Shaolin Blu-ray/DVD (Well Go USA)
When Netflix added a surplus of Asian films to their streaming catalog, cinema fans everywhere rejoiced, including the folks here at City on Fire. However, as their increased price hike and falling stock prices have proved, Netflix can’t seem to do anything these days without some kind of hiccup.
Recently Netflix made a deal with distributor Asian Crush that saw many Korean titles bypass blu-ray/DVD distribution altogether in the West and head straight to Netflix streaming. Titles included the popular Korean 007 spoof “Dochimawa Lee” and the modern day Robin Hood tale “The Righteous Thief.” In less than a week, nearly a hundred Korean films were added to Netflix, all at movie-goer’s fingertips.
But it didn’t take long for problems to arise: reviews came pouring in, claiming that several of the streaming titles had audio problems. The sound would drop out entirely for long bouts of time, rendering the films unwatchable for most. Within days, the affected titles were gone. Some of the movies still say “streaming coming soon,” while others have vanished from the site completely. Since these films aren’t even available on disc, there’s no way to rent them even if you’re paying a higher price for DVDs by mail.
Asian film buffs are waiting patiently for the audio issues to be corrected and the movies returned to streaming, all with no word from Netflix. Meanwhile, Benny Chan’s high profile 2011 martial arts film “Shaolin” – featuring an all-star cast that includes Andy Lau and Jackie Chan – made its way to streaming a few days ago. The only problem was, the movie cut off after about 50 minutes of its two hour runtime. The review section became inundated with complaints: streaming audiences had no way to finish the movie. A day or two later, “Shaolin” has now been pulled from streaming. Netflix says it’s “Coming Soon.” Subscribers are not happy. Forced to be anonymous since Netflix removed usernames from their site, they write:
“movie ended halfway through. Now you want me to pay more to see the rest of it. FUCKYOU NETFL!X!”
“The first 51 minutes of the movie was great. I was disappointed that it was cut short half way through the movie. Figured it would be fixed and I could watch the rest later. Instead of fixing the issue it’s been added to DVD only and removed from streaming. Seriously…..Is this some sort of new marketing ploy to get you to add DVD rentals? Can we ‘paying customers’ at least get an explanation when something like this happens.”
“Are you kidding me!!!! What kind of inept service is this? Along comes a great movie in a long time and we get cut off. Can I pay half of the bill to the company? If you can’t get it right, the customers have the right to be refunded or compensated. WE COULD TAKE IT TO THE BBB AND FILE A COMPLAINT.”
Sure, some customers vent their concerns more eloquently than others but the issue remains: Netflix puts titles on streaming whether they’re actually ready to be streamed or not. There’s no doubt a lot of technical issues are involved in making hundreds of films available on demand, but paying customers shouldn’t click on a movie only to have the experience ruined by audio problems or an incomplete film. Right now this is another serious complaint on the laundry list of issues Netflix subscribers have with the company. Let’s hope somebody is listening.
