French DVDs and Blu-Rays of Asian Movies

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 26 Mar 2006, 21:48

hey,

I heard there was a UK DVD of CO 2002, maybe I'll get that rather than the HK DVD.

This UK release had a few scenes cut out in addition to only featuring the Mandarin track in 2.0 only!). For this movie, Jeff Lau opted to shoot the Cantonese speaking actors in synch sound and their Mandarin speaking counterparts as well so the respective tracks have synch sound and dubbing. Therefore the HK dvd is more preferrable in that regard (as well as being presumeably uncut) as it allows simple switching back and forth, especially during Zhao Wei's and Cheng Chen's scenes together.

See Kev's review for more:
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=55966

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 27 Mar 2006, 10:06

Thankyou

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Mar 2006, 19:03

HungFist wrote:Best news of the year: TF1 will release Ashes of Time:
http://www.asia-diffusion.com/new/dvd.php?id_dvd=2133
Dispo. à partir du 04/05/2006

Lots of these first:

Three questions:

1. Is there any small chance of English subs? (I wonder why they did for ITMFL?)
2. Do they have a contact e-mail address? It's not to late to add them, we should all bombard them with e-mails
3. Will anyone here be preparing English subs?

If so I'll buy it regardless of English subs and make my own DVD. The HK DVD I own is ATROCIOUS. The film is already confusing enough, they really didn't help.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 27 Mar 2006, 19:17

1. Is there any small chance of English subs? (I wonder why they did for ITMFL?)

One in a gazillion.

2. bombard them with e-mails

Useless. When they buy the rights to the movie, they don't buy the rights to the english subtitles. As crazy as it sounds, they have to pay to put english subs on the disc (that's why so many french dvds don't have them).

3. Will anyone here be preparing English subs?

Somebody on the ADVDG forum said he would do it (possibly HungFist)

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Mar 2006, 19:39

Cheers. Normally I don't mind if French DVDs don't have English subs but in this case the alternatives are SO BAD.

I wonder why they paid for English, Spanish etc . . . subs for their ITMFL DVD then?

Well of course I'll wait to hear subs have been created but when they have I'm all over it.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 27 Mar 2006, 19:43

bradavon wrote: 3. Will anyone here be preparing English subs?

Of course I will make subs for it 8) Are there any other (better) subs available than the ones on the HK disc?

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 27 Mar 2006, 19:48

hey,

world video did subs but masked over the part of the frame that has the original cinema subs. If they improved on the translation, I can't say.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Mar 2006, 21:41

Great nice one Hung.

Purely from a subs point of view the World Video R1 looks better:

"they worked from an original Hong Kong print with Chinese and English subtitles, and decided to remove the Chinese subtitles and make the English ones clearer (they're certainly more readable, but they've retained most of the original's mistakes: "If I don't return at sunset, take a massage to someone for me")"

Comparison Source review: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=3379

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 27 Mar 2006, 22:25

Class!!

I'm gonna say that line before I go on a night out.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2006, 06:01

I'm thinking about using these subs (kloofy's): Ashes.of.Time.DVDRip.ITALIANTEAM.[islord][fix].(subs.2ya.com).rar

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Mar 2006, 14:38

Won't they be in Italian not English??? They're in good shape then? How do you time them to the French DVD?

The ones on the HK DVD are burnt in so would be hard to use.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2006, 14:40

Won't they be in Italian not English???

It's just the name of the team, Brad.

I've checked them and they seem accurate enough.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2006, 16:16

bradavon wrote: How do you time them to the French DVD?

If the french dvd has good timings, I may rip the french script and copy-paste the english translation. If not, then will go through each line one by one and see how much they are our of sync and correct the timings. This way the timings are not going to be perfect, but pretty good nevertheless.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Mar 2006, 16:24

Nice, cool, cheers.

Tom2681 wrote:It's just the name of the team, Brad.

I was thinking that but wasn't sure.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2006, 21:29

News:
Interesting tidbit about New Police Story.

The HK Vidéo disc contains a different set of outtakes.
While the HK disc had about 50% action 50% dialogue, the HK Vidéo disc has 100% action.

I don't know if the movie itself has been altered in any way (yet).

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:01

Tom, could you help me a bit with this?

"On attend tous certains classiques : Histoires de Fantômes Chinois, Le Syndicat du Crime... The Blade... quel est le programme pour ces titres là ?

Il ne faut pas oublier que HK Video est un label, celui de Christophe Gans, au sein de Metropolitan Video, pour sortir des films asiatiques de son choix. Nous n'avons pas pour vocation d'inonder le marché du DVD de films asiatiques, mais celui de sortir des films qui nous plaisent et que nous adorons. Il se trouve que ces titres là sont les plus grands classiques du cinéma de Hong Kong ! Ils nécessitent donc un soin très spécifique. Je sais qu'on tombe alors dans l'aberration pour certains de sortir plein de titres beaucoup moins connus, mais les faire découvrir est en soit un évènement. Alors qu’une trilogie comme Histoires de Fantômes Chinois ou un film comme The Blade c'est déjà connu, tout le monde ou presque les a déjà vu. L'évènement ne sera donc pas de les sortir... mais de faire le meilleur DVD du monde ! C'est pour cette raison là qu'on n'a toujours pas sorti Le Syndicat du Crime, The Blade et les autres. Cependant vous noterez que sur l'ensemble des titres très attendus, nous en avons déjà sorti certains comme A toute Epreuve, Une Balle dans la Tête, The Killer, les premiers Tsui Hark – très importants pour nous, quatre Il était une fois en Chine sur six, ou encore les Bruce Lee, car même si ces derniers ne sont pas sous le label HK, c'est notre équipe qui s'en est occupé. L'attention du public a tendance à se focaliser sur les titres qui ne sont pas encore sortis, ce qui est naturel. Mais une fois qu'Histoires de Fantômes Chinois sera sorti, finalement ça prendra quelques lignes sur dvdrama où on lira "Enfin, ça sort", dans les forums quelques posts de gens très contents - ce qui nous fera très plaisir... et très vite on recommencera à nous réclamer le reste. Parce qu’on veut toujours celui qu’on n’a pas encore... (silence) Mais on ne sortira pas ces titres avant d'être sûrs d'être sûr de le faire dans les conditions qu'ils méritent."
http://www.dvdrama.net/news.php?11827&page=4

Don't worry, I'm not asking you to translate the whole thing :mrgreen: What I would like to know is that is he saying HK Video has rights to A Better Tommorow and A Chinese Ghost Story?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:07

I'm not asking you to translate the whole thing

Phew !

is he saying HK Video has rights to A Better Tommorow and A Chinese Ghost Story?

They do.

"The real challenge is not to release these films, but to make sure that they will be the best dvd editions in the world"

The "Chinese Ghost Story Trilogy" will probably be released first (I'm thinking late 2006, early 2007).
The "Better Tomorrow Trilogy" will be for 2007 I think.

Right now, they gotta release "The Blade", "The Lovers" and "Love in a time of Twilight".

They've also got the rights to Peking Opera Blues.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:13

List of movies that they have:
Armour of God, Miracles, Police Story Saga, lots of Sammo Hung stuff (pedicab driver), Swordsman trilogy, Iron Monkey, Full Alert, lots of Cat 3 stuff, Ebola Syndrome, From Beijing With Love (real soon)...

Also, all the titles that they released on VHS in the 90s will one day be released on DVD. Patience...

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:14

Tom2681 wrote: They do.

Awesome. A Better Tomorrow is one of my all time favourite movies, yet there is not a single good dvd release available (Fortune Star was unwatchable due to the missing frames which, for some reason, caused the image to freeze for a moment every five minutes).

Tom2681 wrote: They've also got the rights to Peking Opera Blues.

I'm so happy I could kill myself

If I remember correctly they also have rights to Armour of God (I'm not sure where I heard that from, but my dvd shopping list says "Armour of God 2: wait for HK Vid."

EDIT: there it is

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:27

Tom wrote:Also, all the titles that they released on VHS in the 90s will one day be released on DVD.

Stuff like:
Final Option, Drunken Master 2, Eastern Condors, The Big Heat, Boiling Point, Kids Return, Scorpion King, In The Line of Duty saga, Saviour of the Soul, Millionaire's express, Tiger on Beat, Full Contact,...

Good stuff.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:35

Tom2681 wrote:
Tom wrote:Also, all the titles that they released on VHS in the 90s will one day be released on DVD.
Stuff like:
Final Option, Drunken Master 2, Eastern Condors, The Big Heat, Boiling Point, Kids Return, Scorpion King, In The Line of Duty saga, Saviour of the Soul, Millionaire's express, Tiger on Beat, Full Contact,...

Good stuff.

Good stuff is an understatement. Especially when it comes to Drunken Master 2 and Pedical Driver.

Do you know if they have Sammo's Pantyhose Hero? That film really need a dvd release

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:36

Nope, I don't know. All they said is that they had lots of good Sammo movies.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2006, 22:38

Okay, thanks.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 28 Mar 2006, 23:00

Tom2681 wrote:"The real challenge is not to release these films, but to make sure that they will be the best dvd editions in the world"

Which they won't be as they won't feature any English subs. Damn these fools who prefer selfish and stupid patriotism over making lots of more profit. Imagine all their releases had English subs, they'd have customers from all over the world. Instead, they stay narrow-minded. Really stupid as they are harming themselves.

You guys in France should write to them, telling them that if they added English subs, they'd have a larger fan-base which means more money which again means higher-quality DVDs.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 28 Mar 2006, 23:01

Tom2681 wrote:News:
Interesting tidbit about New Police Story.

The HK Vidéo disc contains a different set of outtakes.
While the HK disc had about 50% action 50% dialogue, the HK Vidéo disc has 100% action.

I don't know if the movie itself has been altered in any way (yet).

That's really cool. Won't get the DVD, though. I'm sure once it is released, the alternate outtakes will be available for download all over the web.