Celestial audio/video - the good, the bad & the ugly

[TheManInWhite]

Due to popular demand, this post is being created with the fans in mind. So please post away any reviews/comments/etc. on the releases that are in fine condition or those with audio malfunctions, cut versions, sync
issues or other problems. Thanks!

[Kung Fu Zombie]

Off the top of my Head

Chinese Boxer - has the worst new synth music that I've heard yet. Worse than a cheap cartoon

The Assassin - bad synth music.

Lady Assassin - Really bad synth music that doesn't even match the original music, turning it into incomprehensible mush.

Marco Polo - this time the added synth music was playing the exact same thing as the original soundtrack but the tone of the new music is slightly off from the original, making the entire soundtrack slightly sour.

Shaolin Intruders - the added synth music is thankfully very faint and easy to ignore most of the time.

5 Shaolin Masters - Pure! I was just watching it last night and loving the untouched music. Even the opening Shaw logo was original

[GwaiLoMoFo]

Spiritual Boxer- Very noticable audio "enhancements". Very bad!! Good movie though.

LAdy Assassin- Agree with other posts on this one. "Enhancements" very noticable.

[David G Rees]

The worst in my opinion are:
Deadly Duo - Terrible added sound FX.
Assassin - As above
Spiritual Boxer - again added sound fx. The UK release is original mono and sooo much better.
Legendary Weapons Of China - again added sounds but doesnt spoil it as much....Image have this on there US release slate.
New One Armed Swordsman has a totally different music track to the dubbed US / UK release, but not added sounds as far as i can tell.
Golden Swallow- some ambient sounds added but not too bad.
More when i think of them.

[gfanikf]

adg.invisionzone.com/inde...owtopic=30 (http://adg.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=30)

[tylerpistol]

I always find it baffling that they would insert a synthesized version of the opening fanfare into the soundtrack...couldn't they just lift a recording of it from another film and insert it into the soundtrack if they had to?

[Markgway]

Isn't the Chinese version of 'The New One-Armed Swordsman' supposed to have different music from the English dub? I don't think this is down to Celestial supplying a new score.

And the UK DVD of 'The Spiritual Boxer' (actually, all the UK Shaws from Momentum) is letterboxed without anamorphic enhancement. It's worth mentioning for people with 16:9 televisions.

[kenichiku]

...more ugly audio similar to 'Spiritual Boxer':

Lady Hermit - incessant background as if simulating blowing wind, heavy cutlery add-ons

Clan of Amazons - heavy synthesizer re-scoring & cutlery enhancement over-dubbing

[Kung Fu Zombie]

Bells of Death has some loud stereo thunder

[Reign80]

Does "Synth" mean synthesizer? You know that great keyboard instrument from the 80's?

[Kung Fu Zombie]

yessir

[Linn1]

Heroic one had much of it's music replaced with Casio keyboard. And Mark:

Isn't the Chinese version of 'The New One-Armed Swordsman' supposed to have different music from the English dub? I don't think this is down to Celestial supplying a new score.

You're exactly right, the English dubbed and subbed versions had different soundtracks on video.

[Delightful Forest]

That this thread is, credit must go to 7 Hooks who first proposed this idea on the Ten Tigers thread.

[venomsfreak]

Can we complain about the subtitles as well? I have The Magic Blade, and on the english subs every line of dialogue is repeated 2 times. It's really annoying, I couldn't watch the whole movie.

[Kwok Choi]

p081.ezboard.com/fkungfuf...3795.topic (http://p081.ezboard.com/fkungfufandomfrm24.showMessage?topicID=3795.topic)

[Kwok Choi]

p081.ezboard.com/fkungfuf...3766.topic (http://p081.ezboard.com/fkungfufandomfrm24.showMessage?topicID=3766.topic)

[kenichiku]

I guess the issue of the remaster's speeding up of scenes goes under the category of more 'ugly'. Of course, folks who have evidence of segments or footage for visuals as well as for sound have a reference point to confirm these claims from prior to remastering; ever since 'Chinatown Kid', I've contended that keeping your old tapes & boots do hold some value to keep these guys in check. So now as from other past posts, the frame speed hasn't been widely discussed prior to 'Ten Tigers' for these Region 3 remasters as selectively being tampered with but we have:

Ten Tigers from Kwantung
Judgement of An Assassin

One might excuse this if someone can determine that these are complete speed-ups for the entire film due to the overall PAL conversion process instead of a sneaky selective speed-up here and there for certain sequences only. Based on gut instinct and until I run some dual screen comparisons to check, I may suspect scenes from these titles were selectively sped-up as well:

Lady Assassin (I recall already sped up from my old VHS copy)
The Swift Sword (certain fight scenes just didn't feel right)
Avenging Eagle (Sun Chung usually articulates slower frame speeds to highlight action but parts of this seemed faster)
A Deadly Secret (suspect sped up combat but don't have any old VHS to compare)
Cat Vs Rat (suspect sped up and do have old VHS to confirm)

As a service to all, please add, identify, verify or refute any of these or future claims on the matter.

[killer meteor]

How do you guys rate the sound on Bruce Lee And I - is it tolerable?

[kenichiku]

Re: Bruce Lee & I, I didn't recall any noticeable audio revisions if it was done at all.

[spannick]

has idiotic annoying footsteps added in the Fight Scenes, nothing else i noticed.

[briznessman]

JUST CHECKED WITH MY VHS
AVENGING EAGLE
FINAL FIGHT SCENE CUT

[killer meteor]

Are any of the R3 releases mono?

[sevenhooks]

Yes, but very few of them.

[killer meteor]

Can you tell me which ones?

[sevenhooks]

Not off the top of my head.
I'll bet there's a list somewhere.

Seemed like a lot of the horror stuff was Mono from what I remember.
Heaven and Hell was Mono.

[Tangowind]

I may be extremely ignorant when it comes to the issue of audio tampering, but IMO, these DVDs' audio suck:

HONG KONG NOCTURNE
KING BOXER
MARTIAL CLUB

[Chen Zhen]

even tho i havent seen the "original" chinese boxer, its very easy to see, or i guess "hear" that theyve been tampered with greatly.

[killer meteor]

I have the French Chinese Boxer with the original audio - the foley work is excellent and so intense you'd wonder why anyone felt the need to remix

[tarim69]

You know I can even handle some of the audio problems but some of the edits kill me

The Avenging Eagle - Missing a coupel minute sin the final fight

Chinatown Kid - The Celestial version is absolute abortion.Its a favorite of mine and I felt like crying when I saw it.

[Stylez Extremist]

hmm, what are some GOOD releases that celestial has out? which movies are more true to the original?

[HungKuen]

Chinatown Kid - The Celestial version is absolute abortion.

Hmm.. I believe the word you're looking for is 'abomination' :lol

[killer meteor]

"what are some GOOD releases that celestial has out? which movies are more true to the original?"

AFAIK, the following are mono and uncut

Dead End
Man Of Iron
Intimate Confessions Of A Chinese Coutesan
The Delinquent
Black Magic
The New Shaolin Boxers
The Naval Commandos

[Isfahani]

Just watched Angel with the Iron Fists last night,
audio is f***** up with the new added foley being 100%
louder than the original, and also 100% louder than the dialogue.

f***

[kenichiku]

I know this is an earlier release but I don't recall anyone bitchin' about the R3 remaster for my favorite Chu Yuan Ku Lung adaptation "Death Duel" before. Just re-ran it after several years on teh shelf & noticed more 5.1 audio intervention of the Casio keyboard variety. It's particularly annoying as they tried to blend in more "atmosphere" especially during heightened moments of elevated tension and intrigue. I recall the original score being capably atmospheric by itself...just plain painful. Should of known after the mild intervention in "Killer Clans" & the garrish bombardment in "Clan of Amazons". I guess the consolation is that they left "Magic Blade" and "Clans of Intrigue" alone in mono.

[Ivy Ling Po]

But then Ken, alas, Clans Of Intrigue is cut.

[killer meteor]

Death Duel is avaliable in mono in the UK and Australia

[DaFallen]

Has anyone seen the Red Sun versions? The video quality is similar to Celestial's and the audio are the original English dubs we all remember...and yes the sound effects have also been retained. I've confirmed this from the Legendary Weapons of China version. The one problem I noticed is it seems Red Sun had trouble "syncing" the English audio/sound effects tracks for a proper mix that sometimes the sound effects are slightly off the action. Especially noticable in Legendary Weapons of China when Hsiao Hou fights Gordon Liu at Lau Kar Leung's home. Half the original sound effects are there. What I mean is, the weapons clashes are there but the grunts, exhalations, etc. are missing. Weird and kind of annoying if you know they should be there. Also, there was one point in Executions From Shaolin where Pak Mei says something in Mandarin (or Cantonese) rather than English. It is the scene where Hung See Kuan has his first fight with with Pak Mei and does the first tiger claws his groin. Pak Mei is supposed to say in English, "Can't find it?" but instead it is spoken in the native tongue. I only know this because I also had the god-awful Ground Zero version that had that line.

Anyway I wonder what others think of them and if they notice any other oddities. However, they are a lot cheaper.

[Markgway]

Red Sun are bootleggers.

[kenichiku]

I guess the consolation is that they left "Magic Blade" and "Clans of Intrigue" alone in mono

Just rewatched the region 3 "Magic Blade" and compared it with my memory with watching an original 35mm viewing during Heroic Grace II over at UCLA last winter. Although they left the cutlery effects alone (unlike 'Clan of Amazons') , there IS additional electronic keyboard in the background soundtracks. Not as obvious as for "Death Duel" but nevertheless present. These were done about the same time therefore by same staff so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I have to take back my statement. Region 1, here I come.

I guess the consolation is that they left "Magic Blade" and "Clans of Intrigue" alone in mono.

So I guess there's NO consolation. BOTH the "Magic Blade" & "Clans of Intrigue" outta Region 3 is flawed.

[spannick]

MAGIC BLADE : just listen to the Opening Credits Music on the RC3. it's horrible Synth Crap - the original Mono Theme is on the Foreign DVDs though (the HK VCD is a downmix!).

[sevenhooks]

Re: Magic Blade, Region 3 DVD...
What's crazy is you can hear the beautiful, untouched mono sdtk underneath Bey Logan's commentary track!!
Talk about frustratingly f#cked up.