International Blu-ray discs

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#451 Post by movielocke » Tue Jan 03, 2017 5:45 pm

I just got (as a late Christmas gift) Indiana Jones complete adventures bluray set which was on my Amazon wishlist as the normal USA region A release

The bluray I got has UK style censorship labels on the front cover and spine (a circle and an octagon), I see no indication on the packaging of the region coding, before I open it up or return it, does anyone know if this is an all region release or is region locked or encoded in pal that would make the disc unplayable for a region locked player?

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swo17
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#452 Post by swo17 » Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:51 pm

Same thing happened to my brother. I believe it's an all-region release.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#453 Post by TMDaines » Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:40 am

jsteffe wrote:I'm not a fan of Screenbound's Blu-ray of Max Ophuls' La Ronde. It is an advance over the DVD editions in terms of resolution, but I don't think they transferred the best available elements--or there were some technical problems with the transfer process. There is persistent frame (or perforation?) noise on the soundtrack. Also I want to emphasize, as feihong pointed out, that the subtitles are pretty bad, even downright unprofessional. They really are too small to read comfortably, and the line breaks are sometimes careless. It's better to wait for a higher quality version either from Criterion or from France.

Mind you, it doesn't look bad. But it's a lost opportunity.
There are also at least two cuts:

1) The credits at the start commence abruptly rather than fading in from black with a little into music in the dark.

2) At the start of their section the poet and the woman descend the stairs of his apartment. We then cut back to the narrator on the roundabout. We cut back to the couple a few seconds later. On the Criterion, the narrator continues a voiceover with the following text:

But the poet is complicated

He's the first we meet
of those people so blasé

that they can't love
like ordinary folk.

These few seconds of narration are cut on the Blu-ray. Damaged print or censorship, I do not know.

They may be other minor cuts too, but I've found these whilst trying to sync up the Criterion commentary with the Blu-ray.

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andyli
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:46 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#454 Post by andyli » Thu Mar 23, 2017 10:17 am

Sidonis Calysta is releasing Nicholas Ray's Bitter Victory.


Arrow
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:02 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#456 Post by Arrow » Wed May 03, 2017 11:40 am

It seems the French Costa-Gavras blu ray boxset is not English friendly, has anyone heard any rumblings of a similar release from somewhere else?

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#457 Post by tenia » Wed May 03, 2017 11:55 am

Arrow wrote:It seems the French Costa-Gavras blu ray boxset is not English friendly, has anyone heard any rumblings of a similar release from somewhere else?
Except for The Confession and State of Siege which are released through Criterion in the US, I don't believe having read plans somewhere of English-friendly releases of the other movies.
Also, the French set is entirely encoded in 1080i50, thus running at the wrong 25fps frame-rate.

Arrow
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:02 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#458 Post by Arrow » Wed May 03, 2017 12:03 pm

tenia wrote:
Arrow wrote:It seems the French Costa-Gavras blu ray boxset is not English friendly, has anyone heard any rumblings of a similar release from somewhere else?
Except for The Confession and State of Siege which are released through Criterion in the US, I don't believe having read plans somewhere of English-friendly releases of the other movies.
Also, the French set is entirely encoded in 1080i50, thus running at the wrong 25fps frame-rate.
That's too bad, I suspect there's not enough potential sales for someone like Arrow Academy or Criterion to do a release of his early work, some of which is even missing from DVD.

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Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#459 Post by Ribs » Tue Aug 01, 2017 11:20 pm

Sony's releasing Hope and Glory in the UK this October.

Makes me wonder if something like The Dresser is more likely to come from Sony itself than to be on Indicator's list. I'm really happy about this because it's a great movie and is treated very poorly by current releases, but somehow I just assumed one of the boutique labels with deals with Sony would have went for it.

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Forrest Taft
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Stavanger, Norway

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#460 Post by Forrest Taft » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:17 pm

There's a John Huston collection from Warner France, including The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of Sierra Madre, Key Largo, and Reflections in a Golden Eye. Amazon is selling it for EUR 31,99, but after VAT removal it's down to 26,66. Pretty good deal if you, like me, haven't picked up Falcon and Sierra Madre yet. And I think this is the only BD of Reflections in a Golden Eye?

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domino harvey
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#461 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:24 pm

As I recall, doesn't this edition lose the intentional golden hue for Reflections?

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Forrest Taft
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Stavanger, Norway

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#462 Post by Forrest Taft » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:39 pm

I'm not familiar with the film, so I didn't think to check before I ordered, but it looks like you're right. Forced French subs too...Oh well, I'll still get the set for the other titles.

phoenix474
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:17 pm

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#463 Post by phoenix474 » Thu Oct 05, 2017 3:28 pm

Has anyone bought/seen this type of Wong Kar-Wai boxset? I was wondering how the quality is...

(Sorry if this is the wrong place or has been discussed before!)

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RobertB
Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:00 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#464 Post by RobertB » Thu Nov 09, 2017 9:45 am

I received the Swedish Blu Ray of Troell's "Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd" (Flight of the Eagle) today. I can't do screencaps and I have only dipped into the film at various places to check it, but this is my report:

To begin with - it says region B, but it plays fine on region A setting, and the feature has optional English and Swedish subtitles. The film is on a BD disc, and the extras on a DVD. Aspect ratio looks right (1.66). I compared with Criterion's edition of "The Emigrants", and the grain doesn't look as good on Eagle. I suspect they have placed the 140 minute film on a single layer disc, but I'm not sure. The colours look right to me, and I see no softening or filtering of the picture. I am satisfied with this disc. It's no rubbish French-style restoration.

Plenty of extras on the DVD disc, but most seem to be in Swedish without subtitles. The hour long documentary "En frusen dröm" about the 1897 expedition does have optional English subtitles.

I'm afraid I have no idea who sells this outside Sweden.

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#465 Post by L.A. » Fri Nov 15, 2019 5:23 pm

White Zombie (1932) German edition coming early 2020.

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Aunt Peg
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:30 am

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#466 Post by Aunt Peg » Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:43 pm

The Italian Blu Ray of Happy as Lazzaro has English subtitles for anyone interested.

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A Tempted Christ
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2019 4:31 am

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#467 Post by A Tempted Christ » Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:22 am

Apparently it hasn't been discussed anywhere in this forum, but the 4K restoration of Paris, Texas is out in Germany by ArtHaus. They're also releasing the 4K restorations of Wings of Desire and Until the End of the World. It's region locked, but if you have a region-free player, you're in for a treat.

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

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#468 Post by feihong » Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:48 am

Picked up a bunch of Hong Kong blu rays recently, and while things are never great, there are some interesting developments with some of these discs. A few Hong Kong companies have been getting into the market with older titles that are not just the standard Fortune Star upscales.

Panorama has stepped forward with some interesting older titles. I bought Tsui Hark's Wicked City and Ringo Lam's School on Fire. Wicked City has some intermittent DNR, but it often looks very sharp and there is an unusual amount of visible grain for a Hong Kong disc. The source for the disc looks like a damaged negative or a damaged print, which if anything makes it more of a grindhouse-like experience watching the film. It's really fun to see the picture––I forgot Tasuya Nakadai was in it, doing his damndest to invest his role with Hong Kong style energy. You can see film grain at all times in School on Fire––though the grain is a little softer than one feels it could be. Both pictures look like true HD, and neither film has ever looked anything close to this good on home video.

Then I got a few discs from CN Entertainment: Tsui Hark's The Chinese Feast, and Ringo Lam's Victim, Full Contact, and Wild Search. They all look like true hi-def transfers, but there's a big range of DNR going on with these titles. Victim, the earliest release, is the worst offender. It looks soupy and loses most detail. Full Contact has much more intermittent noise reduction, with a lot of sharp edges. In general it looks really good. Wild Search is the best of the bunch, with lots of visible grain. It's the only CN edition that is truly beautiful. There is a little noise reduction, but by and large the image looks pretty unadulterated. It was stunning to see late 80s Hong Kong in hi def in this film. I hadn't seen the film in years, and I realized with a shock I didn't really know who Ku Feng was when I first saw the movie. It was a delight to see him play the father character. The latest release, The Chinese Feast, has a very even and consistent level of DNR. It never looks as good as Wild Search does, but it never looks as bad as Victim. It's still way better than the film has looked on home video before this, and what's more, the version of the film on the disc is the one that includes the Zhao wen Zhuo/Hung Yan Yan fight scene. I'd never seen that scene before––it isn't a great fight, but it's pretty cool to finally see. I believe in previous editions I'd seen the credits feature a montage of scenes from the film. In this version it ends with Leslie Cheung giving a toast to all of the cast and crew. You can see Tsui Hark toasting into the camera in the midst of tons of people. I didn't think to mention it earlier, but Full Contact has the classic electric guitar score, unlike the old Columbia/Tristar DVD someone accused me of sinking on another forum, years ago.

Of course, the quality of these discs doesn't match what 88 Films did with Miracles, or what Eureka is doing with the Sammo Hung and King Hu films, but it's great to see some of these awesome HK New Wave movies with a bigger, brighter, more steady picture. The experience seems better than it's ever been. I Hope CN and especially Panorama are able to pick up more of the titles that haven't had the Kam&Ronson/Fortune Star treatment so far. Movies like The Mission and The Blade haven't appeared yet. A good blu ray of either of those, or of Teresa Woo's Iron Angels, would be so great. CN's next films are Tsui Hark's The Raid and Chang Cheh's The Shanghai 13.

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#469 Post by tenia » Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:02 am

I don't know about Wicked City but I've seen a few caps of School on Fire on blu-ray.com's board, and it looks absolutely awful. It definitely resembles a SD upscale anyway and by the look of it, it seems that Panorama originally expected getting a better uncut master but ended up with a subpar censored one. It also seems the English subtitles aren't very good.

The following HK movies are rumored to be or have been restored : The Secret (1979), C’est la vie, mon chéri (1993), Made in Hong Kong (1997), and of course A Better Tomorrow (1986). Also, from elsewhere in Asia : After the Curfew (1954, Indonesia), Santi-Vina (1954, Thailand), Stage Sisters (1964, China), Batch '81 (1982, Philippines), Sultan Mahmud Mangkat Dijulang (1961, Singapour) and Mee Pok Man (1995, Singapour).
The Secret has been released on BD in HK in 2019, and Made in Hong Kong in 2018, both based on the new restorations.
Ronny Yu's Bride with White Hair (1993) has also just been restored in 4K and will get a French BD release in February 2019. Lonely Fifteen is getting a new restoration in Paris (2K, I believe) and should get its French BD release in April 2019.

I don't think any of the 6 movies you're mentioning have been restored any time recently, hence the result.

I however read that Yu's The Saviour (1980) HD master looks very good. I don't know if it's been released on BD yet, though.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#470 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:17 pm

tenia wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:02 am
The following HK movies are rumored to be or have been restored : The Secret (1979), C’est la vie, mon chéri (1993), Made in Hong Kong (1997), and of course A Better Tomorrow (1986). Also, from elsewhere in Asia : After the Curfew (1954, Indonesia), Santi-Vina (1954, Thailand), Stage Sisters (1964, China), Batch '81 (1982, Philippines), Sultan Mahmud Mangkat Dijulang (1961, Singapour) and Mee Pok Man (1995, Singapour).
The Secret has been released on BD in HK in 2019, and Made in Hong Kong in 2018, both based on the new restorations.
The Better Tomorrow restoration (which was done by Ritrovata) was released by Fortune Star in 2016 as part of their "4K Ultra HD Remastered Collection" (which, despite the name, is BD-only). From what I can tell, the other titles in that line are the four Bruce Lee movies, the first three in the Once Upon a Time in China series, the first two Police Stories, and Johnnie To's Throw Down. There are also 4K Ritrovata restorations of the early Brigitte Lin vehicle Outside the Window (1973) and Tao Jin's Diary of a Nurse (1957), plus recent 4K restorations of Huang Shuqin's Soul of a Painter (1993), The Adventures of Sanmao the Waif (1949), and, uh, The Birth of New China (1989) that were apparently restored in China. A 4K copy of Huang Jianzhong's My 1919 (1999) has popped up online, but I don't know if that's a true 4K restoration or what. Not holding my breath for these to get Blu-ray releases.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#471 Post by tenia » Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:19 pm

Thanks for the additionnal info. I'm aware of most of those since they surfaced in heavily advertised releases or festivals, but weren't aware of the ones you mentioned in your second lists (Lin, Jin, etc).
Of all these, it seems Throw Down got a K&R BD release, also in their "4K UHD remastered" collection despite only being a BD. I hope it's not as Ritrovata-ed as A Better Tomorrow... EDIT : it doesn't look like it. Pfew.

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#472 Post by L.A. » Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:25 pm

tenia wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:02 am
Santi-Vina (1954, Thailand)
A very tempting looking DVD is available.

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Aunt Peg
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:30 am

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#473 Post by Aunt Peg » Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:57 am

The Italian Blu Ray of Marco Bellocchio's The Traitor (2019) is available with English subtitles.

The Canadian Blu Ray of Denys Arcand's The Fall of the American Empire (2018) is available with English subtitles.

Sony hold the rights in the US to the above titles as well as Laszlo's Nemes' Sunset (2018) which like the Arcand film has yet to make a physical media appearance in the U.S.

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senseabove
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:07 am

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#474 Post by senseabove » Fri Jan 31, 2020 4:26 am

Looks like Bonello's L'Apollonide/House of Tolerance had a Russian blu-ray release (in 2016?!), which I only discovered because an HD rip finally popped up.

From what I gather it's relatively difficult to import from Russia, and it doesn't have English subtitles anyway, but I was surprised I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere else (and that an HD rip didn't surface sooner...). Can't say it looks the best, compression-wise, but at least it's HD...

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RobertB
Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:00 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#475 Post by RobertB » Mon Feb 03, 2020 12:01 pm

Bo Wideberg's film Mannen på taket (The Man on the Roof) will be released on Blu-Ray by Sudio S in Sweden. I contacted them and the person who replied said there will be English subtitles. She did not know what extras there will be. The date for the release is April 29, and it's a new restoration.

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