Fox's City Hunter release (1 Viewer)

[Jason Hennigan]

Having the US Magnificent Butcher, I can say that I don't remember seeing that pic, Sergio.

However, the only R2 HKL disk I have is Armour of God.

 

[Jeff Krispow]

Jason B:
Whoops, sorry about that... you weren't too clear on your original question, so I completely misunderstood... Um, all I have to offer is basically the same as Jason H already wrote. We all know that Fortune Star's restored versions would easily be superior to the previously-issued release, but that's not enough. The studio's main concern with ANY release is to come out of the deal ahead of the game, i.e., make a profit. They have to weigh potential consumer sales against their initial expenditure of time and production costs. But in the end, is that really enough incentive for them to even bother? That's the big question.

As for being ABLE to do it, I really don't see why not. Lets use Columbia TriStar and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA as an example. Obviously, Columbia TriStar already has the U.S. distribution rights to the film. They already released the films, after which better copies were made available overseas. If they wanted to reissue the film using better materials, then I would assume that all they need to do is make a simple arrangement with Fortune Star to obtain them. I doubt they would need to make a new licensing deal, since they already have an existing one. All it takes is a simple inquiry asking if they could utilize the new restored Hi Def materials and see what happens. On the other hand, it's also certainly possible that their existing contracts might preclude them from being able to us these new masters, or there might be some other obstacles, but arrangements can ALWAYS be made and I'm sure that Fortune Star would work with them.

The problem with Media Asia was that everyone said they were always such a pain to deal with, and rarely had anything resembling quality print materials. On the other hand, Fortune Star is apparently making sure that all of their new licensees have access to quality sources, because bad-looking materials would reflect poorly on them.

But getting back to the meat of the matter, the real question is whether or not the U.S. studios would actually do this. Frankly, in most cases, I seriously doubt it. Aside from the monetary angle, there are other issues that stand in the way of such progress, such as studio politics. There are definitely DVD producers out there who would jump at the chance to reissue a superior version of these films, but it's getting the actual project greenlighted that would be the problem. You are up against people further up the studio food chain who think along the lines of, "Haven't we ALREADY done that title? Forget it! Why don't we reissue Terminator 2 yet again!" But we can hope, can't we?


Since you were specifically wondering about Columbia TriStar's new OUATIC Trilogy release, I'll tell you what's up with it —— AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! If anything, this new TRILOGY set is actually worse than the previous versions (i.e., the 3 individual releases + the original box set). Basically this is a two-disc repackaging of the previous three films, utilizing the exact same fuzzy transfers. Why is is worse, then? Because they removed ALL of the supplementary materials — the shorter U.S. version of the first film, the commentary, trailers, everything. It's just the films and nothing else. Columbia TriStar obviously missed a golden opportunity here to improve upon their original releases, but absolutely blew it. *SIGH* If you really want the OUATIC trilogy, then either find the original 3-disc version, or better yet, do what I'm going to do and pick up that beautiful British set...

What the hell was Columbia TriStar thinking with this travesty?!? It just doesn't make any sense at all — Columbia TriStar is one of the better studios out there, and has a excellent record, and they aren't in the habit of reissuing titles and removing all the extras (it's not like they are Artisan...). If anything, they usually try and improve their transfers. What's the point of releasing this? They could still sell the full 3-disc set as easily as this 2-disc version. The only reason I can think for them doing something like this is: 1) They completely sold out of their entire original print run, and some idiot decided to reissue it this way to save 35 cents; or 2) it's possible that they are about to lose the rights, and the studio wanted to do a quick, on-the-cheap release to sell as many units as possible before they lost it permanently. I'd really like to think that #2 is correct — I would soooo love for Fox to get this series — but in all honesty I really don't know what is going on with this. Chances are that somebody just made a really, really stupid decision and got it approved.


Sergio:
Um, didn't you read any of the posts above? Most of the discussion here has been about how there is absolutely NO relation whatsoever between the U.K. HKL versions and the Fox editions. I also specifically stated that the extras were completely different. Since HKL produces the extras for their DVDs, they own them — Fox cannot legally use ANY of those extras on their editions.

So, yes, the extras on the U.S. MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER disc are 100% different than the HKL import. There are no commentaries or Easter Eggs or a Sam Seed production photo. Also, all the interview segments on the Fox discs are completely different — these were conducted/provided by Fortune Star, and were taped at times and locations quite different from the HKL variety. There are differences within the photo galleries and all other materials as well.

What HKL doesn't own are any deleted scenes, outtakes, or making-of materials — those are owned entirely by Fortune Star. Chances are extremely good that this material will also appear on the U.S. discs.

I'm sure Fox could have licensed some of the extras from the HKL discs — HKL obviously seemed interested in making just such an arrangement (judging from what Bey Logan has been saying) — but they didn't. I'm sure this is because Fox did not want to pay out any additional licensing fees for extras, especially since Fortune Star was already providing them with numerous extras and production materials.

Just as a point of reference, simple extras such as a commentary. interviews, photo galleries, etc. can be expensive to license from another company. That's why most companies produce their own extras. For example, I knew over two years ago that MGM was going to reissue ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK as a future special edition, because they licensed numerous extras from Image (years earlier, Image produced a SE of the film on laserdisc). MGM might own the film now, but Image produced and owns all the extras they made for their edition — and MGM had to pay Image a licensing fee if they wanted to use any of that material. I'm not at liberty to say what that fee was, but let's just say it wasn't inexpensive. (In some cases, for smaller companies, these fees can be greater than their entire production budget to do the disc in the first place.) So again, it comes down to a decision of weighing potential consumer sales against the expenditure in time and production costs to obtain these materials.

Unfortunately, this does mean that if you are a big fan of one of these films, then you really need to get both DVD editions just to have a complete set of all the cool extras. Then again, this can also be looked upon as a good thing — since none of the extras overlap, you are getting a bunch more extras that would never have appeared on the other company's disc. (Weird logic, I know, but it works for me.)

Of course, if I had to make just one choice, then I would definitely choose the U.S. Fox disc — while the extras are nice, they are, in the end, just extras. It's the actual film that matters most to me, and I want it to have the best-possible image quality, which the Fox discs easily provide (plus they are only a measly $9.99 in stores).

And that... is that.
'Nuff said.

 

[Sergio Martorel]

The only thing Media Asia is good at is putting their damn pink logo on EVERY release at least twice. :b

 

[TheLongshot]

Since you were specifically wondering about Columbia TriStar's new OUATIC Trilogy release, I'll tell you what's up with it —— AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know. I just picked up recently the HKL set on clearance and nice to know that I didn't miss anything.

Jason

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I doubt they would need to make a new licensing deal, since they already have an existing one. All it takes is a simple inquiry asking if they could utilize the new restored Hi Def materials and see what happens. On the other hand, it's also certainly possible that their existing contracts might preclude them from being able to us these new masters, or there might be some other obstacles, but arrangements can ALWAYS be made and I'm sure that Fortune Star would work with them.

One of the reasons why US anime discs of older titles almost never looks as good as their J counterpart is because most of the companies demand money(lots) for the new masters. I would not be suprised if FortuneStar did the same thing, and sales of the standard OUATIC would tell them if it's worth it (or at least that's how they think)

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I found a translation of the lyrics to that song that was untranslated on the DVD:

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/pho...&i=3776&t=3776

(It's a ways down on that page. Search that page for "Gala Gala Happy".)