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November 01, 2006
AFM ALERT! PLUS: TSUI HARK'S NEW MOVIE
If you're at AFM (the American Film Market in Santa Monica - for those of you not on the inside looking out) then hie thee hither to Loews Suite 859 to check out the promo reel for Derek Yee's new drugs n'thugs epic: PROTEGE.
It's being handled by sales agent, The Little Film Company, who were responsible for the US sale of TSOTSI which won "Best Foreign Film" last year. That's the only thing that's keeping me from saying that PROTEGE has Tai Seng written all over it. I mean, ONE NITE IN MONGKOK was a good movie from Yee and Tai Seng snagged that.
Also, it looks like the Little Film Company is repping THE EYE 3...directed by Tsui Hark? Methinks there is a misprint here. Produced by Tsui Hark, maybe?
(Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who sent this in)
November 1, 2006 at 09:49 AM in News | Permalink
Comments
Wouldn't this be The Eye 4? or is it 5?
Posted by: daniel | Nov 1, 2006 12:31:47 PM
THE EYE 10 was made, but not THE EYE 3
By the way, it is confirmed that Tsui Hark will director THE EYE 3. Press release is in here
http://thelittlefilmcompany.filmtrackonline.com/news.aspx?currentpage=1&articleid;=addb9b89-e7c9-45bf-a605-b13819820970&startindex;=2997&articlecount;=-1&page;=1
Posted by: no name | Nov 1, 2006 12:36:30 PM
"That's the only thing that's keeping me from saying that PROTEGE has Tai Seng written all over it. I mean, ONE NITE IN MONGKOK was a good movie from Yee and Tai Seng snagged that. "
Yeah...and they improved the video transfer, gave it a new and improved English subtitle translation, and translated ALL of the extras on the HK set (including the commentary) in English making it THE version of the movie to own.
I would like to know where on that does it spell "B-A-D" aside from age old geek hate on Tai Seng that became the "in" thing to do if you wanted to be "down" with the "real" Hong Kong film "fans".
Grady, you gotta update yourself.
Posted by: the running man | Nov 1, 2006 2:26:34 PM
Hating on Tai Seng never goes out of style. I remember when they used to send Federal Marshals into the Chinatown stores to bust them for side-importing discs they held the copyright to, while simultaneously trying to get the stores to pay out on discs that Tai Seng didn't have any legal rights on. Multiple Tai Seng litigations passed through. All while they put out horribly inferior product like their unwatchable A Touch of Zen.
And when I say remember, I mean from within the last couple of years, not time immemorial.
Fight the Power!
Posted by: David Austin | Nov 1, 2006 3:35:24 PM
"Hating on Tai Seng never goes out of style."
Sure it does. Especially when the reasons to hate don't apply anymore.
"All while they put out horribly inferior product like their unwatchable A Touch of Zen."
Inferior product? Inferior Touch of Zen compared to what other Chinese version of the movie? And unwatchable? Quite an exaggeration. Might not be a full on remaster like a Criterion disc on the video, but it's perfectly watchable full widescreen version.
And the subs were totally retranslated from the ground up and are of excellent quality. Which means the most to me, and should to most also, since it is a film in a foreign language.
But if you want to watch Touch of Zen in a full on inaccurate "Engrish" subtitled version...keep on hating then.
Posted by: the running man | Nov 1, 2006 10:09:22 PM
Um, I don't hate Tai Seng. I don't think there's anything in my post that qualifies as hatred of Tai Seng. But it's a fact that when Tai Seng picks up a movie it's guaranteed not to get a press or marketing push beyond the bare minimum. They just don't have the resources to do more.
So my point, which I apparently should have made clearer, is that while PROTEGE is getting hailed as a big deal I wouldn't be surprised if it wound up on a Tai Seng disc, chucked onto random Blockbuster shelves and languishing mostly in obscurity.
It'd be nice if that didn't happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. Just hedging my bets.
Posted by: Grady Hendrix | Nov 2, 2006 4:47:45 AM
Well, when you put it that way I can understand where you are coming from then. But to be honest with you, you really should have been clearer in your post about that since writing something like that would make someone think what I thought.
Anyway, if I had a choice between Harvey Weinstien picking the title up or Tai Seng (or any title for that matter)...the winner hands down would be Tai Seng for the reasons I mentioned on the One Nite on Mongkok DVD. Besides...think about it. What's the worst thing Harvey Weinstein can do to an Asian film? Butcher the thing till China runs out of rice, right? Now what's the worst that Tai Seng can do? Put a Ric Meyers audio commentary on it? And you don't even have to listen to it. Not much of a pick of poison there is it?
There are other companies that could jump and pick up the title too like Palm Pictures, Tartan USA, Magnolia, heck even a company like Sony but for whatever reason...these companies like to sit on their ass and either ignore most of what's coming out in Asia...or just release a movie in a genre they are comfortable with. It frustrates the hell out of me cause it seems to be open season for Harvey Weinstein to pick up titles left and right.
But even still with all of that, it would still be cool if Tai Seng does pick any Hong Kong film since they actually do retranslate English subtitles and I trust their translations the most. That's the edge for me.
Posted by: the running man | Nov 2, 2006 5:37:27 AM
I dont hate Tai Seng but i dont see much reason to praise them either. I havent seen Tai Seng do more than bare minumum for DVD releases (maybe Im picking up the wrong ones...) and then sometimes they do less than that. For example on the Korean film 'Sword in the Moon' they decided to nix the original korean audio track and throw in an inferior cantonese dub...theyve done that on a few other releases as well, though I cant remember the titles at this moment.
Posted by: azndevil | Nov 2, 2006 2:23:36 PM
I think that what we're losing sight of in all of this Tai Seng argumentation is... Tsui Hark is directing THE EYE 3! WTF?!?, as the kids like to say these days. What has happened to this man? What happened to SEVEN SWORDS 2? I wasn't a huge fan of the first, but I'd rather see that happen than EYE 3.
Posted by: Michael Wells | Nov 2, 2006 6:24:00 PM
AFM to me means one thing. D-WAR is showing, with 90% of the special effects complete. I damn sure wish I could be there for that.
Posted by: Rhythm-X | Nov 3, 2006 1:45:35 AM
" For example on the Korean film 'Sword in the Moon' they decided to nix the original korean audio track and throw in an inferior cantonese dub...theyve done that on a few other releases as well, though I cant remember the titles at this moment."
Actually on their first release they did put the Korean track on there but then for subsequent pressings they took out the Korean track as at the time they was a miscommunication of who had the rights to the film as Tartan USA was arguing that they had the rights. Since then, Tai Seng removed the Korean track off their DVD.
"What has happened to this man? What happened to SEVEN SWORDS 2?"
Forget about Seven Swords 2...what happened to the script to Seven Swords 1!!
Posted by: the running man | Nov 3, 2006 6:00:56 AM
I stand by my Tai Seng hate. I believe they abuse legal procedure in an improper fashion to force their crap product down the throats of the Chinatown vendors. I say this both from the perspective of someone who has discussed it with the vendors and someone who had to deal with Tai Seng cases while working for the federal courts.
Their A Touch of Zen is a poor piece of work, the battle at the climax of the second act is so dark as to virtually unwatchable, and it's not anamorphic. Sure there is no other Chinese disc that is better. Because Tai Seng holds the rights. If Mei Ah (who really has cleaned up their act) held them, we might already have a remastered anamorphic version, and cheaper to boot.
A couple of decent discs is not enough to make up for years of shoddy behavior, though I remain open to changing my mind.
Posted by: David Austin | Nov 3, 2006 8:56:58 AM
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