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The "A Chinese Ghost Story" trilogy


dragonherb

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Guest Markgway

You'd think it might be something Criterion would take an interest in... but they don't seem to bother about any Hong Kong film that isn't directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Amazing pretention for a company that once put out Armageddon!

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The Australian DVD at least. Probably a Native PAL transfer, too, but you'll need to confirm that from someone else (left my disc in Europe :tongue:).

I must go there one day :xd:.

Most likely a port of a French disc.

HK Video might actually be the most frustrating of all, it's like there's an alternative just out of reach. Hell, even if I spoke Chinese, you can't get the damn subtitles.

I can understand the American terror, but how many years is it going to take Fortune Star to figure out every single person with ears can tell their remixes sound inferior to the original mono? It's not about being purist, it's simply about the new sound effect sounding dull, quiet and hollow as opposed to the punchy original effects.

I just don't understand why it's so hard. Just have it on there and in sync, it probably takes a hell of a lot less effort to do that than to put on a remix that I don't want. It's bad enough to have to scour the net for these damn things, but there isn't even a proper version to buy half the time. You'd think I'd have stopped flogging a dead horse after all of these years, but it's frustrating. Is there a thread here somewhere that lists all of the hideous downmixes and remixes?

Is the Aussie DVD of BWWH original stereo or mono? I've never seen a stereo version on DVD or tape.

My Tai Seng DVD has a Dolby Digital track, it's actually a good one too, I think it was the first HK film that had one. I actually remember watching it on an old PC and it was one of the first stereo mixes that I ever noticed.

I've only heard the film in mono myself.

On what, the UK DVD? The Tai Seng version was the only one I knew about.

I think the R4 is OOP though.

Oh, but of course!

You'd think it might be something Criterion would take an interest in... but they don't seem to bother about any Hong Kong film that isn't directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Amazing pretention for a company that once put out Armageddon!

Yeah, they are majorly neglectful of Hong Kong cinema, though to be fair, a lot of the rights to most of the big stuff are probably with the accursed Weinsteins, etc. Plus, Criterion, Michael Bay and The Blob not withstanding, tend to do more arty stuff, and I don't know of much of that from HK outside of Wong Kar-Wai. I'm there's plenty, I'm just ass-ignorant and don't know about it.

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Guest Markgway
My Tai Seng DVD has a Dolby Digital track, it's actually a good one too, I think it was the first HK film that had one. I actually remember watching it on an old PC and it was one of the first stereo mixes that I ever noticed.

Bury Me High was originally Dolby Stereo. Again, I've never heard it.

On what, the UK DVD? The Tai Seng version was the only one I knew about.

Universe (HK) DVD.

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sadly BURY ME HIGH was apparently never released in Stereo on Home Video Formats. even the OS Laserdisc is Mono :( if anyone DOES know an Original stereo Home Video Version, please tell...

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hanshotfirst
What we need is a custom fan edition that gives us Fortune Star's image, Deltamac's audio, and HKL's subtitles.

More chance of that than any distributor getting it right.

So basically, you have a choice of the Deltamac with the mono and non-anamorphic video, the Fortune Star with Remastered video and downmixes, or the HKL with proper subs? No release properly represents the film even now? Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. God knows what software I'd need to cobble that together even of I could get a hold of all of the necessary versions.

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The first one is a classic, no doubt about it. The second one isn't quite as good, but has some nice wire-fu swordplay and a whole bunch of weird stuff at the end (laser-shooting Buddha, flying centipedes, invisible swordsmen, etc). Also, it has probably the spookiest scene in the entire series. The third one was a pale imitation of the first movie, as far as I'm concerned. However, the wire stunts were far more complex than what we saw in the previous two movies and there's always the memorable tongue-cam sequence, too.

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Still no decent DVDs or Blu-rays of these films...I’m still making do with my Deltamacs, because at least they’re in original Cantonese mono.  I hope 88 Films or Eureka will come to their rescue.

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On 4/3/2014 at 11:20 AM, DrNgor said:

The first one is a classic, no doubt about it. The second one isn't quite as good, but has some nice wire-fu swordplay and a whole bunch of weird stuff at the end (laser-shooting Buddha, flying centipedes, invisible swordsmen, etc). Also, it has probably the spookiest scene in the entire series. The third one was a pale imitation of the first movie, as far as I'm concerned. However, the wire stunts were far more complex than what we saw in the previous two movies and there's always the memorable tongue-cam sequence, too.

Well said @DrNgor.

It's been decades since I last saw them, but I have been wanting to revisit them. Originally I saw them in the theater back when I first got into Hong Kong cinema and I hadn't ever seen anything like them before. Unforgettable cinema experience! Soon after I got them on VHS and would watch them frequently.

 

On 1/24/2020 at 8:59 PM, WaverBoy said:

Still no decent DVDs or Blu-rays of these films...I’m still making do with my Deltamacs, because at least they’re in original Cantonese mono.  I hope 88 Films or Eureka will come to their rescue.

I hope so. I'd like to see them "in style". I just read reviews for them by @moviemisfit on Instagram and it made me want to revisit them all.

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hanshotfirst1138
On 1/26/2013 at 11:34 AM, Guest Markgway said:

Two questions:

 

1. How do you tell if ACGS's mono track is the/a downmix? (I remember some talk about alternate music/dialogue...?). I have a Spanish edition downloaded but no idea if its mono is kosher. Should the scene where Joey hides Leslie in the bathtub be with or without music, for example?

 

2. Are there any 16:9 remastered versions known to have Cantonese mono for sure? French DVD, perhaps?

Was there ever an LD with the original mono track? I bet the rights issues for this outside of Asia are more tangled than the John Woo movies we want…

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1 hour ago, hanshotfirst1138 said:

Was there ever an LD with the original mono track? I bet the rights issues for this outside of Asia are more tangled than the John Woo movies we want…

HK LDs were of course original Mono. (and there were Japanese ones also, i seem to remember). There were very, very few remixes on HK LD (they did some, yes, but mostly Universe, not Cinema City - they only had RED SHIELD remixed, and that was even in cinemas this way)

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hanshotfirst1138

Probably rare as hen’s teeth now though :( . It would be nice if some intrepid fan tried to sync them up to the remastered video. 

Edited by hanshotfirst1138
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