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

#401 Post by feihong » Tue Feb 02, 2016 2:09 am

The same outfit as just released Baccano! in the UK also released previously a bluray collection of Durarara!! series one. It is similarly excellent to the Baccano! set, though the packaging is less ostentatious.

The Japanese blu ray of The Magnificent Ambersons is pretty odd-looking. Released by a company called Ive, it sports logos on the box from MK2 and Lobster, and there is a half of a slipcover which denotes the disc being part of a prospective "RKO Collection" on the part of Ive. The disc has a Mono PCM audio track which sounds pretty appropriate, removable Japanese subtitles, and the package promises the disc inside is full HD, 1080p. It does appear to be full HD 1080p, but the image is very comparable to what's on the full HD Japanese cuts of the Jackie Chan movies released in Extreme Editions in Japan, especially the Extreme Edition of Police Story. The film has not been restored, and it looks like some fairly discreet grain management has been used to slightly soften the film grain. The black levels are pretty light, I would say probably comparable to those on the Mr. Bongo Chimes at Midnight. The highlights in the film look completely blown out a lot of the time. There are tons of pops and scratches. It looks as if, as supposedly with the Jackie Chan Japanese cuts, they used a print of the film as their source, rather than a negative? I've read people saying that about the Jackie Chan discs, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to confirm that is what they did. But it looks very similar to the Jackie Chan discs, with lots of dirt and grit, and with contrast issues and some lack of detail. Closeups improve greatly, with a lot more depth and detail apparent. Long shots...between the contrast and the lack of detail, they do not look good. Overall, the disc looks better than SD in motion, but only some of the time. I don't think I'd recommend this one to anyone but really hardcore fans. Although it's not one of the more expensive Japanese discs I've purchased, so there is something of a break there. Hopefully someone somewhere will pick this up and do right by it.

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Askew
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#402 Post by Askew » Wed Feb 03, 2016 10:18 am

Amazon Japan has listings for Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, Three Godfathers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Fugitive, The Thing from Another World, Bringing Up Baby, They Live By Night and Suspicion.

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domino harvey
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#403 Post by domino harvey » Wed Feb 03, 2016 11:27 am

So, now we know Warner Archives' Blu-Ray release schedule for the next couple of months!

Jonathan S
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#404 Post by Jonathan S » Wed Feb 03, 2016 11:52 am

According to today's DVD Beaver newsletter:
Warner wrote: Distribution rights to RKO films in Japan were sold off years before we ended up owning that library. We have no knowledge of what is being released there. We can only state that it does not involve the use of our original elements.
I must admit I'm unsure about the current geographical extent of Warner's RKO rights. A few years ago, I read somewhere they planned to acquire them globally, at least for home video, and their recent German Blu-rays of films like Citizen Kane and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, previously released by other companies, seemed to indicate changes in Europe. Can anyone clarify the situation?

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#405 Post by feihong » Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:16 am

Looks like Switchblade Sisters is finally getting its long-talked-of blu ray release in Germany. Street date is listed as tomorrow.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#406 Post by feihong » Wed Feb 17, 2016 3:04 pm

Sulbkultur Media's Switchblade Sisters blu ray is just great. Sharp image, with excellent depth of field, plenty of robust film grain. the color range is very expansive, and the disc shows off a lot of the great, unusual lighting schemes of the film.

The disc has removable German and English subtitles, and German and English DTS-HD MA Mono and DD 1.0 Mono tracks. The Tarantino/Jack Hill Commentary from the Rolling Thunder DVD is on another audio track, as well as a German-language audio commentary by Marcus Stiglegger and Kai Naumann. There are U.S. trailers and a making-of documentary, WE ARE THE JEZEBELS!, which I haven't watched yet. There are archival interviews with Jack Hill, Robbie Lee and Joanne Nail, and a featurette called On Location with Jack Hill and Elijah Drenner, which I haven't yet watched.

But the real thrill of the disc is the picture quality on the feature, which is not just far beyond any home video presentation before now, but which is also a really high-quality blu ray from start to finish. Fans of the film––and I am one––couldn't ask for a better package.

kompromiss
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#407 Post by kompromiss » Mon Feb 29, 2016 5:50 am

The blu-ray of "Camille Claudel" (1988, with Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu) is out in Korea, presumably with english subtitles. It's advertised as "Numbered Limited Edition, 1000 copies". Sadly, no details about video quality. If anybody saw a review of this release, or actually own the disk, it would great to find out some information about video transfer - is it any good (not an upscale)?

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#408 Post by feihong » Tue Mar 08, 2016 10:00 pm

Looks like Screenbound Pictures in the UK is releasing a blu ray of Black Orpheus in June. I wonder if it will have a better encode than the Criterion disc? That Criterion was early in their blu-ray foray, and even then it was a little bit disappointing in terms of picture quality. It looks like Screenbound has only released maybe one blu ray in the past, of Prisoners of the Lost Universe. Reviews of the disc look fine. Their other releases have all been DVD. I'm hoping this release will improve on the Criterion in terms of picture quality.

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Ashirg
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#409 Post by Ashirg » Wed Mar 09, 2016 1:27 am

Screenbound used to be known as Odeon Entertainment.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#410 Post by feihong » Wed Mar 09, 2016 2:35 am

Oh, so they've in fact done other discs. Good quality?

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manicsounds
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#411 Post by manicsounds » Wed Mar 09, 2016 3:31 am

Odeon / Screenbound is generally good in their transfers.

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Drucker
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#412 Post by Drucker » Wed Mar 30, 2016 12:18 pm

Didn't see this posted anywhere else, but Elephant Films has a listing for Sirk's Written on The Wind, coming out.

Also have a listing for Imitation of Life and All That Heaven Allows.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#413 Post by tenia » Wed Mar 30, 2016 12:30 pm

I'm actually very curious about which HD master they'll use for All That Heaven Allows. They had access to the same material MoC had for A Time to Love & The Tarnished Angels, but I believe Criterion's All That Heaven Allows restoration most likely is their property so it's a difference situation.

Note that Elephant will also release Sign of the Pagan which will be a worldwide first on BD. They've also released recently David Lean's The Passionnate Friends, also a worldwide first on BD.

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Drucker
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#414 Post by Drucker » Wed Mar 30, 2016 1:14 pm

Do you own anything from that label? Dependable?

Would be really great to see Imitation of Life in the right ratio!

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#415 Post by tenia » Wed Mar 30, 2016 1:57 pm

I have a few of them, yes. The 3 Suzukis are pretty good, it's obvious it's no new HD master but they're pretty efficient (Branded to Kill is most likely sourced from the same material Arrow had access to). The Pornographers follows the same course : rather fine but obviously pre-existing materials.
They released 3 Silent Hitchcock, with a notorious issue on Easy Virtue : there isn't any soundtrack / score at all. The 3 are also encoded at 1080i, creating a stutter because of the frame repeats not being spaced correctly (à la Thief of Bagdad).
A Matter of Life and Death is sourced from a past restoration, with Technicolor mis-alignment.
The Shout matches the UK release in technical presentation.
Thunder on the Hill is quite good and commendable (the movie not so much).
The David Lean movies they released are sourced from the recent BFI restorations (the ones common with Criterion thus share the same material).


As a whole, Elephant is 100% dependant on what they can get access to, but it seems they can get at least decent HD masters, if not the most recent materials. You're usually better off waiting for the first reviews to be published, just to be sure what they got, but recently, their output has been decent at least.

Plus, their BD releases are often Region Free and the French subs optional (you won't get any English subs, though).
On the low side, they usually don't include lots of extra features.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#416 Post by feihong » Fri Apr 01, 2016 10:42 pm

Sidonis Calysta in France released a blu ray of Budd Boetticher's Comanche Station. This arrived today and there are, sadly, ups and downs.

It's region B, with a French dub track or an English language original DTS track with forced French subtitles.

The print they used looks phenomenal, with beautiful color, extreme depth of field...just a wonderful way with the light.

Unfortunately, the disc employs a nasty level of grain management. Weirdly in this case, the long shots look much better than the closeups. Sometimes in the long shots there is some visible grain––in the closeups, almost never. They really didn't have to do it this way. The grain would've made the film look great.

When will the French companies wise up to this? It's getting disgusting, as more and more companies seem to be making the jump to real quality, as DNR is used with less relish in Japan, that the French, who used to release great DVDs, are just jacking up one exclusive blu ray release of a classic film after another.

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#417 Post by tenia » Sat Apr 02, 2016 7:44 am

Oh yes, Comanche Station got panned in every French forums I read about it.
DVD Classik especially was very clear about how destructive it was : http://www.dvdclassik.com/test/blu-ray- ... is-calysta" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Malheureusement, on a appliqué une réduction du bruit assez drastique qui entraîne deux conséquences fâcheuses : le niveau de détail est limité, surtout dans les textures des vêtements, et le grain est pratiquement estompé (hormis dans certaines scènes ponctuelles) alors qu'il était bien présent en DVD. Cette double faiblesse occasionne un lissage parfois assez marqué, proche d'un rendu cireux en quelques rares occasions, en tout cas très loin du cachet argentique attendu."
"Drastic amount of DNR was applied, limiting the level of details, especially visible on clothes, and the grain has almost totally disappeared. This gives the picture a smooth aspect, almost waxy at times, anf far away from the expected film-like aspect".

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#418 Post by feihong » Sat Apr 09, 2016 7:18 pm

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.

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jheez
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#419 Post by jheez » Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:11 am

Anyone have the German Magnificent Obsession blu-ray? How is it?

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#420 Post by feihong » Sat Apr 16, 2016 12:58 pm

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.

I also picked up the German WGF DVD of Abraham Polonsky's Romance of a Horse Thief. There is a French disc available, and I think the WGF has the same transfer. The image looks very good––certainly better than the old VHS tape version that has been the only way to see the film until now. It's a movie that could use some restoration, but this is a very watchable DVD. The big problem here, though, is that there's no English-language audio track––just a German dub and a French dub. The French disc, as I understand it, has only the French dub, and no english, either.

Neither disc is exactly a win. But hopefully, now that the films have been released somewhere, another company somewhere else will follow with something better.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#421 Post by feihong » Mon Apr 18, 2016 9:29 pm

Took a look at In Our Time and Growing Up from the Taiwan New Wave Cinema box. The movies look more beautiful than they've ever looked on DVD, of course, but the image is soft on both of these, just a tad. I can generally see the grain, but it doesn't come through the way it ought to. The color and contrast on the films are very, very pretty. The depth isn't quite what it should be.

It's not super-noticeable, though. I thought the image was breathtaking initially. It was only when I really stared at the image that it began to look a little thinner.


I also took a look at the Taking of Tiger Mountain blu ray from Panorama. It's very nice! Sharp, and with lots of depth, expansive audio, etc. The film itself seems to improve on second glance. I find that, unlike in Saving Private Ryan, I can pretty readily dismiss the present-day sequences and just watch the intense period action. It doesn't make up for not having a blu ray of Red Sorghum, but it's pretty cool, all told.


I wonder why no company has really jumped into the Asian film market with high quality releases, like HK Legends and France's HK Video did during the DVD boom? It seems like there should be a decent way to get into this market. Do people no longer care about these movies at all?

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tenia
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#422 Post by tenia » Tue Apr 19, 2016 2:10 am

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).

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Manny Karp
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#423 Post by Manny Karp » Tue Apr 19, 2016 3:18 am

jheez wrote:Anyone have the German Magnificent Obsession blu-ray? How is it?
I'd like to know, too. There's also an Italian disc.

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feihong
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#424 Post by feihong » Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:41 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).
I read the comments and your review in translation. Thank you for that link! The screencaps are clear proof of what's been done to the disc--kind of absurd of Sidonis to challenge this. It's more than a little vexing to imagine that they don't see the excessive DNR as a problem, but that really must be the case, I think. M and Comanche Station both show an exceptional–looking image hidden under the digital filtering. 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?

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.

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Ashirg
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Re: International Blu-ray discs

#425 Post by Ashirg » Tue Apr 19, 2016 2:27 pm

Manny Karp wrote:
jheez wrote:Anyone have the German Magnificent Obsession blu-ray? How is it?
I'd like to know, too. There's also an Italian disc.
I think they are all from the same Lobster Films restoration as Japanese disc. Serge Bromberg stated that they own RKO library for all countries, except France and USA/Canada (Warner).

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