Anyone know what the status is on the Shaw Bros. Celestial Film library being made available for DVD Region 1? I’ve tried researching it, and I keep finding old info dating back to '02 making it sound like these movies would be released very soon. Here we are, well into '05 and still no DVD Region 1 Shaw Bros. flicks. The most recent news I’ve heard is that Miramax was going to release these movies at some point. Anyone out there know more?
For those of you who might not know what I’m talking about, a while back Celestial, an overseas film distributor bought up most if not all of the Shaw Bros. film library. They remastered all of them and re-released them. The quality is greatly improved over VHS and bootlegs. Most of those DVD’s from Crash Cinema or the myriad of others that bought the rights to a lot of the old classic kung fu flix (and a lot of really terrible ones, too) that go for cheap at your local video place are of VHS or worse quality. Waste of money, avoid them like the plague.
Anyway, I’m asking because I’ve almost broken down and bought a region free DVD player, just so I can get all those great old flicks in region 3. However, if Miramax or someone else out there is really going to release them in region 1 anytime reasonably soon, then I can wait. Unless of course, they butcher them like they did with Hero…
I usually just burn the Region 3 discs and crack the software region code so I can watch them. Region Free players tend to have poor picture quality unless you buy an expensive one.
Wal-Mart sells that model for like $50. I looked at it, but it looks cheaply made and the remote was pretty crappy.
I love Sony electronics. My TV, Stereo, Satellite Receiver, VCR and DVD player all function with one remote. You can make a Sony DVD player region free by using one of those pre-programmed remotes, but it’s kind of a hassel. It’s much easier for me just to burn them on a new DVD and break the encryption.
nah the player is pretty nice. i have had it for a year or so. i ugraded the firmware and now it plays even more stuff. :D. you have to enter a code once on the remote to get it to be region free, but its hot man. i would get it.
If you go to yesasia.com you can get a good multi-region player for not to much money. I have been getting the Region 3 DVDs for a few years now and have my collection up to about 50 movies. There are a lot of movies that I have never seen before that were not part of the black belt theater stuff I grew up with.
We have a karaoke dvd player so my wife could get stuff from Hong Kong. The picture quality is very good and I only have it hook up with S-video. It would be even better with component but I use that for my regular dvd and my HDTV set top box.
Make the investment because I have heard recently that Celestials sales have not been as good as they would have liked. With that in mind I don’t see them putting on a full court press for Region 1.
Also I have been able to hack all of my DVD players in my home with the exception of my Sony Dream System so that is another option.
sorry to break it to you, but there’s no plans as far as i’ve heard for those to be released in region 1. my advice…cave in and buy a region free player. get one from hkflix.com…they’ll ship it to you in about 2 days, and you won’t regret it…my JVC player is absolutely wonderful, and i have no compaints about it at all. the celestial releases of the shaw brothers films are worth buying a region free player alone, nevermind the numerous other movies that are only available in foreign countries, or the movies that you can get before anyone in the states just because they have already been in and out of the theatres someplace else.
almost half of my rather large collection are DVD’s that are not region 1.
-christopher
BTW…buy a player that is not only region free, but one that also does correct NTSC to PAL / PAL to NTSC conversion. that comes in handy when watching european releases of films.
Yup, just saw the ad on TV. I’m glad to see Dragon Dynasty is joining Image in releasing classic Shaw Brothers films. If the other films they’ve released are any indication, including some of the '80s Golden Harvest ones they’ve released already, the quality should be top-notch, and they should be true to the films (i.e., no change of the music, opening credits, sound effects, etc.). One thing I hope but doubt will be on them: an option for both the subtitled Chinese versions AND the original English dubbed versions. Though I prefer original language w/good subtitles, the original English dubs were usually well-done, had ‘character’, and were often funny, too.
I hope Dragon Dynasty really gets into the very best SB kung-fu films. The majority of what Image has released are not the very best…maybe interesting historically, but IMO, w/the exception of Legendary Weapons of China, most released by them have been so-so. I’d like to see all the Lau Kar-Leung works and the Shaolin series by Chang Cheh get treated to proper releases, among others.
I saw the screencaps for 36th Chamber and it looks AMAZING. And I can’t wait to finally see My Young Auntie. I imagine if these first 4 sell well, they will come out with more Shaw movies.
Looks like some good stuff. I’m glad they’re finally willing to put the time and effort into doing some of these films justice. Those grainy, stretched-out, english-dub-only copies floating out there just weren’t cutting it…
Most of the Shaw films were remastered a few years ago. You just have to either have a region-free DVD player or, do what I do and rip the region 3 to a region 0.
I got 36 Chambers probably 2 or 3 years ago.
There is no English track, but the video is awesome.
i snagged “legendary weapons of china” a few weeks back and the transfer looks awesome. hopefully Shaolin mantis makes its way through the process, ive been hunting down 36th chambers with no luck recently, im sure i could have picked it up online, but there would be no" thrill of the hunt" that way. im glad i waited
You guys should check out www.jaman.com They’ve got like 50 some old Shaw Brothers flicks from Celestial Pictures on there. Most of them are wu xia, but they’re great. Sentimental Swordsman, Return of Sentimental Swordsman. Alot of the Cheng Pei Pei films.
HONG KONG, October 8: Celestial Pictures has expanded the reach of its Shaw Brothers martial-arts films into Slovenia and Israel, scoring deals with Viasat Broadcasting and SAT-Interactive.
The Viasat deal marks the first time Celestial’s Shaw Brothers martial arts films will be available on TV3 Slovenia. Under the agreement, Viasat has taken a package of kung-fu classics, among them The Five Deadly Venoms, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and One-Armed Swordsman.
The SAT deal brings Shaw Brothers features to the Hot Cable Channel and VOD platforms in Israeli.
The Shaw Brothers library consists of 760 films produced from the 1950s to the 1990s. Since 2002, Celestial Pictures has been making these remastered versions available to audiences around the world.
Those titles, in HD, will be available at MIPCOM this week, alongside The King Boxer mobisodes, which were nominated for this market’s MIPCOM 2007 Mobile & Internet TV Awards.
Mobisodes, video messaging, video clips, ring tones, wallpaper and games will be a focus at MIPCOM. As will be the mobile TV channel Kung Fu TV, which features short-form segments of kung-fu film clips from the Shaw Brothers slate.
I heard Media Blasters will be releasing 20 movies, so there will be more R1 Shaws. I heard about it a while ago and they all sound good. Chinese Super Ninjas is on the list. A lot of times Media Blasters doesn’t follow through with their plans so I have my fingers crossed.
"This is direct from BCI.
They have signed a deal with Celestial Pictures to release 15 films during 2008 & 2009.
The titles are:
Life Gamble
Opium and the Kung Fu Master
The 14 Amazons
Shaolin Hand Lock
Hong Kong Godfather
Shaolin Prince
Invincible Shaolin
The Basterd Swordsman
The Duel
Return of the Basterd Swordsman
Shaolin Rescuers
Soul of the Sword
The Lady Hermit
The Supreme Swordsman
The Sword of Swords"
This is such awesome news for Shaw Brothers fans. Some really REALLY good titles on there. And I have always wanted a remastered uncut version of the blood drenched Hong Kong Godfather.
I just got word from gfanikf on kungfufandom that they are trying to make sure Hong Kong Godfathers is uncut and the prints they are using are HD masters. :):)
and its like 70 dollars at amazon.