Hong Kong's Media Asia has announced that it has retrieved rights to seven films it had previously licensed to UK-US distributor Tartan Group, including its hugely successful Infernal Affairs trilogy.

In a legal notice, the Hong Kong company said that, as of July 4, it has terminated all licence agreements with Tartan Films Distribution in the UK, Tartan Films USA and related entities.

Other titles to have reverted back to Media Asia include Johnnie To's Breaking News, Feng Xiaogang's A World Without Thieves and two early Wong Kar-wai titles - Days Of Being Wild and As Tears Go By.

Tartan had acquired UK rights only to A World Without Thieves, while the other six titles had been licensed for both the UK and North America.

Tartan's UK distribution business went into administration in June, while the US operations were shut down the month previously. The company was an active buyer of Asian product, releasing titles theatrically and on its Tartan Asia Extreme video label.

New York-based P&A financier Palisades Media Corp bought Tartan's US film library in May and the majority of its UK library earlier this month. However, Media Asia terminated its contracts with Tartan before the Palisades acquisition.

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