The EL REY Network Thread

[Neil Koch]

If they were willing to show subtitled moves, it would open up a lot more for Shaw Brothers films.  Some of the horror movies might be a bit too much for a basic cable station, even one that shows uncensored stuff.

A lot of the old horror shows like The Night Stalker are already in syndication on channels like CLOO or on Hulu.

Most of the other moves mentioned come down to who has the rights, which can be a mess for Hong Kong stuff.

For Jet Li and John Woo films, the rights to a lot of those are owned by Miramax still and honestly I don't know what they're doing with them.  They have sublicensed a lot of movies out to Echo Bridge (budget DVD label), Netflix, and even HD subchannels like This and Grit, but it seems really scattershot which places have which films.  It is pretty odd that Rodriguez hasn't gotten these movies though, as he releases his movies through Miramax.

I don't think any US company has the rights to the A Better Tomorrow films currently.  There is a 4K remastering of the first movie being worked on, so I would suspect a company like Shout Factory would pick it up at some point.

[Curt McGirt]

3 hours ago, Neil Koch said:

Some of the horror movies might be a bit too much for a basic cable station, even one that shows uncensored stuff.

They've shown Maniac and The New York Ripper so all bets are off with "going too far"

[RRR]

5 hours ago, Neil Koch said:

If they were willing to show subtitled moves, it would open up a lot more for Shaw Brothers films.  Some of the horror movies might be a bit too much for a basic cable station, even one that shows uncensored stuff.

A lot of the old horror shows like The Night Stalker are already in syndication on channels like CLOO or on Hulu.

Most of the other moves mentioned come down to who has the rights, which can be a mess for Hong Kong stuff.

For Jet Li and John Woo films, the rights to a lot of those are owned by Miramax still and honestly I don't know what they're doing with them.  They have sublicensed a lot of movies out to Echo Bridge (budget DVD label), Netflix, and even HD subchannels like This and Grit, but it seems really scattershot which places have which films.  It is pretty odd that Rodriguez hasn't gotten these movies though, as he releases his movies through Miramax.

I don't think any US company has the rights to the A Better Tomorrow films currently.  There is a 4K remastering of the first movie being worked on, so I would suspect a company like Shout Factory would pick it up at some point.

They've shown a handful of Shaws already that are subtitle only. 

One of the Sentimental Swordsmen for sure and some other Wuxia films that never got dubbed. 

 

Didn't Miramax only have the rights 50 SB movies or was that just a rumor? Feels like El Rey is working directly with IVL since you never get any of the Dragon Dynasty/Miramax credits slapped on to the films and they've shown at least a hundred different SB movies. 

Btw Hi Neil, I remember you from the City on Fire mb but I have no idea what I use to post under just that I was the guy who ran "This is Gil too..." off with the stuff about using the term Wirefu if you remember that.  

[Neil Koch]

Ah yeah, I remember you.  Hello!

Miramax does (or did) indeed only hold the US rights to about 50 or so SB movies.  They were releasing them through the Dragon Dynasty line before that went under.  The releases were supposed to be special editions with commentaries, interviews, etc, but sales were not good so the last few titles they pushed were budget releases with no extras and terrible Photoshopped artwork that didn't match the movie.  I don't think I've seen any of the SB Miramax titles on El Rey or any channel or streaming service for that matter ever.   I have seen some of their non-SB stuff (Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies mostly, also a few one-offs like Infernal Affairs) on channels like This, Grit, Spike, and Cinemax, also on Netflix. 

I think the rights went back to Celestial (company that bought the SB library and remastered the films) and they put them with the deal of about 250 movies that El Rey has the US TV rights to.

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah I definitely caught Infernal Affairs on Cinemax. 

[RRR]

On 2/7/2017 at 0:14 PM, Neil Koch said:

Ah yeah, I remember you.  Hello!

Miramax does (or did) indeed only hold the US rights to about 50 or so SB movies.  They were releasing them through the Dragon Dynasty line before that went under.  The releases were supposed to be special editions with commentaries, interviews, etc, but sales were not good so the last few titles they pushed were budget releases with no extras and terrible Photoshopped artwork that didn't match the movie.  I don't think I've seen any of the SB Miramax titles on El Rey or any channel or streaming service for that matter ever.   I have seen some of their non-SB stuff (Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies mostly, also a few one-offs like Infernal Affairs) on channels like This, Grit, Spike, and Cinemax, also on Netflix. 

I think the rights went back to Celestial (company that bought the SB library and remastered the films) and they put them with the deal of about 250 movies that El Rey has the US TV rights to.

I remember DD still have a bunch of their dvds. 

Felt like at the beginning they were trying to make people think they were gonna be an American equivalent of HKL in terms of standards what with Bey Logan and all but felt the problem was, putting aside the fact HKL rarely lived up to the standards they were trying for, Bey had knowledge of the SB movies on commentary but was really a Jackie Chan super fan at heart and not an actual SB fan. 

That said Shaws never did that great for anyone in the US DVD market even with good cover art and extras thanks to them being a niche market to begin with and one of the ones with the most piracy thanks largely to all the tape trading that went on before they got legit releases and all the piracy that went on after. 

I remember at the time Celestial basically rescued all these films from what they described as a barn they thought the US tv/video deals would be flowing in like water and they were gonna charge a mint for them but their wasn't any interest and now at least a decade later I can only imagine what kind of pennies on the dollar deal El Rey got from them. 

[Neil Koch]

Bey Logan's commentaries range from good to boring, but at least he doesn't spout out and out bullshit like Ric Meyers, who for some reason continually gets tapped as an "expert" even though he doesn't even know basic stuff like how to pronounce actor's names.  However, Logan became one of the reasons DD went under.  I personally have never had a problem with him; I actually used to email him semi frequently and he's sent swag like posters to me over the years.  But I have heard stories about him ranging from not paying people for their work to sexual misconduct.  Probably some of it is BS, but in the end not many people in Hong Kong or the US wanted to work with him, so he sold the rights to Miramax, who took a look at the sales numbers (some DD titles sold a few thousand copies) and promptly pulled the plug, save for the Jackie Chan and Jet Li titles like Supercop and Fist of Legend that were re-released via DD.

As for why kung fu movies don't sell well in the US, there's a number of reasons.  Certainly piracy is among the biggest.  It's a big reason I don't participate in most Facebook groups any more, because the piracy is so blatant and people are so proud of it, but then they will still complain about no good releases coming out.  You can't have it both ways.  But also there's the fact that it's basically the same titles coming out over and over.  How many times do we need to see the same 4 Bruce Lee movies?  Most fans bought (or bootlegged) these movies years and years ago, and only the biggest nerds are going to buy new editions because now they have the "correct" colors or whatever.

And yes, this is a niche of a niche.  You have the occasional breakthrough movie, but for the most part, the general movie goer (even dedicated movie geeks) are going to pass most releases over, because frankly, to most people, they're all the same.  So you can't really expect a company to release hundreds of these movies in HD with bonus features.  I think the best we can hope for is something where a company will put things up for streaming/VOD and then give the option like Warner Archive to buy the physical copy. 

[RRR]

Never heard any of that stuff about Bey. I didn't dislike his commentaries it's just that I am not a big fan of commentary tracks in general. 

Don't know about FB groups but I was on ADC for a long time and though all the "projects" of movies getting releases that never would were incredible,seeing EVERY commercial release being pilfered on the site as well was always a bit depressing. 

Is their any place people still go to talk about these films without pirating them? Miss the old days of the kff, kfcc, and adg and cof message boards. Seems like most disappeared or turned in to blogs of some sort. 

 

[OSJ]

Just a head's up, Shaolin Prince (which most of you may know as Death Mask of the Ninja) is on in a little over an hour. Probably my favorite kung-fu film not featuring the venom mob or Wang Zhengquan. I recall paying something like $60 for the damn thing on VHS back in the day... Could never quite understand the American title as the film does not involve ninjas or anyone's death mask...

[Neil Koch]

15 hours ago, Zartan said:

Is their any place people still go to talk about these films without pirating them? Miss the old days of the kff, kfcc, and adg and cof message boards. Seems like most disappeared or turned in to blogs of some sort. 

 

This is the only one I'm aware of.  Not really a fan of some of the posters though (condescending know it all's).

http://www.shaolinchamber36.com/kungfufandom/index.php?/

Most of the Hong Kong/kung fu movie sites have died and there's only a handful left that update regularly.  A lot of people just lost interest due to getting older and having real life get in the way and the fact that there are only a few releases per year and most of them aren't great probably didn't help.  Forums/message boards just got too costly and time consuming to maintain.  It's a lot easier to just make a Facebook page for your site and many people would want to use that anyway.

[RRR]

Not suprised Kung Fu Fandom is the only one still around or about the know it all people. I remember when Linn Hayes was like the cool Abbott always passing on every bit of knowledge he'd ever had passed on to him about whatever was being discussed. Then he tragically passed and all that was left on the board were eclectic ppl that liked to be the only person who owned a good copy of a beloved classic or highly sought after rare. 

[J.T.]

Talk about an uncharacteristically bump up in quality.  Kung Fu Thursday's premier feature is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

A far departure from Shaolin Mantis or The Deadly Knives.

[J.T.]

YES~!

Rey Mysterio Jr, will host The People's Network Showcase:  Action Edition this Friday night!

The Line-Up includes:

Quote

Films and filmmakers featured on Friday, March 31 include:

BATTLE:

Directed by Emily Dell

Trece, an athlete just trying to keep his head down and do his time, makes some deadly enemies. Now he has to fight to survive.

C.O.B.A.L.T. :

Directed by Lon Lopez

In the spirit of “Robot Chicken”, “Team America: World Police” and “Thunder Birds”, C.O.B.A.L.T. is a true action figure action movie. Producers Lon Lopez and Rob Wilson craft a tale of plastic animated action in the story of Agent True as she recounts her first day one the job, hunting down a terrorist cell. Done in painstaking traditional stop motion, C.O.B.A.L.T. is a good, old fashioned action movie if acted by action figures.

ETHOS:

Directed by Adam Newacheck

Ethan, who is the last human on the planet, is searching for the truth to an alien invasion that wiped out everything he knew.

FAITH:

Directed by Nick McKinless

When two men’s lives collide, a murky past unfolds to a miraculous conclusion.

KILL SHELTER:

Directed by Paul Nicoletos & Viet Huynh

Sage wakes up in a facility imprisoned by his Alien captors. He doesn’t know where he is and is chained in the same cell of a 10 year-old girl named Tessa. He must use his military skills to fight his way out of the cell.

LEAVES:

Directed by Pablo Olmos Arrayales

“Leaves” tells the story of a couple that get deep into the forest. Once there, the girl finds a beautiful unicorn figure on the ground. Maybe somebody lost it or maybe somebody left it there.

LIONS AND WOLVES:

Directed by Keith Collins II

A woman is kidnapped by three henchmen. Who will save her?

PAPER PLANES:

Directed by Nelson Lopez

See the world in the eyes of a child and let your imagination run wild. When PJ finds his favorite toy soldier Captain Marshall broken, the war that he is playing becomes a reality. Enter the world that we all once lived-in and go back to being a child.

 

[Curt McGirt]

El Rey is back in my cool book for showing Shaolin Prince right now. This movie is flat-out dizzy. A flaming sword, an iron hand armament with two fingers sticking out that you stab guys with, a Three Stooges group of Shaolin monks that are dubbed with British accents... woof. And now there's literally a ninja attack occurring! 

And a reminder, tonight is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Black Tavern, The Chinese Boxer, and Heroes Shed No Tears. And two eps of Lucha Underground beforehand.

[J.T.]

Yeah, I DVRed Black Tavern and Heroes Shed No Tears.  Sooo good...

[J.T.]

The complete lunacy of The Weird Man was there to greet me when I got to the 'rents from work this morning.  God bless El Rey.

The line-up for this Thursday's Kung Fu line-up is as interesting as I've seen in a while even though it is made up of stuff I've already seen.

All times are EST: (People's Network Action Edition replay @ 6:00 PM)

8:00 PM - Invincible Shaolin

10:00PM - Legend of the Drunken Master

12:00AM -  Ten Tigers from Kwangtung

2:00 AM - Kid From Kwangtung

4:00 AM - Executioners From Shaolin

Set your DVRs since the good shit comes on really fucking late at night.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah, Executioners is the toppest of notches and if you haven't seen it DO IT. There is no question here. This is not a request, this is a demand. 

[Neil Koch]

Legend of the Drunken Master (aka Drunken Master 2) is Jackie Chan's best movie and a top 3 all time kung fu movie for me. 

[Curt McGirt]

Ah shit, I forgot they titled it different. The final fight in that is a work of pure genius. 

[J.T.]

Heavy Metal and Heavy Metal:  FAKK2 will be on Creature Feature Friday starting at 8PM. 

If you want to see all of the cartoon nudity, you'd need to watch or DVR the replay @ Midnight when Heavy  Metal comes back on.

[J.T.]

So, yeah.  The reason The Weird Man was on the other day is because Rodriguez has a new block of programming called Morning Martial Arts from 6AM EST to 10AM EST,

Most of the movies on the schedule, like Bat Without Wings or Murder Plot, are from the Shaw Brothers B-List catalogue, but I'll end up watching them anyway.

[NikoBaltimore]

5 hours ago, J.T. said:

So, yeah.  The reason The Weird Man was on the other day is because Rodriguez has a new block of programming called Morning Martial Arts from 6AM EST to 10AM EST,

Most of the movies on the schedule, like Bat Without Wings or Murder Plot, are from the Shaw Brothers B-List catalogue, but I'll end up watching them anyway.

I noticed that not too long ago and am quite amused that I can get ready for this work and one of the "B" movies is going on.  Some of them are just plain wacky but color me intrigued.

[OSJ]

It ain't Shaw Bros. but we need some stuff like Silver Hermit of Shaolin and Vampire vs. Ninja, stat.

The Kung-fu vampire film is a little-known but amazingly cool sub-genre, usually the only one that gets shown is Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, which is of course excellent, but there's more, much MORE!!!

[Curt McGirt]

Goddamn does the Drunken Master II ending still rule so hard. Jackie is a madman. 

Brass Knuckle Monday is Serenity and Jonah Hex? That's... different. There's an action marathon coming up with Sudden Death, Street Fighter, Lock Stock, Pulp Fiction, and something else I'm blanking on; V is playing again on Saturday. I'm actually looking forward to that because I never caught the whole thing even when they did that marathon. 

[J.T.]

6 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Goddamn does the Drunken Master II ending still rule so hard. Jackie is a madman.

And much love to Ken Lo and Ho Sung Pak.  That fight at the end is fucking insane and never fails to amaze me no matter how many times I watch it.