Decent Korean films on decent HK/UK DVDs from last months?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Feb 2006, 12:35

I'm very behind with what is considered the top dog of Korean cinema at the moment but have zero interest in Korean DVDs.

I am however interested in checking out some decent HK, UK, USA or Australian DVDs of decent Korean films:

1. Must be anamorphic
2. Must have English subs
3. Preferably 5.1 of some type (if applicable)
4. Extras are a bonus

Obviously I'm interested in the best version out of HK, UK, USA or Australia.

p.s - I was going to get Tartan's "Bittersweet Life", any others? No PAL/NTSC complaints please I'm getting very bored of that stuck record.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 14 Feb 2006, 13:19

Your shit out of luck then

as the Korean dvds are nearly always THE best version in sound and vision thats why I keep them. But when Welcome To Dongelmok comes out in the uk or HK (maybe in 2 years!) get that its amazing film! blew me away the other night.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:18

Ahem... Dongelmok ??

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:39

No idea it isnt near me

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:45

No idea it isnt near me

I'm not anywere near London myself, doesn't mean I can't spell it.

I think you meant Dongmakgol.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:48

Yea hthat I guess

still a stunning film everyone has to see.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:49

LOL, Dongelmok!

I have recently got the Tartan discs of "Tale of Two Sisters", "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Bad Guy" and in my opinion, they are superior to the HK discs. Haven't seen the Korean discs of these. But then, all these films aren't really new, but damn good.

Brad, don't know if you have seen "Taegukgi" ("Brotherhood"), but the Premier Asia disc is probably the best you can get out there.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:51

"Memories of Murder" is an awesome film and it was released by Optimum Asia in the UK. But the disc is shit in my oinion. Too many artefacts.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 14 Feb 2006, 16:00

Brad doesnt like Memories of Murder as much as us

Heavenly Soldiers is a right blast of a film

but cannot see it coming out in HK or UK ever at the moment.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 14 Feb 2006, 18:08

Tartan's Old Boy is also a pretty good release.
LD: don't the releases you mentioned suffer from poor NTSC-to-PAL coding? I believe I've read something like that...

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 14 Feb 2006, 20:52

LMAO @ Dongelmok!!

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 14 Feb 2006, 23:30

Wow its hilarious, you lot really are easy to please.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Feb 2006, 13:06

I'll check out Dongmakgol. I've no idea Dongelmok is funny it's not even a word as far as I know.

Is there even a HK DVD for Dongmakgol? If not it doesn't help in answering my original question, thanks though.

Of which it's full title is "Welcome to Dongmakgol". I'm looking for titles I can pick up not ones I need to wait for

. With all this talk of Korean cinema I thought you guys would've seen loads of the recent titles.

So far only Dongmakgol has been mentioned that hasn't been mentioned loads of times before. I'm really after newish stuff as the rest I'm already aware of.

Why wouldn't Heavenly Soldiers come to a HK DVD?

romerojpg wrote: as the Korean dvds are nearly always THE best version in sound and vision

That assumes that's THE only factor to bring up. Overall I reckon HK DVDs (generally) beat Korean DVDs but like I said I'm not interested in Korean DVDs for their overpriced Western prices so moving on . . .

thelostdragon wrote:I have recently got the Tartan discs of "Tale of Two Sisters", "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Bad Guy"

I have Tartan's TOTS, SFMV I'll get after (and if I like) seen Oldboy of which I have the Tartan DVD.

Bad Guy I'm in no rush to see but will one day.

thelostdragon wrote:Brad, don't know if you have seen "Taegukgi" ("Brotherhood"), but the Premier Asia disc is probably the best you can get out there.

Yep that's on my to buy list.

thelostdragon wrote:"Memories of Murder" is an awesome film and it was released by Optimum Asia in the UK. But the disc is shit in my oinion. Too many artefacts.

I'd get the HK DVD of that one as it's 5.1 unlike the UK DVD BUT the film was average at best or rather a very mixed bag. The serious stuff was VERY powerful BUT the comedy was REALLY annoying so in the end the film failed me.

I was scratching my head wondering why they put all that unnecessary comedy in a serious and powerful subject matter.

Moving on . . .

Yi-Long wrote:LD: don't the releases you mentioned suffer from poor NTSC-to-PAL coding? I believe I've read something like that...

Not in the case of Oldboy or ATOTS but yes in the case of SFMV but like I said it doesn't bother me.

Certainly not enough to buy an expensive Korean DVD with a free tea coaster thrown in.

p.s - Thai DVDs would also qualify.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 15 Feb 2006, 19:07

romerojpg wrote:Wow its hilarious, you lot really are easy to please.

Haha sorry, but it was kinda funny? Like Joe Peschi in Goodfellas, you're one funny guy.

On topic - there are a few decent Western DVDs of Korean titles (ignoring NTSC to PAL).

The Quiet Family UK R2 (bloody excellent DVD + film)
Oldboy UK R2
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance UK R2/US R1 (make sure it's the CE)
JSA UK R2
Shiri UK R2/US R1
Fighter in the Wind UK R2

(will add more later)

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Feb 2006, 20:40

* FYI SFMV R1 is NTSC so no PAL issues BUT it's missing the Making Of. (according to reviews). In this case I'd probably get the R1 as it's mostly the same but no risk of me disliking the NTSC/PAL. The R1 cover art is lovely too.

* So Fighter in the Wind is decent then? I didn't think it was supposed to be all that good.

* Any decent HK DVDs of Korean films? Silmido for example (AFAIK no UK distributor and better than the R4). Is Silmido any good?

Cheers btw.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 15 Feb 2006, 21:57

Sorry I've not seen Fighter in the Wind... all I know is that it got an admirable release in the UK and meets the criteria that you stated in the original post.

Forgot to say that The Quiet Family is pure PAL (AFAIK), not NTSC to PAL conversion.

From what I gather, Silmido is a love/hate film. I've not seen it but it has divided audiences.

Another worthwhile titles:

Taegukgi - UK R2/HK R3 (providing UK R2 is uncut?)
Once Upon a Time in Highschool UK R2 (Premier Asia, fingers crossed they don't mess this up)

Check out Tai Seng's UK range. They put in a lot of effort these days.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 15 Feb 2006, 22:19

"Fighter in the Wind" is cool. My review:
http://www.asia-on-dvd.com/ftr/reviews/action/fitw.htm

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 16 Feb 2006, 01:35

Fighter in the Wind is indeed cool, loved it myself and while the Korean dvd is the best version, there are other versions

Korean dvds ussualy have best picture and sound, and that for me means more than subtitled extras

even thought some extras I really want to see on my dvds

esspecially true films like Fighter in the Wind, definatly want to see some detailed extras on the story in that as the man was one hard bastard.

Silmido is superb, loved it and the fact its kind of based on facts blew me away!

and Heavenly Soldiers, I dont know it just seems that it isnt on any release scedules yet, It may come to HK dvd I guess in the end

but some korean films just never travel.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 16 Feb 2006, 13:53

Thanks for the comments Romero and LD for the review I can't get into the site right now but will try again tonight.

BiscLimpkit wrote:Forgot to say that The Quiet Family is pure PAL (AFAIK), not NTSC to PAL conversion.

No mention of it here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58223

They usually mention NTSC to PAL.

BiscLimpkit wrote:Taegukgi - UK R2/HK R3 (providing UK R2 is uncut?)

I'm bidding on that at eBay right now. The UK R2 and no it's not cut. It better be in good condition and/or not a bootleg. I'm getting fed up getting one or the other from eBayer's.

I received True Romance the other day. I specifically asked if the packaging was in good condition, he said excellent. It arrived minus the front cover. It was digipack so had the inside cardboard and also originally the outside cardboard, that was missing. How is that excellent packaging?

I bought Crash the listing specifically said I don't sell bootlegs. I paid £10 and it was an Asian DVD-R bootleg (so not even properly pressed).

I've had a few that are fine but why list it as new if it's not new? You can always tell. I don't mind buying second hand if I'm told about it first. I received the latest U2 album yesterday, clearly it was second hand. The guy argued it was new as he'd only owned it a couple of weeks (the booklet was battered after only a couple of weeks???). I thought come on, to say new and brand new are different is really splitting hairs. They mean the same thing.

BiscLimpkit wrote:Once Upon a Time in Highschool UK R2 (Premier Asia, fingers crossed they don't mess this up)

Yep fingers crossed. It's looking like a 1 disc release at the moment but hopefully the extras are longer than they look.

BiscLimpkit wrote:Check out Tai Seng's UK range. They put in a lot of effort these days.

Are they? I've seen a few recent Tai Seng UK DVDs and they've looked their usual dodgyness.

Cheers again.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 Mar 2006, 21:04

Where do you Korean DVD Freaks buy your Korean DVDs from?

I've recently ordered SFLV from CD WOW and at £15.99 I consider it expensive I'm forking out for this particular title for the "Fade to Black" version but considering the Tartan will be under a tenner by the end of the year Korean DVDs are really expensive.

BiscLimpkit wrote:The Quiet Family UK R2 (bloody excellent DVD + film)

This is OOP

. It was only released in June 2005! I'll have to see how the R4 does when it gets released later this year.

Any more Bisc? HK DVDs too.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 09 Mar 2006, 21:23

Where do you Korean DVD Freaks buy your Korean DVDs from?

1. DVDAsian
2. DVDFromKorea
3. Koreandvds

Korean DVDs are really expensive.

I wonder what you'd say about japanese dvds.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 Mar 2006, 23:19

Tom2681 wrote:1. DVDAsian, 2. DVDFromKorea, 3. Koreandvds

And they're cheaper than CD WOW?

Tom2681 wrote:I wonder what you'd say about japanese dvds.

I know exactly what I'd say: "I've never bought one and doubt I ever will, case closed"

. Unless it's a box set of some kind I draw the line at £20.

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 10 Mar 2006, 12:33

i order all LE and SE korean dvd's from dvdfromkorea and the normal hk versions from cdwow....

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 10 Mar 2006, 13:10

I order at YesAsia mostly and sometimes from DVDHeaven.

As for Japanese DVDs... the only Japanese DVDs I have are Kitano's "Zatoichi" and "Azumi". "Azumi" as it is the only acceptable version out there (AFAIK).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 13 Mar 2006, 13:15

Ricochan38 wrote:i order all LE and SE korean dvd's from dvdfromkorea and the normal hk versions from cdwow....

You find them cheaper than CD WOW? Because I don't. Whenever I've checked they're more expensive, especially with CD WOW vouchers.