Red Cliff: Part I and Red Cliff: Part II comparison *PIX* - Page 3

My copy from Amazon UK finally arrived today. Put it in for ~10 mins to check it out, and the PQ and AQ are definitely top notch! Hopefully I'll have time this weekend to watch the whole 4.5 hours of it!

I'm hoping it will be in the post today for the Amazon UK SE I ordered. Too much to do and football this weekend though to get threw it all if it does so maybe arriving Monday will not be a bad thing. I hope because I'm not watching anything Tuesday except The Hurt Locker!

I know this is a PQ comparison thread and I will definitely let you folks know how I feel about the quality when I complete watching it. Someone said they got 5 versions to compare? I'll be happy enough to get this one to tell the truth.

I got a region error when trying to start the SE UK version on a Sony S300. Does this have anything to do with my machine being too old?

Maybe it has an issue playing the PAL trailer? The first trailer is in HD, but the second one is in PAL.

Thank you Exist2Inspire! That was exactly the problem, :-)

Quite easily given that they were all captured using the same methodology. It's not the first time I've compared caps across multiple sites and found them to look the same (given that most sites seem to use very similar techniques for obtaining captures). The caps from disc one looked identical, the caps from disc two were darker on the UK release. People who own both releases have confirmed it visually. It's apparent when you stick part two in the player that it's darker than part one even without getting into the whole screen shot debate.

I don't believe I mentioned the Taiwanese disc in my earlier post anyway, which was the one you concluded to be the best. I was discussing the UK and HK discs, and for my money there's so little in it that I'd go for the cheaper, easier option. To put that into context, in the UK the HK imports were going for £25 each when you could get the UK release for £9.99. I guess it's up to people to decide if they consider the HK discs to be £40 better than the UK ones.

Finally got mine yesterday. Obviously the price was right but I hope watching it in the near future was worth the two weeks of waiting for it. Geez!!!

Xylon - Are you going to be adding the 2-disc International Version from Magnolia Home Entertainment to this PQ comparison thread when it is released in the States on March 30, 2010?

I ordered mine from Amazon UK on Monday, the 18th and got it Saturday, the 23rd - pretty speedy for an import I thought.

He will do it. Xylon is a geek.

I hope so as well

I watched disc #1 for the first time last night on my Sony S350 (with latest firmware) and after the trailer played it went straight to the movie menu. If there is a second trailer in PAL it got skipped over automatically on my player.

I watched both parts yesterday since I was snowed in, and it was absolutely fantastic. I took a short break in between the two movies, but they didn't feel like almost 5 hours at all and were completely engaging!

Audio and Video quality were top notch. I think the first part looked a hair better, but it might be because the color scheme seemed brighter.

I don't have multiples of this to make comparisons between what has been released for this movie on BD but I can make a conclusion versus many other BDs I have witnessed and all I'll say about the PQ is that it is darn impressive, easily top tier material.

I ordered my UK 2 part special edition omn Friday and I can't wait to get it! Based on the screencaps I think your take seems about right.

I picked up part I and II today both for $28 in Flea Market. I watched them tonight and they are amazing PQ/AQ.

I read through this thread a month or two ago, but haven't revisited until today. I was hoping that someone might know which previous version the US release will look closest too. I guess 12 days early might still be to early to hope. (Still pure speculation, I suppose?)

I'll check back in another week perhaps, or at least days before the release so that I will know if I should cancel my long standing preorder for a foreign version. Cheers.

This is probably at least the third time I've thanked you for these threads, but, thanks.

Mildly stupid question: is it safe to assume that the upcoming Magnolia BD will be a near-clone of the UK two-disc release (which may or may not cover the animal cruelty edits)?

That's what we're hoping for.

There are supposedly (according to this thread) 6 seconds of horse cruelty cut out of the UK version which is hard to believe since what was left in was cruel enough, horses tripped-wired, etc.

Ah, just the thread I was looking for. Can't wait to find out if the US version PQ matches the UK.

Lets see the caps on the US version Xylon! I know you watched it already.

I think at the end of the day, the various versions are all so close that you'll be happy with whichever version you get. If you have to take a screen cap and go over it with a microscope to decide which is better, you are not going to see any difference in a live running version.

The only real comment I would make is that while I personally prefer the Taiwan print, I wouldn't recommend the Taiwan version. The film was clearly framed for 2.35:1 not 1.85:1. The open matt of the Taiwan version actually takes away from the scale and scope of the visuals. There are scenes in the open matt version where they did not fill the extra space with content ie armies looks smaller as instead of being cut off by screen size giving the feeling of more troops off screen, they becomes clearly defined in size. Another example is toward the beginning of Part 2 where they open the gates to Cao Cao's encampment and you can see the goodyear tyres attached as rollers to the gates. I might be a little hazy on my history, but I'm pretty sure they didn't use rubber car tyres to assist with opening gates during the Han Dynasty circa 206 BCE - 220 CE.

But back to my point, they all seem near indistinguishable so just make sure you don't get the abridged version and enjoy. It's one of the best cinematic experiences in a long time.

Awesome to hear! Thanks as always for your great work, Xylon!

Has it been confirmed that the US release (OIV Part I & II) is indeed the full length uncut version?

Other than the rumoured 6 secs of cuts for animal cruelty, are the US OIV and UK SE versions indeed the same in duration?

Does durations for the US OIV match the HK and Taiwan releases?

Wow, the Taiwan release has lots of compression artifacts. Ugh!

Xylon, is the subtitle translations on the US release the same as the Hong Kong/Taiwan releases?

I've found many US releases have very basic (dare I say dumbed down translations eg Hero) compared to the Asian releases. Often these can seriously effect the impact of the film.

If the translations are the same, and the picture quality is on par with the Hong kong, I'd consider grabbing the US release so I can watch part one without the watermark.

What's your advice?

I have the Hong Kong version and Taiwan version and each have issues (Hong kong Part 1 watermark, Taiwan the film isn't framed for 1.85:1 and looks less epic). Basically, I'm looking for the definitive version (obviously the UK version is out as it is edited) but if the translation is less accurate I'll live with what I have. I guess the question to also ask is did the US release also receive the same cuts as the UK version or any other cuts.

Thanks for your help.

Part I of the US version has a running time of 2:25:24. The HK DVD (NTSC) of Part I has a running time of 2:25:23. So I think it's pretty safe to say, there is nothing missing on the US release of Part I.

Part II of the US version has a running time of 2:21:30. The HK DVD (NTSC) of Part II has running time of 2:21:23. So here the US is 7 seconds longer, but this should be due to 2 additional US specific studio clips at the beginning of the movie on the US release (Part I doesn't have these clips at the beginning).

So I'm sure, the US is completely uncut.

The UK cuts aren't a rumor, they've been confirmed at least for the UK DVD release: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=5262792.
I didn't check for the horse falls on the US yet, but there is no reason why the US should contain these cuts, as these are UK specific cuts, due to the 'Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act'.