DeathoftheEndless
Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
Redline is pretty great. Its like the old Speed Racer cartoon on crack.
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Asian Films
- Thread starter Swag
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The Taste of Tea
Nobody Knows
Grave of the Fireflies
Kind of what you're looking for, maybe. Warning: the bottom 2 are exceptionally sad.
Lol @ Nobody Knows.
Some summer adventure alright.
Haha, sorry. I guess I misunderstood the ask. I thought you were just asking for films that follow the story from a child's perspective. It certainly is an adventure they go on! Just not the light-hearted summer kind.
Easystride
Member
Where do you guys watch more recent films? I feel like I've watched most of the Asian classics I was interested in (still need to watch A Brighter Summers Day though) through Hulu's Criterion Collection.
I've been going through a bit of a gaming lull, so I was going to get back into film.
I've been going through a bit of a gaming lull, so I was going to get back into film.
Sidewinder
Member
Several years ago I wanted to rip my whole DVD collection (~400) and put it on a hard disc for safe keeping and for playing from a network. I failed to find some good software to do it.
Which program would you or GAF use to do this in a least painful way? Needs to crack all copy protection shit and should be able to handle all region codes and ideally would make a 1:1 copy with good picture quality while using minimum hdd space AND creating a cool library with covers and the whole shebang!!1
Does something like that even exist without costing xxx$?I just saw Kids Return today and really enjoyed it. I'm still ambivalent about Kitano. I enjoy some of his movies like Hana-bi (and the early of Kikujiro which I haven't finished). But, I found some others way too slow (Scene at the Sea, and Dolls) - though maybe they just weren't what I expected and the lack of dialogue let me down then. I should probably revisit those at some point.
Sidewinder
Member
Kikujiro is fantastic, how can you not watch it in one sitting??1 Already watched Zatoichi?
The official Fortune Star DVD is out of print; a lot of those more obscure Golden Harvest titles released by Fortune Star had a small print run and that's it. Probably eBay will be your best route.
YesAsia does have a Mainland DVD released by Guang Dong Yin Xiang listed as out of stock. A lot of those sorts of releases are usually very poor quality but you might have better luck searching for it.
http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-cat-dvd-china-version/1002978997-0-0-0-en/info.html
YesAsia does have a Mainland DVD released by Guang Dong Yin Xiang listed as out of stock. A lot of those sorts of releases are usually very poor quality but you might have better luck searching for it.
http://www.yesasia.com/global/the-cat-dvd-china-version/1002978997-0-0-0-en/info.html
I got sidetracked 30 min in!! That was a few months ago, I really should get back to it. Kitano was pretty funny in it.
Haven't watched Zatoichi but it's on my list. I also still have to go through the Criterion collection of the old ones too. Only seen about 7-8 so far.
Aurelius
Member
Somebody recommended me The Virgin Psychics. But the trailer makes it look like a Japanese version of Porky's. Has anybody seen it? Doesn't seem Safe To Watch With Japanese Wife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvudswXN8lk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvudswXN8lk
hiphoptherobot
Member
Didn't realize this was getting released as a movie. I am assuming it is just a re cut version of the show. I only watched the first two episodes, I will however tell you my Japanese wife wasn't thrilled with it. It is pretty pervy. Lots of up-skirt shots.
Sorry for the late reply.Several years ago I wanted to rip my whole DVD collection (~400) and put it on a hard disc for safe keeping and for playing from a network. I failed to find some good software to do it.
Which program would you or GAF use to do this in a least painful way? Needs to crack all copy protection shit and should be able to handle all region codes and ideally would make a 1:1 copy with good picture quality while using minimum hdd space AND creating a cool library with covers and the whole shebang!!1
I had been looking for something just like that and it certainly wasn't easy finding the perfect fit.
I ended up buying MakeMVK since the free beta keeps expiring after a month and new versions tend to take a bit longer to come out. So I bit the bullet and purchased it.
It rips everything I've thrown at it so far besides my Bluray copy of Princess Mononoke for some reason. Guess the disk might be faulty.
It rips both Blurays and DVDs to mkv files without compressing anything, includes subtitles and chapters as well.
Just got in a some nice things.
Already bought The Chaser last week from France, but the disk was defective and the seller doesn't respond. :-/
Then I found out the French version was 1080i so instead of buying another copy from there, I went with the Italian one, which was the only other Bluray option for Europe.
Glad this one is fine.
Also got the German blurays for A Chinese Ghost Story 1 and 2 and I'll pick up 3 in the future.
And in my quest to complete my Hong Kong Legends set I picked up Warriors Two and a release I didn't even know existed as it doesn't seem to be documented anywhere.
Might be because this one was exclusively released in the Netherlands and not the UK as was usual the case with HKL.
I've also just got the news that a special little package has arrived from Korea so I'll have something dear to my heart to post tomorrow.
The film isn't Korean and it contains quite a lot of hopping and a bit of biting.
Hehe, Japanese Porky's. lol
Well it's Sion Sono, so it'll be something special, that's for sure.
This film gives me a bit of a Love exposure vibe.
Really? I honestly don't know anything about this film. That's great to hear!
As I was ripping them all I came across another one that I never knew anything about, yet when I was working on extracting the subtitles and putting them back in place so they look better on screen than they do on the original DVDs, I saw a couple of scenes that had me intrigued.
I'm talking about The Peacock King.
Again, no idea if the film itself is great or not, but I love the combination of stop motion, magical powers, demons and kung fu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c10wXrMedfI
If you like Sammo Hung's choreography style or just old kungfu films of that era, you are in for a treat.Really? I honestly don't know anything about this film. That's great to hear!
Fun fact: the main protagonist Casanova Wong is Korean
He's such an agile fighter.Really? I honestly don't know anything about this film. That's great to hear!
As I was ripping them all I came across another one that I never knew anything about, yet when I was working on extracting the subtitles and putting them back in place so they look better on screen than they do on the original DVDs, I saw a couple of scenes that had me intrigued.
I'm talking about The Peacock King.
Again, no idea if the film itself is great or not, but I love the combination of stop motion, magical powers, demons and kung fu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c10wXrMedfI
Peacock King is a fun film. A lot of the horror special effects were "inspired" by The Thing.
http://hkfilm.net/movrevs5/peacock.htm
Well I sure have my entertainment picked out for me then during this vacation.
I love Sammo, so I'm looking forwards to seeing Warriors Two.
As for Peacock King, I'm not looking for a masterpiece. Just a film with a lot of heart and something that's fun to watch.
Combined with some old favourites that I now have on Bluray, I really don't know which one to pick to watch tonight.
It's a nice to have this kinda "problem".
Some other DVDs I've had lying around for years but never got around to watching are:
Swordsman II
Dreadful Melody
From Beijing With Love
Magic Cop
Green Snake
Any favourites here that I should move to the top of my list?
I love Sammo, so I'm looking forwards to seeing Warriors Two.
As for Peacock King, I'm not looking for a masterpiece. Just a film with a lot of heart and something that's fun to watch.
Combined with some old favourites that I now have on Bluray, I really don't know which one to pick to watch tonight.
It's a nice to have this kinda "problem".
Some other DVDs I've had lying around for years but never got around to watching are:
Swordsman II
Dreadful Melody
From Beijing With Love
Magic Cop
Green Snake
Any favourites here that I should move to the top of my list?
Ah, again, great to hear.
About 15 years ago, these films were quite easy to find, at least in Belgium. Or if they didn't come out here, I could import them from the UK. Used HKFlix a lot back in the day.
Today it seems to be a lot harder to track them down.
So I just bought tons and tons of films back then and did so over a period of roughly 10 years.
Been through a rather rough period in life for the past couple of years till I finally saved up enough money to move and get a nice house in the countryside. Away from all the things and people that made me so miserable.
So 90% of my collection has been boxed away for several years, and now I'm slowly going through everything, trying to digitise all of them before the discs go bad.
Not to mention catch up to them since I probably have only seen 1 in 4 films that I have right here.
About 15 years ago, these films were quite easy to find, at least in Belgium. Or if they didn't come out here, I could import them from the UK. Used HKFlix a lot back in the day.
Today it seems to be a lot harder to track them down.
So I just bought tons and tons of films back then and did so over a period of roughly 10 years.
Been through a rather rough period in life for the past couple of years till I finally saved up enough money to move and get a nice house in the countryside. Away from all the things and people that made me so miserable.
So 90% of my collection has been boxed away for several years, and now I'm slowly going through everything, trying to digitise all of them before the discs go bad.
Not to mention catch up to them since I probably have only seen 1 in 4 films that I have right here.
I used to write for HKFlix. Torrents and YouTube pretty much killed the western market for HK films. I think YesAsia is the only big English language site still running. Most of the older stuff (Media Asia, Fortune Star, Hong Kong Legends, etc) is out of print anyway outside of major stars Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, etc, but even a lot of stuff by people like Stephen Chow, Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, etc went OOP. Probably Amazon/Ebay are your best bets.
When I was building up my DVD collection, I mostly relied on amazon UK for HKL stuff (all used), or dddhouse/yesasia for IVL/FS stuff, or ebay.
I really hate how badly treated HK movies are in the Blu-ray era. John Woo's A Better Tomorrow just got remastered and released as a Blu sampled from a 4k source, and it's actually HD rather than an upscale like in most previous releases. Rather than have it be the ultimate version, it doesn't even have the original mono audio, instead relying on some 'enhanced' surround audio with added sounds. I mean, just why?
I really hate how badly treated HK movies are in the Blu-ray era. John Woo's A Better Tomorrow just got remastered and released as a Blu sampled from a 4k source, and it's actually HD rather than an upscale like in most previous releases. Rather than have it be the ultimate version, it doesn't even have the original mono audio, instead relying on some 'enhanced' surround audio with added sounds. I mean, just why?
Is it as bad as the original Media Asia DVD that had bits from Terminator 2 spliced in?
Hong Kong residents don't really care about "old" movies. Film archival/preservation is pretty much non-existent and good restorations cost a lot of money. Also Blu-ray has never really caught on there. A lot of people are fine with shitty VCDs.
So there isn't really a market for classic films on Blu-ray outside of evergreen stuff like Bruce Lee titles - but even those can be hit or miss (upscales vs true HD) because Fortune Star (the company that holds the rights) is shady as fuck.
Hong Kong movie companies have often been their own worst enemies because they flooded the market for years and years with cheap product to the point that it turned a lot of people off and help to kill both the local and international markets.
Hong Kong residents don't really care about "old" movies. Film archival/preservation is pretty much non-existent and good restorations cost a lot of money. Also Blu-ray has never really caught on there. A lot of people are fine with shitty VCDs.
So there isn't really a market for classic films on Blu-ray outside of evergreen stuff like Bruce Lee titles - but even those can be hit or miss (upscales vs true HD) because Fortune Star (the company that holds the rights) is shady as fuck.
Hong Kong movie companies have often been their own worst enemies because they flooded the market for years and years with cheap product to the point that it turned a lot of people off and help to kill both the local and international markets.
True Savior
Member
I think most of the userbase from the forums migrated somewhere else where I also used to post but I completely forgot the website name and so I never found it again.
That is a different site/forum. The guy who ran Kung Fu Cinema I think got burnt out after the forum kept crashing and he couldn't pay the hosting costs, so he just shut it down and people migrated to the Shaolin Chamber site.
Sidewinder
Member
Thanks, gonna check it out!
While ripping my Hong Kong Legends DVDs, I came across this feature that I think you may enjoy.
https://youtu.be/s9DsAI3DeD0
https://youtu.be/s9DsAI3DeD0
The Artful Dodger
Member
Been going through all the Donnie Yen films on Netflix lately
If you're saying just in general the "SUPER classic" Jackie Chan.
Snake and Eagles Shadow and the Young Master are fantastic, I honestly have most of the crazy old ones melded together in my head. Dragon Lord has some crazy fights, but I'm not sure if you're sticking to solely 70s Chan.
Tonight I am busting open my TWF blu ray of Hana-Bi which I bought in January.
I opened my Kikujiro blu ray a few weeks ago and was very happy with the transfer. I will report back / edit this post later.
Edit:
Transfer was very nice. Audio seemed a little louder than the Kikujiro copy TWF also put out. There was one scene which looked really weird though. When Nishii gets out the car in the snow during that over the head crane shot. I will get out my DVD and see what it looks like on there.
I opened my Kikujiro blu ray a few weeks ago and was very happy with the transfer. I will report back / edit this post later.
Edit:
Transfer was very nice. Audio seemed a little louder than the Kikujiro copy TWF also put out. There was one scene which looked really weird though. When Nishii gets out the car in the snow during that over the head crane shot. I will get out my DVD and see what it looks like on there.
sunshine and gasoline
Banned
Just came back from watching Train to Busan. Easily my favorite zombie movie of the past decade. The first half was stellar with the second half being a bit weaker in some regards but it does have some nice character development for the main lead. Like World War Z, the zombies are rather quick which I feel is great.
Solid 4/5
Solid 4/5
I quite enjoyed it too. An Animated prequel is in the works or so I hear.
Rented Stephen Chow's The Mermaid on Amazon. Pretty hilarious with some gory scenes involving the mermaids. Not on the same level as Shaolin Soccer or Kung Fu Hustle, but well worth the couple bucks.
The matriarch mermaid is one bad ass motherfucker. Also, I'm a sucker for a happy ending too.
Absolutely loved Beterang (Veteran). Great action, great comedy.
sunshine and gasoline
Banned
Hm. Could be decent I suppose. I'm assuming that it will show the creation of the contagion that caused the outbreak and possibly the early stages of the outbreak.
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