Media Asia Group (Hong Kong)

Background
Media Asia is a Hong Kong film distributor founded in 1994. It is one of Asia's largest Chinese language film studios and it's a subsidiary of Lai Sun Development Company Ltd.

1st Logo (1994-2000)
Nicknames: "Pink Lines", "MA"

Logo: On a black background, a hot pink series of lines fades across the screen in the shape of a vertical line. The series of lines turns into what first looks like a box, but is an abstract "A" right next to an abstract "M". The A flips over and hits the M, causing the M and the A to look like an abstract "MA". The finished emblem zooms out and silver Chinese characters and English words: 寰亞綜藝集團 Media Asia Group

(in a font that looks like Century Gothic Bold Italic) fade in

Variants:
 * Sometimes the logo says "Media Asia Distribution" or simply "Media Asia".
 * Sometimes the "M" would be solid red or dark purple, depending on the film quality.

FX/SFX: Very good CGI-Animation.

Music/Sounds: An Eighties-esque synth theme with Oriental drumbeats and a seven-beat cadence at the end. Around 1997, the theme was given an orchestral rearrangement.

Music/Sounds Variants:


 * There exists double high (NTSC-C to PAL) and low pitched (NTSC-C to NTSC) versions of both themes.
 * Often, whenever it plasters older logos, it sometimes leaves their original themes intact! Examples of this are various Golden Harvest films and the Australian DVD of The Cannonball Run, which plastered the custom 20th Century Fox logo with the fanfare underneath (heard along with the cars, crashing searchlights, plus Burt Reynolds' laugh and all!).

Availability: Uncommon in the US, but very common in Hong Kong. When Media Asia controlled the distribution rights to various film libraries, such as Golden Harvest's before Star TV (News Corp.) formed Fortune Star and took over, this logo either preceded or (more often) plastered the original logos. This logo can still be seen on older (pre-Fortune Star) video and DVD releases of films from Golden Harvest, D&B, among others. It is seen on some U.S versions of films such as on City on Fire, Dimension-released Jackie Chan Films, and the Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment DVDs of the Once Upon a Time in China trilogy.

Scare Factor: Low. Some may be scared by dramatics, mainly the synth theme and animation, but this logo is a favorite of many.

2nd Logo (1990's)
Nicknames: "Gold MA"

Logo: On the left of a blue screen, we see a gold "MA" emblem without the lines. On the right is

M E D I A A S I A 寰亞電影有限公司出品

The Chinese characters mean "Produced by Media Asia Films Ltd.".

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare.

Scare Factor: None.

3rd Logo (2000?-2008?)
Logo: Just a print version of the MA emblem fading in, with "Media Asia 寰亞" wiping in below.

Variant: The early version has the company name in the different font.

FX/SFX: The fade and wipe.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Precedes the first logo or 2000 version of the next logo.

Scare Factor: None.

4th Logo (2000-)
Nicknames:  "Shards of Pink Glass", "CGI MA"

Logo: We see rapidly moving pink shards and zoom out of their view until the shards become two pink lines. We move diagonally and see more pink lines (a la New World Pictures) until we see a pink edge. Then we move up and turn to a cloudy background like Warner Bros' logo. The pink lines turn out to be the MA emblem. The Chinese characters and English letters 寰亞綜藝集團 Media Asia Group

(in a font that looks like Century Gothic Italic) fade in.

Variants:


 * In 2008, the logo was redone; the animation is slightly different, the sky background is different, and the English text is no longer italicized, and in a different font that looks like Helvetica.
 * In 2011, the logo was redone again; the emblem is now in a purple/red gradient color and the Chinese characters/English letters are now silver and now read

寰亞電影 Media Asia Films


 * There exists a shortened version that shows the final half of the logo in its still position with the "M" shining.

FX/SFX: Gorgeous CGI.

Music/Sounds: A gradually rising majestic fanfare.

Music/Sounds Variants:


 * On the trailer for Aces Go Places, it uses the theme from the first logo.
 * Like the first logo, on films that plaster over other companies' logos, it leaves the original company's music intact! Examples of this are on some Media Asia distributed Golden Harvest films, and Fantasy Island (1986).

Availability: Uncommon so far. Appears on Media Asia's more recent films, including Initial D and the Infernal Affairs trilogy. Also seen on recent prints of other distributors older films (surprisingly keeping the original logos intact after it), such as Taxi Hunter and Fine Catch.

Scare Factor: None. This is a very clean logo.