Mill Creek - Picking Up Where BCI Left Off?

[kungfusamurai]

I was doing a little digging on Japanese TV series, just curious to see what BCI had put out before their DVD productions had ended. It turns out through my digging that Ultraman, which was a TV series BCI had put out, is slated to be released as a Complete Series set in September by a company named Mill Creek Entertainment.

Does anyone know if Mill Creek is completing the job that BCI had started in released Japanese action TV series in the US? Or will they just be focusing on the giant robot stuff? It would be nice to find out they'll put out more seasons of Kage No Gundan, or the Fight! Dragon set that was supposed to be released in February.

Ultraman

KFS

[KUNG FU BOB]

Oh please let it be true! I want FIGHT! DRAGON and more KAGE NO GUNDAN!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

[HAZ]

Mill Creek is a super-budget label that puts out those "50 MARTIAL ARTS CLASSICS!!!!" DVD sets. Usually, everything is in the public domain & is of the worst quality you could imagine.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I don’t think the quality’s bad on the 50 pack. It's not good quality, but some of them I think are pretty damn decent. Same quality as the Tai Seng Martial Arts theater releases. There’s only a couple movies in the 50 pack that are really bad quality and made it hard for me to watch, but even those I still found to be watchable (like Chase Step by Step which is a decent movie). And HAZ it may be we just have different standards of how bad of quality we can watch, and maybe that’s why we see this differently. I prefer good versions of movies of course, but I’d pay $20 or maybe more for the faded version of Shadow Ninja aka Killer in White that comes in the 50 pack. But wait, for $11.99 I’m going to get Killer in White, and 49 other random movies? WOWSERS!!!!!

I LOVE that 50-pack. Can you tell?

OK back on track. If they get these TV series, the quality could be decent, but probably not, because Mill Creek doesn’t do any remastering as far as I can tell. So hopefully they get decent materials to work with. Whether it’s decent quality or not, at least it will be cheap, because like you said they are a very low budget company.

And Is Fight Dragon the one with Bruce Leung, Bolo and Kurata? Or which series is that one? I remember I saw a fight between Kurata and Bolo from that series on youtube and it was amazing, especially for a TV show!

[kungfusamurai]

I took a quick peek at the Mill Creek website and I saw their sets, and they do look like public domain repackagings of already released material. But on the other side of it, isn't that how Brentwood/BCI started?

I'm crossing my fingers still that they'll eventually get their hands on stuff that was supposed to get released from BCI. Fight! Dragon was the TV series from Japan starring Yasuaki Karata and had cameos by Bolo and Bruce Leung. Here's a clip from youtube

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KFS

[Tosh]

I remember seeing some youtube clips from that seires, it's great to see Karata kick some Chinese ass for a change:yociexp75:

Man, Karata was the shit, I need to start checking out some of these tv shows.

[HAZ]

I have a mill creek box, the Spaghetti Western set, and half the dvd's wouldn't play. The DVD's that did play were strange. They were down converted copies of DVD's put out by other companies, like Wild East. I don't know if they were booted, or were public domain. If their Spaghetti pack is any indication, Ultraman will be a down coverted copy of the BCI release, and Mill Creek is putting it out figuring that no one will sue them, since BCI is no more, or because the license expired.

[kungpowmaster]

Mill Creek is cheapy, but like Brentwood, and Videoasia, they do release some hard to find titles, and you get your moneys worth, unless you are a big stickler for picture quality. Is Videoasia called Asia Video now? I noticed their new to be released Spaghetti Western set is labeled as that on Amazon.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Hey HAZ does that box set you had problems with have those single sided discs that have like 5 movies on one disc? I have a couple of those (the HItchcock and Ernest collections), and I've never had any problems with them, but they worry me. Seems like too much stuff to cram onto a single sided disc.

[littlefuzzy]

I only have one Mill Creek DVD, and I haven't watched it yet:

The Adventures of Robin Hood Season 1 (1950s)

I noticed that they have the new He-Man complete series (2002), I think that was one that BCI had previously. Edit: Yep, Mill Creek's cover is the same as the Sam's Club exclusive set, but BCI's version had 9 discs, Mill Creek has 4!!

That Ultraman set shows the same picture as the BCI version, but it looks like it goes from 6 discs to 4... I hope that doesn't compromise the quality.

[venoms5]

I have a mill creek box, the Spaghetti Western set, and half the dvd's wouldn't play. The DVD's that did play were strange. They were down converted copies of DVD's put out by other companies, like Wild East. I don't know if they were booted, or were public domain. If their Spaghetti pack is any indication, Ultraman will be a down coverted copy of the BCI release, and Mill Creek is putting it out figuring that no one will sue them, since BCI is no more, or because the license expired.

BCI never owned the rights to ULTRAMAN in the first place so they couldn't sue Mill Creek even if they were still around. They "licensed" the property (supposedly very cheaply) from Chaiyo, a Thai company that didn't own the property either and they recently lost a massive and long running court battle over the series (this may, or may not have had something to do with the demise of BCI, only speculation). The blurb on the boxes about "some portions of episodes were never dubbed into English so these segments are in Japanese with English subtitles" is totally untrue. The complete English tracks existed years ago on television and today in fans collections. The only things that were ever cut, were a few seconds of bloody violence on a few episodes. The R2 discs of ULTRAMAN were far superior to what was released here.

And Wild East, like Mill Creek, is a public domain label, too. If a major indy label like Blue Underground can't make money off of spaghetti westerns when they legally purchase the prints and restore them, then it's not logical that a "company" like Wild East can survive for years off of the release of obscure titles known only to the serious fans of that genre. I own a number of foreign releases of films that Wild East has released and they're the same prints. What's funny is sometimes the credits are in German. If I were a legit company paying to release a particular title, I would be pretty pissed if I got an Italian film with a German, or some other country's translation for a credits sequence. Nonetheless, they do provide a very nice package with their releases.

[ThunderScore]

BCI never owned the rights to ULTRAMAN in the first place... They "licensed" the property (supposedly very cheaply) from Chaiyo, a Thai company that didn't own the property either and they recently lost a massive and long running court battle over the series.

I guess Chaiyo had something to do with this:

[Grady-San]

Stopped by my local Wal-Mart *fall apart savings place*..... tonight for some beer and looked through there 5 dollar bin of dvd's on the way out. I couldn't help myself and snagged Mill Creeks "Fists of Vengeance -16 martial arts movies pack" Most of the prints are in decent shape, and all of them are totally watchable. Most of them are in Fullscreen, a few are widescreen. All of them are dubbed which is nice. Not sure if these are cut etc.. For 5 bucks its a sweet deal.

Here is whats in the set:

Bloodfight (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Champ against Champ (Fullscreen / dubbed - hosted by Sho Kosugi)

Crippled Masters (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Dragon Lee vs. Five Brothers (widescreen / dubbed)

The Fighting Fist of Shanghai Joe (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Fist of Bruce Lee (Fullscreen / dubbed)

The Image of Bruce Lee (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Kung Fu - The Invisible Fist (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Kung Fu Fever (Widescreen / dubbed)

L,A, Street Fighter (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Rage of the Master (Fullscreen / dubbed)

The Real Bruce Lee (Fullscreen / dubbed)

Screaming Tiger (Widescreen / dubbed)

Snake Crane Secret (Fullscreen / dubbed)

The Master (Lee Van Cleef ninja tv show.. not sure if its the pilot since I haven't watched it yet) (Fullscreen / dubbed)

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Ah yes, Kung Fu Fever, one of the few movies where Dragon Lee actually looks good. Ron Van Clief also looks good in this one. He should have kept that stache. I figured that when they finally met up it would be the best fight of the movie. Man was I wrong. But still a funny scene. Unintentionally funny, the best kind of comedy.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Good deal.

[ThunderScore]

I'd love to see a nice version of KUNG FU FEVER with its original onscreen title - I think Xenon called it BLACK DRAGON FEVER and when Diamond released their's (maybe the same source) the title was video generated.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Is the Xenon wide? The MIll Creek is wide, but it's kind of crappy pic quality. Though I thought it was still pretty watchable. I had a damn good time watching it:bigsmile:

[ThunderScore]

Is the Xenon wide? The MIll Creek is wide, but it's kind of crappy pic quality. Though I thought it was still pretty watchable. I had a damn good time watching it:bigsmile:

It's wide alright, but kinda murky and has the video generated title card. Here's a link to see the U.S. theatrical one-sheet:

http://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Kung_Fu_Fever

Edit: BTW, Dollar store DVD provider Digiview put out a beautiful wide version of THE REAL BRUCE LEE awhile back for a freakin' buck!

[Morgoth Bauglir]

OK so it's the same version, as expected from a super cheap company like Mill Creek. I would have checked to see if it had a vid generated title but my copy is at a friends house... Looking at the link you gave it appears the Mill Creek isl uncut. If a good release came out I think I'd just keep the Mill Creek. You are even more of a fan of this movie than me Thunderscore, I admit defeat:tongue:

[Shaolin_Fox]

Yeah I saw the version on that DVD pack (Sole reason I bought it in the 1st place) but I believe that it is slightly cut in a few parts.

I own a (slight) widescreen copy of the movie and it does have the original title card and is most likely uncut since the film I own is aproximately 80 mins.

[chanbara]

Holy crap! They're releasing FIGHT! DRAGON on DVD in March!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Fight-Dragon-Complete-Various/dp/B00310PSU8

It doesn't say anything about subtitles, but there must be English Subs on these, right?

[daisho2004]

I'll be honest I've never seen this series before but from the hype you Guys are giving it, it sounds really good. But I'am hoping for some more Japanese TV Series like Kage No Gundan.

[kungfusamurai]

Fooken A! Thanks for that great bit of news!! Frankly I had stopped looking out for it, so I guess someone at Mill Creek is working hard to bring over the BCI stuff that was in the works but never got out. Maybe a Blu Ray Life Gamble is on the horizon?

I haven't seen the series, just the edited movie called Fighting Dragon. There are also clips on youtube. This is definitely a TV series that will appeal to karate and kung fu movie fans. I'll post a heads up in the TV series forum in case nobody else has.

They say it's going to be 3 discs and 13 hours. I hope that means they'll put 2 episodes on each side of a disc, with one disc having three. I'd hate for them to be one-siders.

And they're selling them for dirt cheap. Man, I'd buy 2 or 3 myself just for stocking stuffers.

Mill Creek's youtube video of the TV series intro says that it'll definitely be Japanese with eng subs.

Below is a japanese language only clip I found on youtube of Kurata. It shows more footage from the show.

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And here's some end credits

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KFS

[KUNG FU BOB]

I've never seen the movie made from the show. But I've watched the series. Even in Japanese without subs I watched an average of 3 episodes in a row each time. Lots of fighting! In the first episode alone Kurata fought Bruce Liang, then Bolo- who slaps down Bruce's brother Tony who does a cameo as a cab driver. He uses the nunchaku against Bolo who uses a long pole. The episodes are only a half hour each (well 20 odd minutes minus commercials), and there's 2 or 3 fights in each one! Highly recommended!!!

[daisho2004]

I was watching some of the clips on YouTube they look really good. Definitely going to pick up this series.