Universe - first few caps are horribly oversaturated (I've never seen Chinese look so yellow) but given the clear shift in later caps this may be a deliberate style choice? If you only looked at the last few caps the this would be the winner.
CineAsia - comparitively pale and washed out thanks to too much desaturation that appears to affect the whole film. Also it's interlaced (a poor show in 2009) and possibly a smidgen softer (though the Universe looks edge-enhanced/artificial).
I've just remembered I was supposed to post grabs from the UK BD to match those of the HK release over at AsianBluRayGuide, completely forgot about that. I may do so later in the week, but tbh the difference in colour is pretty much the same as what you see in the DVD grabs above.
saltysam wrote:the first pre-dvd screener that was knocking about of this had a similar desaturated look to it.
Yeah I do heavily suspect that the HK disc is way over-saturated, the only two recent HK films I've seen on HK BD also have a highly saturated look (Connected and Shinjuku Incident). The question is whether directors in HK are going for a colourful look or are DVD/BD masterers boosting up the colours.
I have the Well Go USA BD and the skin tones aren't as orange as my old Universe dvd but it looks correct. In an early scene where Ip Man is having a smoke with an opponent theres a shot showing the back of Donnie's head. On the Universe it looks like he has a big bald spot on his head. That is less apparent on the new BD. Also, the Well Go USA version has this classic look to it while the Universe looks more contemporary.