Tartan Film Closed Down

[teddymeow]

Damn, gutted really. The Tartan line was what really started my interest in Asian cinema - I remember buying Battle Royale on DVD with a bonus paid in MVC vouchers I got back when I was 17 and doing office temping after college.

Like others here I too was hoping for a spangly Battle Royale Blu-ray but I guess that's indefinitely on hold.

In amongst all of the rip-offs of The Ring (although some of them like Phone were pretty good) and other films of its' ilk were some truly great titles. Let's not forget they released the likes of In the Mood for Love, 2046, Chaos, R-Point, JSA, the Vengeance Trilogy (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance) and Happiness of the Katakuris.

Guess I'd better get out and buy Oldboy and I'm a cyborg on Blu-ray before they sell and aren't restocked.

[Matt]

Sad to see them go. Overpriced, but it's still a loss as they bought much needed diversity to main highstreet retailers.

Me, I just bought the original DVDs direct from Asia for a fraction of the cost.

[JP]

Guess I'd better get out and buy Oldboy and I'm a cyborg on Blu-ray before they sell and aren't restocked.

You're speaking to the right person as I'd just started off my Tartan blu-ray collection about a week back so have found what I think is all of their films:
I'm a Cyborg (UK) 14:89
The Seventh Seal (UK) ?17:89
Oldboy: 2 Disc Version (US) ?13:70
Paranoid Park (UK) ?17:99
Black Book (UK) ?17:98
Lady Vengeance (UK) ?17:99

I'd had most on order but decided to pick up the other couple when the news broke. I don't now if they released the Mr Vengeance too as I'd really like to pick up that one as I have the other two.

[JP]

Good news, I've just bought the Palisades/Tartan published Lady Vengeance & Sympathy for Mr Vengeance on from HMV which completes my Vengeance Trilogy on blu-ray.

Palisades took over Tartan well over a year ago and only managed to release two pretty insignificant DVDS and had been half expected to forgo the Tartan stock due to a complete lack of anything happening with them.


I'm in work so I've not had time to look yet but fro people who are interested you may want to check www.tartanvideo.com to see if they have others on the way.

I paid ?19:99 each in HMV but you could more than likely get them a lot cheaper online.

The bad news is that my PS3 is doing the family rounds at the moment as two of my sisters are thinking about buying a PS3 for Christmas. Unfortunately they all have 100s (I may be exagerating) of kids running around waiting to stamp on consumer electronics devices in the way that kids seem to do.

[figflair]

Good call on the films John. I bought the limited edition Vengeance Trilogy boxset last week with free Oldboy style Hammer!

Good luck getting your PS3 back in one piece!

[JP]

Is the box set available on blu-ray too or did you get it on DVD?

I've only ever seen Oldboy from the trilogy and I was half convinced it was going to be the standard violent Korean even with all the praise it had received. I was so impressed with it though, from start to finish it was just so well crafted. Should I be watching the three in a certain order?

According to HMV the blu-rays are available through them exclusively which worries me as it could mean future Tartan releases are limited.

[elaniel]

I was really stoked to see Pallasades releasing the Blu-Rays. But they're region locked :@ I'm hoping to get my UK PS3 soon.

[sj33]

According to HMV the blu-rays are available through them exclusively which worries me as it could mean future Tartan releases are limited.

This is certainly worrying. Without trying to drive this off-topic, does anyone know of a supplier of US Blu-Rays that stock the Tartan releases?

[Escape-To-88]

So are the later Tartan blu-ray releases 'Lady Vengeance', 'Sympathy for Mr Vengeance' region locked?

[Leon Retro]

The only film I have on Tartan DVD is 'Society'. Great 80s classic.

[elaniel]

So are the later Tartan blu-ray releases 'Lady Vengeance', 'Sympathy for Mr Vengeance' region locked?

They are. Hugh from Pallasades over at Blu-Ray.com confirmed they're locked.

[figflair]

Is the box set available on blu-ray too or did you get it on DVD?

I've only ever seen Oldboy from the trilogy and I was half convinced it was going to be the standard violent Korean even with all the praise it had received. I was so impressed with it though, from start to finish it was just so well crafted. Should I be watching the three in a certain order?

According to HMV the blu-rays are available through them exclusively which worries me as it could mean future Tartan releases are limited.

It is a DVD boxset. I would hate to think what it would cost on Bluray!

I completely agree about Oldboy: all I heard about it before I watched it was that it was incredibly violent. I didn't think it was violent at all although the ending is pretty f**ked-up!

I don't think you need to watch them in any particular order as none of the characters are related (as far as I know) But in order of release it would be SFMV, Oldboy and then Lady Vengeance.