Yeah I've got it. I've got good the good HD versions of A Better Tomorrow 1 and Hard Boiled too if you want it? Magnet links okay for you? I can seed it for a bit, think of them as a Christmas present
Frick it I won't wait for a response, here's The Killer, the HD HKR version:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:b10a710f677373f3c54f0d54c27ca2ee176cda04&dn=The%20Killer%20(1989)%20%2b%20Extras%20(1080p%20BluRay%20x265%20HEVC%2010bit%20EAC3%205.1%20SAMPA)&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.opentrackr.org%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fp4p.arenabg.com%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3a451%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.internetwarriors.net%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2feddie4.nl%3a6969%2fannounce
7.34 Gb with a few extras thrown it and multiple audio and subtitle options. It's definitely the weakest transfer of the good John Woo movies I've got (since it's literally an amateur scan of a 35mm release print) but frick me it's so much better than what's officially available (since the last time The Killer got a decent transfer was during the laserdisc days) and since a lot of the international distribution rights to the good John Woo stuff is tied up with Dragon Dynasty (aka Harvey Weinstein) it's probably the best release you're gonna find for the foreseeable future.
There's multiple options for Cantonese audio too and each one has issues, personally I find the HKR exclusive mix (from the 35mm print) sounds best on headphones while the Scanbox dvd mix sounds best if you're watching it on a tv with decent speakers. There's also 3 different options for English subtitles. The new HKR subtitles are alright but feel like a bit of a literal translation. I'd personally recommend the Criterion English subtitles since they actually track well. The Fox Lorber dvd subs is just the English dub in subtitle form and crap.
And here's my personal favorite, A Better Tomorrow 1 in good quality:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:908466470a5378581327a699355418010052156c&dn=A.Better.Tomorrow.1986.RM4K.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.DTS.MULTI-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce
This is literally just the 1080p version of the semi-recent 4k remaster, that only released internationally, but paired with decent subtitles (unlike the official release which had engrish subs) and decent audio options from various dvd releases since the official version got a nasty remix (would recommend the original mono track but the 5.1 dvd mix is actually quite well done and very accurate to the mono.)
7.03Gb with some extras. Frick I love this one so much. I don't think Chow Yun Fat has ever been better
And here's the decent version of Hard Boiled:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ce9fad4fbac9b399db6f64e1e87d91b2f8922c78&dn=Hard.Boiled.1992.JPN.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.AC3.DUAL-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce
This is the Japanese blu-ray plus cantonese/English audio tracks from the dvds and laserdiscs and brand new English subtitles that are more accurate and don't suck. For some reason the Japs have a decent quality print of Hard Boiled that they use to make dvds and blu-rays with while the rest of the world is stuck with an ancient transfer from 1998. Don't know why but it looks great, it just has Japanese writing in the opening and closing credits rather than canto. Would recommend the mono mix but the default 5.1 Canto mix is pretty good too. The default English subs are great. Holy shit this might genuinely still be the greatest action movie ever
9.92Gb plus some extras. Holy shit this movie's wild. Merry Christmas Cinemaphile. Will seed for a bit just cause I love these movies
4 months ago
Anonymous
And here's my personal favorite, A Better Tomorrow 1 in good quality:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:908466470a5378581327a699355418010052156c&dn=A.Better.Tomorrow.1986.RM4K.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.DTS.MULTI-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce
This is literally just the 1080p version of the semi-recent 4k remaster, that only released internationally, but paired with decent subtitles (unlike the official release which had engrish subs) and decent audio options from various dvd releases since the official version got a nasty remix (would recommend the original mono track but the 5.1 dvd mix is actually quite well done and very accurate to the mono.)
7.03Gb with some extras. Frick I love this one so much. I don't think Chow Yun Fat has ever been better
Frick it I won't wait for a response, here's The Killer, the HD HKR version:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:b10a710f677373f3c54f0d54c27ca2ee176cda04&dn=The%20Killer%20(1989)%20%2b%20Extras%20(1080p%20BluRay%20x265%20HEVC%2010bit%20EAC3%205.1%20SAMPA)&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.opentrackr.org%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fp4p.arenabg.com%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3a451%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.internetwarriors.net%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2feddie4.nl%3a6969%2fannounce
7.34 Gb with a few extras thrown it and multiple audio and subtitle options. It's definitely the weakest transfer of the good John Woo movies I've got (since it's literally an amateur scan of a 35mm release print) but frick me it's so much better than what's officially available (since the last time The Killer got a decent transfer was during the laserdisc days) and since a lot of the international distribution rights to the good John Woo stuff is tied up with Dragon Dynasty (aka Harvey Weinstein) it's probably the best release you're gonna find for the foreseeable future.
There's multiple options for Cantonese audio too and each one has issues, personally I find the HKR exclusive mix (from the 35mm print) sounds best on headphones while the Scanbox dvd mix sounds best if you're watching it on a tv with decent speakers. There's also 3 different options for English subtitles. The new HKR subtitles are alright but feel like a bit of a literal translation. I'd personally recommend the Criterion English subtitles since they actually track well. The Fox Lorber dvd subs is just the English dub in subtitle form and crap.
And here's the decent version of Hard Boiled:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ce9fad4fbac9b399db6f64e1e87d91b2f8922c78&dn=Hard.Boiled.1992.JPN.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.AC3.DUAL-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce
This is the Japanese blu-ray plus cantonese/English audio tracks from the dvds and laserdiscs and brand new English subtitles that are more accurate and don't suck. For some reason the Japs have a decent quality print of Hard Boiled that they use to make dvds and blu-rays with while the rest of the world is stuck with an ancient transfer from 1998. Don't know why but it looks great, it just has Japanese writing in the opening and closing credits rather than canto. Would recommend the mono mix but the default 5.1 Canto mix is pretty good too. The default English subs are great. Holy shit this might genuinely still be the greatest action movie ever
9.92Gb plus some extras. Holy shit this movie's wild. Merry Christmas Cinemaphile. Will seed for a bit just cause I love these movies
Thank you anon. Merry Christmas.
4 months ago
Anonymous
No problem. Sadly there isn't a good HD version of Better Tomorrow 2 or Bullet In The Head still. Best I've got are dvd upscales (which look like shit.) I'd love to say HKR is still working on his 35mm scan of Bullet in the Head but he seems to have completely disappeared off the face of the earth since I last checked so I have no idea if his HD scan will ever see the light of day which is disappointing since BitH is fricking incredible.
Thanks for this! The new sound mix sucks so bad and I was planning on eventually ripping the DVD audio and putting it over the HD release for personal viewing. Glad somebody else did it.
Thanks for this! The new sound mix sucks so bad and I was planning on eventually ripping the DVD audio and putting it over the HD release for personal viewing. Glad somebody else did it.
Am seeding right now. Currently there's an American, a Puerto Rican, a Frenchman and a Brazilian who are downloading it from me. Consider it a Christmas gift
[...]
Yeah I know right. These versions not only have the original mono mixes (usually from the laserdisc release) but they also have decent 5.1 mixes that are actually accurate to the mono. Bad stereo remixes of old stuff that was originally mixed in mono drives me up the fricking wall. Just for an example, it took me a while but I found a decent version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly with the original mono track and Christ it's so much better sounding.
I honestly don't understand any of the technical mumbo jumbo but thank kind for autists who preserve and maintain kino in the best quality, cheers.
4 months ago
Anonymous
We're mostly complaining about audio mixes to be fair. A good or bad audio mix (or remix) can make or break some movies
And here's my personal favorite, A Better Tomorrow 1 in good quality:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:908466470a5378581327a699355418010052156c&dn=A.Better.Tomorrow.1986.RM4K.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.DTS.MULTI-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce
This is literally just the 1080p version of the semi-recent 4k remaster, that only released internationally, but paired with decent subtitles (unlike the official release which had engrish subs) and decent audio options from various dvd releases since the official version got a nasty remix (would recommend the original mono track but the 5.1 dvd mix is actually quite well done and very accurate to the mono.)
7.03Gb with some extras. Frick I love this one so much. I don't think Chow Yun Fat has ever been better
And here's the decent version of Hard Boiled:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ce9fad4fbac9b399db6f64e1e87d91b2f8922c78&dn=Hard.Boiled.1992.JPN.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.AC3.DUAL-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce
This is the Japanese blu-ray plus cantonese/English audio tracks from the dvds and laserdiscs and brand new English subtitles that are more accurate and don't suck. For some reason the Japs have a decent quality print of Hard Boiled that they use to make dvds and blu-rays with while the rest of the world is stuck with an ancient transfer from 1998. Don't know why but it looks great, it just has Japanese writing in the opening and closing credits rather than canto. Would recommend the mono mix but the default 5.1 Canto mix is pretty good too. The default English subs are great. Holy shit this might genuinely still be the greatest action movie ever
9.92Gb plus some extras. Holy shit this movie's wild. Merry Christmas Cinemaphile. Will seed for a bit just cause I love these movies
Agreed? That's why I recommended both the HKR and the Scanbox dvd sound mixes? Both of which are versions of the original mono mix which is dope. Better Tomorrow 2 (which I didn't post) sounds like shit now since they overdubbed the gunshots but it's still clearly the original mono mix underneath so you've got both sounds and it's just kinda awful sonically.
We need to bring mono back into fashion I swear. Most of the Beatles stuff sounds fricking great in mono but you can't find like half of it on streaming or even on youtube or in record stores.
And here's my personal favorite, A Better Tomorrow 1 in good quality:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:908466470a5378581327a699355418010052156c&dn=A.Better.Tomorrow.1986.RM4K.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.DTS.MULTI-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce
This is literally just the 1080p version of the semi-recent 4k remaster, that only released internationally, but paired with decent subtitles (unlike the official release which had engrish subs) and decent audio options from various dvd releases since the official version got a nasty remix (would recommend the original mono track but the 5.1 dvd mix is actually quite well done and very accurate to the mono.)
7.03Gb with some extras. Frick I love this one so much. I don't think Chow Yun Fat has ever been better
And here's the decent version of Hard Boiled:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ce9fad4fbac9b399db6f64e1e87d91b2f8922c78&dn=Hard.Boiled.1992.JPN.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.AC3.DUAL-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce
This is the Japanese blu-ray plus cantonese/English audio tracks from the dvds and laserdiscs and brand new English subtitles that are more accurate and don't suck. For some reason the Japs have a decent quality print of Hard Boiled that they use to make dvds and blu-rays with while the rest of the world is stuck with an ancient transfer from 1998. Don't know why but it looks great, it just has Japanese writing in the opening and closing credits rather than canto. Would recommend the mono mix but the default 5.1 Canto mix is pretty good too. The default English subs are great. Holy shit this might genuinely still be the greatest action movie ever
9.92Gb plus some extras. Holy shit this movie's wild. Merry Christmas Cinemaphile. Will seed for a bit just cause I love these movies
Please keep seeding for a few days bro I need these and they are appreciated
Am seeding right now. Currently there's an American, a Puerto Rican, a Frenchman and a Brazilian who are downloading it from me. Consider it a Christmas gift
Thanks for this! The new sound mix sucks so bad and I was planning on eventually ripping the DVD audio and putting it over the HD release for personal viewing. Glad somebody else did it.
Yeah I know right. These versions not only have the original mono mixes (usually from the laserdisc release) but they also have decent 5.1 mixes that are actually accurate to the mono. Bad stereo remixes of old stuff that was originally mixed in mono drives me up the fricking wall. Just for an example, it took me a while but I found a decent version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly with the original mono track and Christ it's so much better sounding.
this is why i can't take movie critisicm seriously on this site. your criteria for liking or disiking anything is always racially based. i can't imagine how you conduct yourselves irl, if you do indeed leave your houses
It's not racially based at all. The protag doesn't dual wield, a side character that isn't important to the story at all gets to do it for the only action scene he's in.
Not bad but severely overrated. It’s only well known because it popularized a genre and also people do the gosling “literally me” thing with chow yun fat.
People said Hong Kong action kino from the 80s was ahead of its time. They are wrong, they are still LIGHTYEARS ahead of anything the west has ever done. I have never seen movies with more realistic debris and destruction in shootouts than these movies. To this day.
>The Departed
That's literally a remake of a Hong Kong movie. And I like Departed better than the original for the record but to say HK movies have basic as frick writing when it's literally got the same writing as the Departed is the height of stupidity
Yeah but it's literally the same plot in both movies. You're complaining about shitty writing in movies that you haven't seen that actually have good writing.Your complaint's stupid to put it frankly
4 months ago
Anonymous
>literally the same
Not exactly. And you're also ignoring better editing and acting.
4 months ago
Anonymous
No I'm not. Simply put: they got Martin Scorsese to do the remake and he's one of the greatest of all time. Plus he's got that Thelma chick doing editing since the 80s and she's fricking great. That said I actually like the Tony Leung performance better than the DiCaprio one. DiCarprio's great but something about how Tony Leung uses his eyes that's really special and you can see it a lot in infernal affairs.
Transporter is lame (Besson...), Departed isn't an action movie, Heat is a crime thriller with a shootout but it's not an action movie, you're listing movies with +$200M blockbuster budgets and CGI, scifi with SFX, you're also comparing 80-90's HK with currentyear Hollywood, MI has insane star power and logistics, etc.
Their primary action movies were kung fu and wuxia rather than heroic bloodsheds, which don't really have an equivalent in Hollywood besides old school swashbucklers. While these may be capeshit fantasy, a lot of them had more interesting writing, often based on novels, but they're also way more localized and don't translate well to international audiences, most remain underseen in the west, etc. There's a cultural barrier and also availability issues.
The appeal of HK kino is they had no budget but still mogged their contemporary bloated Hollywood productions, just in terms of raw energy and pure impact of the action sequences, the creativity of choreography and set pieces, the fact they don't cut cut cut to random close ups every millisecond, the insane stunts, everything they could get away with in a poorly regulated chaotic industry. Low budget and chaotic industry allowing young filmmakers to frick around and experiment, going hard while Hollywood played it safe. Whole new filmmaking styles emerged from that.
Hollywood obviously makes better movies as a whole, they have international reach, they have the money to hire best talent and polish up everything, that also means swallowing up trending foreign talent, but when they bring in foreigners it's also obvious they miss the point and ruin it by limiting what made them appealing in the first place, forcing Hollywood filmmaking formulas on them.
>but still mogged their contemporary bloated Hollywood productions >Hollywood obviously makes better movies
You're a clown. All that ramble and not a lick of sense. But at least we agree, these hong kong movies ain't shit.
A Better Tomorrow is fricking shit. So melodramatic, cheesy ass acting, embarrassing scenes with the girlfriend, I really hated it. I bought it expecting a great movie and half way through I knew it was garbage.
Disagree only cause distribution is fricked and has been for about a decade now. I recently discovered 2 good films that came out in 2017-2018, You Were Never Really Here and Annihilation. Both were pretty good, had no idea they existed when they were actually out in theaters (? on a streaming service for a month or two?) Look late 80s-early 90s Hong Kong movies were a special period but there's still good shit being made it's just borderline impossible to find in this horrible streaming universe we're in now
Transporter is lame (Besson...), Departed isn't an action movie, Heat is a crime thriller with a shootout but it's not an action movie, you're listing movies with +$200M blockbuster budgets and CGI, scifi with SFX, you're also comparing 80-90's HK with currentyear Hollywood, MI has insane star power and logistics, etc.
Their primary action movies were kung fu and wuxia rather than heroic bloodsheds, which don't really have an equivalent in Hollywood besides old school swashbucklers. While these may be capeshit fantasy, a lot of them had more interesting writing, often based on novels, but they're also way more localized and don't translate well to international audiences, most remain underseen in the west, etc. There's a cultural barrier and also availability issues.
The appeal of HK kino is they had no budget but still mogged their contemporary bloated Hollywood productions, just in terms of raw energy and pure impact of the action sequences, the creativity of choreography and set pieces, the fact they don't cut cut cut to random close ups every millisecond, the insane stunts, everything they could get away with in a poorly regulated chaotic industry. Low budget and chaotic industry allowing young filmmakers to frick around and experiment, going hard while Hollywood played it safe. Whole new filmmaking styles emerged from that.
Hollywood obviously makes better movies as a whole, they have international reach, they have the money to hire best talent and polish up everything, that also means swallowing up trending foreign talent, but when they bring in foreigners it's also obvious they miss the point and ruin it by limiting what made them appealing in the first place, forcing Hollywood filmmaking formulas on them.
The only good John Woo film is Last Hurrah for Chivalry and only because he's aping his teacher Chang Cheh. When he discovered "his own style" he became a joke
It's too slow and the action sequences are weirdly shot and edited, and it climaxes way too early, like nothing happens for 85% of the movie then suddenly Bing bong and it's over.
The Killer and City On Fire are kino too. The Killer kinographically mogs A Better Tomorrow tbh. Oh, and don't forget Hard Boiled of course.
>The Killer
I'd like to find the Hong Kong Rescue rip
Hmm, never heard of it but just off a cursory google I'd be interested in seeing those special features.
Maybe it'll get a 4k release someday.
Yeah I've got it. I've got good the good HD versions of A Better Tomorrow 1 and Hard Boiled too if you want it? Magnet links okay for you? I can seed it for a bit, think of them as a Christmas present
Frick it I won't wait for a response, here's The Killer, the HD HKR version:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:b10a710f677373f3c54f0d54c27ca2ee176cda04&dn=The%20Killer%20(1989)%20%2b%20Extras%20(1080p%20BluRay%20x265%20HEVC%2010bit%20EAC3%205.1%20SAMPA)&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.opentrackr.org%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fp4p.arenabg.com%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3a451%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.internetwarriors.net%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2feddie4.nl%3a6969%2fannounce
7.34 Gb with a few extras thrown it and multiple audio and subtitle options. It's definitely the weakest transfer of the good John Woo movies I've got (since it's literally an amateur scan of a 35mm release print) but frick me it's so much better than what's officially available (since the last time The Killer got a decent transfer was during the laserdisc days) and since a lot of the international distribution rights to the good John Woo stuff is tied up with Dragon Dynasty (aka Harvey Weinstein) it's probably the best release you're gonna find for the foreseeable future.
There's multiple options for Cantonese audio too and each one has issues, personally I find the HKR exclusive mix (from the 35mm print) sounds best on headphones while the Scanbox dvd mix sounds best if you're watching it on a tv with decent speakers. There's also 3 different options for English subtitles. The new HKR subtitles are alright but feel like a bit of a literal translation. I'd personally recommend the Criterion English subtitles since they actually track well. The Fox Lorber dvd subs is just the English dub in subtitle form and crap.
And here's my personal favorite, A Better Tomorrow 1 in good quality:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:908466470a5378581327a699355418010052156c&dn=A.Better.Tomorrow.1986.RM4K.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.DTS.MULTI-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce
This is literally just the 1080p version of the semi-recent 4k remaster, that only released internationally, but paired with decent subtitles (unlike the official release which had engrish subs) and decent audio options from various dvd releases since the official version got a nasty remix (would recommend the original mono track but the 5.1 dvd mix is actually quite well done and very accurate to the mono.)
7.03Gb with some extras. Frick I love this one so much. I don't think Chow Yun Fat has ever been better
And here's the decent version of Hard Boiled:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ce9fad4fbac9b399db6f64e1e87d91b2f8922c78&dn=Hard.Boiled.1992.JPN.1080p.BluRay.x265.HEVC.AC3.DUAL-SARTRE&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.zer0day.to%3a1337%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fcoppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3a6969%2fannounce
This is the Japanese blu-ray plus cantonese/English audio tracks from the dvds and laserdiscs and brand new English subtitles that are more accurate and don't suck. For some reason the Japs have a decent quality print of Hard Boiled that they use to make dvds and blu-rays with while the rest of the world is stuck with an ancient transfer from 1998. Don't know why but it looks great, it just has Japanese writing in the opening and closing credits rather than canto. Would recommend the mono mix but the default 5.1 Canto mix is pretty good too. The default English subs are great. Holy shit this might genuinely still be the greatest action movie ever
9.92Gb plus some extras. Holy shit this movie's wild. Merry Christmas Cinemaphile. Will seed for a bit just cause I love these movies
ur wonderful
Thank you anon. Merry Christmas.
No problem. Sadly there isn't a good HD version of Better Tomorrow 2 or Bullet In The Head still. Best I've got are dvd upscales (which look like shit.) I'd love to say HKR is still working on his 35mm scan of Bullet in the Head but he seems to have completely disappeared off the face of the earth since I last checked so I have no idea if his HD scan will ever see the light of day which is disappointing since BitH is fricking incredible.
Thanks for this! The new sound mix sucks so bad and I was planning on eventually ripping the DVD audio and putting it over the HD release for personal viewing. Glad somebody else did it.
I honestly don't understand any of the technical mumbo jumbo but thank kind for autists who preserve and maintain kino in the best quality, cheers.
We're mostly complaining about audio mixes to be fair. A good or bad audio mix (or remix) can make or break some movies
based
over dubbed gunshot are shitty and gay
Agreed? That's why I recommended both the HKR and the Scanbox dvd sound mixes? Both of which are versions of the original mono mix which is dope. Better Tomorrow 2 (which I didn't post) sounds like shit now since they overdubbed the gunshots but it's still clearly the original mono mix underneath so you've got both sounds and it's just kinda awful sonically.
We need to bring mono back into fashion I swear. Most of the Beatles stuff sounds fricking great in mono but you can't find like half of it on streaming or even on youtube or in record stores.
Please keep seeding for a few days bro I need these and they are appreciated
Am seeding right now. Currently there's an American, a Puerto Rican, a Frenchman and a Brazilian who are downloading it from me. Consider it a Christmas gift
Yeah I know right. These versions not only have the original mono mixes (usually from the laserdisc release) but they also have decent 5.1 mixes that are actually accurate to the mono. Bad stereo remixes of old stuff that was originally mixed in mono drives me up the fricking wall. Just for an example, it took me a while but I found a decent version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly with the original mono track and Christ it's so much better sounding.
>City On Fire are kino too
City on Fire is unbelievably good
I have only watched hard boiled out of those movies and I loved it
Even Silent Night (Woo's latest movie) was meh.
It wasn't bad. But it's not a career highlight either.
One of the things that disappointed me was the dual wielding was done by the black cop dude instead of the protagonist.
this is why i can't take movie critisicm seriously on this site. your criteria for liking or disiking anything is always racially based. i can't imagine how you conduct yourselves irl, if you do indeed leave your houses
It's not racially based at all. The protag doesn't dual wield, a side character that isn't important to the story at all gets to do it for the only action scene he's in.
no you're the moron obsessed with race, they obviously wanted the protag to go akimbo
OOOOOOOO homie that's fake, he played you.
Not bad but severely overrated. It’s only well known because it popularized a genre and also people do the gosling “literally me” thing with chow yun fat.
People said Hong Kong action kino from the 80s was ahead of its time. They are wrong, they are still LIGHTYEARS ahead of anything the west has ever done. I have never seen movies with more realistic debris and destruction in shootouts than these movies. To this day.
I love Chow Yun Fat so much
he had such a big following over here in the 90s, they should've given him better roles
My favorite music cue from the film was actually stolen from Peter Gabriel's score to the movie "Birdy" but holy shit it's amazing in ABT:
I adore the reunion scene, where Ho meets Mark in the garage after three years.
For me it's this scene plus the shootout in the garage that immediately follows it
this is kino because i'm hearing him speak with a chang accent
I do not care for that period or hong kong action movies. Basic as frick writing and silly shootouts that were NOT the pinnacle of action scenes.
I hear the opposite so often on here, that HK was the height of action. What do you consider to be the pinnacle?
Transporter, Extraction, Aliens, MI: Fallout, Matrix have better action
The Departed, Point Break, Terminator, Heat, Collateral have better writing
>The Departed
That's literally a remake of a Hong Kong movie. And I like Departed better than the original for the record but to say HK movies have basic as frick writing when it's literally got the same writing as the Departed is the height of stupidity
>And I like Departed better than the original
So case closed.
Yeah but it's literally the same plot in both movies. You're complaining about shitty writing in movies that you haven't seen that actually have good writing.Your complaint's stupid to put it frankly
>literally the same
Not exactly. And you're also ignoring better editing and acting.
No I'm not. Simply put: they got Martin Scorsese to do the remake and he's one of the greatest of all time. Plus he's got that Thelma chick doing editing since the 80s and she's fricking great. That said I actually like the Tony Leung performance better than the DiCaprio one. DiCarprio's great but something about how Tony Leung uses his eyes that's really special and you can see it a lot in infernal affairs.
Good list, I haven't gotten around to seeing the new Mission Impossibles or Point Break yet. I should get on that soon.
Transporter is lame (Besson...), Departed isn't an action movie, Heat is a crime thriller with a shootout but it's not an action movie, you're listing movies with +$200M blockbuster budgets and CGI, scifi with SFX, you're also comparing 80-90's HK with currentyear Hollywood, MI has insane star power and logistics, etc.
Their primary action movies were kung fu and wuxia rather than heroic bloodsheds, which don't really have an equivalent in Hollywood besides old school swashbucklers. While these may be capeshit fantasy, a lot of them had more interesting writing, often based on novels, but they're also way more localized and don't translate well to international audiences, most remain underseen in the west, etc. There's a cultural barrier and also availability issues.
The appeal of HK kino is they had no budget but still mogged their contemporary bloated Hollywood productions, just in terms of raw energy and pure impact of the action sequences, the creativity of choreography and set pieces, the fact they don't cut cut cut to random close ups every millisecond, the insane stunts, everything they could get away with in a poorly regulated chaotic industry. Low budget and chaotic industry allowing young filmmakers to frick around and experiment, going hard while Hollywood played it safe. Whole new filmmaking styles emerged from that.
Hollywood obviously makes better movies as a whole, they have international reach, they have the money to hire best talent and polish up everything, that also means swallowing up trending foreign talent, but when they bring in foreigners it's also obvious they miss the point and ruin it by limiting what made them appealing in the first place, forcing Hollywood filmmaking formulas on them.
It's Asians doing what they do best, ripping off the West. They happened upon a nice formula blending film noir and '80s action.
And they're all better movies. I accept your concession
>but the poor little chinkys didn't have enough money
Not my problem
>but still mogged their contemporary bloated Hollywood productions
>Hollywood obviously makes better movies
You're a clown. All that ramble and not a lick of sense. But at least we agree, these hong kong movies ain't shit.
I love 1 but 2 is best
moron kino
What the frick is happening here?
There's no way this can be contextualized
a better tomorrow sucked and i'm tired of pretending it didn't
Far inferior to his other classics like hard boiled.
A Better Tomorrow is fricking shit. So melodramatic, cheesy ass acting, embarrassing scenes with the girlfriend, I really hated it. I bought it expecting a great movie and half way through I knew it was garbage.
Rich buttholes don't actually do this do they?
It's counterfeit money anon. Also, he's a triad.
One of greatest openings of a film ever.
they dont make anything worth watching these days
id struggle to think of 5 good films that came out this year
Disagree only cause distribution is fricked and has been for about a decade now. I recently discovered 2 good films that came out in 2017-2018, You Were Never Really Here and Annihilation. Both were pretty good, had no idea they existed when they were actually out in theaters (? on a streaming service for a month or two?) Look late 80s-early 90s Hong Kong movies were a special period but there's still good shit being made it's just borderline impossible to find in this horrible streaming universe we're in now
name of kinos?
The only good John Woo film is Last Hurrah for Chivalry and only because he's aping his teacher Chang Cheh. When he discovered "his own style" he became a joke
I liked silent night and I don't give a shit what anybody else says
It's too slow and the action sequences are weirdly shot and edited, and it climaxes way too early, like nothing happens for 85% of the movie then suddenly Bing bong and it's over.