International Blu-ray discs

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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feihong
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 12:20 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#301 Post by feihong » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:43 am

Some more discs arrived in the mail the other day:

The Taiwanese DVD release of Lou Ye's latest, "Mystery." –– One of the worst discs I've ever seen, it makes a contemporary movie look like some kind of mistreated 50s cast-off. The disc is interlaced and ghosts both crazily and constantly, making the viewing experience almost impossible. There are English subtitles, but a disc is also available from Artificial Eye in the UK, and is undoubtedly authored with more competence. I watched the movie, as well, and found it admirable but not very likable. I think Summer Palace was a kind of a turning point for Lou (most of the main cast members of Summer Palace return for this film), when he became the kind of filmmaker that no longer altogether interests me.

The Taiwanese disc of Escorts Over Tiger Hill. -- Quality is oddly decent for this release, and the film looks beautiful and engrossing. Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, there are no English subtitles. Picture quality looks very nice; while the print is quite high-contrast, you can actually see grain structure and the print looks very crisp. However, the picture is pan-and-scanned into a 4:3 shape. In an agonizing irony, the opening credits and several introductory shots, as well as all shots sporting title cards, are presented in something that looks close to 2.00:1 ratio. The opening shots, boasting that the film is shot in "Cathayscope," are presented in this lovely-looking aspect ratio, but once the film gets underway, it's back to the horrible cramped, unnatural 4:3.

The HK disc of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Real," released by Panorama. -- I don't know how this film was shot, but the picture looks suspiciously smooth. I don't see any artifacts one would associate with horrid DNR, but the smoothness creeps me out. I haven't had time to look at this properly, or watch the movie, but it looks like a return to good form and the engrossing interest of Kurosawa films of years past.

The Korean blu-ray set of Yasuhiro Imagawa's operatic anime OAV, "Giant Robo. -- Shot on film, Giant Robo benefits quite a bit from the blu-ray transfer. The art and the color achieve unprecedented, crisp clarity, and the uncompressed audio lets the huge orchestral score, thunderous explosion sounds, and hysterical voice acting rip voluminously. There is improved depth of field, although the animation was not conceived with the intention of extensive, multiplanar camera effects. Freed from the compression constraints of DVD, however, the highly stylized background paintings and the extensive animated shadow detail come through with new fervor.

There are two audio options, which I can't precisely discern. There is a Japanese language track, accompanied by forced Korean subtitles, or another audio track with no subtitles attached. I assume this second track is a Korean dub, but it doesn't sound like Korean to me. I'm not an expert; I'm probably wrong, and it most likely is Korean.

Aside from the lack of English language options, the box is incredible, packing three blu-rays in a handsome steelbook, along with a booklet full of production sketches and storyboards, and a DVD set that includes all 3 Gin-rei specials. All of this is house in an elegantly-printed cardboard slipcase, with red foiling for the titling and rhyming paintings on either side of the box--one of the Experts of Justice, the other of Big Fire.

For fans who can handle the subtitling themselves--I'm hoping to be one of those--this is a very worthwhile upgrade. The transfer is much cleaner than previous DVD transfers (even the best DVD editions had a lot of dirt and grit in the backgrounds of shots, and nearly all of that is gone). The biggest jump is in audio, but second might be color, which seems exceptional true and vivid. It may be silly, but I always cry my way through this series, whether I understand the text or not--and how can you not? I mean, they're practically begging you every other scene to start bawling. Every character has some passionate speech--or two, or three--about how whatever heroic thing they're about to do is in some way the culmination of their life's validating beliefs, and how their own troubled childhood, and perhaps the endemic strife that plagues the world at large, might in some way be mitigated by their upcoming sacrifice, and if what they do can make one young boy and with a giant robot's life a little bit better, then sometime in the future it will all have been worth it. Just a quick perusal of about an hour of material reveals maybe 5 or 6 big chances to sob: Giant Robo's arm cracking against the side of the Eye of Volger; Daisaku pleading for Giant Robo to stand up; Ginrei using her power, even though it will kill her; Taiso fighting Mr. Alberto to the death; Youshi sacrificing her life to uncouple the Great Garbo's ejection pod from the main body of the burning ship; Giant Robo grabbing Genya to defend Daisaku. It helps that practically every event is punctuated by the Warsaw Philharmonic and choir that sings their hearts out.

Eh, whatever. It's a great box, totally worth it. The stuff from Taiwan sucks. The HK disc is suspicious. The Japan product is solid gold. Very little of it all is English-language-friendly. And there it is.

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feckless boy
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:38 pm
Location: Stockholm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#302 Post by feckless boy » Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:14 am

eerik wrote:More from Divisa (Spain):
Charles Chaplin's Mutual Film shorts 1916-1917.
My set shipped today - will report on quality when it arrives.

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eerik
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:53 pm
Location: Estonia

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#303 Post by eerik » Fri Mar 07, 2014 7:55 am

Cohen's restoration of Intolerance from Divisa.

They also have Bicycle Thieves, couple of spaghetti westerns and a bunch of Spanish films coming out this month but those won't be "English friendly".

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martin
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#304 Post by martin » Sun Apr 06, 2014 5:16 am

I've had a look at some Scandinavian blu-rays (actually dual-format releases) from Soul Media:

Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948)
This is pretty bad! It's 1080i50, with speed-up (obviously). There's a lot of dirt and scratches in the print, and there's not much texture in the image. And no details. I happen to have the German DVD which has much better image quality! The disc authoring is also really weird: The film begins with the trailer as a part of the main feature. There's not even a chapter stop after the trailer! The DVD of this dual-format release is equally bad, and has an even worse authoring error: The main feature also includes the trailer in the same manner as the BD. But furthermore, the film is split into two titles - one lasting 58 minutes, and another lasting 1h17 mins! And there's not a natural intermission when it happens. Odd.

Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford, 1939)
This is also 1050i but much better than Arch of Triumph. The colors are perhaps a bit faded when compared to other releases. It's not quite as vivid. Comparison with the DVD on this same dual-format release shows that the BD has much better resolution and is not just an upscaled transfer. But the speed-up ruins it, I guess. And the audio is pretty bad, sometimes echoey and metallic (perhaps compressed too much or too often?).

The Egyptian (Michael Curtiz, 1954)
Pretty good, 1080p, 23,976fps. I'm not sure this is the same transfer as Twilight. It seems more grainy (less NR?) when comparing with screenshots of the Twilight release. The grain and noise seems quite lively, perhaps too lively. But it's actually a good BD.

The releases from Soul Media are quite cheap, and can often be found on sale for 49DKK (8-9USD). The Egyptian doesn't have any region info (but is probably Reg. B), the other two are Reg. B according to the cover.

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Koukol
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:31 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#305 Post by Koukol » Sun Apr 13, 2014 3:48 pm

Does anyone know if McCabe & Mrs Miller has been released on BD anywhere in the World in English?

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feihong
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 12:20 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#306 Post by feihong » Sun Apr 13, 2014 6:45 pm

Before I actually read the sentence you were typing, I saw "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" and I thought, "there's a blu-ray coming!" But no.

If this came out there would be a lot of discussion, I think. Not just about the film itself, but the way it might look on blu-ray. I'm pretty certain there's no such disc as of yet.

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Koukol
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:31 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#307 Post by Koukol » Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:17 pm

feihong wrote:Before I actually read the sentence you were typing, I saw "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" and I thought, "there's a blu-ray coming!" But no.

If this came out there would be a lot of discussion, I think. Not just about the film itself, but the way it might look on blu-ray. I'm pretty certain there's no such disc as of yet.
It makes a lot of critics Top Ten Western lists.
I wonder what the hold-up is?

Werewolf by Night

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#308 Post by Werewolf by Night » Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:24 pm

Koukol wrote:I wonder what the hold-up is?
The owner of the film doesn't care one iota about it, maybe?

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feihong
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 12:20 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#309 Post by feihong » Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:50 pm

Maybe the DVD didn't sell too well?

It's one of my favorite films, but I can see the owners of the picture scratching their heads looking for a promotional angle. Warners these days seems mostly interested in releasing movies about tough men clutching pistols to their chests--see Get Carter or Point Blank. Not that I don't really like those movies as well, but McCabe & Mrs. Miller is quite the opposite. It deflates the epic West and defames the "men who made the West." Perhaps the movie flummoxes the people at Warner Brothers today.

Also, there could certainly be problems with technical inconsistencies, or the trouble of finding good source materials to scan. Purportedly every print of McCabe & Mrs. Miller looks different. The print I saw at the American Cinematheque about eight years ago had reels that had considerably different contrast and color values than other reels. Quality checking would be a doozy; at least, that's my best guess.


As far as the distributor not caring, I'd say yeah, considering they haven't released Blowup on blu ray yet, they hardly care about distributing their artier cinema holdings in 1080p.

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Finch
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#310 Post by Finch » Sat Apr 19, 2014 4:40 pm

Farewell my Concubine will be released as a Korean Blu-Ray with English subs, and like the Chinese disc, as a BD-50 and in 1080p. It is the same cover as the French release, however, so could be a port of the reportedly middling French one.

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#311 Post by Minkin » Thu Apr 24, 2014 1:14 am

Whilst searching around Amazon.de at those hilarious Koch Media bodge job fake MoCs, I discovered that at least 3 classic Universal horror films are out on Blu-ray in Germany!

The Mole People
The Monolith Monsters
Tarantula

The three are being put out by i-catcher Media GmbH & Co.KG. Anyone have any idea of bonus features/reviews of these discs? I love all three of these movies and I doubt they'd make their way to the US anytime soon.

Edit-
Ask and I shall receive. Thanks Tooze (Monolith Monsters). Looks like these might be limited to only 1000 copies (at least Monolith Monsters is). Rather pricey and poor special features, but the image quality (if you are happy with the aspect ratio) looks superb.

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Altair
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#312 Post by Altair » Thu Apr 24, 2014 6:49 am

Not sure if this the right place to ask this, but what the heck... I just discovered that Carlotta released Letter from an Unknown Woman on Blu back in March: I guess the print will be the same quality as the Region A Olive Films release, but any word on removable subtitle options (Carlotta's Heaven's gate has them)? I'm interested as the two 20 minute + extras look quite good: a 1979 interview with John Housman and another interview with Tag Gallagher.

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Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#313 Post by Drucker » Thu Apr 24, 2014 7:01 am

Altair wrote:Not sure if this the right place to ask this, but what the heck... I just discovered that Carlotta released Letter from an Unknown Woman on Blu back in March: I guess the print will be the same quality as the Region A Olive Films release, but any word on removable subtitle options (Carlotta's Heaven's gate has them)? I'm interested as the two 20 minute + extras look quite good: a 1979 interview with John Housman and another interview with Tag Gallagher.
Print may not be the same, actually. Their Secret Beyond the Door looked to be a step-up from the Olive release PQ-wise.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#314 Post by tenia » Thu Apr 24, 2014 10:03 am

Same base material, different work done on them. :wink:
The 2 BDs (the Ophuls and the Lang) have removable subs.

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#315 Post by Lowry_Sam » Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:02 pm

tenia wrote:Same base material, different work done on them. :wink:
The 2 BDs (the Ophuls and the Lang) have removable subs.
.,..and I imagine the image on the Carlotta Letter From An Unkown Woman doesn't break up near the end of the disc.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#316 Post by tenia » Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:31 am

I don't remember such a problem, no.

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Altair
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 12:56 pm
Location: England

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#317 Post by Altair » Fri Apr 25, 2014 5:52 am

tenia wrote:Same base material, different work done on them. :wink:
The 2 BDs (the Ophuls and the Lang) have removable subs.
Thanks, it's good to know. Letter from an Unknown Woman is one of my absolute favourite films and to see it on Blu would be great (my excitement probably on the same level as seeing Lawrence of Arabia for the first time in HD, even though I know it won't be as good quality).

isakborg
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2010 7:05 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#318 Post by isakborg » Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:54 am

Of course I have the Olive Letter to an Unknown Woman - and regularly scan the upcoming announcements for the promise turned to reality of a release date for Olive's Caught blu-ray. We all have those certain directors for whom nothing less than the oeuvre will do. Question for any of you who have seen the Carlotta and the Olive - is the Carlotta a bump (or more) up from the Olive? I get the impression that it is, but perhaps someone out there can confirm this? Thanks.

isakborg
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2010 7:05 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#319 Post by isakborg » Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:57 am

I guess if you claim allegiance to a director, you should at least get the titles right. Make that Letter FROM an Unknown Woman.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#320 Post by tenia » Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:10 am

Yes, the Carlotta has a better PQ than the Olive disc.

isakborg
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#321 Post by isakborg » Sat Apr 26, 2014 8:09 am

Tenia, many thanks.

Jonathan S
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#322 Post by Jonathan S » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:22 am

I bought the Spanish (Llamentol) release of Letter last year - it was less than 6 euros and my copy at least was not one of their BD-Rs. I presume that issue is basically the same as the Olive? :wink:

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eerik
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#323 Post by eerik » Mon Apr 28, 2014 6:22 am

Divisa's line-up for May includes Murnau's Faust!

Hoping for MoC's Blu-ray now!

Stefan Andersson
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:02 am

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#324 Post by Stefan Andersson » Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:41 am

Divisa to release 300 remastered Spanish titles over the next three years:
http://www.europapress.es/nacional/noti ... 55244.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Matador (Almodovar) - Ana y los lobos (Eng subs) - Jamon jamon (no subs) - Spirit of the Beehive (no subs) and more. Subs info accordng to amazon.es.

Also: Gringo AKA Gunfight at Red Sands (1964) - heavy DNR applied according to discussion (+ screen shots) here:
http://forum.spaghetti-western.net/inde ... .1060.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Placido (Berlanga, 1961) - Eng subs - screenshots:
http://www.mundodvd.com/capturas_bluray ... sa-119048/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Altair
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#325 Post by Altair » Sun May 11, 2014 7:28 am

Blu-ray.com on Letter from an Unknown Woman - gives it 4.5/5 for image, seems to be a different and superior image to the Olive release. Plus, one of the extras is English friendly; it appears now to be the definitive release of the film.

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