Hong Kong Legends no more!?

[One Armed Boxer]

I went to check the Hong Kong Legends website today and got a message saying the site has been shut down, the same goes for their sister label Premier Asia...

Does anyone know if the label has closed up shop all together!? Hong Kong Legends was partly responsible for re-igniting my interest in martial arts films from when they first released Drunken Master on DVD all those years ago!

It'll be sad to see them gone if thats the case, things have been pretty bad for them ever since Bey Logan & Brian White left for Dragon Dynasty a couple of years back, and all of their releases since their departure have been sub-standard when compared to what came before.

Still if that is the case then many titles have been left hanging in purgatory...the constantly mentioned platinum double DVD versions of Drunken Master & Snake In The Eagles Shadow that I believe had brand new interviews with Hwang Jang Lee (which I think where done by Mike Leeder), and remastered versions of Tiger Cage 1 & 2 where also once regularly mentioned as upcoming releases.

It'd be the passing of an era if this is the case, with their last title being the Thai horror film 'Shutter' released through Premier Asia, I still hope the missing titles will surface somewhere...

[obiwomble]

I, too, paid a visit to their site and was surprised to see it closed. Granted the label has gone downhill in the last couple of years, not to mention running out of material - there's only so many films that can have 'legend' tag slapped on them.

I agree it's a shame as it was this label that got my wife and I interested in martial arts movies and insane action sequences.

[greenfan]

I think Contender will still be releasing asian films. I believe they have the UK rights for Ong bak 2, for example, but I dont know whether they will be released under the names HKL or Premier Asia.

[The Dragon]

:(

[One Armed Boxer]

I agree it would be a shame if the label shut down in it's original glory, but in all honesty it has gone out with a whimper due to being run by people who clearly didn't know what they where doing.

I remember when the HKL site used to have it's own forum, nearly every week someone would start a thread asking if they could get the rights to all the early Jackie Chan movies that Eastern Heroes originally relased over here in the UK. The same response was always that they didn't have the rights so there was no possiblity of releasing them.

Next thing out of nowhere all the titles that they where insisting they could never put out starting hitting the shelves one by one...'Dragon Fist', 'Magnificent Bodyguards' etc etc...talk about lack of communication.

Also, in regards to those Hwang Jang Lee interviews, by coincidence they've actually been discussed by Mike Leeder himself in another thread, and the prospect of them seeing the light of day doesn't look good - http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4410

[andy338]

Its a shame hkl thought there was no life left in the label as they have so many titles & extra footage yet to be released, still if it weren't for them in the UK we'd probably still be watching Bruce Lee movies without nunchakus!

[whitelotus]

Strange...in the last month they have been showing up in the cheap bin at Walmart in Canada....for 3 bucks a pop...grabbed 5 dvds this week...

[shelliegal]

really whitelotus? i wonder if they have them in the US walmarts...will take a peep. :D

[andy338]

Just come across this article about the end of hkl - doesn't look good for kung fu movie dvd releases in general in the UK!

http://www.easternkicks.com/guide/what_deathofalegend.htm

[Killer Meteor]

The last lot of DVDs deservedly got bad press on the forums because of the sound issues. I know I stayed away from HKL's DVDs of films I love to bits, like Snake & Crane. Ditto the Momentum Shaws.

In the HMVs I go into in the UK, the martial arts section has gone from an entire wall to a small shelf tucked away in the Special Interests sections.

Also, Contender willingly snubbed HKL, and from personal experience, interest in big names like Jackie Chan and John Woo is diminishing as they continue to slide into mediocrity in their output

[The Dragon]

:(:(!!