The REAL Reason why John Woo's Hard Boiled & The Killer won't ever be released on 4K! 

it is indeed mate, not officially, i don't normally condone bootlegs, but in the case of Hard Boiled and the Killer, just now, it's the only option. The super shady bootlegger Hong Kong Rescue's restorations are currently the best editions of Hard Boiled and The Killer and several other companies and individuals have all started bootlegging his bootlegs. Sloppy Seconds in the USA and Shamrock Media in Germany. the Shamrock editions are the only ones not on domestic recordable bluray discs.

And drunken master 2 in Europe

@@TheFanaticalDragon I normally don't neither on bootlegs but it's the only way you can enjoy them as they were meant to be viewed. Same with Warners they don't just want you to buy but their entire HK catalog . They want an insane amount of money to own these movies from their catalog. As much as i'm not a fan of HKR as much as i was years back. I prefer the HKR Drunken Master 2 where Warner's can't sell a Jackie Chan movie without fans being so skeptical about it.

@@AminaG-o6t Yes, in Germany!

Eventually. Surely Criterion or Shout! will eventually make it happen. I do like the idea of Tarantino buying the rights. It’s not out of the realm of possibility. He has been very generous when it comes to film preservation like buying the New Beverly cinema.

Thanks for checking out the video, for how often i see people asking for the movies in comments sections it seemed like a good thing to get Frank to do while he was visiting Scotland.

I’m glad I got those too. I didn’t think The Killer looked very good though.

@@dannysavage8929 I actually ordered from HK Rescue and didn't get them. I lost $30 U.S. I ended up winning them on Ebay. I've only watched both once. I need to revisit them.

You never know. He might someday! I wonder if he is aware of the issue. He probably has 35mm prints of those titles.

lol, we totally thought you and Shaz would be our first guests in the new house, Frank and his wife got in there before you. X

thanks mate! really wIsh this wasn't the reality, but hoping this helps a little to clear up some of the frustration that gets falsely directed at the UK and US labels!

Thats what I have too. But I also was fortunate enough to keep my Criterion collection copies as well. So if you can get a copy of those, for a DECENT price? Thats not to bad

The films are the most important thing at the end of the day, glad you got them all to add to your collection. The old HKL DVD’s are great! Plus most Bluray players auto-upscale.

maybe, not entirely sure i want to open that can of worms again, he's effectively vanished now, owing lots and lots of people money. His work still exists in the form of ebay bootlegs ( of his bootlegs). Putting his super shady business practices aside for a minute, his actual restoration and curation work (illegally) pulling together assets from multiple sources and making a 'definitive special edition' for Hard Boiled and The Killer are to date the best English friendly version out there for either movie. It's a shame, the whole situation is such a mess really.

​@TheFanaticalDragon Thanks for the informative post. That makes sense. I've never really looked into bootlegs outside of true lies before the recent 4k restoration. But will look into killer, hard boiled and peking opera blues from HKR. For most other stuff I'm content with the HKL DVDs for now!

The phrase Ai software in relation to film restoration hurts my soul....I did just watch his new The Killer re-imagining and it wasn't actually as bad as I was expecting, enjoyed it way more than SIlent Night, saw it the same week as the new the Crow remake, and that was a tough sit.

lol, Well they’re no Silent Night, but good to see a young director finding his footing ;)

both upscales from the old DD DVD's though sadly. Japan got the best bluray release so far, its' that source that Hong Kong Rescue used for his bootleg version ( which in turn is the version Shamrock Media in Germany have released) It's all quite a mess isn't it.

@@TheFanaticalDragon Oh wow, I didn't actually know that. I was just so happy to upgrade from my terrible quality Tartan DVD release! 😂

I also have the Dragon Dynasty Blu-rays for both films in 1080i, which look awful on 4K TVs! I do have A Better Tomorrow in 4K Digital on AppleTV, which is under Fortune Star and surprisingly with Dolby Vision and Atmos

@@TheFanaticalDragon DD were only around a few years and the DVDs and BDs of Hard Boiled and The Killer were released at the same time.

@@CmdrDudge Depends which Tartan you had of Hard Boiled. The original with burnt in subs was terrible but the Collector's Edition with DTS is decent. The DD has dubtitles so the Tartan beats it there. I've only seen the DVDs of these releases so can't comment if the DD Hard Boiled BD was much better. But yeah you do need to set your expectations low for Woo films.

lol, i'd love to! this was just a flying visit to Scotland as part of his UK trip. We did livestream with Phat Samurai on Friday too though. you can check out that video on my page or on Samurai's :)

@@TheFanaticalDragon Will do, your channel is getting better and better. Try and get your lady wife to do a review, like Shaz and 'thingy' I can't remember his name...HKB, you know the ones. LOL

Also Aces Go Places Swordsman 1-3 I love Maria Legend of Wisely and so many others

Explains why most of these, the best releases are still the British Hong Kong Legends DVDs. Man they were a good boutique label before we used that term.

@@frankdjeng5543Really glad i have the Fortune Star Aces Go Places Bluray Boxset I got about 5 -6 years ago!! And I’ve been wondering why none of the boutique labels have put them out and now I know! Thank You Sir.

Yes, him and Mike Leeder both mentioned this.

I mean, someone could track down multiple interpositive for the best possible image quality possible, loss of master negatives hasn't stopped people from making some absolutely stunning restorations (first one I could think of from the back of my head is the Citizen Kane 4K restoration).

How much for the price total to buy their whole catalogue ? Do you know.

@@YorgosL1 They said it was above US$1 million and possibly over US$10 million.

@@andysmith1996 ok maybe one day when i have that money then i can step up and buy the whole entire catalogue. That is definitely my goal

@@YorgosL1 That's for the rights. What would you do with them?

@@andysmith1996 only for the right ? I was asking the total of the price including everything. I will purchase them so that everyone can have a good physical release to access.

Yes they are, but they’re not licensed, official releases. They’re both Bootlegs and both DvD upscales

not sure if i'll be getting it mate ( though ci am onsidering it as anything with Sex in the title brings in about a bazillion views lol ) The Game of Clones set wiped out my funds for a while, but we'll see, maybe.

@@TheFanaticalDragon Anything with Amy in is worth it. Cheers

😂

Where and from whom? Unless it was from HK, Japan or Korea. It’s a bootleg. Germany puts out Hard Boiled and The Killer fairly often. None of them are official releases.

@@TheFanaticalDragon Nova Media is the only one with English subtitles I can find. That was back in 2016 and is now sold out. The first movie is available from them.

@ShanghaiRooster aye, and there’s a 4K uhd release of ABT1 coming from mainland China sometime soon from WCL/Disc Kino Our wee video is really specifically explaining why no US or U.K. label can release the films ;)

@@ShanghaiRooster Im guessing Nova, but its from a UK distributor. Terracotta and its now sold out lol.

@@TheFanaticalDragon Yeah. It's not impossible; just needs a guy with a whole bunch of money to be willing to put it up purely with cinematic altruism as the reason, not with the idea of turning another profit for themselves. If I was in that position I'd do it myself, hooking up with some boutique company. The only stipulation would be the discs must be both region A and B (unless they were 4K of course). The other road would be if a new chief took over at this real estate company who was more open towards licensing these films.

lol, yes indeed.

@@TheFanaticalDragon They're abunch of evil people!

They're evil!

Where there’s a hype there’s a way 😋

They did Hard Boiled and The Killer on DVD, and every year there are rumours they’ll bring them to Bluray. But so far sadly not. We can only hope!

Criterion is restrained in their budget for procuring extras which explains why their recent HK releases like HEROIC TRIO/EXECUTIONERS have very little bonus features.

Because those German releases are bootlegs. Entirely unlicensed releases.

I thought they sold the rights to Lionsgate.

@@cubdukat this comment was 3 months ago when it was very much in limbo. Since then Paramount have secured the rights and announced a 4K remaster for 2025.

pretty much aye, the Chinese Label WCL are releasing 4K UHD's of A Better Tomorrow and John Woo's Once a Thief soon.

He's saying they can be sold in all asian countries. Yes, even Thailand... We can't and won't be able to get them and same with everywhere around the around.

@@GothamKnight84661 Exactly. Fortune Star can only sell to Asian countries. If no distributor in Thailand is interested than you won't see a Thai release. Besides, Thailand is bootleg heaven

​@@GothamKnight84661I'm not so sure. Asia also includes South Asia which I don't think is meant.

Very unlikely, there are lots of bootlegs out there already in various countries. In some cases being openly sold via Amazon and in high street retailers.

very true!

1. Asia residents don't have the same large living space like we do in the west, so they have to pick and choose which film to collect for their limited shelf space. 2. They would much rather watch streaming content on their phones than on a TV 3. HK labels don't want to spend money on extras so they could care less about including bonus features.

@@frankdjeng5543 Thanks. Basically no real collector's market then.

there is still a little bit of a collectors market and there are a bunch of great Chinese and HK boutique labels, but they mostly release western movies

There is a general 'grass is always greener' element to bluray releases internationally it seems, the UK and US do a much better job of releasing Asian titles than most Asian labels and inversely, Asian labels often do a far better job of releasing Western Movies than US labels. seems backwards at times, but consumers often crave insights into other cultures over their own i guess. Thankfully Asia is evolving when it comes to Physical Media which has been in massive decline in HK and Korea over the past two decades. There are a number of really great boutique labels in mainland China ( WCL/Diskino/MLIFE) who focus in more on Chinese and HK cinema than the big Premium HK labels ( Manta Lab & HDzeta) who both tend to just focus exclusively on western titles. Korea fairs better with Fortune Star titles than HK, Nova Media have a pretty long standing deal with Fortune Star and have put lots of great releases of many of the titles which Eureka and 88 films have since made available in the UK as well as many which Eureka and 88 are not able to ( The Killer, A Chinese Ghost Story, A Better Tomorrow etc) The main issue most UK and US collectors tend to have with importing Asian blurays tends to be the lack of any accessible special features ( and sometimes lack of English subs) The UK and US labels really go the extra mile in terms of commissioning audio commentaries, documentaries and custom artwork. The HK releases iof HK movies n particular tend to all be bare bones. They just don't sell well enough over there for them to put more effort into them. Sorry for the long reply! it's a complicated issue!

I really appreciate the detailed response! I’ve picked up some titles from Asia. I was pretty happy with the HK blu ray release of A Better Tomorrow which looks quite beautiful even if I have some issues with the audio. I recently picked up the Nova release of Bullet in the Head during their sale and am looking forward to revisiting that film. I would love if there was an English friendly release of the uncut versions of School on Fire and Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind. Can you recommend a few physical media releases from Asia of HK films that you were particularly happy with?

I really like what Nova Media do! I really like their release of City on Fire, it's not the best looking bluray compared with the restorations we're used to seeing from the UK and US labels, but it's the best version of the film i've seen on bluray so far. Nova also have a few other smaller labels who they distribute, and they handle the ARA release of Shaolin Soccer which i'm a big fan of ( that particular release and the movie) Also If the Bluray.com forums are to be believed then Diskino/WCL are putting out a 4K UHD version of A Better Tomorrow in the forseeable future, and i'm a massive fan of Diskino's releases, their quality from the titles i've seen so far is extremely good, so keeping an eye on how that develops!

That’s good to know! Thanks for the tip.

Well, the question will be if that were to happen for School on Fire, will fans will get to see it fully uncut / uncensored outside of bootlegs? The blu-ray that HK released on School on Fire is cut and heavily censored.

Mostly yes, there are a few exceptions, but most Nova, Plain Archive, Kimchidvd, Bud Blu and Cj Entertainment ones tend to.

I think he’s still smarting from the entire Dragon Dynasty thing…

As we said in the video. You CAN buy official releases in Asia. all the German, Italian and any other non-Asia releases are all bootlegs. Non licensed releases of questionable quality. We made the video purely because literally any time any UK or US label releases any remotely Asian title the comments sections are endlessly full of people demanding that label release Hard Boiled or The Killer, and the truth is they can’t. I’m sorry you don’t agree.