Hong Kong Movies and Disney (1 Viewer)

[Matthew Brown]

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

 

[Jeff Kleist]

The problem is that Disney, and most of the other studios see the HK audience as urban, under-educated black people (and I hate to say this, based on my personal observations as a buyer this is by and large correct) so that's why you get the dubbing, and the rap soundtracks on all of the HK films. You might want to add "The Accidental Spy" to the list of Disney owned stuff, and given that it deals with a "Super Anthrax" I expect it to not show up in the US till at least 2005.
OSL is as important as widescreen and the full edit, and Disney is violating 2 of the top 3 requirements for quality DVD right there. With seamless branching technology there is no excuse.
While the legality of Disney's motions against HKFlix and the like is questionable, there are still fine HK retailers like DDDHouse that are actually cheaper

 

[Matthew Brown]

The problem is that Disney is trying to stop the DVD's from being sold this way, too. It's just harder for them to do.

Matt

 

[Jeff Kleist]

It's virtually impossible to stop shipments of DVDs from Hong Kong. If it were, all the HK bootlegs would get stopped at the border, and we know how effective that is.

 

[Matthew Brown]

According to the owner of DDDhouse, Disney is putting pressure on the distributors like Universal to not supply internet retailers and mail order shops. He hasn't been personally notifed yet but it is happening.

Matt

 

[Chris Xolotl]

Universe you mean. No? Anyways, I can imagine Universe saying "Huh? ***sound of letter going into circular file***"

 

[Matthew Brown]

You're right, it is Universe. According to Johnny from dddhouse.com it is happening already. He hasn't been notified yet but others have.

Matt

 

[Matthew Brown]

For those have been following this, http://www.hkfilm.net/disney/index.html has been updated and an FAQ has been added.
Matt