Best thing ever to happen to martial arts flicks.  Every time I buy one, even for very old movies, the quality of the image is always terrific, audio tracks always include original Asian language + English dub, and English subs.  They have cleaned up many of the old Shaw Brother films and made them watchable once again, the transfers always seem to be top quality.

Does anyone know of any other media company which releases martial art movies of the same caliber?  I have been burned before with some unwatchable junk which seemed to be nothing more than a VHS direct to DVD transfer.  One was so bad my upconverting DVD player would not play it without massive screen corruption until I turned off the upconverting feature.  And then it was like watching a horribly scratched reel film which had been played 100 times or so too many.

I almost always hold out for the Dragon Dynasty version, but sometimes I can't find the movie I am looking for, or else they want too much for it.  Recently I bought the 20th Century Fox Bruce Lee collection, and the image quality is terrific (great remastering job).  Any other good media companies for Asian movies?

Thanks,
R.

Quoting Rooster6975:

Quote:
I almost always hold out for the Dragon Dynasty version, but sometimes I can't find the movie I am looking for, or else they want too much for it.

You might not want to hold out any longer, as it looks like Dragon Dynasty is dead.  No upcoming releases on their website and Bey Logan has been let go by the Weinstein Company (he's headed back to Hong Kong to produce a new film directed by Michael Biehn).  It really sucks, since they never got around to releasing "The Killer" they had in the works, nor many of the great films they had the rights to, like "A Better Tomorrow" or "Bullet in the Head".

HKL was great as well (I bought nearly every release I could for the features alone), but the same thing exact thing happened there.  It is scary at the similarities regarding each company's fate.  The only hope is that the rights to these films get sold to companies willing to do something with them.

DD = no more? Crap! Terrible news!

I greatly enjoyed most, if not all, of their releases that I have seen.

Quoting synner_man:
You might not want to hold out any longer, as it looks like Dragon Dynasty is dead.  No upcoming releases on their website and Bey Logan has been let go by the Weinstein Company (he's headed back to Hong Kong to produce a new film directed by Michael Biehn).  It really sucks, since they never got around to releasing "The Killer" they had in the works, nor many of the great films they had the rights to, like "A Better Tomorrow" or "Bullet in the Head".


Well, according to kungfucinema.com :"Logan may no longer be a TWC VP but he’s still maintaining a working relationship with them. He has signed a new deal which covers his own productions and allows him to remain as an acquisitions consultant for the company and their Asian Film Fund."

This is really too bad is DD is dead. I have about a dozen DD titles myself and have been waiting forever for The Killer and it looks like we won't get that (unless some other company gets the rights and releases a good dvd.

What is really terrible is that they ended on Spine #39.  You couldn't just release the long-delayed "The Killer" and make it a nice even 40? 

Apparently, news of their death was premature.  After several months off and some behind-the-scenes restructuring, they are coming back in March with 2 new releases: The Killer (Finally!) on DVD and Blu-ray [March 30th] and Return to the 36th Chamber on DVD [March 2nd].  They will also be releasing 36th Chamber of Shaolin on Blu-ray.

Quote:
They list 33 on their site, are there another 6 which are not listed?

There are some Fortune Star titles that are now out-of-print:

- Above the Law
- Crime Story
- Last Hurrah for Chivalry
- Police Story
- Police Story 2
- The Royal Tramp Collection
- Shanghai Express

So if you see them, pick 'em up.

I'm just worried because, IIRC, The Weinsteins are still in financial trouble. I would hate for Dragon Dynasty to go away.

The recent announcements are a good sign, though.

Quoting FilmAlba:

Quote:
lol Just noticed it had been posted. I want A Better Tomorrow.

Bey Logan indicated (before he left) that Dragon Dynasty had the rights to all 3 "A Better Tomorow" films, as well as John Woo's "Bullet in the Head."  He did an audio commentary for the UK release by Optimum, but I don't know if he recorded any more commentaries before he left the company (or will continue to work with them on a commentary-only basis).