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Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8595		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  signofzeta [ 24 Aug 2019, 07:33 ]
Post subject:  Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
Recently I’ve been on a Jackie Chan kick and while these movies are almost unruinable no matter how bad the dub or the transfer I sure would love to have better copies of some of this stuff. Most of what I have are DVDs from the 90s when this stuff finally got big in the US. I have LDs of some things, Taiseng, US Jackie Chan stuff.

So who can recommend some good movies like this on Blu-ray or even maybe just streaming, something based on a new transfer? Basic priced good deals, not impossible to find $500 things but I want better quality than the multi-packs and other DVDs I have. I know many of these movies are going to be blurry forever due to them just not being in focus when they shot them but it would be nice if they weren’t so dark as some of the stuff I have. This version of Project A II I’m watching looks like they telecined it at an angle.

Some of my favorite movies of this type:

Pretty much any pre-97 Jackie Chan

Jet Li, New Fist of Legend, Once Upon a Time...

Tsui Hark

Heroic Trio

The Vampire Family (a bit of an outlier here...)

The Killer, The Peace Hotel, A Better Tomorrow, etc.
Author:  forper [ 24 Aug 2019, 09:41 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
I'd recommend my copy of Tiger Cage II taped off SBS TV circa 1998, wish I'd kept more of my tapes from then, I got really good reception and pretty much made perfect analogue copies with crystal clear yellow subs. That's never going to happen again. It was a unique window in time and space.
Author:  nissling [ 24 Aug 2019, 10:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
Eureka have released some Jackie Chan flicks in the UK on Blu-Ray, including one brilliant restoration of City Hunter.

If you can find the Japanese Blu-Ray of Hard-Boiled, it's a real treat. Not reference material but it looks much, much better than any other release of the film.
Author:  forper [ 24 Aug 2019, 10:32 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
Would the J-B-R have English subs?
Author:  deadlegion [ 24 Aug 2019, 11:21 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
Project A movies are fun, I've only ever seen them on DVD though and never bothered with dubs...I mean the tracks are there but I don't like it. Pretty sure Drunken Master (1978) is on BD now.

Jackie Chan movies dubbed sound horrible, the few times I've seen/heard them anyway :( Not only is the VA bad and inappropriate the sound is messed up.

Iron Monkey (1993)...Donnie Yen, you've probably already seen it, I believe the uncut version had a 2k remaster.

Maybe I can think of more later...most of what I've seen has been on VHS/DVD and I need to figure out what has been released on BD now (for myself too).


A little offtopic here, I wish there was a BD set with English subs of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1994). I only have fansubs atm.


Edit:
Police Story I & II are on BD. I think some versions are low bitrate possibly SD source upscaled.
Author:  forper [ 25 Aug 2019, 01:16 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
Jackie Chan used to stay with his parents in my town, he used to walk around in a white suit a lot. You'd see him getting in and out of his car Dukes of Hazard style, never used the door handle. He helped build a lot of the houses around where I live too before he was famous, a local brickie I know actually gave him the name Jackie because he couldn't catch his Chinese name. He doesn't visit anymore because his parents are dead but he founded a few kung fu schools and has lots of friends here. This went up a few years ago in my town:

Image

basically with all HK actioners I'd recommend an analogue source like Laserdisc or VHS as the ultimate for fluid fast motion seens. Nothing beats analogue in this case.
Author:  nissling [ 25 Aug 2019, 09:25 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
deadlegion wrote:
Police Story I & II are on BD. I think some versions are low bitrate possibly SD source upscaled.

Not the Eureka and Criterion ones.
Author:  deadlegion [ 25 Aug 2019, 13:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
nissling wrote:
deadlegion wrote:
Police Story I & II are on BD. I think some versions are low bitrate possibly SD source upscaled.

Not the Eureka and Criterion ones.


PS II I think the UK (101 mins) and HK (106 mins) versions are low bitrate upscales. Might be older BD remasters...idk, I just thought it was worth mentioning there are lower quality versions out there.
Author:  nissling [ 25 Aug 2019, 13:28 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
The UK Blu-Rays of Police story by Eureka are clearly NOT upscales with low bitrates. I have their box set which they released last year and they are sourced from new 4K restorations. Same as used by Criterion, which was released earlier this year. The HK Blu-Ray is an upscale though.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 53&i=0&l=0
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 84&i=0&l=0
Author:  deadlegion [ 25 Aug 2019, 14:11 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
nissling wrote:
The UK Blu-Rays of Police story by Eureka are clearly NOT upscales with low bitrates. I have their box set which they released last year and they are sourced from new 4K restorations. Same as used by Criterion, which was released earlier this year. The HK Blu-Ray is an upscale though.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 53&i=0&l=0
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0 ... 84&i=0&l=0


Yes, but you're dismissing the fact that older BD releases exist. I wasn't saying the new transfers are low quality.
Author:  signofzeta [ 25 Aug 2019, 14:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
I recently watched a pirate version of Rumble in the Bronx. It was HD and easily the cleanest copy of any JC movie I’ve ever seen, very nice, but...sadly it’s the US dub only and even though it’s a very clear 5.1 dub with JC doing his voice that just brings out how horrible the dub script is and how stilted the acting is. First Strike’s dub seems like Shakespeare, relative to this.

Obviously I prefer original language, to the extent that “original language” means anything in movies that don’t have on set sound and are ADRed into multiple languages before release. Something close to Cantonese usually....
Author:  gypsy [ 25 Aug 2019, 22:22 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
On this subject I went ahead and grabbed the Criterion Police Story set. Got a deal on an Amazon gift card and swiped it along with a couple games.

I've watched Police Story a lot and never thought it looked good in terms of PQ, so this will be interesting.
Author:  signofzeta [ 25 Aug 2019, 23:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
I should get that.
Author:  deadlegion [ 25 Aug 2019, 23:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
signofzeta wrote:
I should get that.



Image
Author:  rein-o [ 26 Aug 2019, 02:25 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
One armed boxer and Master of the flying Guillotine.
These are pretty amazing and should be cheap on DVD.

Make sure to get the 2 disc release of Master of the Flying Guillotine, that's the better of the releases.
The copy of One armed boxer that I have is some type of bootleg from a possible Japanese DVD that has all the dubs and good subtitles.

I really think Who Am I is a great finale to Jackie Chan's films, there are some annoying parts if you watch the film too many times but its a late classic overall.

Some of the DVDs are really hit and miss in PQ, there are so few of these on LD that you have to search them out, I would never pay too much for them
unless I was able to hear from someone who has a copy to say they are good quality.
Author:  deadlegion [ 26 Aug 2019, 06:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
There's some Shaw Brothers stuff on BD.
Think the last one I watched was The Angry Guest (1972).
Author:  elahrairrah [ 16 Sep 2019, 18:55 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
If you like period piece Kung Fu films, one of the best is Heroes of the East (AKA: Shaolin vs Ninja and Challenge of the Ninja) starring Gordon Liu.



Another with a more serious tone and slightly newer would be Ringo Lam's Burning Paradise



As for Jet Li, a few of his more underrated period piece titles are Tai Chi Master



I think that was released in the US under the title Twin Warriors, but I believe that version to be edited.

Then there's Last Hero in China also featuring Gordon Liu



One of my favorite underrated Chow Yun Fat movies is Tiger on Beat (again featuring Gordon Liu)
Author:  signofzeta [ 16 Sep 2019, 20:22 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
I agree. Twin Warriors/Tai Chi Master is AWESOME. Nobody I know ever talks about it, maybe because when it was new there was just a sea of this stuff in the US. It has some of my favorite fighting of any movie though. Like two people take out two HUNDRED people. I’d like to think the Dynasty Warriors games were inspired by this movie.

I’m mainly interested in recommendations of specific releases. I’m trying to avoid buying more super compressed blurry old transfers on 100 packs. Good deals on clean copies, basically.
Author:  elahrairrah [ 18 Sep 2019, 02:08 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
I haven't been disappointed by the Dragon Dynasty releases. So I would go with those when they're available for a title you're looking for (unless you really hate Harvey Weinstein and don't want to throw any money in his direction since The Weinstein Company is party behind this label.)

Just be aware of the titles they've released of the shorter US cuts.
Author:  forper [ 18 Sep 2019, 07:10 ]
Post subject:  Re: Recommended Chinese Action Movie Releases
Fortune Star Hong Kong market (not mainland China) releases are no BS, good clean transfers.
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