Matthew Brown
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Sep 19, 1999
- Messages
- 781
It has been mentioned before that Disney/Miramax/Dimension has purchased the rights to several Hong Kong movies. In the past, they have failed to release a single DVD of a Hong Kong movie in an un-altered form. They have cut, re-scored, English Dubbed, and re-edited their DVD releases. IRON MONKEY was shown theatrically with it's original Cantonese soundtrack but all of the sound effects and music were changed.
Up until now, 99% of these movies could be obtained legally by purchasing the import DVD's that are generally uncut and have the original soundtrack. These are region 0, legitimate DVD's, not bootlegs. Parallel imports are not illegal at this time.
Disney is now stopping North American retailers from carrying imports of these Hong Kong movies. At the moment there are still several places to order these titles from overseas. Disney is putting the pressure on to stop this.
Even if you are not a Hong Kong movie fan, you are likely to agree that it is wrong to take a movie, alter it and than not allow the original version to be purchased. They also make no mention that these movies are altered. There are numerous posts about pan and scan and original aspect ratio, but how about changing music, dialogue, and story lines? What is worse, it is rumored that Disney has no plans to release some of these movies. Their is goal is to stop distribution of these titles in North America so there is more demand for the titles they put out. So they are buying some of these movies just so they can't be sold in North America, PERIOD.
Several websites have gotten together to try to let Disney know that they are destroying these movies as well as educate the general public that the Hong Kong movies that Disney releases are not how they were intended to be viewed. Here is the link http://www.hkfilm.net/disney/disney.htm .
Matt
Up until now, 99% of these movies could be obtained legally by purchasing the import DVD's that are generally uncut and have the original soundtrack. These are region 0, legitimate DVD's, not bootlegs. Parallel imports are not illegal at this time.
Disney is now stopping North American retailers from carrying imports of these Hong Kong movies. At the moment there are still several places to order these titles from overseas. Disney is putting the pressure on to stop this.
Even if you are not a Hong Kong movie fan, you are likely to agree that it is wrong to take a movie, alter it and than not allow the original version to be purchased. They also make no mention that these movies are altered. There are numerous posts about pan and scan and original aspect ratio, but how about changing music, dialogue, and story lines? What is worse, it is rumored that Disney has no plans to release some of these movies. Their is goal is to stop distribution of these titles in North America so there is more demand for the titles they put out. So they are buying some of these movies just so they can't be sold in North America, PERIOD.
Several websites have gotten together to try to let Disney know that they are destroying these movies as well as educate the general public that the Hong Kong movies that Disney releases are not how they were intended to be viewed. Here is the link http://www.hkfilm.net/disney/disney.htm .
Matt