Member vengeanceofhumanlanterns Posted July 23, 2008 Member Share Posted July 23, 2008 Why on some of their discs the feature skips (apparently) through all the insta-action fight scenes. So you have to watch both to catch the whole film? If that's even the problem. I remember returning The One-Armed Swordsmen thinking it was cut with more than half the film missing. Though my replacement copy works fine. What is it that's wrong with their discs? Anyone? It's a shame for they're releasing films no-one else has yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bus Posted July 23, 2008 Member Share Posted July 23, 2008 they are cheep bootlegs it's kind of like you get what you pay for when it's pretty much stolen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member HyperDrive Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 I've heard many things about VideoAsia on how some movies seemed to be a recorded TV broadcast and etc. HKFlix only sells VideoAsia titles on a closeout basis only due to their poor quality. For the example below, HKFlix cannot even do that as Tai Seng not VideoAsia has the legal rights to that film. http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.538152/qx/details.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 I have a large # of Videoasia DVDs where I am happy with the quality, but I have just as many where i'm not happy with the quality. It's hit and miss. If you have questions abotu a certain DVD just ask. Most likely someone on the board can give you info on any Videoasia disc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member gfanikf Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 Video Asia is the DVD equivalent of sex with a cheap hooker. Be careful or your DVD player might get gonorrhea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bus Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 haha but honestly it's mostly just a few titles that you're 50/50 of em playing or not like the The One-Armed Swordsmen and Dance Of The Drunk Mantis which i had to exchange several times before i could get one that didn't do the same thing skippin through like you said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 You can get past the skipping thing, but it's a struggle. You have to keep the time display on screen and every time a chapter is abotu to end, you fast forward through it until the next chapter starts. And Videoasia gave my DVD player just regular diarhhea, not gonarhea, so I guess I got lucky there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bus Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 yea but you reach for a chip and it's all over with done missed 10 minutes and you're lost. it makes it more like a godfrey ho movie though i guess just sitting there like what the hell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 It is very frustrating when you are really into the movie, and then you totally forget that you have to fastforward so it doesn't go into skip mode. Then it skips and you have to fastforward like 68 minutes into the movie and get yourself back into fastforwarding through the chapters. Man it's amazing what us kung fu fans will go through to watch a movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bus Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 no doubt. i guess it might be good if we listed some of the better videoasia titles.. off da top of my head so i might name some wrong.. i'd get if you can seven steps of kung fu daggers 8 ninja in the dragon's den duel of the 7 tigers showdown at the cotton mill my life's on the line the rebelious reign shaolin iron claws horse boxing killer snake in the monkey's shadow dance of the drunk mantis crane fighter shaolin ex monk south shaolin and north shaolin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 Well, that just goes to show how likely you are to get a good Videoasia DVD. a lot of those DVDs are actually really bad. I don't know where to start. I will try to get to them all but I don't know if I can. 7 Steps- bad pic quality, but definitley watchable. Widescreen which is nice. There is some unnatural undercranking during the final fight caused by VHS. Daggers 8- doesn't work on some DVD players, but if you get the version that's in one of their recent multipacks it plays just fine, because it's a different disc. And that brings me to another point. Because there is 4 movies on one doublesided disc, the picture quality isn't as good. Not too distracting for me, but for a lot of people it would be. I may as well stop here. This would become an eeexxtremely long post, because there are big big problems with all but 2 of those DVDs you listed. I'll explain if you need me to, but I need sleep first. I don't have the hours right now that it would take to make that post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted July 24, 2008 Member Share Posted July 24, 2008 no doubt. i guess it might be good if we listed some of the better videoasia titles.. off da top of my head so i might name some wrong.. i'd get if you can seven steps of kung fu daggers 8 ninja in the dragon's den duel of the 7 tigers showdown at the cotton mill my life's on the line the rebelious reign shaolin iron claws horse boxing killer snake in the monkey's shadow dance of the drunk mantis crane fighter shaolin ex monk south shaolin and north shaolin Most if not all of those films can be bought on far superior DVDs from other companies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jstn Posted July 26, 2008 Member Share Posted July 26, 2008 haha but honestly it's mostly just a few titles that you're 50/50 of em playing or not like the The One-Armed Swordsmen and Dance Of The Drunk Mantis which i had to exchange several times before i could get one that didn't do the same thing skippin through like you said Same exact thing happened to my 'Dance of the Drunken Mantis'....glad i got rid of that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member tdb Posted July 26, 2008 Member Share Posted July 26, 2008 Showdown at the Cotton Mill is a Rarescope release (Legit and still dirt cheap. Quality may be a little iffy, but still better than the VA disc probably). Dance of the Drunk Mantis - there's an anamorphic release from Mei Ah. Good news is that it's anamorphic, bad news is that it's Mei Ah (and a little pricier). I have one VA title that I picked up by mistake but haven't gotten around to watching yet (English dub only so it's at the bottom of my queue). It's Invincible Armor, I think. Worth holding on to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member gravedigger666 Posted July 26, 2008 Member Share Posted July 26, 2008 Showdown at the Cotton Mill is a Rarescope release (Legit and still dirt cheap. Quality may be a little iffy, but still better than the VA disc probably). I tried to watch it but for me subtitles appeared unreadable or I should have been 2 meters distance from tv.In early of movie chi kuan chun fights someone on street and that looks bad ass brawl,if rest of movie features equal stuff it`s almost classic maybe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted July 26, 2008 Member Share Posted July 26, 2008 I tried to watch it but for me subtitles appeared unreadable or I should have been 2 meters distance from tv.In early of movie chi kuan chun fights someone on street and that looks bad ass brawl,if rest of movie features equal stuff it`s almost classic maybe Its highly regarded, but I think its standard mediocre fare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted August 2, 2008 Member Share Posted August 2, 2008 Gravedigger the other fights in the movie are just as good. You have to at least watch Chi Kuan Chun's fight with Chang Chi Ping. Fastforward to the 2:24 mark, or just watch the whole clip because it's a great scene- v0cX0-hFvWg And the subtitles are hard to read, but I guess you have to really want to read them (or maybe I just have really good eyes. I don't know). Some are completely unreadable, but I was still able to understand the story pretty easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Winfred Posted August 2, 2008 Member Share Posted August 2, 2008 Though there isn't much colour, picture looks sharp. I like Chi Kuan-chun's fighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted August 2, 2008 Member Share Posted August 2, 2008 Yeah not much color, but the key is that it is widescreen. Anyone who has seen the Videoasia version knows how nice the Rarescope version is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member The Dragon Posted August 2, 2008 Member Share Posted August 2, 2008 Why doesn't rarescope at least give us somewhat readable subs.? I mean it's frustrating when you haven't seen a film before. (That was the case with my initial viewing of SDATCM.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted August 2, 2008 Member Share Posted August 2, 2008 You guys are making me feel like I have the best eyesight in the world. I should probably look into being a superhero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted August 2, 2008 Administrator Share Posted August 2, 2008 Hey guys, when I watch old nasty-print versions of movies I do a couple of things to fix them. As an artist/ painter I'm very sensitive to colors and such, so I always try to make a film look it's best before watching it. To some people these suggestions will be so obvious. But maybe this will enchance the viewing pleasure for a few of you that hadn't tried this stuff. 1. Put your disc in and skip to a random chapter, any showing a bright scene will do, and pause the DVD. I know, you don't want to spoil anything, but we're talking kung fu here, not suspense or mystery. 2. Now using the TV remote adjust the "picture" . Adjust the color until it starts to look like people have real flesh tones. Use brightness to make sure blacks appear to be a very dark grey. If the picture looks greenish, which is often the case with poorly preserved, deteriorating films (I think it's from oxidation?) then you want to use the hue control, and make it more red (or, if it's too red, go into the green my friends). Changing the contrast can make those pesky white subs on a light background become easier to read. When dealing with the sharpness, it would seem that you'd want very high sharpness right? We usually associate sharpness with positive results (good thing I had a sharp sword to kill my enemy and cut this steak ), but in this case, not so much. A high degree of sharpness results in poor prints looking worse! It can actually enhance the graininess of an image. Lowering the sharpness can result in a clearer, softer looking image, and again, often helps with the legibility of the subtitles. 3. Many DVD players also have picture adjust capabilities. Jump into this menu and do the same as above. Between the two sets of adjustments you can really make a huge difference in the image. You will be shocked at the difference this can make. I know all this sounds like a lot to go through, but it really isn't. After you do it two or three times it'll be old hat and will only take you two minutes tops. Not bad to enhance your enjoyment of something for one and a half to two hours huh? My wife used to think I was really silly for doing this, but now if I don't she complains! I figure, if you have a piece of art that you love, you wouldn't put it in a closet. You'd hang it where you could see it with the proper lighting right? If you wear glasses, you wouldn't read a best selling book without them, right? So why not make your movie watching experience the best it can be? Yeah, I know... I'm a geek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member gravedigger666 Posted August 6, 2008 Member Share Posted August 6, 2008 Ok,I managed to watch Showdown at last...In 1st hour there is fighting a lot but bouts are very short.Chi Kuan Chun finished opponents in minute or so.But they are well-made though,CKC is top kung-fu man,his handwork is enjoyable to watch. However in about middle of movie I started to feel bit bored ckc killing wu tang men and waited when Tan Tao Liang takes action.Then movie improves,he is really cool in Showdown. Not excellent movie but above average certainly,will rate it 4/5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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