House of Flying Daggers -Re-master? - Page 7

Originally Posted by raoul_duke 

It's the Director's Cut only, on a BD-50. File size of around 43gb, compared to the US disc's near 24gb for the Director's Cut.
The other cuts are redundant IMO and eating valuable disc space.

http://www.cinemasquid.com/blu-ray/movies/releases/jet-lis-fearless/c2cb308f-c297-445d-bdf5-d19872504fea#specs

Comments:
Notorious distributor Zoke Culture has come through this time with an HD CAM Remastered DVD. The film has a troubled history, and as a friend put it:

For House of Flying Daggers, they went from film (first generation) into the computer (second generation @ 2k resolution loss), back to film (third generation) and then, back into the computer (fourth generation) for final digital master for DVD, etc."

Hence all the contrast/sharpness problems which you can see even more pronounced on other releases at this page.


It also seems, on the screen shots that are of the exact same frame, that the Zoke Culture release has more image information on all sides (in particular shot 3 of the crowd on the balcony).

Not a perfect transfer, but I'd venture to say it's the one closest to Yimou's intent. Don't make the same mistakes on "Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia"!

- Bjørn Erik Hundland

Originally Posted by BIG ED 

If it is indeed the D1 & it lOOks like that is super messed up; why all the variation w/the DVD releases?
Some lOOkED OK, some pretty poor!

Originally Posted by Josh Z 

Some had artificial sharpening or color and contrast boosting done after-the-fact, but they all look some variation on poor.

Originally Posted by raoul_duke 

Received the HK disc today.

My word, taking into account the flaws that we're all aware of,surrounding the source material, this looks fantastic.

I compared it to the cut UK release and the bump in PQ, was most appreciable.

Originally Posted by raoul_duke 

Received the HK disc today.

My word, taking into account the flaws that we're all aware of,surrounding the source material, this looks fantastic.

I compared it to the cut UK release and the bump in PQ, was most appreciable.

Fearless also looks excellent, although the differences from the US disc might not be immediately apparent.

However, detail and grain are handled far better and the haloing in the US disc, is largely absent.

Cash well spent.

Originally Posted by oink 

Could you provide more details?

Originally Posted by BIG ED 

How's the framing?
An EZ scene too compare is the "bean dance":
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews31/house_of_flying_daggers_blu-ray.htm
does she have a foot too stand on?!?!

BIG thanks.

Originally Posted by raoul_duke 

Such as?

Originally Posted by raoul_duke 

The framing matches the US BD, in that shot.

Originally Posted by oink 

You mentioned "taking into account the flaws that we're all aware of,surrounding the source material, this looks fantastic."
"Fantastic" in what way (as compared to the original U.S. BD)?
The original U.S. release was heavily criticized, and for good reason.
Can you compare/contrast the PQ of the 2 releases?

Originally Posted by raoul_duke 

I've never owned the US disc, what with it being censored and therefore not worth the effort.

I compared it to the UK release, (again,censored, but not to the degree of the US disc), which looks dire.

If the US disc looks worse than the UK, I don't know what to say.

I'm not going to blow smoke up anyone's butt, by claiming the transfer is revelatory, no way in hell, it still as issues, but coming from owning the original Edko DVD, the re-mastered Edko DVD, the UK DVD and then UK BD, this is the best I've seen it look on a home format.

If I thought it looked like ass, I'd be moving it on, but I'm happy to toss the UK disc in the bin and replace it.