Versus: R2FR vs. R2FR vs. R1DC

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 22 Dec 2006, 23:36

Top: Mad Asia R2 France (Theatrical Cut)
Middle: Mad Asia R2 France (The Ultimate Versus)
Bottom: Tokyo Shock R1 DC

FR Ultimate Versus only

The French Ultimate Versus dvd is awful. Heavy pixelization, bad colours, and for some reason movement doesn't seem fluent
(faulty batch maybe). The image also looks very raw, as if was about to fall appart any second. As far as I remember, the
bootleg Ultimate Versus taken from the R2J looks quite similiar. Media Blasters will release their 3 Disc Ultimate Versus in
March. They have a long history of porting R2J's, however they've been working (?) on it for several years so lets wait and
see. Personally I'll wait for it, and if they get the UV right I'll get and forget this french release. If not, then I'll sub the
Theatrical Cut and forget about the UV.

About the FR UV disc: it runs 130 min, which is about the same as the supposed NTSC running time (I think). I guess this is
NTSC to PAL conversion as well.

EDIT: The R1 DC is 120 minutes long.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 22 Dec 2006, 23:56

God damn, the UV looks about as appealing as a foreskin souffle.

I love Kitamura and I think Versus is probably his best work. But the Ultimate Versus is definitely poorer. Certain parts don't make sense. I'll still get the 3 disc set from MB but I doubt I'll be watching the longer version that often.

It actually loses at least one scene from the theatrical IIRC.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 23 Dec 2006, 00:43

I prefer the UV for artistic reasons (I like the yellow tint).
The TC's transfer is much better, though. No question about it.

@Hung:
Do you want me to add my R1 DC caps ?

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 23 Dec 2006, 09:29

tom2681 wrote:
@Hung:
Do you want me to add my R1 DC caps ?

That would be nice.

Help for finding the last comparison cap:
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... /11(3).jpg
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... _244iy.jpg
(that scene, in case you didn't recognize it)

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 23 Dec 2006, 11:02

Whoa! They filtered all the colours out of the TC. I'm glad the German theatrical cut in the awesome tin box does have all the reddish colours in.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Dec 2006, 15:09

What went so wrong?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 23 Dec 2006, 15:50

bradavon wrote:What went so wrong?

You were born.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 23 Dec 2006, 19:22

These both dont have english subs anyway do they.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 23 Dec 2006, 22:50

lol @ Eva

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 26 Dec 2006, 14:48

Added the R1 DC.
Sorry about the last caps. Don't have time for in-depth screencapping at the moment.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 26 Dec 2006, 15:03

tom2681 wrote:Added the R1 DC.
Sorry about the last caps. Don't have time for in-depth screencapping at the moment.

No problem. Thanks for the caps.

What exactly is the R1 Directors Cut? Is it the same as the "Theatrical Cut" or whatever is present on
the French "normal" dvd (which runs 115 min)?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 26 Dec 2006, 15:11

Yep, that would make sense.
It's not Ultimate Versus.

It's probably the same cut as the french TC.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 29 Mar 2007, 16:32

I was wondering how the french and the german TC dvds differ so I made a comparison. I do not own the german release, the caps are stolen from here: http://www.senseofview.de/review/440. I don't know how reliable their caps are so don't consider this anything definitive.

Top: German
Bottom: French

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Mar 2007, 17:08

Its still mid boggling how different they are all to be honest. I have had about 5 version so far and now only own the Region 1 eiditons and the Japanese origanal release version.

The new Region 1 Ultimate cut didnt look very good from what I watched last night, but the films never looked great.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 29 Mar 2007, 17:24

romerojpg wrote: The new Region 1 Ultimate cut didnt look very good from what I watched last night

I heard it uses the same print as japanese and french Ultimate Versus dvds. Not the least bit surprising.

Oh well, it's actually good news to me. I was afraid that if they got it right I'd have to choose between the French TC dvd which has incorrect colours at the end and the new R1 dvd which is the inferior cut IMO. But now I can happily forget about the R1 UV.

Maybe the UV was originally created on shitty print and that's why there's no better print available.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Mar 2007, 17:42

Mmm I guess when I watch the film it will be the best looking version then (which ever that is!?), if the Ultimate versions are all the same that not good.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 29 Mar 2007, 17:48

The DC was an inferior cut with utterly dreadful pacing (for a dumb action movie) in the first place. God knows what they were trying to achieve by making it even longer.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Mar 2007, 17:52

The kids like CGI in Japan appreantly, which wouldnt be a bad thing if they could do CGI worth watching. Most CGI from japan is total shit, and they should be stopped from using CGI at all in Japan as by god its ruining the film industry. Its like cheap stright to video Hollywood in the early 90's, but with bigger budgets and worse effects and in Japanese.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 29 Mar 2007, 18:00

romerojpg wrote:The kids like CGI in Japan appreantly, which wouldnt be a bad thing if they could do CGI worth watching. Most CGI from japan is total shit, and they should be stopped from using CGI at all in Japan as by god its ruining the film industry. Its like cheap stright to video Hollywood in the early 90's, but with bigger budgets and worse effects and in Japanese.

Totally, it should be made illegal for After Effects to be used by low budget filmmakers. They should stick to the old school Savini-esque practical effects.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Mar 2007, 18:05

I dont mind them sometimes, just Japan seems to be going mad over CGI like its the only way to do everything. Watching crap like DrahgonHead and Devilman recently really takes the pee. For every good shot, theres maybe 50 appauling shots.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 29 Mar 2007, 18:14

I mean c'mon, the CGI in zillion dollar Hollywood films like Spider-man 3 and Revenge of the Sith still looks shitty and cartoony. How in fuck's name are low budget filmmakers going to pull it off if a zillion dollar film can't?

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Mar 2007, 18:23

Yes but the Japanese seem to attempt films so far out of their budget, even Hollywood budgets would struggle to do Devilman justice with CGI, if they had used real people and old style puppets etc.. the film would work, but CGi in every single shot in the films just silly a simple shot of a man walking down a corridor done in full CGI its pretty insane. Saying the Spiderman films do the same, a shot that they should do real like Spiderman walking with no use for CGI at all, yet they waste a few hundred thousand on some ignorant CGI shot..

at least Cheapo films like Versus dont kill me with the CGI, in fact some of the cheaper shots work well.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 30 Mar 2007, 18:42

I just read the original Media Blaster release has an "excellent picture quality"

- http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/versus.htm

No point in this but just for fun, here's a comparison to Dragon's Den UK's R2J (orig.) pics

You know which one is the french

I'm starting to think the french re-shot the film with better equipment and then edited it to look like the Kitamura film...

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 30 Mar 2007, 19:34

Jesus guess no need for me to keep the japanese origanal film then! will have to see if the region 1 cuts are better or not soon