Holy Sh*t Play have killed off HKL's website! ;-)

[grim_tales]

Me too

[bleeper]

Man i miss HKL. They got me into buying DVDs

[Killer Meteor]

Wow, Bleeper, back from the dead I see!

[saltysam]

Where's Slasher these days

[saltysam]

I notice when you search for HKL titles on Amazon the distributor comes up as E1 Entertainment.So is it right to assume these are the current rights holders?

[grim_tales]

They must have reverted to E1 Entertainment after Contender.

[chenlung]

I've sent E1 an email asking.

[Markgway]

Ask them to reissue fucking Dreadnaught. That disc is harder to get at than a Nun's snatch.

[chenlung]

That disc is harder to get at than a Nun's snatch.

Would you naught dread that anyway?

[Markgway]

That disc is harder to get at than a Nun's snatch.

Would you naught dread that anyway?

I'll bet there are some smokin' hot nuns out there.

[bradavon]

What a waste, like hot Lesbians .

p.s - Contender Entertainment rebrands to become E1 Entertainment:

http://www.licensingexpo.com/index.php/ ... rtainment/

The big question is, what are they planning to do with their massive HKL back catalogue? Which I imagine they only own because it was lumped in with "Will & Grace" etc...

[grim_tales]

What about HKL BD's?

[chenlung]

http://www.e1entertainmentuk.com/index.php?art_id=7&

The acquisition happened in 2007 and was rebranded in 2009. Maybe they'll send me an email tomorrow. If not, I'll give them a phone.

[bradavon]

You are determined Chen .

What about HKL BD's?

That's basically what I said but let them sort out their existing DVD range first.

[chenlung]

You are determined Chen .

Nothing yet.

[IronMonkey]

I highly doubt we will ever see any HKL BDs.

[romerojpg]

Unless some silly sod burns a bunch of old standard dvds onto one Blu Ray to save space which I have heard of people doing with some films they then ussually toss away the old dvd boxes and have ugly shelves I guess

[Killer Meteor]

Dug out my HKL Armour of God, and ah, memories.

It does help it's one of their better presentations, but I'd have loved a Bey Logan commentary.

[RetroRobot]

True. Also would have liked ones for Eastern Condors, Drunken Master, Snake in Eagles, Magnificent Warriors, Dreadnaught, She Shoots Straight etc. Basically all the early ones and the latter ones.

Seriously fond memories of bringing home a new HKL disc and watching it with the commentary first, even if I hadn't seen the movie before. Good times.

Sorry for potential spelling errors. Im fighting a massive chest cold and fever, and the screen is pretty much a blur.

[grim_tales]

Once upon a time werent HKL going to do a Platinum Edition of Drunken Master?
I remember that was released with a Mandarin track instead of the hybrid Cantonese/English one the other disc had.

[luckystars]

Once upon a time werent HKL going to do a Platinum Edition of Drunken Master?

Have vague memories of that. Does Scott still post here?

[RetroRobot]

Those promised platinum editions never happened, as far as I know. They were also gonna release Invincible Armour, though that never saw the light of day either.

[Markgway]

Scott e-mailed me recently... he seems to be off movies at the moment.

I think the bubble has long since burst, and we won't see companies like HKL again.

At least until the next boom, whenever that may be...

[grim_tales]

A shame - I miss those days Though I still have memories of the laughable "restoration feature" on the Intro to HKL disc
I used to love getting a new HKL disc and checking out films I loved or hadnt seen

[HungFist]

My favorite HKL DVD is probably Naked Killer. I have really nice memories of that. The film is by no means among their best picks, but the DVD was an excellent package with great transfer and excellent, quality extras (instead of a discload of nonsense). Nice artwork too. Still remember the day when the DVD arrived... I grabbed it from the mailbox in the morning on my way to school and opened in the class

Scott e-mailed me recently... he seems to be off movies at the moment.

I think the bubble has long since burst, and we won't see companies like HKL again.

At least until the next boom, whenever that may be...

I don't really see one coming anytime soon... I think the previous one in the early 2000's was probably a mixture of various lucky causes:

1) DVD was a new format and provided a major upgrade over VHS (image, audio, extras...). Companies had a perfect reason to release tons of stuff, and consumers had a perfect reason to buy.

2) Internet shopping was a new phenomenon. Suddenly it was easy to obtain DVDs from all over the world, which greatly boosted the business as well.

3) Kill Bill. Some fans love being idiots and complain about Tarantino's mugshot on the covers of Asian films. They fail to realize that a few dozen loud fans isn't enough to make the business profitable. It was in no small part thanks to Tarantino and Kill Bill that for a few years even mainstream masses went and bought rare Asian cult films, and made the business bloom.

4) Modern Asian cinema was doing well at the time, especially Korean cinema and Thai martial arts films.

All of those have now more or less faded - DVD is old news with somewhat oversaturated market, the level of Asian cinema has gone down, and there has been no new Kill Bill to make Asian films mainstream entertainment...