Oh, looking forward to getting some of these
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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Home Video (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, 4k)
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Just to impress upon folks the magnitude of this announcement, this the biggest news that's ever been posted in this channel. The vast majority of these films have basically never been officially available on disc in the West.
There have been a couple of DVD releases of Hard Boiled and The Killer, including by Criterion. Dragon Dynasty released a typically mediocre Blu-ray of The Killer. For A Better Tomorrow, Bullet in the Head, Once a Thief, Prison on Fire, etc. you have to pick up a European release (usually region-locked, if you're a North American fan). Many (all?) of these are bootlegs trying to pass themselves off as officially licensed releases.
The quality is what you would expect. They usually don't have the original Cantonese soundtrack, let alone the original Cantonese mono soundtrack (the later mixes are sometimes very bad), and the picture quality is usually only passable. Sometimes they're missing English subtitles. There are also region-free Taiwanese releases of some of these, but many are missing the international cuts.
It's just a mess. This is the first opportunity that we'll get many of these films in 4K or HD from new scans, with the original Cantonese mono, and with multiple cuts of the film.
Very exciting stuff. I was looking for physical copies of some of Woo's early films last year and, as you say, the landscape is a mess. I wound up just sticking with my old torrent copies, since those were a known quantity. Here's hoping Shout is able to put together some decent releases.
I bet importing some of those titles to the UK wouldn't be cheap. Bollocks.
Result! Although my wallet won't appreciate it.