Info: Hard Boiled and The Killer — Page 8

Many thanks. I would love to force John Woo into a studio to personally color correct it and supervise a remix using the original mag tracks, but that's just me dreaming. :)

Matt, Your version of Hard Boiled is awesome! Recently I watched Hard Boiled with my cousin who'd never seen it before. Lucky for him, he got to watch your version and not that dragon dynasty trash. Aside from seeing a theatrical print he got to experience the movie in the best way possible, and needless to say- its one of his favorite films now. Thanks for all of your hard work.

More praise on my end, absolutely blown away by how great it looks and sounds. You did an excellent job Matt, thank you so much for your hard work and posting it publicly. Your the man! 

I just wanted to chime in and say that while I haven't watched the whole thing yet, I have sampled a few scenes of Hard Boiled and it's amazing!  It's too bad that there aren't very many true hd transfers of these HK classics out there, because I would love to see more customs like this. 

As an aside, what software/methods do you use for syncing the audio tracks?  I've always had a passing interest in trying to put together some similar custom titles and that is the step that seems the most difficult.

Many thanks. It was hard hard work. The audio took forever! But I wanted to get it right. 

I used Soundbooth to clean up some troubled spots and simply used the time in Adobe Premiere Pro to sync. I would have to make cuts in the sound and then slide it back and firth a frame or two or three all throughout. It took hundreds of cuts and lots of patience! :)

POLICE STORY will not be nearly as bad, but I just don't have the time for it right now.

Im fairly new to the forum and bought a BR burner just for this release. Imagine the joy when my PS3 played it for 3 minutes and then threw up an error message. I took it over to a friends with a standard BR player and it's fine....

deadman911 said:

Im fairly new to the forum and bought a BR burner just for this release. Imagine the joy when my PS3 played it for 3 minutes and then threw up an error message. I took it over to a friends with a standard BR player and it's fine....

That's interesting, my burned copy would not play on my cousin's standalone sony player but it played fine on his ps3 (with one small hiccup in the middle of the film)  

crom said:

deadman911 said:

Im fairly new to the forum and bought a BR burner just for this release. Imagine the joy when my PS3 played it for 3 minutes and then threw up an error message. I took it over to a friends with a standard BR player and it's fine....

That's interesting, my burned copy would not play on my cousin's standalone sony player but it played fine on his ps3 (with one small hiccup in the middle of the film)  

I've burned about five copies and they all play in anything I throw them in so... But hey, burning BD's is almost an art. Things can get funky. :)

CSchmidlapp said:

Hi tnt737373

The Killer is not finished yet. I supplyed an early unfinished version as an mkv to all who had helped with the project as I was/am on a big project for work and will not be working on it for a while.

Recently had a quick look at cleaning up the Hong Kong blu-ray version, as its the highest resolution scan at the proper frame rate available, but boy is it a terrible transfer! I mean real bad. Ive gone back to the German EMS DVD.

In your opinion is the PQ on the German EMS DVD better than the French special edition? Just bought the French OOP TF1 by HK video. It includes the Taiwanese extended cut (with burnt in English subs) which is 7 minutes longer than the US theatrical cut. DVD beaver thinks the theatrical edition of the French release is the most definitive release of The Killer out there. Also wrote that the extra footage on the Taiwanese cut improves upon the final sequence at the church, so I'm interested to see.  (I know there is extra footage where more baddies get gunned down, but not if it's included within this edition.) 

I just hope the film reel which contains the extended cut still exists, ha. Criterion reacquired the rights to Le Samourai, how much longer until they buy The Killer again? FortuneStar went under, so who the heck even owns the rights to The Killer now? Ughh. I'm praying for you CSchmidlapp, I need a worthy cut. Thank you again for your continuing efforts.

Personally I think the encoding on the French release is so-so. The transfer is very good, but it is always suffering from MPEG2 blocking. 

That same transfer encoded today would look much nicer. 

Is anybody on this thread the person who's working on this project?

http://www.aheroneverdies.com/2013/05/improving-japanese-hard-boiled-blu-ray.html

Thank you so so much Matt_Stevens and CSchmidlapp, for all your hard work on these two films. I can't begin to express my full gratitude for what you've both done.

As a die hard fan of Woo and CYF/Tony Leung, if I can manage to completely download the whole thing, I will continue to seed the torrent as long as humanly possible! I bought the Dragon Dynasty blu-rays for both the Hard Boiled and the Killer and they were just atrocious to say the least.

Its a damn shame that these films have not been given the respect they deserve with proper film transferred blu-ray releases along with many other films from the era. Especially titles like A Better Tomorrow.

We are all so so lucky that these two have put in the many hours and hard work towards and sharing their work with us fans.  Thank you once again.

Just have a question for CShmidlapp, if you're still working on the Killer..

Many releases..Both DVDs and Blu-rays seem to make an edit in the beginning scene where Ah Jong walks through the nightclub and knocks on the door where all the triad members are. 

This edit has the music that Sally Yeh is singing continuing right through the door knock sequence.  This really irks me because IMO it kind of ruins the seriousness of the scene and what is about to happen.

On the Criterion DVD edition the music is supposed to cut out right before he knocks on the door and I feel that this is the correct version.   Just wondering if your version is going to make this differentiation.

Edit: torrent seems to be working okay for now.  Will keep seeding!

chowfattony said:

Just have a question for CShmidlapp, if you're still working on the Killer..

Many releases..Both DVDs and Blu-rays seem to make an edit in the beginning scene where Ah Jong walks through the nightclub and knocks on the door where all the triad members are. 

This edit has the music that Sally Yeh is singing continuing right through the door knock sequence.  This really irks me because IMO it kind of ruins the seriousness of the scene and what is about to happen.

On the Criterion DVD edition the music is supposed to cut out right before he knocks on the door and I feel that this is the correct version.   Just wondering if your version is going to make this differentiation.

Edit: torrent seems to be working okay for now.  Will keep seeding!

Hi Chowfattony

PM Sent.

Thanks for your kind words.

I have not finished The Killer but have a pre-release version I sent to all that helped with collecting matrial for the final version.

I have restored the audio the best I can on the DTS - HD track including the opening song edit. There are still some sound fx contained from the terrible Blu-Ray sound mix's, but over all Im happy with it.

It also contains the Criterian Mono in PCM format from the Laserdisc.

Im very busy with work at the moment and have no time to spare on the project. Will update when I can.

tnt737373 said:

CSchmidlapp said:

Hi tnt737373

The Killer is not finished yet. I supplyed an early unfinished version as an mkv to all who had helped with the project as I was/am on a big project for work and will not be working on it for a while.

Recently had a quick look at cleaning up the Hong Kong blu-ray version, as its the highest resolution scan at the proper frame rate available, but boy is it a terrible transfer! I mean real bad. Ive gone back to the German EMS DVD.

 

In your opinion is the PQ on the German EMS DVD better than the French special edition? Just bought the French OOP TF1 by HK video. It includes the Taiwanese extended cut (with burnt in English subs) which is 7 minutes longer than the US theatrical cut. DVD beaver thinks the theatrical edition of the French release is the most definitive release of The Killer out there. Also wrote that the extra footage on the Taiwanese cut improves upon the final sequence at the church, so I'm interested to see.  (I know there is extra footage where more baddies get gunned down, but not if it's included within this edition.) 

I just hope the film reel which contains the extended cut still exists, ha. Criterion reacquired the rights to Le Samourai, how much longer until they buy The Killer again? FortuneStar went under, so who the heck even owns the rights to The Killer now? Ughh. I'm praying for you CSchmidlapp, I need a worthy cut. Thank you again for your continuing efforts.

I think the German EMS is the best print of the film Ive seen, It contains more detail than any of the Blu-Rays! But it has English opening Titles.

The French DVD is great also as the extra features and Tiawanese Print are sweet.

Im praying for Criterion while you pray for me ;) Am trying my best tho.

Just incase anybody is interested there was a 3rd version of The killer released on VHS in the U.K by Palace Pictures, that contained a few seconds more of the shootout at the end.

Chow slids forward across the floor fireing 2 guns when they exit the church.

You can see it on the HK Trailer and the Tiawanese Print. I think it was included in the Made In Hong Kong VHS release also.

I noticed it missing on the Hong Kong Legends DVD back in the day and thought it was weird only to find it the same over all the DVD releases available.

CSchmidlapp said:

chowfattony said:

Just have a question for CShmidlapp, if you're still working on the Killer..

Many releases..Both DVDs and Blu-rays seem to make an edit in the beginning scene where Ah Jong walks through the nightclub and knocks on the door where all the triad members are. 

This edit has the music that Sally Yeh is singing continuing right through the door knock sequence.  This really irks me because IMO it kind of ruins the seriousness of the scene and what is about to happen.

On the Criterion DVD edition the music is supposed to cut out right before he knocks on the door and I feel that this is the correct version.   Just wondering if your version is going to make this differentiation.

Edit: torrent seems to be working okay for now.  Will keep seeding!

Hi Chowfattony

PM Sent.

Thanks for your kind words.

I have not finished The Killer but have a pre-release version I sent to all that helped with collecting matrial for the final version.

I have restored the audio the best I can on the DTS - HD track including the opening song edit. There are still some sound fx contained from the terrible Blu-Ray sound mix's, but over all Im happy with it.

It also contains the Criterian Mono in PCM format from the Laserdisc.

Im very busy with work at the moment and have no time to spare on the project. Will update when I can.

Thank you so much for your time on this.

I am anxious to finally have the chance to see this.

I have long intended to clean up the splice sounds and pops from the mono track but just cannot get the time. I am so swamped trying to get my first feature film off the ground. Sorry to all. 

CSchmidlapp's work in progress on THE KILLER is superior to anything out there. I watched it on a 72 inch screen and no doubt it looks better than the Dragon Dynasty Blu-Ray (which is a smeary mess). I'm sure the final version will be even better. 

Hi, first of all I would like to say a MASSIVE thanks to Matt (and anybody else that was involved) for the hard work that went into the Hard Boiled custom release! I have yet to see it though and that is why I am here. I have found the PB torrent but I am getting such low speeds that I don't think I will ever finish it (currently getting a year as estimated completion time!). Would it be possible for Matt or anybody else on here that has it to provide me the M2TS on a 32GB usb flash drive? I would obviously pay for the drive and postage (UK) via paypal. PLEASE, I am dying to see this. Send me a PM if this is at all possible. Thanks!

Check your PM :)