280 The Sword of Doom

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#101 Post by manicsounds » Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:46 am

The trailer is a new addition as well.

User avatar
Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#102 Post by Shrew » Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:08 pm

I'm really glad to get the Prince commentary, just to have more background on this fantastic film. I've no problem with the paying the small extra cost.

This is up there with The Browning Version for unappreciated gems in the collection (very different kinds of films of course!) I think it's one of their best releases, if just because I would have never found it outside of Criterion and would have dismissed it as the sort of samurai genre trash the English title makes it sound like (and it is genre trash, but the very best kind).

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#103 Post by manicsounds » Mon Dec 29, 2014 8:10 pm


User avatar
EddieLarkin
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#104 Post by EddieLarkin » Mon Dec 29, 2014 9:01 pm

I had hoped we wouldn't see a return to these sort of upgrades of the Japanese titles, where Criterion merely reuse an overly sharpened and contrasty DVD master. Bad enough to do it in 2011, worse to carry on doing it in 2015. Perhaps they suspect a new transfer never being struck by the Japanese, though this isn't always the case as we saw with Harakiri, which came out at the same time in both territories, with MoC using a brand new and vastly superior transfer to Criterion's old DVD source.

User avatar
dwk
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#105 Post by dwk » Mon Dec 29, 2014 10:38 pm

Harakiri had two advantages over The Sword of Doom, the Miike remake and being owned by Shochiku, who have shown more of an interest in creating new HD masters than Toho has.

User avatar
aox
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: nYc

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#106 Post by aox » Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:09 am

That's so incredibly disappointing.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#107 Post by tenia » Wed Dec 31, 2014 5:31 am

EddieLarkin wrote:I had hoped we wouldn't see a return to these sort of upgrades of the Japanese titles, where Criterion merely reuse an overly sharpened and contrasty DVD master. Bad enough to do it in 2011, worse to carry on doing it in 2015. Perhaps they suspect a new transfer never being struck by the Japanese, though this isn't always the case as we saw with Harakiri, which came out at the same time in both territories, with MoC using a brand new and vastly superior transfer to Criterion's old DVD source.
It makes me wonder : why re-releasing a movie without a new transfer and not a real editorial upgrade such as Sword of Doom rather than releasing either a new title or choose one where the upgrade is clearer ?

There are plenty of movies with new restorations awaiting to be ugraded by Criterion, but no, they upgrade Sword of Doom by using a 10 years-old master.

Moreoever, it's even more frustating to see this "upgrade" not being lower-tier-priced despite only having an audio commentary as significant extra. And of course, it's not coming with a booklet but a leaflet.

I was quite impatient to see this BD coming on, because I believe this movie (as many Gosha movies) really deserves a proper upgrade, but am now wondering if I should instead cancel my pre-order (and will probably do it).

User avatar
EddieLarkin
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#108 Post by EddieLarkin » Wed Dec 31, 2014 9:33 am

I was thinking the same thing. Why wait until 2015 to upgrade this title when they could have presumably done it at any time over the last 6 years? If it's really that hard to fit it on the schedule, why even bother with such a basic upgrade? Better to wait until 2020 or 2025 by which time the Japanese will probably have something better to license, or there will be an increased chance of being able to do your own transfer. It's not like many were begging to buy this again, so why offer so little over the DVD (well, maybe I just answered my own question)?

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#109 Post by movielocke » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:12 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:I was thinking the same thing. Why wait until 2015 to upgrade this title when they could have presumably done it at any time over the last 6 years? If it's really that hard to fit it on the schedule, why even bother with such a basic upgrade? Better to wait until 2020 or 2025 by which time the Japanese will probably have something better to license, or there will be an increased chance of being able to do your own transfer. It's not like many were begging to buy this again, so why offer so little over the DVD (well, maybe I just answered my own question)?
The DVD was probably getting a new batch ordered, so they figured do the bluray as well? It was probably scheduled while they were still doing dualformat.

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#110 Post by manicsounds » Tue Jan 06, 2015 9:10 am


User avatar
Telstar
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:35 pm

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#111 Post by Telstar » Fri Jan 09, 2015 1:06 pm

Curious how different Svet and Gary's takes seem to be on this.

Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#112 Post by Orlac » Fri Jan 09, 2015 1:33 pm

Not really, I don't think Gary notices half the stuff Svet does.

User avatar
Telstar
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:35 pm

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#113 Post by Telstar » Fri Jan 09, 2015 2:52 pm

Orlac wrote:Not really, I don't think Gary notices half the stuff Svet does.
True, but considering that Gary seems to have done a direct comparison of the new blu-ray with the old dvd, it's a little strange to me that he sounded so enthusiastic about the "improvements."

User avatar
aox
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: nYc

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#114 Post by aox » Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:12 am

Anyone get the BD and take a look at it? I found a copy for $22 so I picked it up, but haven't had a chance to review it. I'm hoping the new commentary will be worth it if nothing else.

Jack Phillips
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:33 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#115 Post by Jack Phillips » Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:27 pm

aox wrote:Anyone get the BD and take a look at it? I found a copy for $22 so I picked it up, but haven't had a chance to review it. I'm hoping the new commentary will be worth it if nothing else.
The new commentary is very good, but applied sparingly. That is, Prince isn't interested in anything except the main plot of the psycho swordsman played by Nakadai. So whenever he hits a patch of sub-plot where Nakadai is not involved he goes silent (but he does tell us where his comments will kick in again (e.g. "Skip ahead to Chapter Eleven.")). Nonetheless, I found the upgrade worthwhile.

User avatar
teddyleevin
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:25 pm
Location: New York City
Contact:

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#116 Post by teddyleevin » Fri Jan 16, 2015 7:02 pm

If the audio commentary is that sparse, I feel like it warrants a different label in marketing materials (like "select scene commentary"). Is there a precedence for this? I feel cheated, because I have such a soft spot for Prince.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#117 Post by zedz » Mon Jan 19, 2015 5:38 pm

teddyleevin wrote:If the audio commentary is that sparse, I feel like it warrants a different label in marketing materials (like "select scene commentary"). Is there a precedence for this? I feel cheated, because I have such a soft spot for Prince.
It was more common in the earlier days of commentaries. I think the I Am Curious films had a similar arrangement where they'd helpfully tell you to skip ahead to Chapter X for the next burst of commentary. Which is vastly preferable to incredibly sparse commentaries that don't include such helpful signposts and you end up sitting through awkward quarter-hour silences waiting for the commentator to wake up / come back from the toilet.

User avatar
CSM126
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:22 am
Location: The Room
Contact:

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#118 Post by CSM126 » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:54 pm

The Night on Earth commentary does the same thing.

User avatar
Roger Ryan
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#119 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Jan 20, 2015 1:19 pm

And doesn't Criterion normally provide chapters for the commentary tracks? That way, once one chunk of commentary has completed, you can simply select the next chapter to skip ahead.

User avatar
aox
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: nYc

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#120 Post by aox » Tue Jan 20, 2015 8:01 pm

Just a heads up: only 6 out of 24 chapters (including the color bars) do not have Prince's commentary, and there is a helpful Index in the commentary menu that not only tells you which chapters don't have the commentary, but what each chapter's subject is about.

Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#121 Post by Orlac » Wed Oct 19, 2016 3:36 pm

Comparison with new German BD - http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=9041&d2=9040&c=3654" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

moreorless
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:34 am

Re: 280 The Sword of Doom

#122 Post by moreorless » Mon Oct 08, 2018 6:21 am

Finally got around to picking this up and honestly I can kind of see both points with the transfer. The sharpening/contrast being turned up quite high does make the grain a bit intrusive in a few scenes, most obviously in the opening scene with a lot of sky in it but overall I think the films mostly dark and contrast heavy nature is well suited to it in lieu of there being a superior transfer on offer.

Don't think much of that German release from the above link, looks like the sharpness and contrast are cranked up even higher to the degree grain is obvious in far more shots.

Post Reply