Criterion Goes Blu!!! - Page 73

Good News!
Thank you.

Play Time has been out on Criterion BD for a couple years now.

I have it. I would like to complete the Hulot set.

Just got through skimming through the Criterion Blu-ray release of Godzilla and did a quick A/B comparison with the Japanese Blu-ray release.

Overall, the Criterion release holds up and depending on one's tastes, exceeds the Japanese release as far as picture quality. The Criterion print used for the Japanese version looks to be a different source print from the Toho Japanese Blu-ray. There's several instances on the Criterion print where there's noticeably different blemishes, scratches and so on then the Japanese BR's print. The Criterion print has somewhat more solid and deeper black levels without going into black crash territory very often and overall looks a bit sharper. The Japanese BR is lighter, but some scenes show a bit more detail. I can't yet decide which print I like better, but they are both miles above the terrible upscaled Classic Media BR release.

The big selling point of the Criterion Blu-ray is a very decent print of the US version, "Godzilla, King Of The Monsters." It's far from pristine, at any given point light scratches and dirt can be seen (the first minute or so had me really worried this was going to look lousy) but overall, the print looks very good, by far the best the US version has looked on home video.

There's one extra that's ported over from the Japanese Blu-ray of how the optical effects were composed, fortunately it's subtitled. In fact, even the Japanese trailer for Gojira is subtitled which is a welcome bonus. I haven't had a chance to check out the other extras....

One thing regarding the video that I've never encountered with any other Blu-ray, including the Japanese Blu-ray of Gojira, is that this movie displays as windowboxed on all four sides. I suspect it's an odd setting between one particular monitor and Blu-ray player as it displays correctly on another set-up with just side bars on the left and right as it should.

My only nitpick with this release is the packaging artwork/graphics. I had mentioned a few months ago about being disappointed with the package illustration - that sentiment is greatly compounded by the fact that all the art (which includes a cheesy "pop-up" Godzilla head when you open the slipcase) including the disc art is from photos from "Godzilla 2000." It's like using stills from "Quantum Of Solace" for box art for "Goldfinger." Fortunately the booklet uses appropriate images from the original movie but it's just odd that Criterion either didn't research what movie their images came from or more likely, were forced for some strange reason by Toho *not* to use any stills or publicity material from the original film.

T.B.

re: print(s) used
http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2...r-curtis-tsui/

iirc (so don't quote me on this!) Gojira was shot on nitrate film, and the Japanese government banned storing combustible nitrate at some point in time (perhaps the 70s? I recall reading about this in an article about the Rashomon restoration, which was indeed shot on nitrate) so the original negative was destroyed. The Criterion booklet confirms that the negative is gone, at least.

Criterion also posted pictures of the Gojira reels that said interpositive on them (in Japanese) back when they revealed they had Gojira in their release plans, so the source they used is likely the best surviving source out there.

As for Godzilla King of Monsters, they used a 35mm fine-grain print that a collector had loaned to them after they put word out that they needed a good source for their release. It's a great improvement as I think most/all home video releases of it had used 16mm reduction prints which obviously look.. pretty bad.

I take the WB stance in not believing an original negative has been destroyed unless it has been confirmed in documentation, in this I assume that would be Toho. Even if there was indeed such a law in Japan, Toho could of just shipped it to another country like their LA office. Finding ON in other countries has happened before not to mention thought lost ON.

Just watched my copy of Godzilla and have to say the film never looked better. Very nice PQ and played in the proper aspect ration. Fun to see the full, uncut Japanese version. Can't wait to watch and listen to the commentaries.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/anatomy.htm

Some EE in the images and dark EE on the faces in _2, x04 & x06.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Anatom.../33686/#Review

Been up for a few days. Looks promising still I suspect I see a hint of dark EE in some shots.

Anatomy of a Murder:

Watched this today, what a beautiful job they have done with this classic, I see no real flaws at all.

Still one of the best courtroom dramas ever put on film, with music by Duke Ellington.

I just found a comparison of the Criterion Yojimbo & Sanjuro BDs to the Toho releases, and jesus, Criterion really blew them up.

Yojimbo - Toho #1
Yojimbo - Criterion #1

Yojimbo - Toho #2
Yojimbo - Criterion #2

Yojimbo - Toho #3
Yojimbo - Criterion #3

Obviously heavily contrast boosted, Toho release looks far more natural, but what they did there is no comparison to what they did to Sanjuro (although the night shots in Yojimbo are similarly butchered):

Sanjuro - Toho #1
Sanjuro - Criterion #1

Sanjuro - Toho #2
Sanjuro - Criterion #2

Sanjuro - Toho #3
Sanjuro - Criterion #3

Their extreme & heavy handed contrast boosting has essentially modified the look of the film entirely. I thought the film looked unusually bright (I watched it for the first time on BD) for a film that was taking place at night time with a lot of sneaking when I watched it, and now I know why... terrible. I'd throw out (&/or give away to be a little less wasteful) my Criterion double pack right this instant if the Toho BDs had subs.

Does this warrant a comparison thread or am I overreacting?

If those images are an accurate assessment I'd say it isn't just contrast boosted but DNRed as well. The detail in cloths etc seems to have been polished off quite nicely.

Art

Aside from contrast/brightness there also seems to be a good bit of sharpening on the Criterion disc, their technicians are a bit too fond of sharpening up soft transfers, unfortunately. The Toho release looks like a more modern-quality film scan, possibly from a higher quality element.

Good thing we have your ultra-scientific approach to tell us that the one you prefer the look of is totally accurate to the intended look and the one you don't prefer the look of is utterly wrong.

I never claimed to be scientific, I'm just stating what I see & offering it for others to see as well. And I said that specific part as it was true on my end -- something felt off when I watched Sanjuro (without the comparison), and I'm placing the blame on the modification done to the BD.

For what it's worth, the BFI DVD shots on DVDBeaver show it to be similar in appearance (ie, dark) to the Toho BD -- given this & the fact that Criterion has a history of playing with the contrast on their transfers, I'm going to say that the Criterion BD is the wrong one here.

I'm pretty sure from looking at the two that the Criterion release is wrong, but I do wonder how much of that was their fault. Only the recent Toho release has this new transfer, and they're very obviously very different transfers. The Criterion release is about two years old now.

IIRC, everyone was pretty happy, if not flat out thrilled, with the quality of Yojimbo and Sanjuro on BD up until the Toho releases showed how much better they could look.

Toho is notorious for licensing lower quality film elements and transfers to non-Japanese home video companies to basically "hobble" any video release outside Japan. Even Criterion's Seven Samurai and Godzilla blu-rays good as they look are still slightly inferior to the Toho releases in Japan.

Is Bottle Rocket, The Darjeeling Limited & Rushmore ever going to be released in Europe?

That's up to the distributors that own the rights for Europe.

I'd argue that the Criterion release of Godzilla looks better from the screenshots I've seen, but I don't have the discs to back that up with an A/B viewing.

It's one thing to point out the differences between the two releases; it's another to make a declaration about which of the two is more accurate and which is "terrible".

You need to get over your love affair with a certain home video distributor. Criterion routinely uses heavy handed manipulation in the digital domain for the films they license. I don't think pointing that out is unfair.

Mostly true but not with Criterion.

The Japanese BluRayDiscs of "Seven Samurai" and "Godzilla" are DNR'd to death.

Criterion simply does not have the resources or financial wherewithal to produce the absolute best transfers on many of their Blu-rays. The more Blu-rays that Criterion releases, the more I'm disappointed in the quality of the transfers.

How do you top an assumption that one encode is more accurate than another? Follow it with an assumption that the concern over same is a product of bias.

Yay!

I don't care which video distributors are involved. I care that judgements are being made about the intended look of the movie with no consultation of anyone who would know.

No offense, but you have no idea what you're talking about.

I've seen Japanese Godzilla and Seven Samurai releases, both are heavily DNRed.

The comparison of the Godzilla BDs (posted a few pages back) wasn't exactly in Toho's favor, though it was only a single non-matching frame, so maybe it's completely unrepresentative and the rest of the movie looks better on the Toho disc...but I doubt it. DVD Beaver capped both the Criterion and Toho Seven Samurai, and while their capture method is famously problematic, they claim it hasn't changed in the last three years, so it's somewhat useful for comparisons between two releases -- and again the Toho hardly seems preferable. I'll grant the possibility that all of these caps are screwed up to the exclusive detriment of the Toho releases, but since I have no intention of buying the discs myself, they're what I have to go by for the time being.

I guess it's possible Kurasawa intended the film to be digitally contrast boosted and noise reduced.

Obviously, he didn't have the specific tools in mind.

However, we don't know what resultant look he had in mind, do we?