Shout Factory acquires Golden Princess library

[Serums]

Apparently their HD reconstruction of the Festival Cut of Bullet in the Head has slight cuts.

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report....XXXlGh5WSQ

A shame after the masterful job of presenting the ABT II workprint in its unrestored glory.

And for what it's worth, they were sent screenshots and timecodes for that Sai Gon location card.

[alleycat]

Maybe Arrow will have time to fix it for their release.

[Serums]

Fingers crossed.

[shiftyeyes]

Looks to me like the Arrow 4K of Hard Boiled has some reworked color timing compared to the Shout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_XBwks_MB8

[CSchmidlapp]

Looks to me like the Arrow 4K of Hard Boiled has some reworked color timing compared to the Shout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_XBwks_MB8

Yep, look like that to me also.
Wow!
More blue
Looks great.

[dvdmike]

Arrow going to show the way on these I think, Tony does the best work.

[zoidberg]

I'm guessing these transfers are not director approved, there's no mention of such on either

[CSchmidlapp]

Its a hell of a package

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

Reversible sleeve and double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Six postcard-sized reproduction artcards
Collectors' perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the film by critics Priscilla Page and Frank Djeng, archival writing by critic Rafik Djoumi and an excerpt from an interview with John Woo conducted by Stéphane Moïssakis

DISC ONE - FEATURE AND EXTRAS (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

4K Ultra HD (2160p) or HD (1080p) Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) or Rec 709

Original lossless Cantonese mono and Dolby Atmos audio, and lossless English mono audio
Optional newly translated English subtitles for the Cantonese audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English audio
Brand new commentary by director John Woo and film journalist Drew Taylor
Brand new commentary by critic David West
Two archival commentaries by John Woo, one with producer Terence Chang
Deleted and extended scenes
Theatrical trailers
Image gallery

DISC TWO - EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)

The Hero of Heroic Bloodshed, a brand new feature-length documentary on John Woo's career
A Bullet Ballet, a brand new interview with director John Woo
My Kind of Hero, a brand new interview with producer Terence Chang
Editing The Killer, a brand new interview with editor David Wu
Hong Kong Confidential, a new appreciation by author Grady Hendrix
American Cinematheque 2025 introduction with Woo
Archival interviews with cinematographer Peter Pau and actors Sally Yeh and Kenneth Tsang
Four archival featurettes from 2001 with Woo and producer Tsui Hark

DISC THREE - EXTENDED CUT (BLU-RAY)

High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the 130-minute Taiwan Extended Cut with lossless Mandarin mono audio and optional English subtitles (contains standard-definition inserts)
Option to view the Extended Cut with additional scenes from the Taiwan VHS release
Unrestored print of the Extended Cut (standard-definition with burnt-in subtitles only)

Ive watched the Hard Boiled trailer linked above a few times like my teenage self 30 years ago Haha
Its a great modern trailer, kudos to the editor.
Grade wise it looks closer to the French DVD than the Shout
Im sure there The Killer will be much of the same.

I really wish as a collector Arrow would include the HD Blu-ray disc of the film in these Limited Editions with an extra £5 on the price (an uplift in profit, despite the extra disc).
Having all in a package is the way to go, £35 all in for the ultimate edition.
Scratch separate releases for both, and just wait for the standard runs to separate.

Does anyone know how many are actually produced as part of a Limited Run, or is it based on Pre-Orders / demand?

[Bigrob]

Its £30 on Rarewaves and extra 10% off with code RWJAN10 if that helps on the wallet

[CSchmidlapp]

I'm guessing these transfers are not director approved, there's no mention of such on either

Indeed, but I'm going to counter this for fun

John Woo called the Kino release of Hard Target his Director's Cut.
Considering its history, it's far from it.
It was essentially the last pre-censored US cut, further butchered to get an R rating.
But I'm talking a specific cut here, and not on him agreeing on a visual aesthetic for the release.

In terms of presentation, he passed off the Criterion releases on DVD of Hard Boiled and The Killer as director approved presentations.
It actually didn't represent how they looked (projected) back in the day, which if you ask me, is important for the artists and technicians involved on its initial release.
It's subjective I know, and an argument can be made that the transfers we have come accustomed to have been done with a certain amount of distributor bias.
But those European / export releases looked way better (and closer to) the initial run than anything coming out of Hong Kong on home video.
The Killer looked much like the releases Peter Pau was the DP on in later projects, many of which had much more 'international' involvement in terms of multiple release formats (Double Team, Crouching Tiger and onward).
 
I'll go out on a limb and say I don't think the man cares much about how it looks as long as it looks good, and are available.
As a nerd, the Hard Boiled trailer had me reliving my youth. It feels right.
I'm sure Mr Woo would be very happy.

How does everyone else think it looks?