International Blu-ray discs

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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David M.
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#426 Post by David M. » Tue Apr 19, 2016 2:52 pm

tenia wrote:
feihong wrote:Another Sidonis disaster, Joseph Losey's M has clearly had a nice restoration––but the blu ray is a miasma of DNR. It leaves the movie looking nearly as soft as the Pathe Le Samourai disc. It's a shame that after a lifetime of seeing this as a crummy 3rd–generation VHS-quality presentation, that now, after a restoration, we get a presentation that only suggests it could have been something better. The Sidonis disc has an original English language audio track, which is thin–sounding, and non-removable French subtitles.
You know, I've written pretty much this (though I've been nicer to the AQ, which I found decent) for my review on Retro HD, and we're now facing Sidonis' response, and they're not very happy. It's sad to see a seemingly fine restoration being filtered to death, à la Patton / Predator, but I find it all the sadder they don't want to aknowledge that, and maybe worse : they might not even be able to understand it's a problem. They are eluding the problem in their answer and prefers to use ad hominem attacks than to discuss the bottom of it.
(We're also quite sure they're behind the account only created to post a very aggressive post at the bottom of the test).
Ew. Is that seriously from a new restoration? If so, who decided to degrade the image that way?

The irony is that if you want to filter the picture to that extent, all the money that went into doing the new restoration has been a total waste. You could just as easily get an older HD telecine, NR the result, and be done with it.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#427 Post by tenia » Tue Apr 19, 2016 4:25 pm

feihong wrote:In the comments after your review, it looks like you're saying that the theatrical restoration of M had the same DNR problem? The translation did not read very clearly to me, so I'm not sure that's the case.
Yes, it was already very smooth in theaters (DCP) which is why I believe this isn't a home video issue but something baked-in the restoration (sadly).

It is silly of Sidonis to challenge that, and the "anonymous" commentary on the review page is even more silly by claiming that the screen caps are fine (or that I photoshopped them). However, my "boss" at Retro HD phoned them today and it seems OK now. It seems they mostly understood the test as being against them, while it's solely against the restoration work. Fortunately for them, I saw the restoration in theaters, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to point at the restoration and would have had pointed at the overall PQ without distinction of what's at fault.


I don't have a lot of stuff from Sidonis, but it seems to be highly hit-or-miss. I have Broken Lance which is also heavily filtered, while Cutter's Way simply uses a pre-existing HD master with all its limitations. But they have some titles which are fine, others better, others worse. They don't seem to have any technical filters as to what's acceptable for a BD release (technically wise).
feihong wrote:Sidonis and other French companies must want to do things this way. I wonder if it's more a question of the different companies imitating each other at this point?
I know Wild Side are still fans of DNR. They use it much less than in the past on DVD, but still usually very slightly use it (they've done it recently for Lenny). Gaumont are known for doing the same, though it has also slightly improved over the years (including very recently).

Apart from them, I'm unsure if it's only related to the French labels or if it has to do simply with the material they're given (though it'd be weird that France are getting so many waxy material while other countries don't).
David M. wrote:The irony is that if you want to filter the picture to that extent, all the money that went into doing the new restoration has been a total waste. You could just as easily get an older HD telecine, NR the result, and be done with it.
I know, right ? It's Children of Paradise, again. Why would you commission a brand new restoration of such a difficult-to-access movie if it's to ruin it by filtering it to death ?
It's all the sadder that we're in 2016 and are still getting things like this. Between this and 15 yo masters recycled on BD, sometimes, what's get released on BD (technically speaking) really depresses me.

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Ashirg
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:10 am
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#428 Post by Ashirg » Wed Apr 20, 2016 10:29 pm

DVD Beaver compares M blu-ray in all its waxy glory.

HairyMonster
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#429 Post by HairyMonster » Thu Apr 21, 2016 6:20 am

feihong wrote:Has anyone seen the Korean blu ray from Video Nara of Mr. Vampire? I am wondering what the quality of this release will be––whether it will be typical Fortune Star upconvert garbage or something special from out of nowhere. I live in hope.
Unfortunately, it appears to be the same transfer as the Japanese version. I found it quite watchable, it certainly is a big improvement over the Region 1 FOX DVD that had aliasing issues. And the packaging is really cool as well.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#430 Post by feihong » Mon Apr 25, 2016 3:34 am

Thank you for letting me know! I have the Hong Kong Legends DVD, and I'll probably be sticking to it, as it doesn't have the aliasing issues, as far as I recall. I have the Japanese blu-ray, and I thought it was watchable as well, though not the kind of improvement you hope for on blu ray.

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nosy lena
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#431 Post by nosy lena » Mon Apr 25, 2016 10:41 am

Has anyone seen the Spanish blu-ray of A Seance On A Wet Afternoon? It's the only available blu-ray release right?
Last edited by nosy lena on Tue Apr 26, 2016 11:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#432 Post by feihong » Tue Apr 26, 2016 12:49 am

I got the German blu ray of Jacques Audiard's Read My Lips. It's put out by a company somewhat unexpectedly called Pierrot le Fou. The disc has no English subtitles. It was released about 2 years ago, I think, and I didn't really have too high of hopes for the disc. The Artificial Eye disc of The Beat My Heart Skipped is okay, but no great shakes, and I wondered if a hi-def transfer even existed for Sur Mes Levres.

Holy cow. The disc looks great. Sharp picture, beautifully nuanced, tight grain structure, serious contrast and depth of field. There are French and German DTS 5.1 tracks, which sound good as well. This was a really nice surprise, and it was quite nice that it was for such a good, modest movie.

I also got Koch Media's DVD of Rudolph Mate's D.O.A. The DVD isn't great, but it's pretty nice. There are a lot of flecks and dirt from the transfer source, but the picture seems sharper and the contrast rendered far better than in any of the public domain editions I've seen from the U.S. It's a handsomer package than I ever thought I'd see presented for D.O.A.––probably my favorite noir film. The Koch Media disc comes in a handsome hardback book edition, with an 8-page essay in German stapled into the binding.


This is more a question for anyone who knows: I'm wondering about available editions of Deepa Mehta movies. Over the last couple of days I finally finished the trilogy started with Fire. I saw Earth, which I really liked, and Water, which I'm totally okay with, even if I'm not bowled over. Mehta seems an interesting filmmaker to me: more serious-minded for the most part than the majority of Bollywood movies, more consistently entertaining than Mira Nair, say, very visually sensitive and interesting––but for all that ostensible virtue, a director of movies that are often ham-fisted and clumsy in their narrative development, or, at least, nuance and subtlety are not always there at the command of the director. I was struck by the contrast in source material between New Yorker's Fire and Earth DVDs––which are terrible, interlaced and miserable––and the 20th-century Fox DVD of Water. As I recall the DVD of Midnight's Children was also very handsomely done.

Does anyone know if there are better discs of Fire and Earth? I'm kind of thinking I want to build a Deepa Mehta collection now. Earth is by far my favorite of her pictures so far. I wonder if there is a truly watchable version of that film somewhere out there?

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#433 Post by feihong » Thu May 12, 2016 12:36 am

Watching the new French blu ray of Written on the Wind right now. It's a blu-ray/dvd combo pack. The film is full HD 1080p, with something they call "Mono DTS HD Master Audio." The footage behind the opening credits sequence looks a little chunky, but once the superimposed titles disappear, the picture quality snaps up pretty close to incredible. There's good visible grain, extreme depth of field, beauteous technicolor. Fassbinder's comments on Sirk's queasy use of color finally make real sense here, with the colors given their due range. I don't know the story of how the film was shot and what the proper aspect ratio is? Here it's presented in 2.00:1.

The audio is quite clear. There are French and English audio tracks, and un–forced French subtitles. It's a great presentation, of an exceedingly fun, exciting movie. This is a great presentation, and totally worth anyone's time. I should say also that, while the picture looks a little more flat during the opening credits, there is no dip in quality during the crossfades from scene to scene throughout the rest of the film.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#434 Post by feihong » Thu May 19, 2016 12:38 am

The German Koch Media blu ray of The Glass Key is straight-up stellar. Thick, rich grain, sharp, full of depth-of-field, great contrast. The picture doesn't seem restored, exactly, but it is taken from a beautiful source. There is the occasional little pop or scratch––but none of the visual disturbances are obtrusive at all. The closeups on Ladd and Lake are ravishing. The audio is listed as DTS–HD Master Audio 2.0, and it's exceptionally clean and clear. The SD versions of the film I've heard before sound much more mushy, so this one is a real treat.

Forgot to mention, so I'm adding it in here: Removable German subs, and 2 audio tracks––1 German dub, 1 original English language track. I didn't listen to the dub. The English track sounds really clear and awesome.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#435 Post by feihong » Tue May 31, 2016 3:03 pm

I keep importing these discs, hoping for a gem. And it's really 50/50.

Cinefil Imagica has released a Japanese blu ray of Le Samourai. They bragged on Amazon's listing about it being a new encode, using the technology they use to produce great Studio Ghibli discs. There is a logo on the back of the box that says MASTER GRADE ENCODING in wild, "surf's up!"–style brush script.

It looks like this is a new transfer of the film. There is lots of depth, very fine color, and a crisp, albeit a bit narrow–sounding score. Grain is sometimes evident. But Cinefil Imagica has given the transfer its own grain management, and so there is a wide range of degrees of depth and grain in the different images. Some closeups look ravishingly sharp; medium shots sometimes look close to lightly blurred.

I'm very conscious that at this point I've never seen Le Samourai in a theater, and I don't know much about how the film is supposed to look––especially in terms of deep-focus vs. shallow-focus, etc. I'm basing most of my opinions off the Studio Canal and Criterion blu rays of Le Cercle Rouge, of the Criterion of Army of Shadows, and my memories of Army of Shadows' theatrical tour. There are lots of points in the image, where the figures are closer to the edge of the lighting than other figures, and they appear a tad out of focus. This happens to Alain Delon frequently throughout the film. I can't tell if this is a result of DNR or if the film, which really appears to be shot in really low-light situations, lets Jef Costello out of focus for the early parts of the narrative. Lots of shots appear to have a very narrow depth of focus. I'm inclined to believe that the DNR is the cause of this softness, and not scrappy filmmaking. This isn't a film that seems like it would suffer from scrappy filmmaking.

I'll try and get some screenshots up later so people can see how this looks. I guess the good news is that a new transfer of the film exists. The film has a certain majesty even just with what depth and color remains. Hopefully Criterion will be able to do the film with more of the natural film grain.

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rockysds
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#436 Post by rockysds » Wed Jun 01, 2016 6:16 am

Screenbound Pictures is releasing Max Ophüls' La ronde in July

isakorg2
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#437 Post by isakorg2 » Wed Jun 01, 2016 11:08 am

Any blu-ray Ophuls is extremely welcome. I'm unfamiliar with Screenbound's track record in the format. Any input from the forum's members?

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Ashirg
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#438 Post by Ashirg » Sun Jun 05, 2016 12:08 am

They are also releasing Wise Blood in September. Screenbound Pictures is a new name for Odeon Entertainment.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#439 Post by tenia » Wed Jun 15, 2016 1:52 pm

feihong wrote:Cinefil Imagica has released a Japanese blu ray of Le Samourai.
Caps-a-holic.com now has a comparison with the French BD.
It looks like it uses the same restoration than Pathé used (well, the 2nd encode of it), with a tiny bit less grain management.
However, the LPCM 2.0 tracks are 96/24 instead of the DTS HD MA 48/16 which can be found on the French BD.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#440 Post by feihong » Sat Jul 09, 2016 5:35 pm

Has anyone seen the new UK bluray of Black Orpheus from Screenbound Pictures? I'm wondering if its better than the Criterion, which was disappointingly soft.

Calvin
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#441 Post by Calvin » Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:12 pm

What would appear to be the worldwide Blu-Ray debut of Elem Klimov's Come and See is out in Japan next week

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L.A.
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#442 Post by L.A. » Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:29 am

Apparently there are some talks that German label Subkultur Entertainment is doing a 4K resto of Cellat / Turkish Death Wish and releasing a DVD or Blu-ray edition of it. The Greek label Onar Films released this on DVD many years ago which was limited to 500 copies.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#443 Post by feihong » Tue Sep 20, 2016 2:48 am

I received two Screenbound blu rays from the UK this evening; one was La Ronde, the other, Black Orpheus. Both discs are region A, B, and they were not expensive at all.

These are pretty good–looking discs, which I'd compare to some of the better Olive or Twilight Time discs. The image on La Ronde looks lovely, and the layers of depth in the image really come through.

Black Orpheus was the one I was most anxious about––my favorite film, and Criterion's bluray left a lot to be desired..the result is a fascinating mixed bag. The picture on the Screenbound disc looks quite a bit sharper than on the Criterion, with better depth and a more comfortable–looking grain structure. There appears to be a bit more image in the frame on the Screenbound disc, but the colors, which were very nice on the Criterion, are a tiny bit desaturated on the Screenbound disc. Either they have faded source materials or they desaturated the image on purpose? The 35mm print of Black Orpheus I have seen featured some of the most dazzling, feverish color I've witnessed in the cinema, and this disc is not that. Neither is the Criterion, for that matter.

Both discs have nice grain, without overt DNR that I could see. And both transfers have pops and scratches you might associate with screenings and age. The color on Black Orpheus and the contrast on both prints is completely even throughout the films. The sound is dual mono. There are 3 audio options for Black Orpheus––different dubs of the film.

These are very user–friendly discs, presenting a pretty high–quality hi-def experience of each film. The biggest problematic issue, really is the English subtitles, which are the smallest English subtitles I've ever seen. They appear tiny on the image, in white, and they get completely lost. Sitting less than 4 feet from a 48" TV, I had to squint at the subtitles to make them out. What's more, they are not timed very closely with the on-screen dialogue. Three lines at a time will be placed on the sub track, slightly before the speaker of the first line starts talking. The lines disappear and are refreshed seemingly at random. If you don't already know the film, it's hard to make out who is talking sometimes. It's quite annoying, but as a lifelong fan of foreign–language films, I've had worse subtitle experiences.

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jsteffe
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#444 Post by jsteffe » Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:30 am

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.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#445 Post by tenia » Mon Nov 07, 2016 5:20 am

I've been using in the past fansubs for TV Shows that had 3 different "norms" : a quick one which was recommended to be avoided, a normal one which was quite strict but still relatively easy to produce, and a very strict one which was quite rare to find because it was so strict it was very hard to produce adequate subtitles.

The norms were based on timing, number of characters per line and per second, tags and number of simultaneous lines on screen. The timing especially was very normalised : duration of each line, minimum blank time between 2 subtitles, and the utmost respect of the editing.

Many many professional subtitles I've seen on DVD or BD wouldn't get the approval for these types of work. On the other end, I get that some of the professional situations of the subbers aren't the same.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#446 Post by feihong » Tue Nov 08, 2016 3:52 am

Got the new blu rays of The Boys From Fengkui and Summer and Grandpa's from Japan. Weirdly, the two were released on the same day by different companies, and the transfers look pretty much the same. Take Shobo released Boys and Summer was put out by Pony Canyon. Neither disc has English subtitles, though the Japanese subtitles are removable.

On the plus side there is a frankly enormous bump in quality up from the previous DVD editions of the films. But some kind of DNR is being applied to these films, not evenly across the shots, but persistently throughout the films. You can in fact see the film grain in many shots, especially closeups. But in most cases the grain looks subtly softened. You don't see very sharp delineation, or great depth of field on either disc. Color is the great improvement for both films. Boys features occasional frame jitter. On the long shots the picture gets quite a bit softer. In spite of the DNR you generally see flecks and little pops and scratches. The restoration is one Guy Maddin would approve of. They didn't do "too much" restoration to the films, so that they look better than they did when they were first screened. The audio has a better showing. It sounds expanded from the previous DVDs, but not so much that you forget how rudimentary the sound was for these films.

All in all, it's great to see these in higher quality. I have seen neither on the big screen––of Hou's films I've only seen Dust in the Wind and The Sandwich Man theatrically. The presentation of these films were consistent with what I heard in those films, and the images look luminous, the way they did in those theatrical experiences. I just wish the DNR hadn't been brought into the mix. These could have been really special, but instead this treatment renders them sadly average. It's great to see better images on these films, but you look at the discs––especially in the long shots, where figures look a little wan and a little too pale and milky, and you can see they could have done much better.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#447 Post by tenia » Mon Dec 05, 2016 4:04 pm

For those who might have been interested in it (despite the lack of English subs) : all the Costa Gavras movies recently released in a Vol. 1 boxset in France by Arte are encoded at 1080i50 because fuck that crap. :x
EDIT : it also looks like Missing is from a pre-existing master, despite what the booklet included in the set says.

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hearthesilence
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#448 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Dec 17, 2016 5:42 pm

A friend of mine is visiting Taipei and is going to make time to pick up some Blu-Rays for the both of us - what should we get? I know The Terrorizers is only available in Taiwan. Anything else?

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

Re: International Blu-ray discs

#449 Post by andyli » Sat Dec 17, 2016 9:15 pm

Most HHH and Tsai titles are worth picking up at the point. Taiwan Sony Music has issued Dust in the Wind (remastered), The Time to Live and the Time to Die, The Sandwich Man, The River, Rebels of the Neon God, and Vive l'amour on blu-ray.

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hearthesilence
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#450 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Dec 17, 2016 9:18 pm

Awesome - thanks!

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