For the first time in decades, John Woo‘s Hong Kong action movies will be available worldwide. Shout Factory has acquired the worldwide rights (excluding some Asian territories) to Golden Princess’ catalog of Hong Kong films from the 1980s and 1990s. Variety reports that Shout will release Golden Princess’ library via streaming, home video, and even theatrical re-release.
Although short-lived – it only produced films for about a decade – Golden Princess is an important piece of Hong Kong cinema history, and many of its films became cult hits on video in the English-speaking world, influencing a generation of filmmakers. Woo previously discussed the status of his Hong Kong films with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, and lamented their unavailability thanks to their tangled rights issues. That knot of licensing hs now been untied; says Shout’s Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Originals, Jordan Fields, “Golden Princess sits alongside Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest in the pantheon of Hong Kong cinema, but unlike the other two, the Golden Princess library has been dormant for decades outside of Asia. Its fingerprints are all over modern action and crime genres, though, so we have big plans to reintroduce these fabled titles to the rest of the world, complementing Shout!’s growing catalog of revered Asian films.” Shout has a variety of plans for the films in the catalog. They will be streamed on Shout’s Shout!TV service; remastered and released on physical media; and some select films will be re-released in theaters.
What Films Are Included in the Golden Princess Catalog?
Shout Factory has acquired the rights to 156 films from the Golden Princess catalog. The best known films to Western audiences are Woo’s “heroic bloodshed” films; they combine hard-boiled plots about the intersection between cops and criminals with stylized, even balletic violence, and many star Woo’s frequent collaborator, Chow Yun-fat. They include Hard Boiled, The Killer, Once a Thief, Bullet in the Head, and the A Better Tomorrow trilogy; all are slated for 4K releases from Shout. It also includes a number of more obscure but well-regarded films, including Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, Prison on Fire, and Prison on Fire II; Eric Tsang’s Aces Go Places action comedies; Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues, with Brigitte Lin; Tony Ching’s horror cult classic A Chinese Ghost Story and its sequels; Wai Ka-fai’s Western Peace Hotel, Andrew Kam and Johnnie To’s actioner The Big Heat; and Alex Law’s screwball comedy Now You See It, Now You Don’t.
Golden Princess’ films were greatly influential to Western filmmakers in the 1990s. Quentin Tarantino‘s debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, was strongly influenced by Lam’s City on Fire, while The Killer served as a template for Luc Besson‘s Leon: The Professional. The balletic gun-fu of the heroic bloodshed genre also served to inspire Lana and Lilly Wachowski‘s Matrix trilogy.
Shout Factory now has the rights to Golden Princess’ library of films, including John Woo’s classic Hong Kong action movies; their plans to release the films have yet to be revealed. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
A tough-as-nails cop teams up with an undercover agent to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew.
- Release Date
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April 16, 1992
- Cast
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Chow Yun-Fat
, Tony Leung Chiu-wai
, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang
, Teresa Mo
, Philip Chan
, Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok
, Kwan Hoi-San
, Stephen Tung Wai
, Bowie Lam
, Bobby Au-Yeung
, Lau Kong
, John Woo
, Keith Ng Shui-Ting
, Michael Dinga
, Perrie Lai Hoi-San
, Kenny Wong Tak-Ban
, Lo Meng
, Lam Kai-Wing
, Jun Kunimura
, Lee Yiu-King
, Benny Lam
, Wai-Sun Lam - Runtime
-
126 Minutes
- Character(s)
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Insp. ‘Tequila’ Yuen
, Alan
, Johnny Wong
, Teresa Chang
, Supt. Pang
, Mad Dog
, Mr. Hoi
, Little Ko / Fox
, Ah Lung
, Lionheart
, Hospital Director
, Mr. Woo
, Ah Chung
, Little Moustache
, Librarian
, Johnny Wong’s Thug
, Ah Wah / Lonny
, Mr. Hoi’s Thug with Pear
, Machine Gunman in Teahouse
, Gangster
, Hitman 2
, Hitman 1 - Writers
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John Woo
, Gordon Chan
, Barry Wong
