Having released more than twenty Asian movies in North America so far with
more than thirty waiting for release, including Shaolin Soccer (2001)
and Hero (2002) Miramax Films is well known within the community of
Asian film enthusiasts. Unfortunately, not for good deeds, so far none of
their releases have featured an original uncut version with the original
audio sound (with the exception of 2 releases). Instead of trying to hit a
particular market it is obvious that their marketing tactic has been to
release a movie for the wide audience, but unfortunately none of the movies
ever had the anticipated success and most releases are now gone and
forgotten from the minds of the people, unlike the original version which is
still in the hearts of movie fans. The way things are progressing fewer and
fewer people are pleased with how Miramax is handling their Asian movie
properties.
While Miramax is deliberately spitting on the fans of the Asian movie genre,
other companies such as Sony Pictures (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon),
DreamWorks (Ring), Media Blasters (Ichi The Killer, Versus),
Pioneer (Onmyoji), and Ventura (Audition) are all releasing
Asian movies in their uncut form with original audio and English subtitles.
Why is Miramax not able to stand behind the products they buy? Are they
really proud of their acquisitions? Do they think the North American public
is too ignorant to understand international cinema? If anything, this is an
insult against moviegoers in general as Miramax is saying by their actions
that the general public is incapable of appreciating international cinema in
its original form.
Miramax has pushed back several times already the release date of one of the
most popular Asian movie of all time, Shaolin Soccer, which is now
one of the most downloaded movies on the Internet (Wired.com). Hero
(Zhang Yimou, 2002) so far is not being handled any better, as Miramax
failed to capitalize on the film Oscar nomination.
All these facts have generated a lot of anger among Asian movie fans, which
has led to the creation of the Appeal to Miramax Web Alliance. This
organization has petitioned Disney to cease the acts of altering Asian films
that they distribute. However, unfortunately the creation of this alliance
never really affected Miramax who is still continuing their desecration of
an art form to meet their vision of what this art form should be.
What the fans have always been asking is simple: Miramax, if you ever want
to re-edit a movie, please make the original version also available for the
fans. Release two different versions and let the people choose which version
they want to see and let them judge which version is better. After all,
North America is a democracy the last we've heard where people are free to
choose rather than have things imposed on them by others. The DVD format
also gives many possibilities for the customers. Other DVD distributors have
already released cut and uncut versions of multiple movies and let the
customer choose which one they prefer to buy. Since that message has never
reached the ears of the leaders of Miramax, the fans' only choice has been
to turn to overseas DVD sellers to get the unaltered version of movies
released by Miramax.
Miramax has already stopped North American-based DVD sellers on the
Internet, including eBay, from selling the import versions (uncut with
subtitles) of the movies they own the rights of, which is there right to do
so. However, now the only opportunity for fans of Asian cinema to buy these
movies in their original form is now being threatened.
Miramax struck a blow to fans at the beginning of this week by sending a
cease and desist notice to Asian and martial arts film site Kung Fu Cinema.
They accused the site of "selling, distributing, and/or otherwise exploiting
copies of the film Hero on DVD and/or VHS" and ordered them to stop
referring readers to retailers outside of North America who sell legally
manufactured import versions of the movies that Miramax has distribution
rights to.
Miramax doesn't have the power to affect these stores since they are located
overseas. To bypass the problem they have decided to hit the information
resource web sites that North American fans use to share and learn news
about Asian cinema. These sites, which actually promote Asian films in
advance of North American releases, do not sell imports and in Kung Fu
Cinema's case, have ceased to earn commissions from overseas affiliates once
it was made clear that this was a violation of Miramax's copyrights. Yet
Miramax doesn't want these sites to post any links to select product pages
on overseas sites. This is really going too far; this is clearly an abuse of
the legal system by Miramax. As mentioned in the Copyright and DMCA
information it is not illegal to hyperlink to another Internet resource, but
from the Miramax point of view, apparently linking to sites that do sell
imports is a violation and an accessory to crime.
According to a legal representative of Miramax Films who spoke with Kung Fu
Cinema's owner Mark Pollard, the company also claims that individuals caught
importing a film into the U.S. that is owned by Miramax could face legal
action. These DVDs are legal in their respective country and it is not
illegal to import no more than one copy for private use only (Legal
Information Institute, Section 602). Besides, only a relatively small number
of collectors and real fans buy overseas movies. How can these few overseas
purchases affect Miramax's overall sales? What is going to be their next
plan, bringing to court the collectors who own original Import Asian movies
in their personal collection? Quentin Tarantino (director of "Kill Bill,"
distributed by Miramax) is a big fan of Asian movies and probably owns one
of the biggest personal collections of import movies in North America. Is
Miramax going to sue him?
The actions of Miramax are counter-productive and will likely motivate movie
piracy which is becoming an increasing problem that is hurting the movie
industry in general. Miramax really should put these wasted and negative
efforts into something more constructive, such as improving their movie
releases and trying to fight bootlegs and movie downloads, which hurt the
movie industry much more than buying legit official import movies overseas.
This situation needs to cease as soon as possible, as we believe that
Miramax is stepping all over the rights of the people. In the end Miramax
simply ends up looking bad, frightening and shocking the Asian fans
community. What we suggest to Miramax, instead of trying to rule the people
by force, why don't they simply release the movies in their uncut form just
like other North American distributors, this way people won't have to Import
the overseas version and everyone will be in a win-win situation. Fans will
get what they want and Miramax will have money and also support from the
Asian fan community
Kung Fu Cult Cinema
www.kfccinema.com
Janick Neveu Peter Zsurka 12/12/2003
Link Article:
www.kfccinema.com/features/articles/letter_miramax/letter_miramax.htm
Link info:
www.kungfucinema.com/news/2003-12-08-01.htm
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/602.notes.html
chillingeffects.org/linking/faq.cgi
|
