Hong Kong Legends

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Hong Kong Legends was a UK DVD distribution company, operating in the UK and Australia between 1999 and 2007. Hong Kong Legends was initially part of Medusa Communications, who, along with Soulblade bought up the UK distribution rights for film titles previously owned by Eastern Heroes label.

Hong Kong Legends specialised in releasing Hong Kong films, primarily martial arts films and other action films. In preparing the DVDs, they gained access to the vaults of Hong Kong studios such as Golden Harvest, selecting the films with the highest quality prints available. Hong Kong Legends added audio commentaries most notably by Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan, conducted interviews with key actors, directors and other film crew, performed new translations for subtitles and cleaned up damage to the films.

Their extensive catalogue of films included releases featuring Hong Kong stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh.

[edit] History

In 2004, Contender Entertainment Group (the UK branch of Entertainment One) took over Medusa Communications, including both Hong Kong Legends, and their sister company, Premier Asia.^[1]

Contender, for reasons unknown, dispensed with the services of Brian White, who had been the prime mover of the label and a close personal friend of Bey Logan. Logan decided it was time to leave the company and moved to the US, to begin working in a similar capacity for The Weinstein Company's East Asian DVD distribution company Dragon Dynasty. Shortly thereafter, Logan brought White on board. With the loss of two of its biggest assets (Logan for his popular commentaries; and White who had been responsible for many of the exclusive extras), Hong Kong Legends had to cancel many of its planned releases. As no attempt was made to bring in replacement staff to perform audio commentaries, or to create bonus features, the release schedule dropped, ultimately spelling the demise of the company. Subsequent DVDs were released in so-called "Ultra Bit" versions, implying DVDs with improved bitrates or in otherwise "special editions". In fact, the releases were significantly more basic, the company having lost the rights for additional features other than trailers, and the bitrate was no higher than their previous releases. Also the commentary is now moved to Andrew Staton as the likely candidate.

The directors of Medusa went on to start a new company, Showbox Media Group.^[2]

Beginning in September 2005, in co-operation with magazine / partwork publisher DeAgostini, a selection of the better-known Hong Kong Legends titles were released along with a fortnightly magazine giving facts and backgrounds on the featured film. The titles released included Fist of Fury, Drunken Master, Once Upon a Time in China, The Killer. The series continued for 45 issues.^[3]