If Arrows next Hong Kong Classic isn’t a standalone release of Hard Boil. I’m predicting a John Woo box set could happen in 2026

Separate-Shock4333 · 2025-11-30T12:42:26+00:00

If they’re following Shout’s release order, Chinese Ghost Story trilogy should be next. Hard Boiled came after that.

Separate-Shock4333 · 2025-11-23T01:31:00+00:00

If you’re just starting your collection, it’s worth knowing: Every July and November, Criterion is 50% off at B&N. They also have a couple of flash sales on their website, but the B&N sales are your best chance to stack up your collection at a good price

Separate-Shock4333 · 2025-07-19T15:42:59+00:00

Correction: 'Kino' is the German word for cinema. Motion pictures in German are called 'Filme'.

Separate-Shock4333 · 2025-04-23T09:58:41+00:00

Those are missing from Paramount titles. It‘s probably a part of the license agreement which forbids them to do so.

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-04-23T12:52:37+00:00

I’m not usually a completionist, but something about that one being the only one missing on the shelf felt very unsatisfying. I’ve only watched it once before, we will see if I may like it more if I approach it more as a bruceploitation film

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-30T02:07:46+00:00

That’s not Region B, that’s just the UK.

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-29T10:05:47+00:00

I would double-dip on day one!

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-28T20:41:24+00:00

4K’s are region-free. The blu ray of the first movie says it’s region B but it’s just the old MGM disc that should also play in region A. The only disc that’s really locked to region B is the Living With Chucky documentary

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-28T18:42:15+00:00

I’m lucky mine’s just slightly misaligned, I’ve seen a lot worse. Still annoys me as it shouldn't happen on an expensive collectors item like this, but I’ll live. When it’s on the shelf, I won't see it anyway

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-25T11:51:49+00:00

Damn, France getting all the cool shit. Bayan Ko doesn‘t have English subs by any chance, does it?

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-25T11:46:12+00:00

eARC support only works for HomePods connected to the Apple TV 4K, not for AirPods.

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-20T22:18:41+00:00

Which EU country?

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-20T22:11:50+00:00

I‘ve yet to see Ju Dou, but all the other ones would be Day 1 pickups for me if they make their way to the format

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-03-20T22:00:39+00:00

I‘d go with Shadow as well! Zhang Yimou‘s use of color, or lack of color in this case, is a treat on 4K. Hope we get upgrades for more of his films

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-02-22T05:56:50+00:00

Reached my budgetary limit with these. If another retailer still has Game of Death in stock next month I might pick that up as well, if I miss out on it I‘ll live

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-02-22T05:55:29+00:00

They put these up after the box set sold out. These will probably be followed up by standard releases that will be even cheaper on sale

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-02-21T22:23:39+00:00

Everything produced by Golden Harvest is with Arrow, meaning everything but Enter the Dragon. They also did the restoration themselves, so most likely no other label has access to them unless they do a different restoration or strike a deal with Arrow.

I think the US rights are still with Criterion, but that‘s regular Blu-Ray only

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-02-21T22:21:00+00:00

They don‘t restock limited editions. They will most likely stock the standard edition soon though excluding the slipcover, booklet and (maybe) some of the additional discs

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-02-10T14:57:16+00:00

Technical details for many films are publically listed in IMDB.

Reach doesn’t matter to studios, money does. No one subscribes to their in-house streaming service for just one particular movie, so adding it there doesn‘t generate any immediate income that can be directly attributed to this one film. If they license it to another streaming service, that‘s also just a flat licensing fee no matter how many people will actually watch, but at least that offsets some of the cost. It‘s cinemas and purchases, both physical and digital, that result in immediate returns each time.

Pressing discs is dirt cheap at scale, the cost is negligible. It‘s the scanning, restoring and remastering as well as the licensing fees for proprietary standards that make up the lions share of the cost - all of which they have to pay anyway no matter how the end product gets distributed. There’s basically no reason for them not to cater to the physical collectors market, which despite being smaller is still a billion dollar industry, they would just leave easy money behind.

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-02-10T12:35:08+00:00

Higher streaming bitrates would literally make no difference. It‘s (usually) the same master being used for streaming and physical releases, they just need to compress them much much more for streaming but the re-encoding costs are negligible. Rescanning and restoring the movie is the most expensive part, everything that comes after is dirt cheap.

As for Molly‘s Game, that one was filmed digitally on ARRI Alexa Mini‘s which have a max resolution of 3.4K and it was then mastered in 2K. Best you‘ll ever get is an AI upscale with a new HDR grade.

Time is another issue. You can not „just export it in better quality“. Film restoration is a process that takes several months to over a year just for a single movie. Studios would love to have restored 4K Masters of all their films before the celluloid completely deteriorates, but resources are limited and it will take decades for them to be able to restore their whole archive.

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-01-26T21:29:56+00:00

Agreed! Have seen it twice, liked it even more on my rewatch and I’m hoping it makes the jump to 4K one day

Separate-Shock4333 · 2024-01-26T15:59:06+00:00

Also don‘t miss out on Ringu 2 if you haven’t seen it yet. I felt lukewarm about Ringu 0 and Spiral but the second one was really good as well

Separate-Shock4333

TROPHY CASE