Shout Factory acquires Golden Princess library

[dvdmike]

As long as I get a OCN 4k Killer with a good encode and no Rovata grade I will be happy

[CSchmidlapp]

Just thinking out loud here and someone correct me if I'm wrong.

A Chinese Ghost Story Trilogy has a remaster BD release (Maybe two different transfers?)
City on Fire has a remastered BD release
Prison on Fire Series has a HD release I think

I don't think these have HD releases.
I think a German label released SD upscales under a remastered banner, maybe even bootlegs.

[PDB]

Just thinking out loud here and someone correct me if I'm wrong.

A Chinese Ghost Story Trilogy has a remaster BD release (Maybe two different transfers?)
City on Fire has a remastered BD release
Prison on Fire Series has a HD release I think

I don't think these have HD releases.
I think a German label released SD upscales under a remastered banner, maybe even bootlegs.

Good to know, thanks CSchmidlapp

Prison: I didn't know, I was just told that by someone that the two got a remaster.
ACGS Trilogy: I compared the old upscaled FS HK BD and the "remasters" and they looked different. Need to find that old BD to compare again.
COF: was this the German upscale? Need to look at it tonight haven't watched it.

[CSchmidlapp]

Good to know, thanks CSchmidlapp

Prison: I didn't know, I was just told that by someone that the two got a remaster.
ACGS Trilogy: I compared the old upscaled FS HK BD and the "remasters" and they looked different. Need to find that old BD to compare again.
COF: was this the German upscale? Need to look at it tonight haven't watched it.

I think these were all releasd fairly recently on the same label, 'Cargo Records' in Germany.
They released The Killer and Hard Boiled as well.
As far as I know there unofficial bootlegs and the company is registered as a florist!
@MrBrown I think you gave this information to me?

Its a guess your refering to these though, and Ive not seen them personally.

City on Fire


A Chinese Ghost Story


Ive not come across any other releases on my travels, but maybe ive missed them.
Let us know when you have a look see at what you have.

[Serums]

I'm not sure that ABT II and III were remastered, just the first one. Or if they were they might not have been released yet.

[CSchmidlapp]

Has everyone taken a look at the World Cinema Library label UHD releases of A Better Tomorrow and Once a Thief?





Thumbs were created using MadVr tonemapping at 180nits.

[PDB]

City on Fire


A Chinese Ghost Story


Ive not come across any other releases on my travels, but maybe ive missed them.
Let us know when you have a look see at what you have.

The City on Fire is the same one as you posted, bummer it's an upscale. The Ghost Story that I have does have a different color timing although it doesn't look good.

https://imgur.com/t5rEcXz

Both ACGS appear to be upscales. Odd about the color. I guess the German production company did a color pass on the upscale.

[zoidberg]

I had no idea there was a blu of Once a Thief all these years. I'll have to look into that.
I was always under the impression that ABT was Ritrovata's first restoration of a Woo title. I think the Japanese blu of Hard Boiled was a pretty straight scan with minimal work done, it's fairly noisy as well. I always thought the master was the basis of the Dragon Dynasty blu ray but I may be wrong on that.

[Serums]

Has everyone taken a look at the World Cinema Library label UHD releases of A Better Tomorrow and Once a Thief?





Thumbs were created using MadVr tonemapping at 180nits.

Was planning to order them before this news. They're at a high price point but they're a nice package overall.

[MrBrown]

Good to know, thanks CSchmidlapp

Prison: I didn't know, I was just told that by someone that the two got a remaster.
ACGS Trilogy: I compared the old upscaled FS HK BD and the "remasters" and they looked different. Need to find that old BD to compare again.
COF: was this the German upscale? Need to look at it tonight haven't watched it.

I think these were all releasd fairly recently on the same label, 'Cargo Records' in Germany.
They released The Killer and Hard Boiled as well.
As far as I know there unofficial bootlegs and the company is registered as a florist!
@MrBrown I think you gave this information to me?

...

It is quite complicate with these label(s).
Cargo Records just seem to be the production company, doing the production of discs, distribution, but there are individual labels that seem to be more or less license holder for the films in particular.

For many of these Hong Kong Movies it is the Label "T&G Vision Film" ("Hard Boiled", "Bullet in the Head") or in the case of "The Killer" a flower shop "Blumen by Alice."

It is quite hard to tell what the real licensing status is, but:
"Hard Boiled" featured a SD Version of the Taiwanese Cut, that was very obvious taken from the Hong Kong Rescue Disc, just with added german subtitles.
"The Killer" also featured some kind of reworked extended cut with german subs.

Somehow these releases feel very shady, with the complexity of licensing, and the things on the discs, like not just german dub, cantonese audio, but also english subs and english dub with hard boiled.

I do not think that they obtained Hard Boiled licenses for the taiwanese cut (taken from a taiwanese DVD found on a bootleg), the english dub for the main version, some interviews, without it being a news that was spread?
I am sure, even if they got a license of releasing the taiwanese cut, they also would have needed the license for the specific master from the taiwanese DVD...
I think for the Killer the inserts were form the french DVD Version and Taiwanese VHS.

So, yes, they might got the local license for the movie, but some crosses for a doubt that they really got ALL the licenses these releases would need.