Storm Riders, anyone seen this HK film (1 Viewer)

[Jerome Grate]

I have the opportunity to purchase this online and I was wondering if this is the movie when the stars fly through the air and project power from their hands etc. Has anyone purchase this or seen it, let me know, I remember a post before where it was mentioned that the special effects were good and the action was top notch.

 

[Ian_H]

It is a fun movie. For a HK flick at the time the computer effects were state of the art. Just don't compare them to Hollywood counterparts. Sonny Chiba is in it too. Pretty solid flick if you ask me.


--Ian

 

[Chris_Morris]

It's a great movie, and the R0 disc has great A/V quality. The disc has DTS also. For under $10 shipped, it's a great deal

Matt Brown's review from LoveandBullets.com

Chris

 

[James_Kiang]

Chris, what site would be able to ship it at that price? I've never seen this one but I have been interested in it for a while. For ~$10 I'd probably go ahead and order it. Thanks!

 

[Chris_Morris]

DDD House

It's $30HK plus $30HK for shipping which is ~$8US total.


Chris

 

[James_Kiang]

Great, thanks! I should have thought of them - I've bought a few things from them in the past.

 

[WillKTaylor]

Great little fantasy martial arts movie. Story, plot and action are all well enough done.

When you say "stars", if you're talking about the characters, yes .. they emit various powers through their hands, depending on the character. The effects are quite good and hold up to some of today's standards. I believe that this was the most expensive movie produced at the time for that region.

The DD mix is also quite good for an Asian film. I have not heard about the DTS version. But, for $8 shipped, hey .. I wouldn't pass on it if you're into this type of story.

 

[john mcfadden]

SONNY CHIBA !!! what more do you need ? BUY IT !!!! Storm Riders is incredible ...If you like it look for " A Man called HERO" and "The Duel " they are produced by the same production company and star most of the same actors . All 3 are worth looking into

 

[Jerome Grate]

The versions that are DD and DTS, are they region 0 or 3 (I think for Hong Kong)?

 

[Jerome Grate]

I checked DDDHouse and is that price correct It's like 4 to 5 bucks for an all region DTS DVD.

 

[Kyle Tippett]

I second john mcfadden
You might have trouble finding A Man Called Hero (for one unspeakable reason or another) but i was able to get it off of "www.dvdasian.com" several months back. THey are a good site to check for discs that are "hard to find". But A Man Called Hero is great... if you do like the Andrew Lau stuff, i would HIGHLY suggest getting the first 2 instalments to the YOUNG AND DANGEROUS series... they are usually between 8-12 each, and if you like them you may want to lay down cash for more. Some of them arn't quite as good as others, and i havent seen the last few (prequels, side stories etc.) but they are all fun. Further more, if you get into Lau, theres Infernal Affairs, which is excellent.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Great movie. Highly Reccomended

 

[Matthew Brown]

Chris -
Thanks for the mention!

STORM RIDERS is really a great movie. It's also a great introduction to so many Hong Kong film stars. There are some veterans, such as Sonny Chiba, Anthony Wong (Hard Boiled)and Yu Rong Guang (Iron Monkey) as well as the younger Ekin Cheng (Y&D series), Aaron Kwok, Roy Cheung, and Shu Qi.

Kyle -
I agree with you on the Young and Dangerous series. Some of the DVD's have burned in subtitles and are of varying degrees of quality. I would love for these to get remastered. I love how some of the secondary characters steal the scenes they are in without detracting from the overall movies. Sonny Chiba fans will like BORN TO BE KING even though he isn't in it as much as I would have liked.

Matt

 

[Donnie Eldridge]

I truely is great. I used this one to get my sisters boyfriend hooked on HK movies.

 

[Rolando]

My curiosity is peaked...

For a while I have been looking to get HK films to watch as they were meant to be seen. OAR, original language and of course without any edits (thanks but no thanks Disney...).

I have ben hoping to get my hands on titles like:

Jet Li's Fist Of Legend, Black Mask, New Legend Of Shaolin among others

Jackie Chan's Drunken Master and DM 2(one of my all time favorites...), Police Story etc

Chow Yun Fat City Of Fire, Once A Thief

And others like the Bruce Lee Movies and hits like Iron Monkey and Storm Riders.

WHERE CAN I GET THEM???

I need real concrete info and keep in mind I am real strict about the 3 aspects I mentioned AND I AM IN MONTREAL, CANADA.

So how do I proceed? I got a multi region player and it does to PAL to NTSC so I want the BEST version on DVD of these regardless of where to get them.

Now I have heard of HK Legends so I am sure what they released I will likely veer in their direction but what else?

I quickly checked the link to DDD House shown before but I have questions.

Do they ship to Canada? Are they reliable (who has ordered from them before?) and WHICH VERSION TO BUY? I see like 2 sometimes 3 version of a movie on DVD for the same Film.
Which do I get? They don't to give details as to whether or not a transfer is anamorphic for example.

So there it is, as I like to say: I need to be guided like I am 4 years old.

THANKS GUYS!!!

 

[Matthew Brown]

Rolando -
Ok, One movie at a time :

Fist Of Legend - Best Version is from HK Video (region 2?), a French label. Original language and uncut. The bad part is that there are no ENGLISH SUBS. The next is from Ritek which is out of print. It's still missing the original Cantonese track but it does have a Mandarin one. Miles ahead of the Dimension one because it preserves the original story. The English dub dumbs down the movie and removes the tension between the Chinese and Japanese.

Black Mask - There are several different versions of this one. Some of the HK imports are cut for violence even though they are the original edit of the film. The ones that aren't cut for violence are usually the ones that don't have the Cantonese track, but the Mandarin. The original soundtrack really changes the Karen Mok character. All of these are region 0. There may be a HKVideo version but again, no English subtitles.

New Legend of Shaolin - There is a version from Universe that is all region. It is non-anamorphic but it is pretty good quality wise. This can be purchased almost anywhere. I don't know if Universe is remastering any of their titles yet so it would probably be safe to get this one.

Dunken Master - The Columbia DVD is flawed as there is missing Cantonese that reverts to the English track. The UK Hong Kong Legends DVD (Regions 2) has only the Madarin tracks and is not the correct aspect ratio. Supposedly Hong Kong Legends is coming out with a Platinum edition of this one that will be as near perfect as can be. I haven't found a release date, though.

Drunken Master 2 - Thanks to Disney, every version available IN THE WORLD is now their cut version. Even ones that are released over seas have the ending cut. There was a DVD from Thakral that had the original language and ending but the image was the wrong aspect ratio. It is cropped on the sides. This is the lesser of the two evils because it is uncut.

Police Story 1 - The region 2 Hong Kong Legends is the best in the world right now. For a full review check here http://www.loveandbullets.com/policestory.htm . There is a Deltamac version also that should be Region 0. It's not bad but it lacks the restoration that the HKL one has.

Police Story 2 - Full review - http://www.loveandbullets.com/policestory2.htm .
The region 2 HKL version looks the best but it's cropped. Deltamac also has a version of this one. While not great, it should be more than acceptable if the cropping bothers you.

Police Story 3 - Supercop - Deltamac has a Region 0 DVD of the uncut movie with the original soundtrack.

City On Fire - This is available from most HK dvd e-tailers in a region 0 DVD. Uncut with original soundtrack. I would watch for this to be remastered really soon but it is pretty cheap so it's worth picking up. It is made by Universe and another company but I forget which one.

Once a Theif - At the moment, the version from Columbia Tristar is the best. It is region 1.

Bruce Lee Movies - The region 2 Hong Kong Legends are presently the best in the world. They are uncut and have had restoration done on them. Miles ahead of the Fox releases. One esception is Enter the Dragon which will be given special treatment very soon.

Iron Monkey - Presently the best version is from Hong Kong Legends, Region 2. If you can wait a few months, there will be a two DVD special edition. Uncut with original language, of course.

Storm Riders - The only one I have seen is the Universe version which I am happy with even though it's not anamorphic. I don't think there is a really good anamorphic version of this one. I haven't hears anything good about them.

Links -
http://www.hkflix.com - Just about everything that Miramax lets them carry.
http://www.dddhouse.com - Imports, mostly region 0 and 3.
http://www.bensons-world.co.uk/ - Region 2 Hong Kong Legends
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/ - Region 2 Hong Kong Legends
Link Removed - Hong Kong Legends home page


Matt

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

Rolando,

As a fellow Canadian who has used DDD House about a million times, I can safely say that they DO ship to Canada, and their prices (including shipping) are probably the best overall on the web for HK DVDs. Very occasionally, Canada Customs will impose their duty fee, but the vast majority of the time, the parcels arrive unchecked!

If you do use DDD House, you've gotta check out their WEEKLY CHEAP SALE, accessible from the left-side navigation bar. I've bought dozens and dozens of titles from this section over the years - including the YOUNG & DANGEROUS movies listed earlier in this thread, as well as several Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat and Steven Chow movies - for the ridiculously low price of HK$25 (which, at current exchange rates works out to about CDN$4.15!!!!! - cheaper than bootlegs, for heaven's sake! The reason they're so cheap is that they are mostly older discs from distributors MEI AH and UNIVERSE, titles which are now being rereleased by DeltaMac. Ironically, the DeltaMac titles aren't that much more expensive, working out to about CDN $7.50 a pop, but for the most part, they're comparitively similar transfers and lacking the extra trailers found on the Universe/Mei-Ah titles (which, of course makes it easy to preview other titles!)

DDD House distributes Korean, Japanese, some European and American stuff, but only if they've been released by Chinese distributors. Authentic stuff from Korea and Japan is better found at other sites.

Hopefully you'll become as big an addict to HK cinema as I have (over 700 VCDs and DVDs at last count some time ago), although I'm sure Matthew Brown's collection puts mine to shame. It's probably one of the cheaper branches of cinema to collect, if you know where to look.

Happy hunting!

 

[Aaryn Chan]

Hello, I'm from Montreal too and there's a store in montreal that carries lots and lots of imports for DVD fanatics..!! I think it's Michael DVD or something..

Btw, if you want "real" versions of Fist of Legend and Drunken Master II, well, you gota get the VCD versions. The quality suck ass tho, but that's the only way to see the film 'original'. (or get the VHS).

Or maybe Laser Disc, but i think most HK DVD are sourced from LDs.. (?)

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Jerome,

Keep in mind that a lot of the very inexpensive discs are VCDs, not DVDs.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

Actually, the prices Jerome got from DDD house are, in fact, for the DVD. Hong Kong DVDs. The prices at DDD house are uncommonly low for legitimate product. New Release stuff tends to be upwards ot $12-$19, but even those come down in a decent amount of time. VCD prices at DDD average about HK$20, which is about CDN$3.25 (except for New Releases, Shaw Bros. stuff and assorted others). For less than a dollar more than their VCD counterparts, you can get some pretty decent DVDs from the Weekly Cheap Sale.

I believe the vast majority of HK DVDs are NOT sourced from LDs, but from the original elements (although of varying quality) the same as most mainstream US discs. Bootleggers, on the other hand, might copy from VCD or LD to matheir DVDs, but more often than not, i think they're getting a hold of DVD source materials to make pristine copies. Scary, that...