88 Films

[M Sanderson]

How’s their Short Night of Glass Dolls compared to the well regarded Camera Obscura release?

[nitin]

Different colour timing (TT and 88 feature same master):

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=11023&d2=9928&c=3983

[domino harvey]

Come Drink With Me coming to Blu in March

[yoloswegmaster]

'The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter' Blu-ray will be releasing in March as well, and 'Heroes Shed No Tears' will be released in February.

[M Sanderson]

Is Lamberto Bava’s great Macabro coming from a fresh scan?

[Calvin]

Come Drink With Me is ready ahead of schedule, as I've got my copy direct from 88 Films in hand.

We've been spoiled by 4K King Hu restorations recently but this transfer is solid; it looks to be the same master that has been available on streaming services for the past few years but with the benefit of less compression. Disappointingly, the extras are minimal - a new commentary with Samm Deighan that I've yet to listen to and the theatrical trailer. The old Dragon Dynasty / Weinstein DVD had a commentary with Cheng Pei-pei (and Bey Logan) as well as a few interviews, which I'm guessing will remain exclusive to that release forevermore. It would have been nice to see it paired with its sequel, Golden Swallow, or King Hu's previous Shaw Brothers effort, Sons of Good Earth, to make up for it. Hopefully 88 Films release them at a later date.

There are occasionally some obvious typos in the subtitle track - 'Dan' instead of 'Fan', 'tide up' instead of 'tied up' etc. Nothing egregious, but if you're going to put "newly translated English Subtitles" as a selling point then one would hope that mistakes that I noticed on one casual viewing would be picked up at the QC stage.

[Ribs]

Sale on on their store, everything instock - promo codes 25OFF over £40, 33OFF over £60, 40OFF over £100. They have quite a few titles going OOP as marked on their site under "last chance" (maybe most notably the first several of their Shaw bros titles) that should be worth picking up. Their international shipping is pretty reasonable also.

[TMDaines]

Virtually everything is not in stock now. Shame I didn't see this.

[Mark L.]

If it makes you feel any better, the majority of stuff was already out of stock shortly after the sale announcement.

[Grand Wazoo]

The sale is still going and they just did a big restock including a majority of their Asian line.

[L.A.]

Coming in the next several months:

Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
Blind Date (1984)
Murphy’s Law (1986)
Short Circuit 2 (1988)
Darkroom (1989)
Nowhere to Run (1993)
Maximum Risk (1996)

[swo17]

Young Master will be available for pre-order (for less than the current joke price) on the 11th

[Ribs]

88's site has switched its rewards scheme to be that each £10 spent results in £1 credit, like how Arrow's site used to be, which is extremely convenient! Was able to grab the above release with a £12 discount and I already built up £7 back in credit. (Their store for international shipping switches from £4 to £9 when you go from two to three releases, though).

[Orlac]

88 Films submission of GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY rejected by BBFC

https://reprobatepress.com/2021/01/26/g ... s-censors/

[yoloswegmaster]

According to 88 Films, it would cost £5000 just to appeal the decision, which they get back only if they win.

[TMDaines]

Odd decision, and sad just as a principle.

[colinr0380]

You know, it may not exactly have been the best move to have put the film in for classification at this particular time of year, given that the BBFC's rejection notice is dated the day before Holocaust Memorial Day.

The film itself is pretty strong stuff, thematically kind of the exploitation version of The Night Porter. And given that a lot of mainstream critics thought that The Night Porter itself was too far over the line, I suppose the less defendable take on the same material was always going to get rougher treatment. But it does have that image of a banquet in which a corpse is presented on a metal platter and then flambéd as the guests look on in a jaded manner, which is such an extreme dinner party image that I kept expecting Alison Steadman to arrive and demand for the warbling faux-Demis Roussos-styled theme tune to get turned up!

[L.A.]

So Sweet... So Perverse Deluxe Collector’s Edition coming in June. Limited to 2000 copies.

[M Sanderson]

They’re promising two more Van Damme films.

Ppl are saying Columbia titles are most likely.

Any ideas what they could be?

[Adam X]

Based on how they were released in the US, my guess would be Second in Command & The Hard Corps. Not seen either of them, but they don't exactly sound like films to get excited about. Hopefully they're a little more interesting than that.

[swo17]

Wouldn't it be a lot more likely for 88 Films to be interested in more of his collabs with Hong Kong directors?

[Adam X]

I’d imagine so, but only half of their releases have been from HK directors so far. There’s also really only 3 films left under that umbrella: No Retreat, No Surrender, Hard Target & In Hell. The latter seems like the only real possibility (& also seems to be a Columbia title), but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.

[Finch]

Kim Newman recently tweeted that he has contributed extras to 88's upcoming discs of The Violent Professionals and The Tough Ones.

[M Sanderson]

I’d imagine so, but only half of their releases have been from HK directors so far. There’s also really only 3 films left under that umbrella: No Retreat, No Surrender, Hard Target & In Hell. The latter seems like the only real possibility (& also seems to be a Columbia title), but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.

In Hell would be most welcome. A quite punishing and profound movie. Is there a decent master of the film out there, though?

[Adam X]

So turns out they took one from each column.
In Hell & Cyborg are coming 12th July, with a 4K restoration of the latter.