Dragon Dynasty News and Discussion (+ Celestial Pictures)

[w/o horse]

http://www.dragondynasty.com/  (has trailers)
Wiki:

Dragon Dynasty is a joint venture started by The Weinstein Company and Genius Products. The company was created on May 23, 2006 for the sole purpose of distributing films from Asian Cinema on DVD whose licenses are held by or will be acquired by The Weinstein Company. Dragon Dynasty showcases classic and contemporary Asian Cinema, particularly those films which fall under the action and martial arts genre.

Quentin Tarantino, who is well recognized for his passionate interest and broad knowledge of Asian Cinema, will actively work with the Weinsteins in all aspects of Dragon Dynasty.

Wikipedia also has a list of films copyrighted by DD (three Johnnie To's).

I myself stumbled upon the company when I purchased The Protector.  Others might have recently purchased their release of Hard Boiled.  Others might have been purchasing every title the whole time through the fuck do I know:  until now!

It needn't be compared to Criterion, but the similarities are these:  pristine prints, hand-picked titles, special features to enhance appreciation of the films (inlcuding commentaries by critics and filmmakers, documentaries, and sometimes two-disc editions), screenings in local theaters to accompany releases, and spine-numbering for collectability.

My opinion is that this is a great portal into Asian cinema new and old and correlates perfectly with my nascent appreciation for non-arthouse Asian cinema.

[pete]

they got BRETT RATNER doing commentaries for Jackie's DVDs.
I recommend City of Violence though, supremely underrated.

[w/o horse]

I was two seconds from purchasing Police Story 2 but was so caught off guard from the Ratner quote being on the cover I set it back down.

But what can I do?  If anything more people should become interested in Asian cinema so that Ratner can be dethroned as like an expert or qualified filmmaker or prominent figure so these mistakes won't be made in the future.  Doesn't it speak volumes about the attention paid to these films that the higher authorities on them, from a typical American point of view, is QT Ratner or The Rza?  It's not a question of the validity of these three, and if they were always creditable critics of the films I wouldn't mind, but surely such a diverse cinema is owed an equally diverse pool of admirers.  Conversely take film noir, which is a minor segment of American cinema, but has an incredible number of followers and trivialists and theorists.  Which is what I think often happens:  when films are released outside of an arthouse circuit they are generally treated as entertaining alone, escapism at the most, and then reevaluated from different (sociological, historical, psychological, theoretical) perspectives in the future and redeemed or validated in hindsight as honest expressions of particular social traits or filmmakers' intelligence.  It's the non-esoteric fans who become the redeemers and I'd like to do my part in accepting more voices into my discussions to perhaps be a part of a broadening of cinema's voice because filmmaking has always been one global community and I'd be really happy if a global audience grew around it.  I don't know what's going on in other places, but America certainly seems predominantly concerned with American cinema.

[pete]

the criterion versions of hard boiled and the killer both had pretty good commentaries from good scholars.  I don't know why they don't just get Jackie Chan to do the commentaries - he can be subtitled if he's not so comfortable.  On his DVD "My Stunts" he had one of the most entertaining and insightful explanation of his fight in the first Police Story.  he's an amazing filmmaker, which the world has failed again and again to give him credit for.  It is too bad that he's so hacky these days, 'cause at his best, he was as exciting as Buster Keaton.  The DVDs still have not addressed him as a filmmaker, in my opinion, but I haven't seen the latest batch from Dragon Dynasty.  His fights are so accessible that people do not very frequently see just how sophisticated and cerebral they are.  Herzog often remarks on how porn and kungfu are very truthful cinemas due to their physicality, and I tend not to see a difference between my admiration for Jackie Chan and for Herzog.

the DVDs for Kill Zone did have an incredible behind the scene featurette that went on the set of the knife fight, which was as good as anything ever filmmed, and kinda detailed the making of it shot by shot.

[w/o horse]

It is too bad that he's so hacky these days, 'cause at his best, he was as exciting as Buster Keaton. . .
Herzog often remarks on how porn and kungfu are very truthful cinemas due to their physicality, and I tend not to see a difference between my admiration for Jackie Chan and for Herzog.

Porn I'd never considered.  It's interesting.  I see a lot of similarities between some silent films and some martial arts film in form:  the physicality, the humor, an underprivileged or underdog protagonist, characterizations (dimwitted and/or oppressive wealthy characters and unfair and/or immoral government employees), themes and situations exploring national identity hometown pride and/or the strangeness of travel, and I never have trouble accepting that the plot hinges on a good vs. evil conflict.  My most common reaction to a great physical performance in either:  Holy fuck! followed by laughter.

the DVDs for Kill Zone did have an incredible behind the scene featurette that went on the set of the knife fight, which was as good as anything ever filmmed, and kinda detailed the making of it shot by shot.

What a badass villain.  This featurette was for the alley fight?

[pete]

making of, part one, of the SPL alley fight.

the fight

[Stefen]

I watched Police Story 2 last night and it was awesome. I mention it because it was mentioned in this thread. Those outtakes were AWESOME.

[w/o horse]

Today they released Stephen Chow's The Royal Tramp collection in a 2-disc special edition.

[pete]

royal tramp was ok - it relied too much on the viewers' familiarity with the literature.  My favorite stephen chow movies are Love on Delivery and Forbidden City Cop.  Look for those two in Chinatown or on Ebay.
I didn't like the ending in Police Story 2 - I felt like Jackie took in way too much beating and the payoff wasn't very satisfying.  It had so many amazing stunts though, like every other shot was just some physical feat.  My favorite Jackie Chan fight of all time was in that movie, [img=http://youtube.com/watch?v=YzS63xl2mjQ&feature=related]http://the playground fight[/img].  the video they posted on youtube seemed to come from a transfer that was significantly brightened.
end credits - theatrical version

[w/o horse]

http://www.celestialpictures.com/level2_story.cfm

I added Celestial Pictures.  They're releasing Shaw Brothers films on DVD, and because I know they just donated 400 hundred Shaw Brothers titles to the UCLA research library I know they've got plenty of the films licensed.

I purchased my first one and also spine #1, Heroes Two.

[Pas]

http://www.celestialpictures.com/level2_story.cfm

I added Celestial Pictures.  They're releasing Shaw Brothers films on DVD, and because I know they just donated 400 hundred Shaw Brothers titles to the UCLA research library I know they've got plenty of the films licensed.

I purchased my first one and also spine #1, Heroes Two.

Where did you buy them, couldn't find any link on the website ? Also, what is the cheapest website for chinese good quality DVDs that are but in the original version and dubbed ? (the whacky ones are funnier dubbed)

[w/o horse]

Heroes Two and a lot of other Shaw Brothers films are available at DeepDiscount and on Netflix.  It looks to me like Celestial Pictures only recently started releasing Shaw Brothers films stateside.  Heroes Two was released 4/8/08, The Master 5/13, and Challenge of the Masters is coming out 7/29.  They may be the only three.  All my usual channels for dvd information are pretty dry on information for the company.

As for cheap purchases, I don't know either.  Dragon Dynasty films tend to pop up used at my local dvd stores (I purchased PTU last night for $15 used).  They are on DeepDiscount, but you've probably seen that most of them are around $20.  At least the newer releases.  The older ones tend to be cheaper and Dragon Dynasty has a handful of older titles in their library - The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, My Young Auntie, Come Drink With Me, Heroes of the East, The One-Armed Swordsman, and King Boxer.  All my Dragon Dynasty dvds have both English and original language tracks - I've never listened to one in English so I don't know if they are the wacky kind of dubs that are typical or if they attempt something more serious.  Probably it's tough to make a serious English language track.

Dragon Dynasty and Celestial Pictures I love because of their great transfers.  Otherwise most of the titles I hear about are on some kind of inferior dvd releases, or sometimes a random major US distributor will put them out.  Like I picked up a nice version of The Prodigal Son and that's a Fox release.

Are you getting into Asian films now?  You know, I started, well, back in February, and I'm amazed at how eclectic and numerous the films are.  And sometimes amazing.  Seeing The Boxer from Shantung during the LA Film Fest was like this:  the film kind of looks like Mary Poppins or something, a lot of bright colors and some obviously outmoded method of producing color (Shaw Scope), and it's early 70s so it's not yet the moral wasteland of contemporary cinema, there's a lot of propriety and tradition involved, so it rests somewhere between conservative and liberal, what with what happens is that Mary Poppins is not a umbrella toting nanny but actually a gang of hatchet-wielding fighters, and Dick Van Dyke gets a hatchet in the stomach at the beginning of this fight, that goes on for like thirty minutes, this intense, ecstatically colored fight that's brutal and beautiful and once of the best theater experiences I've personally had.  I recommend you go deep.  You'll see there's real treasures.

[pete]

I don't think shawscope has anything to do with the colors.  I am under the impression that most of Shaw movies were printed via technicolor.

[w/o horse]

You're right.  Really my post wasn't very much about Shawscope though.

[pete]

I'm not shitting on your excitement man, I love shaw bros.  just sharing what I know, that's all.

in my mind, shaw movies can be split into three directors and their imitators -
chang cheh: very gritty, theatrical, and bloody, like the One-Armed Swordsman, very revenge-themed.  this is the shaw bros that tarantino digs the most.  here's a scene from Delightful Forest.
chor yuen's movies are more out there, with a lot of mystery and a lot of crazy characters/ weapons and very stage-like set design, like the Magic Blade.
trailer for the magic blade
lau karleung - which feature very beautiful martial arts, often starring Gordon Liu, and often involves the last days of the Shaolin lineage.  lau karleung is a kungfu man's kungfu man - his choreography is still unbeatable in terms of their sophistication, camerawork, and execution.   his depiction of martial arts - one that focuses on the craftsmanship and the techniques, and his ability to incorporate them into a story, is also uniquely his.  a scene from martial club.