Most HKL dvd’s are great. So, I thought about listing the ones that are not so great. Feel free to continue the list if needed.
Drunken Master: Cropped (from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1) and wrong language (mandarin insted of cantonese)
Legend of a Fighter: Cropped (from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1) and wrong language (mandarin insted of cantonese)
Police Story 2: Cropped (from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1)
Flaming Brothers: Cropped (from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1)
Snake in the Eagles Shadow: Cropped (from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1) and cut
Eastern Condors: Cut (killing of the snake)
Iron Fisted Monk: Cut
New Dragon Gate Inn: wrong language (mandarin insted of cantonese)
The Big Boss: wrong language (cantonese insted of mandarin)
Fist of Fury: wrong language (cantonese insted of mandarin)
Way of the Dragon: wrong language (cantonese insted of mandarin)
Warriors Two: some new music, maybe new sound effects, too
+
Once Upon a Time in China 2, Swordsman and Crime Story have altered color scheme.
Body Weapon: cut
Full Contact: different Score
Magnificent Warriors: cropped from 2.35
Battle Creek Brawl: cut, 2sec
Hard to Die: not cut, but it’s not the DC
Island of Fire: not cut, but it’s not the Taiwanese Version, missing 30mins
Do you know how big the changes are in HKL’s Full Contact? I need to get that film but I’m not sure which version to get. HKL is probably otherwise the best choice but like you said, the soundtrack is altered. I could live with some minor changes, but if there are big changes, then I’ll get Mei Ah or Columbia (which has a little problem with soundtrack: a couple of lines are taken from the english dub due to bad condition of the original audio track).
a big part of the score is just missing or changed with another one
for example after the Golden Princess logo the guitarre is missing and changed with a chorus of monks
scenes are robbery, beginning of car chase, anthony wong and cyf in the burning house, ice factory, indoor swimming pool, showdown and some minor more
The US columbia has the same “lame” score
The NL release form Worldwide Cinema should be the best
Thanks for the info. That Worldwide Cinema release looks really good, but no english subs. I could try to insert subs to the dvd myself, but that’s gonna be hard and might not work. I still have to think about this. Probably I’ll get the old Mei Ah release.
ah, yes, the subs i forgot…
btw, the US Dimension dvd of City on Fire has a better pic than the HKL, it’s over-sharpened…they used the old Media Asia Master, not the HD print of Fortune Star
i watched Full Contact in Chinese without subs.
Cool film, but it would probably be better if i knew what they were saying (though when you watch as many Chinese films as i do, you see a pattern in body language and how they say things, so it wasnt that bad)
i own some HKL movie’s the great thing about them is that they have the original sound and not dubbed!
Drunken Master
Police Story
Project A 2 disc
Iron Monkey 2 disc
Story Of Ricky
Once Upon A Time In China
will soon buy some more movies from HKL like the bruce lee box set
I got alot of ‘em, here’s my list:
-Encounters Of The Spooky Kind
-Fist Of Fury
-Game Of Death
-Game Of Death 2
-Iron Fisted Monk
-Iron Monkey
-Magnificent Butcher
-Magnificent Warriors
-Mr.Vampire
-New Dragon Gate Inn
-Ninja In The Dragon’ Den
-Story Of ricky
-The Killer
-The Odd Couple
-The Prodigal Son
-The Scorpion King
-Warriors Two
-Wing Chun
-Zu Warriors:from The Magic Mountain
any opinions to the movies would be better than a pure listing
For some reason HKL has been adding a red/pink tint to some of their dvds recently. This very weird because the new prints they receive from Fortune Star are in excellent condition, yet HKL has decided to ruin the image by altering the color scheme. This happened at least with Fist of Fury PE and Knockabout. Here’s some screencaps from Knockabout: http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/knockabout.html
The good news is that they are finally including mono.
I have the Killer HKL DVD and it’s great. I’ll probably try to buy some more HKL DVDs, Bullet in the Head and Woo’s other films if possible.
HKL is now out of business. Place your orders before the discs go out of print.