Bullets 'n' Babes

Has this been confirmed, or is it just speculation at this point?
If theyre releasing the entire series with better transfers (and not squeezing them onto 2 BDs) I'll definitely pick them up.

HungFist wrote:
- http://www.rockshockpop.com/forums/show ... lf-and-Cub

As for Lady Snowblood, I'll refrain from further comments until I get back to Japan to my own (laptop) screen, and until I've seen more caps from other sources, but those caps don't look entirely right to me...

This is just for rough future reference so that I don't need the rely on my memory when Criterion puts out the Lone Wolf and Cub films. I saw the first two films on 35 mm at National Film Center (Tokyo) a few days ago and wrote down notes about the prints. Opening scenes aside, both were absolutely stunning prints. I'm guessing these are from National Film Center's own collections, because all the prints I've seen there have been terrific. Their print for Zatoichi at the Fire Festival, which I saw a few days earlier, was so beautiful I don't have words to describe it (that being said, I took a quick look at my Criterion BD and the transfer looked beautiful as well). In comparison, prints seen in other retrospective theatres for other movies (hundreds in total) in Tokyo in theatres such as Laputa Asagaya, Cinema Vera, Shin Bungeiza, and Jimbocho, tend to vary from brilliant to "pink", though in general they tend to be remarkably good (and some of them are new prints, actually).

Anyway, here's my notes for the two prints:

Swords of Vengeance: Great natural looking print minus the opening scene, which is very grainy, high on contrast (this is probably intentional!) and has a strange blue halo around Ogami Itto in at least one shot. For the rest of the film, colour and contrast are very natural, neither muted nor exaggerated. Sky should look normal, although sometimes there might be a slight green/blue tint when those colours dominate the shot (e.g. green forest). Skin tones looked a bit yellowish. Reference scene: when Ogami Itto and the woman take their clothes off before sex, you should not see any odd colour tint. If the scene looks blue, someone has screwed up.

River Styx: This was an even better print. Extremely natural with good colours, but not Seijun Suzuki -like pop out colours. Reference scene 1: when the female ninjas are waiting before attacking the poor male ninja, you should see a tiny bit of detail on the floor in most of the frame. If most of the floor is pitch black, the transfer is too dark, of none of it is black, it's too bright with probably fake detail. Reference scene 2: the beach/night shot near the end should look a bit muted *, followed by a super-clear first desert shot where you can pretty much count every grain of sand if you have enough time. There should not be any kind of boosting at all in this shot. If you see any blooming in the desert or blooming sky, someone has screwed up.

* I was thinking this is the kind of shot that people love to adjust a bit to make it appear more colourful than it is supposed to be.

What I wrote above is nothing in-depth, it's just a general description of the look. And no, I won't be able to tell if Criterion's Lone Wolf transfers look 100% the same to the theatrical prints when they are out, nor do I expect them to. After all, we are comparing film to digital. I'll be happy if they look roughly similar to the film presentations.

As a summary, the look of the two prints was roughly similar to most other Japanese films from the era. The main point here is that Criterion's Lady Snowblood transfers look, based on the screencaps at least, nothing like any 35mm print I've ever seen from the era. If their Lone Wolf transfers end up looking the same as their Lady Snowblood transfers, then we know for a fact that someone has been playing God. I don't think that's going to happen. But I think it's better save these notes here because if Criterion released Lone Wolf in black and white, I'm sure some folks would claim that that's the original look and all other releases were based on old prints which had faded into natural colour.

I've been in Hong Kong these last few weeks (still am, actually), and I've noticed there are now quite a few older classics available on BluRay, but not sure if they're just crappy upscales, or proper 1080p transfers.

Is there a list somewhere that mentions the best releases?

Also, The Raid 2 is only 50hk$, and as far as I know, that movie had the same (uncut) release everywhere, or am I mistaking? Cold Eyes (Korean) is also 50hk$, and I'll definitely be picking up the Lady Vengeance BR (which I already should have done 3 years ago).

Some of the classic HK movies I saw for 50hk$ (around 6 euro) are Millionaire's Express, Righting Wrongs, Tiger Cage 2, Yes Madam, Tiger on the Beat, Prison on Fire, etcetc.

Yi-Long wrote: Is there a list somewhere that mentions the best releases?

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=272146

Excellent, thanks

And obviously a huge gratitude towards Mr. Mark

Yi-Long wrote: Also, The Raid 2 is only 50hk$, and as far as I know, that movie had the same (uncut) release everywhere, or am I mistaking?

The US version was cut for an R-rating.

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=604303

Some of the classic HK movies I saw for 50hk$ (around 6 euro) are Millionaire's Express, Righting Wrongs, Tiger Cage 2, Yes Madam, Tiger on the Beat, Prison on Fire, etcetc.

I've seen it suggested that Yes, Madam and Tiger on Beat may be real HD, but I haven't listed them as such, because I can't find any confirmation. Whether you want to take a chance...? Use my list as a rough guide, rather than a guarantee. Also, all of those titles have remixed audio only.

Thanks, yeah if the original sound is mono, I want mono. Don't want no dumb remixes with added crap.

Nice to see Born Wild on the positive list. Been curious about that one, cause Patrick Tam is in it.

Wow, that sucks that once again they butchered a movie for it's western release (in this case The Raid 2).

HK release and European releases are uncut? If HK cut is ok I'll buy it here.

According to a Blu Ray.com post (and reports on a Facebook group - I cant show it as its a closed group), The Odd Couple has been released as a Japanese 2 disc set - the 2nd disc is English friendly, True HD and 2.0 sound.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00WFG2TP6? ... uraycom-22

Looks like Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon is also released this way.

The second discs are BD-Rs.

I didnt realise that, thanks Still great that theyre English friendly but if theyre BD-R's, is it even legal?

grim_tales wrote:I didnt realise that, thanks Still great that theyre English friendly but if theyre BD-R's, is it even legal?

Anchor Bay in the usa release BD-R's now. Anyway i already have the HKL of this so grabbed it off ADC, the transfer is great, subs not so much,but i can live with that.

BD-Rs are legal as long as they're produced by the rights holder/licencee.

Subs on Odd Couple nowhere near as bad as i feared.Not great but i've seen far far worse.

I'm sure someone over at AsianDVDClub will fix them eventually like they fixed the Pedicab Driver DVD.

I read somewhere there is a remastered JP release of 18 Bronzemen, possibly in the same range as Odd Couple and Skinny Tiger. The real question is whether it will be the original version.

The guy from HKR has made available his upgraded BD of Drunken Master 2 and it's excellent. The transfer has been improved,the blind boxing sequence has been taken from a far superior source and the subs are newly translated .There's also 7 audio options including the laserdisc pcm. it's a winner and worth seeking out in the absence of a proper official release.

The upcoming uk Bruce Lee Master Collection is utilising the 4k Remasters according to Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruce-Lee-Mast ... collection

Curious to see what version of ENTER they'll use given that Warners are loathe to licence to anyone.

IVL is releasing a BD of the Shaw Brothers's wu xia DEATH DUEL.

Good choice given that we only got letterboxed DVDs.

I remember being rather impressed with the movie in 2005 when I bought the Momentum Asia disc. Subsequent viewings left me cold.

Drunken Master coming from Masters of Cinema (Eureka) in 2017 (confirmed via FB):

https://www.facebook.com/EurekaEntertai ... ED&fref=nf

Cool. Not my favourite JC film (or anywhere close) but it'll be a nice addition to the collection... assuming MOC do as good a job as Hong Kong Rescue.

I don't think they'd have picked it up if they didn't have access to the best materials/restoration for the film, but we'll see
Hope this leads to the release of more JC films (or classic HK action movies in general) if it sells well.

Hmm...given the Sony deal, I can imagine Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, but that will be cut. Maybe Who Am I and Gorgeous?