In this five minute video, Hong Kong’s mega studio Media Asia shows us some of their upcoming highlights for 2010. It includes subtitled footage from Fire of Conscience, Legend of the Fist (Donnie Yen), Once a Gangster (Felix Chong), Reign of Assassins (aka John Woo’s Rain of Swords in The Pugilistic World), Punished (Law Wing-Cheong & Johnnie To), Manhunt (Gao Qunshu), Love in a Puff (Pang Ho-Cheung), Frozen (Derek Kwok), Men & Women (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai), After Shock (Feng Xiaogang), 9 Temples, My Best Bodyguard and another still nameless Johnnie To project.

[via Wu-Jing.org, Wildgrounds & Filmsmash]

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Ha! Just as expected, our French friends won’t be the only ones who will be able to enjoy Johnnie To’s Vengeance from their own couch this Christmas time. According to several online shops, HK super distributor Mega Star will release the film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc with English subtitles on December 11th, the same day as the sweet looking French release from TF1 Video.
The back cover says the Blu-ray Disc will be locked to Region A, but this doesn’t mean much on Mega Star releases. Their latest release of Accident is also labeled as Region A but plays fine on European Blu-ray Players.
Preorder Vengeance on DVD or Blu-ray Disc from YesAsia
Update [Dec 22, 2009] I got my BD copy today and the disc is locked to region A! 35 full resolution screen shots are available at the Asian Blu-ray Guide.

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When it comes to quick and export-friendly home video release of recent domestic blockbusters, nobody beats our friends from Hong Kong. See the Johnnie To produced and Pou-Soi Cheang directed thriller Accident (Yi ngoi). The film had it’s theatrical release in Hong Kong on September 17th and not even two months later (November 11th) it will be available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc including English subtitles. Most of Mega Star’s Blu-ray Disc releases have been reported as region free, so there’s really no reason not to preorder this while we wait for an English subtitled release of Johnnie To’s Vengeance…
Preorder Accident on DVD or Blu-ray Disc from YesAsia

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Sometimes, but just sometimes it must be great to live in a film-loving nation like France, because our friendly south-western neighbors were not only the first that could see Johnnie To’s Vengeance on the big screen back in May, but will also be the first to get a DVD and Blu-ray Disc release. On December 11th, TF1 Video will release the film in three flavors, a standard one disc edition, a two disc collector’s edition and of a Blu-ray Disc edition in a nice looking steelbook.

Sadly none of these releases will included English subtitles and TF1 Video also has the bad habit to enforce the French subtitles when the original (mostly english in Vengeance) language track is selected. But since Vengeance opened in Hong Kong on August 20th, I bet English friendly HK DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases will pop up by the end of the year as well. Until then, enjoy the film’s (ironically French subbed) trailer below.

[via @wildgrounds]

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Yahoo HK has released a clip showing the first six minutes of Accident, a new HK thriller produced by Johnnie To and directed by Pou-Soi Cheang (Love Battlefield, Shamo). There are no English subtitles, but I don’t think they are necessary in this scene…

Synopsis via IMDb:

A self-styled accident choreographer, the Brain is a professional hitman who kills his victims by trapping them in well crafted accidents that look like unfortunate mishaps but are in fact perfectly staged acts of crime. Perennially plagued with guilt, he is also suspicious and morbid by nature. The recent avalanche of memories of his lost wife does not make things any easier.

After one mission accidentally goes wrong, causing the life of one of his men, the Brain is convinced that this accident has been choreographed: someone is out there plotting to terminate him and his team. He becomes increasingly paranoid, walking on the thin line between reality and delusion.

When he is accosted by a mysterious insurance agent Fong who happened to be on the scene of the accident as well, the Brain becomes obsessed that this man must be the mastermind behind a conspiracy to take him out. To regain his sanity and to safe his life, he must strive to kill Fong before he makes his next move.

[via @wildgrounds & Twitch]

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Johnnie To continues to expand his leading position as Hong Kong’s director with the most films released on Blu-ray Disc.
Today Panorama Distributions announced to release Election and Election 2 in Hong Kong on May 27, 2009. DDDHouse lists English subtitles for both titles and so far two of four releases by Panorama Distribution have been confirmed to be region free by friendly readers of the Asian Blu-ray Guide.

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The French website for Vengeance has been updated and now shows a brand new trailer for Johnnie To’s latest. This one features a lot of new scenes, including some unorthodox shootouts with Johnny Hallyday and his new friends from Hong Kong and some short sequences with the murdered family of the French “Chief”.

[via Twitch & Wildgrounds]

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After Johnnie To‘s visits to rather soft realms with his former works Sparrow and Linger, it looks like he has finally decided to return to his old, gangster-ridden hunting-ground with his latest film Vengeance.
Judging from the new released full trailer that consists of two minutes of pure To-awesomeness, Hong Kong’s grand master seems to have called together a bunch of old friends (Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, Suet Lam, Ka Tung Lam) to help French super star Johnny Hallyday on his quest to hunt down the murderes of his daughter’s family.

[via wildgrounds]

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First Teaser Trailer for Johnnie To’s Vengeance starring Johnny Hallyday as a former french gangster following the murderers of his daughter’s family to Hong Kong to take revenge…To style!

[via Wildgrounds, thanks to don!]

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Für Fans von Hong Kongs Meisterregisseur Johnny To dürfte dieser Monat ordentlich ins Geld gehen. Nachdem Mei Ah bereits Mad Detective und PTU auf Blu-ray Disc angekündigt hat, setzt Mega Star noch einen drauf und bringt, kurfristig angekündigt wie immer, am 8. Juli Exiled [IMDb] auf den Markt. Die Kollegen vom Asian DVD Guide können bereits das komplette Cover präsentieren:

Englische Untertitel sind gelistet und um den Regionalcode brauchte man sich bei den Mega Star Veröffentlichungen bisher auch keine Sorgen machen.

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