HKR Title #10 will be...

John Woo's 1989 classic The Killer

This is perhaps John Woo's best film and one of the greatest films ever released in Hong Kong so I'll be doing my best to do justice to it.

The sources available for this film are, let's say, less than ideal.  So I'm pushing my video restoration techniques as far as possible to produce the best quality transfer possible.

Here's the tentative plans for the restoration:

1. Correct the field blending from the HD source to restore a proper 1080p 23.976fps encode

2. Restore original opening titles and closing credits using our special technique of blending multiple sources together seamlessly.

3. Remove dirt and dust using Digital Vision Phoenix

4. Manually remove additional dirt and scratches using PFClean

5. Denoise with DVO Clarity (or NeatVideo, or Topaz tools, haven't decided yet)

6. Color grade using Criterion version as reference

7.. Upscale to 8K with Topaz Video Enhance AI

8. Finally, encode final video using TotalCode Studio

There's a lot of work involved getting the video up to a high enough standard. A lot more restoration and manual steps than a lot of our projects. 

In addition, I can announce that our release will feature THREE cuts of this film. Until very recently I didn't even know there existed three cuts. The first one is the main theatrical cut. The second is the Mandarin Extended Version as seen on the French HKVideo DVD.

The third is the uncut Taiwanese Version that is the longest of them all.

The Hong Kong Version is around 110 minutes.

The Mandarin Extended Version is 124 minutes.

The Taiwanese Version is 136 minutes.

I'll be working my "magic" on the extended versions as well. 

Here are the audio tracks we intend to include (subject to change):

Audio tracks:

1. Hybrid Cantonese Surround (HKR Exclusive)
2. Cantonese 2.0 (Criterion laserdisc)
3. Cantonese 2.0 (Scanbox DVD)
4. English Dub 5.1 DTS-HD (HKL DVD)
5. John Woo and Terrence Chang Commentary (Criterion DVD)
6. Bey Logan Commentary (HKL DVD)
7. The Bonus Material Podcast Commentary
8. Isolated Soundtrack

Subtitles:

We'll have 2 or 3 subtitle tracks to choose from. We'll have our definitive translation that is the most accurate by far, then we'll have secondary "nostalgia" tracks that people grew up with, including the names "Dumbo" and "Mickey Mouse" that Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee call each other.

Disc 2 Special Features:

1. Uncut Taiwanese Version
2. The Restoration
3. Image Gallery
4. An Introduction (An Essay)
5. The Making of The Killer
6. Chow Yun Fat Interview
7. Sally Yeh Interviews
8. Kenneth Tsang Interviews
9. Peter Pau Interview
10. Deleted Scenes And Introductions
11. Killcount
12. Code of Bullets
13. Action Video
14. Taiwanese Promos
15. The Evolution of Gunkata
16. Crossings: John Woo
17. Moving Pictures
18. Jimmy Cage Retrospective
19. John Woo's Trademarks
20. Sally Yeh MTV]
21. Trailer Gallery
22. Hong Kong Rescue Promo

Finally, here are a few preview images of the menus for The Killer:

These may be subject to change in the final version.

Thanks for your continued support.  My ability to spend the enormous time necessary to restore these films is predicated on your support for me which allows me to devote the time needed to put out these superior releases.

Other projects in the works:

A Better Tomorrow

Police Story 2

Bullet In The Head

Fist of Legend