Ghosts Galore (1983)

[HAZ]

Hi

Just wondering about "Ghosts Galore". I can get a nice DVD of this subbed. Is it any good or does it suck?

Thanks

h

[HAZ]

Found some info on line. I'll get the dvd & post a review.

[HAZ]

90 views & I was the only one to respond to this thread. lol. Hwang Jang Lee is in this one. I'm guessing that its in the same vein as Spooky Encounters.

[will91XingYu]

I have the vhs of this, the fights are amazing, it has Chin Siu Ho in the lead role, the end fight is really cool. Chu Ko and Lung Tien Tsang are also in it as is Lo Lieh as a priest.

[HAZ]

Thanks for your input, my friend. I'm curious to peep this out.

[Mr. Vampire]

DVD where?

[venoms5]

There was a laserdisc release of this some years back along with HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD and USURPERS OF EMPEROR'S POWER. CRAZY SHAOLIN DISCIPLES, too I think and maybe one or two others.

[magicpoe]

Here are the first 10 minutes just for referrence:

SlzD5EiN9Ds

[thundered mantis]

For me, it´s totally worthy for the action alone. Way worse films from the catalog have gotten Celestial releases. Dunno what´s exactly the state of the future Shaw releases, but I do have very clear that we the kung fu fans have been negated this 6 releases:

TO KILL A MASTERMIND

GHOSTS GALORE

LOVERS BLADES

THUNDERCLAP

HONG KONG GODFATHER

I´LL FINALLY KNOCK YOU DOWN, DAD

This is fact. Maybe we as fandom didn´t make an enough clear point about Shaw films and made companies think that we loved 60´s and early 70´s swordplays dramas and musical equally as much as shape fests from late 70´s and 80´s. And maybe that´s the case for many people, but I bet 5 Superfighters really had more buys than The Heroic Ones, for example. And so we had The Heroic Ones but didn´t have To Kill A Mastermind.

[venoms5]

Regardless of what some may think of it, HEROIC ONES was and is a very famous film regardless of the time it was made. A big hit upon its release. There is also a TV show based on HEROIC ONES. I doubt highly that 5 SUPERFIGHTERS moved more units. Maybe more Americans bought it. TO KILL A MASTERMIND was not profitable and I'm sure far more Chinese remember the Cheh film than the Chung movie. That does not mean that's the reason it didn't come out. The contract was for 5 years and when it ran out that was it. But remember, these releases were not intended for America. That's what the number three inside that globe on the back of the box is for. Also, you should think about the number of "fans" who downloaded or bought inferior bootlegs of the legit titles. For all the money Celestial put into restoring the films, they deserved the money for the discs.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

BCI has Hong Kong Godfather thundered mantis.

[The Dragon]

Regardless of what some may think,... The contract was for 5 years and when it ran out that was it... remember, these releases were not intended for America. That's what the number three inside that globe on the back of the box is for. Also, you should think about the number of "fans" who downloaded or bought inferior bootlegs of the legit titles. For all the money Celestial put into restoring the films, they deserved the money for the discs.

Well said Venoms5.

[The Dragon]

BCI has Hong Kong Godfather thundered mantis.

Mr. BCI, , when are the release dates...?

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Hopefully soon:o Hopefully really soon!

[Chinatown Kid]

I got Ghosts Galore a few years ago from flashlegsrare and to me it was a letdown. I think it was a rip from an Ocean Shores laser disc because the OS logo popped up several times on the screen. I wanted this film because HJL was in it but was sad to find out he was pretty much wasted. He throws a few kicks at the end but not enough to make it worth getting imo. There's some Japanese Ninjas in the film and there's a few nice fights between them and star Chin Su Ho but the film is mostly filled with black magic type stuff and silly shenanigans. Lo Lieh is featured as a Black Magic type priest/sorcerer. I was much more impressed with HJL in Kid from Kwangtung.

[venoms5]

I think it was a rip from an Ocean Shores laser disc because the OC logo poped up several times on the screen.

There's also a World Video VHS tape of this title, too. Don't know what the quality is like on that one yet. It would be nice to see that unfinished HJL Shaw flick too, or at least what was shot anyways.

[Chinatown Kid]

Yeah I would love to see that unfinished Shaw film of HJL too, I'm sure they probably got some fights in the can featuring Hwang before they stopped production.

[thundered mantis]

Yeah I didn´t remember about BCI´s thing. It´s great, but from the six movies I mentioned, that one was the less pressing one to release, ´cause there´s a very good copy of it out there.

Venoms5 and The Dragon, it´s a bit pointless to retake the argument ´cause it´s been discussed here before. Anyway, as this time is my fault , I´ll throw my two cents on it. Yeah there´s the R3 thing and the argument about the theatrical success of the films. What I say is:

-as far as I know, after "theatrical" era passed and the "videotape" era came, the kung fu genre was mainly a western interest. The biggest market was the US, followed by UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and other european countries, plus some african and south american ones. All the 5th generation boots for 40$ and stuff.

-when the DVD came out, international market for kung fu was essentially the same, western game. The money revenues the first US DVD edition of 36th Chamber did were incredible.

-the HK market (how many people, 8 million?) is very small; plus the people who buys DVDs there I bet is the younger sector of population, who doesn´t give s# about a Ti Lung and David Chiang film from 1970 with slow fighting. People who remembers those films are over 40, and that is a very bad target for DVDs.

-if the western market wasn´t in the Celestial minds, why the scattering of "interesting for west market" films? That seems like a bussiness strategy to keep potential buyers interested all the lapse of releases

(and they succeeded on that). If the target aimed at was to be the HK one, the latter batchs of films should have contained The Heroic Ones and the like films, not Kid from Kwantung or Super Ninjas.

-if the western market wasn´t in the Celestial minds, why the huge dificulties for western companies to acquire Celestial films? They couldn´t just buy the films that interested them, they had to choose from "pre-selected listings" from Celestial. They also couldn´t release a film in US the same time, or just a couple of months after IVL did the same with their R3 counterpart in HK. Why? Where Celestial afraid that the HK market they were supposedly aiming at would buy "My Young Auntie" overseas, at UK or Germany? Come on...

For me the facts and strategy from Celestial point at them profiting as much as they could from the fandom worldwide community (which, as usual with those kind of fanbases, like terror, sci fi or anime ones, is globalized, a big percentage of members does have multiregion DVD players, etc), first selling the R3 discs to western fans, and then selling as much films as they could to western companies, forcing them to buy a lot of films that weren´t really interesting from a commercial point of view here as price to get to the really wanted films.

But Celestial was too greedy, demanding too much from the western companies and restricting them too much (because they wanted the western fans to buy their R3 DVDs), thus the Shaw releases were commercial failures on most places (US, Spain, UK, etc.) This failure was also due to the fanbase not being clear on our preferences (IMO), the bootleging thing and many other causes.

The only thing I don´t know is how this venture resulted for Celestial (maybe the DVD market was totally secondary for them and their main interest were the cable channels, don´t know). But, if I do not see real sales proof telling me I´m wrong, I think the late 70´s kung Shaw DVDs did so much money than the swordplays, musicals, dramas and rest of stuff. And I won´t change my mind even if Celestial´s board of direction tells me I´m wrong. I´d need to read the sales´ figures.

[venoms5]

Celestial had a "Buy all or nothing" strategy in the beginning for the non-Asian territories. That's why nobody bit in the beginning.

The reason HEROIC ONES was in the first batch is because Chang Cheh's early films are the most famous and respected among Asian audiences. The venom films, contrary to what many may think, were not popular in HK. They were modestly successful at best. I've talked with a number of Chinese who remember these movies and ALL OF THEM detest Chang Cheh's later films and don't even acknowledge them as part of his repertoire. And the small few that did enjoy them preferred Jackie Chan's style of action at the time over these. It's funny too, that all of them said even back then, using Lu Feng as a reference, he was referred to as "That guy who always plays the bad guy" and not by name. The Chinese audience knew who they were but they were direct to video quality stars compared with say Ti Lung, Fu Sheng, CKT or anybody at GH at the time.

I'd like to see sales figures as well. I'd also like to see bootleg and illegal download "sales" too. And remember, the ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN box set, three films from 1967-71 was in the top five DVD sales for the year of release.

[Chinatown Kid]

So the HK audience look down on Cheh's later films with the Venoms, wow never realized that. Since they kept making Venom films I thought the HK/Asian audience must have liked them. Besides the HK audience prefering Jackie's Seasonal and Golden Harvest films was it also because of the comic book style of the films and because they thought the stories/plot were not well crafted and they didn't take them seriously? I liked both Chang's earlier and later films but prefer the fight choreography in his latter films. I'm glad there is such a variety of films/styles though.

[venomchamber]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Chang's later "venom" films weren't popular with HK audiences at the time. They grew into their films thru supporting roles and finally achieved big box office without the star power of Ti Lung or Fu Sheng. In fact, those later films were a part of what kept the Shaws' box-office in direct competition with Seasonal Films, First Films, and of course, Golden Harvest. It wasn't until Chang whipped out the venom-less THE WEIRD MAN on unsuspecting audiences that the million dollar director finally ran out of steam. In fact, with the exception of NA-CHA THE GREAT, most of his supernatural stuff seemed to flop, such as his 1975 FANTASTIC MAGIC BABY for example. Sure their films made half the money a Ti Lung/David Chiang team-up like THE DUEL made, but they compensated by turning out an average of three films to Liu Chia-Liang's one and kept the money flowing! What's more, I recall seeing the Shaws' box-office reports posted here on this forum once before, a long time ago. Where it is now is anybody's guess. (*link anyone?)

But still, once upon a time, Chinese people used to go watch Chinese movies...they weren't all catered to the west. (That's what Bruce Li and co. were created for!) HONG KONG MOVIE NEWS and SOUTHERN SCREEN magazines are filled with pages of pen-pals throughout S.E. Asia from Taiwan (where they were very popular) to HK to Singapore to Malaysia, the majority of whom adored the rising stars of Shaw's latter years and wrote in to the magazines for interviews and contests to win signed 5x7 photos. (I should know, I've an issue in my collection with hearts drawn in pen all over their page by an adoring teen-age fan! lol) If they weren't popular, then there wouldn't have been some 20+ films starring them! Alas, all good things do come to an end, and after 20 years at SB (1963-1983), Chang Cheh's films just began to look more and more stagey (read: Operatic) in a market thirsting for more westernized action after seeing Jackie Chan's stunt-filled epics, and of course the ACES GO PLACES series that made its debut at the time. Not to mention along came a gentleman named John Woo who nailed the coffin shut on the traditional old-school kung-fu movie, with the exception of Jet Li's films. So its just a matter of preference, out with the old, in with the new with almost no sense of nostalgia. The 'venoms' were a product of their time, currently more popular here than there (take Lo Mang's plight for example), but the Chinese will watch them too after work, once they've had their fill of Lily Ho and Ti Lung and become re-introduced to them thru Fu Sheng's films all over again like before!

As for today's younger Chinese crowd, yeah, I'm sure they don't watch the stuff, much less appreciate it, they're too trendy nowadays busy with their anime, ipods or PSP, but I can assure you everytime I'm in one of the videostores here in Chinatown, there's always (and I mean always) a cluster of 40-something year old Chinese grabbing a bunch of VCDs (rather than DVDs because of the cheaper price), and they know exactly who and what they're looking for and that's instant gratification. Remember, they watch it just for quick entertainment after working long hours and are not collectors or enthusiasts like ourselves. They may not log onto sites to spend hours chatting about a thirty year old movie, but they do remember most (if not all) of the actors, and interestingly, one thing is for certain, they ALL love Li Ching and remember her well!

Anyways, from what I understand, Celestial's inaugural batches consisted of the Shaws' most celebrated titles and the rest were all remastered randomly and released in no particular order of preference.

Now then, my only question is: how long does IVL have a specific title in print for? I realize it was originally announced that the entire library would be made available by the end of 2007, but Celestial seems to have failed to meet that goal. If IVL retained a region 3 license for 5 years, then obviously all of 2002-2003 batches would be out of print by now, but wouldn't titles that came out in 2007 still have the same contractual 5 year print run, ceasing in 2012, or was it lessened by the year? If so, then IVL got the short end of the stick in a bad business deal. It would be very difficult to properly market such a large volume of DVDs within such a small window of time and turn a huge profit for ANY company other than Disney who specialize in returning things to the vault only to re-release it 5 years later, which may be what Celestial is planning to do!

I'd been under the assumption it would read something like this...

2002 out of print in 2007,

2003 out of print in 2008,

2004 out of print in 2009,

2005 out of print in 2010,

2006 out of print in 2011,

2007 out of print in 2012

because I can't imagine a title coming out in December 2007 going out of print in January 2008!

Otherwise it would imply IVL had 5 years to sell COME DRINK WITH ME and then only two months to sell FIVE ELEMENT NINJA or worse, only two weeks to move all quantities of their renowned huangmei DIAU CHARN?! Talk about your limited edition! As my local stores can still re-order almost anything including the horror and erotic stuff (except for the LOST SOULS VCD darn it), I think most discs are still readily available and are only out of stock thru most online retailers who wait till the last possible minute to reorder, fearing overstock upon news of a domestic release. For instance, I can still get an IVL R3 HEROES TWO in the cardboard slipcases at retail even though it is from 2003 (regardless of how many say it is out of print) I believe because online distributors are anticipating the upcoming MediaBlasters version and decline to order more R3 for that reason. I'm curious to know if I've hit it on the head so to speak.

Notice how KISS OF DEATH is also now 'out of print', and suddenly it is coming out via Image? ...and in ENGLISH too!?!

I assume they clearenced the R3 discs to make way for the upcoming Image discs?

I've also seen many R3 copies of the alleged out of print MAN OF IRON and FLYING GUILLOTINE resurfacing week after week as well. So much for out of print, eh? (*YES, btw, they're authentic R3, not boots!)

If U.S. stores are getting them, then why can't online services? Inquiring minds want to know!

hmmmm...another thought: when a title goes OOP, is it just the DVD version, or does that include the VCD release as well? The stores here in NYC are a literal sea cascading with Shaw VCDs and with only two exceptions so far (LOST SOULS and STARLETS FOR SALE), every title is still available in this (inferior) format.

Man, I was just thinking I wish Linn were here. I miss reading his posts...he always had a clever way of hinting at things to come.

[Chinatown Kid]

Very interesting info venomchamber, thanks!

[venoms5]

So the HK audience look down on Cheh's later films with the Venoms, wow never realized that. Since they kept making Venom films I thought the HK/Asian audience must have liked them. Besides the HK audience prefering Jackie's Seasonal and Golden Harvest films was it also because of the comic book style of the films and because they thought the stories/plot were not well crafted and they didn't take them seriously? I liked both Chang's earlier and later films but prefer the fight choreography in his latter films. I'm glad there is such a variety of films/styles though.

He was still popular in Taiwan. They shot five films at once and it took five films to equal the take of just one of LKL's movies as an example. The GH and Seasonal films gave audiences what they wanted--they wanted to laugh and Cheh's movies were recycled ideas and themes of his past hits buried under a bunch of fight scenes. They were violent and bloody and most of the HK audience didn't want that anymore.

I personally love all of Cheh's films but being perfectly honest his later films are inferior to his earlier pictures in terms of production. You notice how cramped the sets are in the venom films? He was no longer a hot commodity in HK. He was consistent with each succeeding film he did. It seemed the same handful of fans were going to see his movies while the "Chan Clan" was filling the theaters. By 1983 Shaw's had more or less become an indy themselves as their films, while I love'em and I hate to say this, couldn't match the production offered at GH with films like PROJECT A, POLICE STORY and so on.

You bring up the subject of Chang Cheh to a Chinese who saw these movies in the theater and they're going to ALWAYS mention David Chiang, Ti Lung, CKT and Fu Sheng. You say Venoms and they say, "Who are they?" Some remember FIVE VENOMS or CRIPPLED AVENGERS but that's it. The only two actors of that group they can say have any level of fame are Kuo Chui and Lo Mang. Lu Feng they don't know the name but show them an image of him and they'll say "Oh this guy...he always play bad guy..." and that's it.

Even Cheh in his own words doesn't think much of his later flicks. In his book he never once mentions them by name. He refers to them as "Those guys from Taiwan". He does speak of Kuo Chui separately though.

[venoms5]

It wasn't until Chang whipped out the venom-less THE WEIRD MAN on unsuspecting audiences that the million dollar director finally ran out of steam.

It wasn't because he ran out of steam it was that his contract with Shaw ran out and they weren't going to renew it. WEIRD MAN made under $500,000 dollars in HK. His FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS made $1.7 million. Both MASKED AVENGERS and HOUSE OF TRAPS made between $700 and $900,000 dollars a piece. Chan's DRAGON LORD made $18 million in comparison. Also, LKL's LEGENDARY WEAPONS grossed $9 million dollars in 1982 to further put things in perspective.

[Chinatown Kid]

Very interesting info too, thanks venoms5!