Chen Kaige's "The Promise", kung-fu epic has opene

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 10 Feb 2006, 16:30

HOFD was cut in the West yes, but I thought the UK was only cut for horsefalls?

US version was cut by about 10 mins (I think?)

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 11 Feb 2006, 03:21

Yep, that's what I meant.
All non-asian cuts of HOFD are screwed-up in one way or another.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 11 Feb 2006, 12:55

Not true. The German version is uncut.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 11 Feb 2006, 13:16

Yeah, so's the french version.
But we don't want to brag, do we ?

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 11 Feb 2006, 14:50

Yeah but your French.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 14 Feb 2006, 07:04

It's been confirmed:

Both Deltamac editions will feature the chinese theatrical cut (122 minutes).

+ There will be a mandarin DTS track on both editions.

More info available on www.dddhouse.com

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 16 Feb 2006, 12:56

The R4 DVD of HoFD is uncut and has Mandarin DTS, but it only has crappy English HoH closed captions and is missing the director commentary.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 25 Feb 2006, 23:08

It's also non-anamorphic too! IMO the Australian DVD is the poorest of them all.

Get the UK R2 + HK R3 SE both are cheap and you'll have the best of both worlds then. The commentary is very good.

Me the cuts don't bother me and I'm happy with my UK R2. I've compared both the UK R2 and HK R3 SE side by side and the cuts are minor, unlike the R1 where they've cut loads.

Tom2681 wrote:It's been 24 hours since I've seen this film and I can't stop thinking about it. The more I think about it, the better it gets.

Did you watch the Mainland Chinese DVD or was it a Bootleg?

Tom2681 wrote:BTW: I don't understand the US title at all.
This movie is about Princess QinCheng (Cecilia Cheung), not about the Master of the Crimson Armour.

What's the US title?

Tom2681 wrote:It's been confirmed:

Both Deltamac editions will feature the chinese theatrical cut (122 minutes).
+ There will be a mandarin DTS track on both editions.

This is up at CD WOW and oddly the LE is only £1 more. Brad wanders off with credit card in hand.

What with HKL unlikely to release this there's little point waiting. Fingers crossed Optimum or Momentum Asia release an acceptable/decent release.

Tom2681 wrote:I sure hope it's not the US cut.

Let me get this straight there are already THREE cuts:

128 minutes - Mainland Chinese Cut
122 minutes - HK Theatrical Cut
??? minutes - USA Cut

I'm all for extended cuts but all this deliberate holding back of footage to release it later on DVD is getting VERY annoying.

It seems compulsory for each film to have at least two cuts now which is really bloody confusing.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 25 Feb 2006, 23:30

So guys... which version to get right now? The Chinese must be really bad although it is longer. Argh.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 25 Feb 2006, 23:55

Doesn't the Chinese DVD have that annoying logo? Personally I'd happily loose 6 minutes not to have the film ruined:

1. Longer cut but unwatchable
2. Shorter cut but watchable

I've just pre-ordered the HK LE.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 26 Feb 2006, 00:15

Brad wrote:Did you watch the Mainland Chinese DVD or was it a Bootleg ?

It was a DVD-Rip from the official mainland DVD.

What's the US title?

Master of the Crimson Armour.

Let me get this straight there are already THREE cuts:
128 minutes - Mainland Chinese Cut
122 minutes - HK Theatrical Cut
??? minutes - USA Cut

The USA cut is 102 minutes.
I'm waiting for my Deltamac DVD to see if the HK cut is really different from the mainland cut.

LD wrote:So guys.. which version to get right now ?

Right now I'm guessing Deltamac.
You'll know more when I receive it.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 26 Feb 2006, 04:07

Did you go for the LE too?

Tom2681 wrote:Right now I'm guessing Deltamac.
You'll know more when I receive it.

I'd say the HK DVD even if it is 6 minutes shorter; I managed to watch Hero DC Chinese DVD but the logo was really annoying.

It really hampers your enjoyment of the film.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 26 Feb 2006, 05:11

bradavon wrote:It's also non-anamorphic too! IMO the Australian DVD is the poorest of them all.

Get the UK R2 + HK R3 SE both are cheap and you'll have the best of both worlds then. The commentary is very good.

Nah, the R4 is anamorphic according to this review. I didn't care much for the film so I'll eventually just pick up the R3HK SE (and the R3HK Hero DC) and leave it at that, I don't care bout extras for this particular film (or Hero).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 26 Feb 2006, 20:52

EvaUnit02 wrote:Nah, the R4 is anamorphic according to this review.

I'm sure I read elsewhere it's non-anamorphic, the Rewind comparison says it is:

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=6219

That said I've just download rear high res. cover art and it says anamorphic WS so you must be right.

What we do know is the R4 features English HOH subs only so is still a turd. Shame as if it had normal subs it would be decent for English speakers. The UK R2 featues no dubs so has full-rate DTS.

I thought you hated HOFD so why get it? Romero is rubbing off on you

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 26 Feb 2006, 23:11

I'm not sure he hated HOFD, just said it was mediocre

IMO HOFD was a fantastic movie

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Feb 2006, 00:12

"Hero was okay. HoFD is a fucking terribly written mess with good action and cinematography."

That sounds pretty conclusive to me

Source: https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... c&start=99

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 27 Feb 2006, 03:28

bradavon wrote: I'm sure I read elsewhere it's non-anamorphic, the Rewind comparison says it is:http://www.dvdbits.com/reviews.asp?id=2836
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=6219

Details for disc 1 wrote: DISC ONE
*The Film

English HoH Subtitles
2.35:1 Anamorphic PAL
Mandarin DTS 5.1
Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS 5.1
English Dolby Digital 5.1

The Rewind comparison says its anamorphic, get your eyes checked. I had a look the case in the shops today during my lunch break and that said it's anamorphic as well.

What we do know is the R4 features English HOH subs only so is still a turd. Shame as if it had normal subs it would be decent for English speakers. The UK R2 featues no dubs so has full-rate DTS.

Yeah, only having closed captions sucks. Still better than having a butchered film like you lot do. I'm sure that you condoned the cuts though since you're a vegan hippy.

From that review:-

dvdbits wrote:As far as subtitles go, we are only given an English for the Hearing Impaired stream, presented sensibly against the black border of the widescreen bars. This is fine for dialogue - although I couldn't possibly tell you how accurate it is - but the unfortunate side-effect is that we also get all of the description for the background sound effects as well, such as "[Drums beating]". This can be distracting, and occasionally amusing. My favourite of these was "[Gripping Oriental music]", followed closely by "[Gripping Oriental music heightens]"! Either than or "[All grunting]". I'll have to take a point off for this, as I'm sure it will annoy more than one viewer.

"[Gripping Oriental music heightens]" HAHA.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 27 Feb 2006, 08:43

The R1 set of Lost only has HOH subs as well.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 27 Feb 2006, 12:04

grim_tales wrote: The R1 set of Lost only has HOH subs as well.

Yeah, but the show's originally in English so who cares? HoFD is a foreign language film and the original language track + subs will be the prefered viewing for true film fans (not the mainstream fucks), having only HOH subs sucks in that case.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Feb 2006, 19:08

EvaUnit02 wrote:The Rewind comparison says its anamorphic, get your eyes checked. I had a look the case in the shops today during my lunch break and that said it's anamorphic as well.

Oh yes. To be fair it also says it's non-anamorphic but I presume they mean the extras which is hard when I don't believe they're in 2.35:1 anyway.

The video part at the end is the one which usually lists what it is. It looks like they added "2.35:1 Anamorphic PAL" later on and fucked up by adding it in as a new line instead of amending the previous section below.

EvaUnit02 wrote:Yeah, only having closed captions sucks. Still better than having a butchered film like you lot do. I'm sure that you condoned the cuts though since you're a vegan hippy.

I couldn't disagree more the cuts last for about 11 seconds, HOH subs last for the whole movie. The cuts are minor too (i.e - no story actually cut).

This is just my opinion of course I'm happy with the UK R2 but then again I'm also happy with Face/Off UK R2 which they say is also cut.

If the cuts were longer I'd agree but no I don't condone them far from it just as we all have to pick the version of the DVD we want I'd pick minor cuts such as this over HOH subs (+ full-rate DTS and commentary too of course, as a bonus).

EvaUnit02 wrote:Yeah, but the show's originally in English so who cares?

Most not but some yes.

p.s - Vegetarian not vegan. There's a difference

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 01 Mar 2006, 19:00

My Promise: LE arrived today.

The packaging is really unique, it's a mixture between digi-pack and jewel case (it's similar to the jewel case used on the Alien Quadrilogy UK R2).

The LE stuff is great. I can't believe it was only £1 more.

Oh and it's Full-rate DTS.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 01 Mar 2006, 20:53

My Promise: LE arrived today

Duration please ?

(from a DVD-Player if possible, not from the cover).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 01 Mar 2006, 21:14

Oh yes I knew I forgot something:

* It's exactly 121.23 minutes according to DVD Shrink and my Panasonic DVD player, that's NTSC of course and includes the credits
* It's Region 0 btw too.
* The PQ is STUNNING. I may even give the PQ 10 out of 10.
* The extras on the box are listed as 150 minutes but I've not checked.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 01 Mar 2006, 21:31

Thanks.
I'm thinking this is the original chinese edit.
The 128 minute thing is probably a myth.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 01 Mar 2006, 23:36

Tom2681 wrote:The 128 minute thing is probably a myth.

Who cooked it up?