The Weinsteins’ approach to collecting Asian movies has been comparable to a 6-year-old kid who mimics cool things adults do without actually knowing why it’s cool. But now after years of hording massive amounts of Asian films, they’re finally releasing them under a new label called Dragon Dynasty. Was this their secret plan all along, or just what they ultimately decided to do with their warehouse full of dusty acquisitions? You decide!
According to the press release (which starts with the hilarious claim that the Weinsteins are “Continuing their passionate dedication to bringing Asian films to American audiences”, even though they’ve generally been treating them with the same level of respect Jodie Foster got in The Accused), the company will finally release their heaps of acquisitions theatrically and on DVD.
Quentin Tarantino will also be involved in “all aspects of brand development for Dragon Dynasty”. After all, it took Tarantino’s name and influence to get Hero into theaters (resulting in some serious dollar signs), so let’s hope his clout and passion for Asian movies overrides his scattershot attention span. Then again, his desire to spread grindhouse glee a few years ago with his Rolling Thunder imprint (remember that?) resulted in only a handful of releases before Bob and Harv shuttered it, so we’ll see how much consideration this latest thing gets.
The new company will focus on the chopsockey, wuxia and bullet ballet. Among the countless movies that will eventually be paroled from the Weinsteins’ prison are Seven Swords, Dragon Tiger Gate, SPL (Sha Po Lang), Born to Fight, Tom Yum Goong (which they’ve nonsensically retitled The Protector) and the upcoming Ong Bak 2, plus older mishandled assets from the Shaw Brothers, John Woo and Jet Li.
While the Weinsteins have concentrated their efforts on selfish accumulation they also failed to learn a lesson from companies like Magnolia (Ong Bak) and Tartan (Lady Vengeance) and Sony Pictures Classics (Kung Fu Hustle), who have been actually putting their foreign acquisitions into theaters and on DVD.