Breaking News! Cine-Asia is reviving Hong Kong Legends

[thelostdragon]

Continuing our passionate commitment to deliver the very best in Asian action-cinema through our pioneering Cine Asia brand, Showbox Media Group is proud to announce the re-birth of the celebrated Hong Kong Legends action-cinema label. Under the new releasing banner, 'CINE ASIA presents HKL', Showbox is set to bring the label back to life, and will re-release the cream of Entertainment One's Asian film catalogue, including Jet Li's Once upon a time in China series, Jackie Chan's Police Story 1&2 and Donnie Yen's world-famous, Iron Monkey.

Originally launched on February 7th 2000, Hong Kong Legends broke new ground in the presentation of classic Hong Kong Cinema titles. Undertaking an extensive film restoration programme and developing an entire range of exclusive bonus material, HKL was considered the gold-standard in Asian Cinema until its part-discontinuation in 2007.

To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Bruce Lee's birthday, CINE ASIA presents HKL will first re-release the feature-packed 2-Disc Ultimate Editions of Bruce Lee's illustrious movies The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon and Game of Death, along with the brand-new Cine Asia Blu-ray and DVD release of Young Bruce Lee on 30th May 2011.

Executive director of Showbox, Steve Rivers says, "We are absolutely delighted to be working with Entertainment One and thrilled to be handling these prestigious classic titles again!"

Director of Home Entertainment at Entertainment One, Jon Bourdillon adds, "We are excited about this famous library being handled by the Asian film experts Showbox; we think that the combined line up of the Cine Asia and HKL titles provide a compelling proposition for trade and consumers alike."

Click the following links for a sneak peak at some of the new Cine Asia presents HKL artwork: Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Game of Death, and Way of the Dragon.

Source: http://www.cine-asia.com

[Yi-Long]

Good news I think, depending on what they'll be doing with it.

[HungFist]

I was thinking, didn't HKL have a handful of titles that they only put out as film magazine exclusives (or smt like that)? And maybe something else they never released? Mark or someone else maybe knows better?

Wonder if they still have rights to that stuff... could be interesting

[gasteropod]

Good stuff, hopefully there will be decent Blu-rays that aren't upscales like the HK ones then

[Markgway]

I was thinking, didn't HKL have a handful of titles that they only put out as film magazine exclusives (or smt like that)? And maybe something else they never released? Mark or someone else maybe knows better?

Yes, several titles were only put out as part of DeAgostini's magazine range.

The Heroic Trio, Executioners, A Chinese Ghost Story 3, Prison on Fire, Prison on Fire 2, and Peking Opera Blues.

[bradavon]

Great news. I had a feeling Cine-asia and HKL were the same company. The Cine-asia trailers are almost identical in style.

Bring on the OUATIC, Iron Monkey and Bruce Lee Blu-rays. I expect new transfers, instead of re-using the awful HK ones. HKL always made their own transfers or at least worked on existing ones.

Iron Monkey and Fist of Fury I'd definitely upgrade, the rest possibly. I'm already very happy with the DVDs.

The Heroic Trio, Executioners, A Chinese Ghost Story 3, Prison on Fire, Prison on Fire 2, and Peking Opera Blues.

I didn't know this. So these never got standard DVD releases too?

[saltysam]

while it's nice to see the label resurrected from what i can see these are just going to be re-releases of existing discs.Nothing to get excited about (yet).

[Markgway]

I had a feeling Cine-asia and HKL were the same company.

They're not. Cine Asia struck a deal with HKL's current owners E1 Entertainment.

Bring on the OUATIC, Iron Monkey and Bruce Lee Blu-rays.

That would be great, but BDs have yet to be confirmed, only DVD editions.

I didn't know this. So these never got standard DVD releases too?

No, bare bones zine editions only.

[bradavon]

while it's nice to see the label resurrected from what i can see these are just going to be re-releases of existing discs.Nothing to get excited about (yet).

Oh bollocks

Cheers Mark.

[luckystars]

Thanks for the news!

[Markgway]

Cine Asia haven't confirmed or denied anything so let's not jump the gun.

They might offer Blu Rays and strive for spec improvements where needed.

Let's wait and see what they say.

[bradavon]

I would be surprised if blu-rays weren't coming. Cine-asia are committed to blu-ray and these titles are very popular.

[grim_tales]

Cool news! Excited about the prospect of Blu rays coming

[mike dk]

It would be awesome of Cine Asia released the old HKL titles on blu ray, but they don't mention this at all - and I doubt that they will have acess to HD masters. I hope I am wrong as it would be a dream come true to see all the classic HK films in true HD!

[bradavon]

Have cine-asia ever made their own HD transfers or just reused others?

[Brother White Brows]

I was thinking, didn't HKL have a handful of titles that they only put out as film magazine exclusives (or smt like that)? And maybe something else they never released? Mark or someone else maybe knows better?

Yes, several titles were only put out as part of DeAgostini's magazine range.

The Heroic Trio, Executioners, A Chinese Ghost Story 3, Prison on Fire, Prison on Fire 2, and Peking Opera Blues.

They had Drunken Master on the second publication too, was the only one I bought. They weren't properly sanctioned by HKL though - HKL had nothing to do with artwork, you'll also notice the logo of DeAgostini's Hong Kong Legends was completely different to the actual label one.

Cine Asia don't own HKL. Back in the days when they were Medusa, they owned HKL, it later got sold to Contender, then to E1 who subsequently made a deal with Cine Asia to release them again.

[Markgway]

They had Drunken Master on the second publication too, was the only one I bought.

Yes, but HKL had released that previously (one of their first titles IIRC).

Hungfist was asking about the mag exclusives.

[Brother White Brows]

Sorry, I guess I missed that part!

[saltysam]

If they have no plans for Blu-ray some of these re-releases are pretty stupid.When the likes of Way Of The Dragon is freely available for £2.99 at Play who is going to bother unless it's a HD upgrade?

[Markgway]

Yeah, it's curious that they're starting with the few titles (ie. Bruce Lee) that are actually still in print.

But let's wait and see what they come up with........ and then we can moan.

[Killer Meteor]

I found a market stall selling loads of ex-magazine dvds, including the HKL ones - legit discs as far as I can tell. Sadly they didn't have any of the exclusives there.

[Markgway]

Never the one(s) you want... isn't that always the way.

I once saw a complete set of those HKL mags in a second hand store but they REFUSED to sell them seperately. Wanted £99 for the lot. Fuck off!

I bet they wound up selling them seperately after all when no one bit.

[Brother White Brows]

How many were in the series?

[saltysam]

There's a cine-asia representative joining bluray.com soon and is going to be answering queries.

[bradavon]

Bradavon likes this. All I want to know is, if any of these titles will be coming to Blu-ray and when?