with Shih Szu in HEROES OF THE SUNG, not to mention all of the sexy erotica films such as CRAZY SEX, LOVE SWINDLERS, SINFUL CONFESSIONS, THE GIRL WITH THE LONG HAIR, STARLETS FOR SALE and THE SEXY GIRLS OF DENMARK, as well as the horror/thrillers SEX BEYOND THE GRAVE, GHOST EYES, HELL HAS NO BOUNDARY, CORPSE MANIA and THE CRIMINALS series. These were all considered "lost" films before. Lots of unearthed 'rare gems' in addition to many many many upgrades from bootlegs videos of varying quality and assorted languages. I can say this much, I have spent a small fortune collecting all of these films and will always treasure them for years to come! Now after 5 years of plunking down almost $100 bucks a week on SB DVDs, it will feel odd not having to rush to Chinatown every other Friday to pick-up the new releases! Now maybe I can finally start saving some money for my retirement! Perhaps when and if they relaunch with another company in S.E. Asia, they'll finally find and restore Chang Cheh's TIGER BOY ! (I can dream, can't I? ) I am grateful and content...for now! Thank You Celestial! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest clfnole Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 I just wish they would remaster "To Kill A Mastermind" then my collection would be complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ironfistedmonk Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 Are they not re-mastering all of the films they acquired, it's just that the contract with IVL for DVD releases has expired? May we see films like To Kill a Mastermind showing on the Celestial channel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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