French DVDs and Blu-Rays of Asian Movies

RickyTheDragonSteamboat · Post by **RickyTheDragonSteamboat** » 10 Mar 2007, 01:16

Oh, I mean HK Video. Hows the video quality and such? Where can I find it?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 10 Mar 2007, 15:17

Video quality: quite average. A bit soft and washed-out. Perfectly watchable, though.
HungFist seems to agree:

HungFist wrote:EDIT: I checked the DM transfer again and it does look washed out at times but it's still pretty decent IMO. And the sound more than makes up for it.

I think the HKV is the only version with the full cantonese soundtrack.

Where can I find it?

HungFist uses Asia-Diffusion:

http://www.asia-diffusion.com/new/dvd.php?id_dvd=824

Amazon.fr and Alapage.com have it too.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 10 Mar 2007, 17:14

Yup, the image perfectly watchable.

The audio is good, while all other versions were driving me mad. Columbia is a two audio track mix (cantonese and english) and Mei Ah is even worse; a three (or even four) audio track mix: cantonese, mandarin (possibly two different sources) and english (some non-dialogue scenes*). Mei Ah is also cut.

* the restaurant fight at least. I was watching my first dvd (Mei Ah) and was really distracted by how the audio obviously switches to a different source during the fight. I bought the Columbia and the same thing/audio again. Then I bought the HK Video (and sold everything else) and finally the scene played fine. I assume the second audio track on Mei Ah and Columbia was english, but can't be sure since there's no dialogue.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2007, 15:46

Update:

Not much to say, so I'll just post a list of what's about to be released over here:
Note: some of them are re-releases.

02/04: A la Verticale de l'été (no english title AFAIK), Vietnam 1999.
02/04: Audition, Japan 1999.
02/04: School of the Holy Beast, Japan 1974.
02/04: Violent Cop + Kids Return, Japan.
02/04: Ringu, Japan 1998.
02/04: Ring 2, Japan 1999.
02/04: Ring 0, Japan 2001.
02/04: Female Convict Scorpion, Japan 1972.
02/04: Three Seasons, Vietnam 2001.
02/04: Taboo (Gohatto), Japan 1999.
02/04: Visitor Q, Japan 2002.
02/04: Dark Water, Japan 2002.
02/04: Rodan, Japan 1956.
02/04: The Face of Fu Manchu, 1965.
02/04: Center Stage, Hong-Kong 1992.
02/04: Kanzo Sensei, Japan 1998.
02/04: Infernal Affairs, Hong-Kong 2002.
02/04: Silmido, Korea 2003.
02/04: Champion, Korea 2002.
02/04: Friend, Korea 2002.
02/04: Zebraman, Japan 2004.
02/04: Face, Korea 2004.
02/04: Koma, Hong-Kong 2004.
02/04: Into the Mirror, Korea 2003.

11/04: Shogun's Samurai + Shogun's Ninja + Shogun's Shadow, Japan.
14/04: A Family, Korea 2004.
14/04: Springtime, Korea 2005.
15/04: Damo volume 1, Korea 2003.
18/04: Luxury Car, China 2006.

22/04: Guns and Talks, Korea 2001.
23/04: Death Trance, Japan 2005.
23/04: Neighbour N°13, Japan 2005.
24/04: Kung-Fu instructor, Hong-Kong 1979.
24/04: The Iron Bow + The Tigress + White Water Strand, Hong-Kong 1972.

29/04: Monkey Kung-Fu + Dirty Ho + My Young Auntie, Hong-Kong 1979.

09/05: Citizen Dog, Thailand 2006.
10/05: Hunter in the Dark + Sword of the Beast + Kagero + Oil Hell Murder, Japan.
10/05: The Master (Jet Li), Hong-Kong 1989.
10/05: Typhoon, Korea 2005.

21/05: City of Violence, Korea 2006.

07/06: Police Story 1, Hong-Kong 1985 (possible HK Vidéo release).
07/06: Police Story 2, Hong-Kong 1988 (possible HK Vidéo release).
07/06: Project A, Hong-Kong 1983 (HK Vidéo).
07/06: Project A 2, Hong-Kong 1987 (HK Vidéo).
07/06: Dragon Lord, Hong-Kong 1982 (HK Vidéo).
07/06: Crime Story, Hong-Kong 1993 (possible HK Vidéo release).
07/06: The Young Master, Hong-Kong 1980 (HK Vidéo).

13/06: Sars Wars, Thailand 2004.
13/06: Spiral, Japan 1998.
13/06: Mob Sister, Hong-Kong 2005.
13/06: Attack the Gas Station, Korea 1999.
13/06: Shiver, Hong-Kong 2003.
16/06: Flower and Snake, Japan 2004.

27/06: MPD-Psycho, Japan 2000.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2007, 16:05

Don't tell me Disney has Police Story 3 in France too???

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Mar 2007, 21:40

I honestly don't know.
But it sure looks like it.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Mar 2007, 21:58

Those Jackie releases other than the ones you confirmed to be HK Video seem to be Seven Sept re-issues. See asia-diffusion.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 29 Mar 2007, 00:00

Yeah but both Seven Sept and HK Vidéo belong to TF1.
So there's a slim chance that these movies will get the HKV treatment (regardless of what Asia-D have said).

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 01 Apr 2007, 19:49

tom2681 wrote: 02/04: Female Convict Scorpion, Japan 1972.

Jailhouse 41 that is

I wonder if they're wise enough to change the cover art. Last time they put Beast Stable poster on the cover

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 05 Apr 2007, 14:18

found this pic at asia-diffusion

I don't know how finished it is... considering all titles are misspelled

and check out the cover art for the upcoming UK Shogun's Samurai re-issue

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 06 Apr 2007, 03:16

The disembodied floating heads of Western covers have met their match. Behold, the giant tower of eyes armed with a single fist holding a katana!

HungFist wrote:found this pic at asia-diffusion

I don't know how finished it is... considering all titles are misspelled

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 12 Apr 2007, 18:50

Phantom Lover dvdrama review: http://www.dvdrama.com/rw_fiche-7882-.php

10/10 for picture quality

what does it say about sound?

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 12 Apr 2007, 19:13

hey,

I heard at any rate it's 2.0 for Mandarin. They dropped the ball on that one. Seems they have trouble sourcing 5.1 when it's actually needed?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 12 Apr 2007, 22:01

I heard at any rate it's 2.0 for Mandarin.

You heard wrong.

Approximate translation:
This edition contains two soundtracks in 5.1. Although they have been properly restored, they have some problems like many artificial 90's remixes from HK.
It's quite obvious on the mandarin track, in which the dialogue and foley are muffled. The cantonese track is much better although the music isn't loud enough.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 13 Apr 2007, 15:45

hey,

No, I heard right. Let's quote war.

From a very, very, very reliable friend:

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1053/loverez4.jpg

To be specific:

Cantonese (2.0 / 192kbit)
Mandarin (2.0 / 192kbit)

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 13 Apr 2007, 16:44

Eh ? What is this nonsense ?

What we need is another review.

The guys at DVDRama usually know what they're talking about.
If they say they've got a 5.1 track, there's no reason to think they don't.

Too bad I'm not interested in this film. Otherwise I'd buy the DVD and check for myself.

Note: I've seen a few (rare) cases where a 5.1 track was incorrectly flagged as 2.0 and yet properly decoded at 5.1

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 13 Apr 2007, 16:54

hey,

The guys at DVDRama usually know what they're talking about.

Well Tom, I know who to trust. Easy as that.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 13 Apr 2007, 17:08

There's so many ways to screw up a HK film release that downmix of the original track doesn't even feel flaw.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 24 Apr 2007, 20:01

Eastern Condors:
http://www.hkcinemagic.com/fr/page.asp?aid=226&page=1

translation for the audio part needed. Don't tell me it's a FS mix.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 24 Apr 2007, 21:39

-It's not an HK Vidéo disc. It's a Seven Sept disc (bad news already).

-PQ: better than the Fox due to better compression.

-Sound: "as flawed as the R1 (muffled cantonese track). The original mono would have been perfect, but it would seem that Fortune Star have added some annoying spatialization effects to their remaster.

Shit, so the HKL is still the way to go (even though it's cut).
Despite having an inferior picture, it's got good subs and good sound.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 25 Apr 2007, 12:36

Thanks Tom. That's about what the auto-translator gave me, I just didn't want to believe it.

It think I'll get the HKL then. DD might release this some day but it doesn't look like FS is distributing original monos for this one

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 06 May 2007, 21:56

anything important here (other than the titles)?
http://www.dvdrama.com/news.php?20076

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 06 May 2007, 23:08

-The non-HK Vidéo titles will be handled by the same team as the HK Vidéo titles (good news).
-Project A 1 & 2, Dragon Lord and Young Master will all be released separately.

That's about all the important stuff there is.

ericf · Post by **ericf** » 07 May 2007, 18:59

Any news about Iwai films on DVD in France? It was mentioned that there would be a few coming out.
They will hopefully be the best versions out there. I need a good version of Love Letter without edge enchencement and a nice well balanced Swallowtail Butterfly release.
Ericf

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 09 May 2007, 14:20

Sorry, Eric.
No Iwai news on the french front, I'm afraid.