Hong Sangsoo

Discussion and info on people in film, ranging from directors to actors to cinematographers to writers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#201 Post by AlexHansen » Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:57 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:I got an external drive so I could make screen captures (for Region A BRs, at least) -- but can't do screen captures.
I'm using Mac Blu-ray Player, which has a little snapshot function (and ignores region coding). Not sure what the Windows options look like.

And if anybody wants to see caps from any of the other BRs, let me know.

artfilmfan
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:11 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#202 Post by artfilmfan » Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:23 pm

Alex,

If it's OK with you, and won't get you in trouble with the mods of the forum, could you post one more cap from Kangwon Province of the scene with the three women sitting on the beach? This outdoor scene might be a good indicator of whether it exhibits the paleness seen on Turning Gate.

Kangwon Province is one of my favorite South Korean films. I don't want to miss the opportunity to own it on Blu-ray if it is indeed an improvement over the DVD.

Thanks in advance.

zeroman987
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:17 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#203 Post by zeroman987 » Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:29 pm

feihong wrote:I got Power last week and watched it. It looks much better than the DVDs did, so that's cool. But it's hard for me to gauge the degree of noise reduction on the disc. The lower contrast scenes, like the initial scene in the train and the scene where Sangwon visits the professor at his apartment and leaves his umbrella, look fairly soft. In many of the outdoor scenes I thought I could see a fine grain structure. But then, I saw The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well in 35mm and I thought it looked soft there.

The film sounded really good, and the subtitles read well. The whole film seemed to move faster than I remembered it moving. And the movie was as great as I remember it being. The disc seems to me a good investment.

My feeling is that the covers of all these redone discs are not as good as the they were on any of the former packages. I think Turning Gate being done all in black is a huge step down from the very vibrant and lively promotional art they used for the dvd box. And the original Spectrum DVD of Kangwon had a great high-contrast black-and-white image of the Sangwon and Jisook embracing that carried all the somber weight of the film and expressed it in a very dynamic way. The new blu-ray covers look to me like they're done without much skill or sophistication, and they come off as very impersonal.
I noticed some softness in the picture on some of the outdoor scenes, but I think it is how the film was shot. One scene in particular was in the woods where Jisook was burying the fish; the scene seemed soft but the plants in the foreground were very sharp.

One thing I noticed is that in the director's trailer, Jisook's M&M shirt was blue on the scene where she is in the bus. Is the color off? During the film, the shirt appeared much darker.

Otherwise, I was very happy with the picture and sound quality. The subtitles did have a few spelling errors, but nothing you couldn't figure out ("Then" when the context clearly means "Them"). I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the film and can't imagine it looking any better.

User avatar
AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#204 Post by AlexHansen » Sat Sep 21, 2013 2:03 pm

artfilmfan wrote:the scene with the three women sitting on the beach?
When during the film is that? I haven't watched it yet, so knowing the general spot to scroll to will make it easier to nab (which I'm happy to do).

artfilmfan
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:11 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#205 Post by artfilmfan » Sat Sep 21, 2013 2:46 pm

Early on into the movie, shortly after the scene of capture 1 that you posted. Thanks

User avatar
AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#206 Post by AlexHansen » Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:06 pm

Post has been updated. Swapped out one & added another.


User avatar
rockysds
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 11:25 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#208 Post by rockysds » Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:53 pm

Thankfully, they keep going with these: The Day the Pig Fell Into the Well on blu-ray, October 24th.

User avatar
AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#209 Post by AlexHansen » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:43 pm

And this one's on sale!

TIVOLI
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:58 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#210 Post by TIVOLI » Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:25 pm

Any more opinions on the quality of the blu-ray for Woman is the Future of Man ?

User avatar
repeat
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 am
Location: high in the Custerdome

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#211 Post by repeat » Tue Oct 22, 2013 12:23 am

Still shrinkwrapped, but I promise to report back when I get around to it. I have the mk2 DVD here as well so could do a comparison.

User avatar
repeat
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 am
Location: high in the Custerdome

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#212 Post by repeat » Tue Oct 22, 2013 11:00 am

All this Blu-ray talk seems to have obscured two important news items: that there's a new film, Our Sunhi, and that it brought Hong the Best Director Award in Locarno! Seeing both this and Haewon in Stockholm in a couple of weeks' time (along with Kurosawa's Real and Tsai's Stray Dogs - yay!)

User avatar
AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#213 Post by AlexHansen » Fri Nov 01, 2013 3:54 pm

More caps from the recent Blus. NDH is a little windowboxed though the caps cropped the left & right bars (they're about the same as the top/bottom; very minimal). Didn't notice it on IAC but I wasn't playing a ton of attention as I jumped around snagging the caps. Haven't watched them yet, so not sure how they look in motion, but figured I'd at least get some images up.
Woman is the Future of Man
In Another Country
Nobody's Daughter Haewon

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

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#214 Post by zedz » Wed Nov 06, 2013 5:17 pm

The BluRay of In Another Country / Nobody's Daughter Haewon lists special features for each film on the cover, and even gives their runtimes. From past experience, these extras are almost always basically worthless EPK filler, and are never subbed, but I was curious to see whether subs had been added for this release. However, I can find no trace of these special features on the actual disc. There's no menu entry for them, and I can't find any "easter eggy" access point. Can anybody confirm they're there, and if so, how they can be accessed?

The films themselves look terrific!

User avatar
AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#215 Post by AlexHansen » Thu Nov 07, 2013 7:59 pm

Looks like it's just the features and two trailers, going by the different titles via Mac Blu player. There's another title running 10 minutes, but it appears to just be the menu.

User avatar
repeat
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 am
Location: high in the Custerdome

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#216 Post by repeat » Mon Nov 11, 2013 5:23 am

Our Sunhi was great, went straight to my 2013 top ten: wrote a few lines there. Loved Nobody's Daughter Haewon too, definitely getting that double Blu set as I still haven't managed to see In Another Country. If there indeed was a weaker period somewhere around the turn of the decade, that's definitely far past: 100% proof Hong both of these. Strong sense of first class Rohmer in Haewon - if there's any fans of the Comedies and Proverbs who for some reason or another haven't checked him out yet, might recommend starting here...

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

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#217 Post by feihong » Tue Nov 12, 2013 11:48 pm

Received The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well today from Yesasia.com.

The disc has exactly the degree of quality of The Power of Kangwon Province. The film print is more damaged than the other Hong Sang-soo films Content Zone has been releasing, so there are frequent scratches. But the picture is bright, has great contrast, and is exceptionally watchable--making it a distinct upgrade from the Spectrum DVD (by far the worst-quality disc of one of Hong's films). The subtitles are the same fairly inaccurate subs as on the DVD.

This is one I've had the luck to see theatrically, and the blu-ray compares to that experience pretty decently.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#218 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:06 am

Disappointing news about the still-sucky subtitles on Pig!

User avatar
The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#219 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Wed Nov 13, 2013 5:27 am

feihong wrote:The subtitles are the same fairly inaccurate subs as on the DVD.
This is absolutely maddening given that iffy but still far superior subs are used for the Korean Film Archive version on Youtube.

(And while I don't want to defend the DVD too much, I'd put its PQ above the original nonanamorphic Virgin Stripped Bare, which honest to god looked like someone just pointed a video camera at a Steenbeck—I did a comparison with the remastered version at some point that really highlighted the awfulness, but I can't find it anymore.)

User avatar
StevenJ0001
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#220 Post by StevenJ0001 » Fri Jan 03, 2014 2:54 pm

Finally ordered a couple of the Hommage Blu-rays (WITFOM, Power) plus DS Media's In Another Country/Nobody's Daughter Haewon double--can't wait, especially as I missed seeing NDH at festivals.

I'm guessing DS Media won't release Our Sunhi on Blu until they have another film to make a double-pack, but I'm tempted to just get the DVD--the movie is lovely, and absolutely hilarious for anybody who's ever asked for a letter of recommendation! :D

Does anybody know what the US Day He Arrives disc is like? Can't find the Korean Blu-ray (with Oki's Movie) anywhere. :(

Jamesonnephi
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:47 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#221 Post by Jamesonnephi » Sun Feb 09, 2014 6:15 am

There are some used copies of The Day He Arrives on Korean sites. http://used.aladin.co.kr/shop/wproduct. ... U602445509
http://search.gmarket.co.kr/search.aspx ... 648&y=-135

I love the picture and was lucky enough to get a signed copy of the dvdprime special printing. And I'm always willing to track down movies for people... Cause I love sharing the movie love ;)

Jamesonnephi
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:47 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#222 Post by Jamesonnephi » Sun Feb 09, 2014 6:20 am

It's also still available on yes24 with Oki's
http://www.yes24.com/24/goods/7528761?s ... &OzSrank=2

User avatar
rockysds
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 11:25 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#223 Post by rockysds » Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:00 am


User avatar
repeat
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 am
Location: high in the Custerdome

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#224 Post by repeat » Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:44 am

Such a great film. Any comments on the quality/contents of the In Another Country/Haewon double?

Also, has it been mentioned that Nobody's Daughter Haewon has been released on R2 DVD by Optimum?

Also, will there ever be any actual discussion about films in this thread anymore? :D

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#225 Post by knives » Sun Apr 17, 2016 8:40 pm

Peacock wrote:Hong's been using dream sequences since Woman is the Future of Man (the students in the stadium) in almost every film since (none in Lost in the Mountains, haven't seen Oki's Movie yet), my personal favorite of which is in Like You Know it All which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it. Hong seems to all out in the dreams in the later films, quite surreal and also hugely hilarious when you realize it's a dream
I just saw Like You Know it All (thanks Amazon) and I assume this is in reference to
SpoilerShow
the sex scene with Bu's wife
which at first I took as a dream sequence, but then what causes Bu to get so mad at him? Is this just Ku's interpretation via drunk goggles or is there something more sinister afoot. Of the six films by him this seems like Hong's most aggressive and self loathing film so I wouldn't be surprised if something darker was intended to be conveyed if this is the dream sequence alluded to.

Post Reply