Confirmation of Once Upon a Time in China's poor quality
01-08-01, 09:23 PM
#1
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 2,515
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Argh! It looks like Columbia's OUATIC release really is an upconverted version of the HK DVD, yielding an even worse picture!
First check out the new review at http://www.dvdfile.com. Now this was posted on alt.asian-movies by a long-time and generally trustworthy poster:
My copy just came in the mail. I fully retract the statement I made
below calling this an improvement in any way over the Mega Star/Media
Asia HK release. This Columbia TriStar version is a piece of **** that
needs to be avoided like the plague unless you can't get any other
version. The picture quality isn't just worse than the Media Asia
version, it's MUCH worse. The mono audio track I've been waiting for
(which was my primary reason for repurchasing this title) sounds worse
than my old non-subbed Star Entertainment Co. VCD of this film, which
has deeper bass and a clearer high end. To make matters worse, the
track seems to have an echo-drenched sound suggesting that it may have
been derived from the Media Asia 5.1 mix! I can't confirm this, as I
lent my copy of the Media Asia disc to a friend who lives out of state,
but certainly it seems to have more of an echo than the VCD I have. I
only listened to a minute of the audio commentary, during which Ric
Meyers claimed that another name for the film is "Wong Fei Hung 99", as
it is (according to him) the 99th Wong Fei-Hung film. The most
infuriating thing is that the 100 minute English dubbed version looks great!
First check out the new review at http://www.dvdfile.com. Now this was posted on alt.asian-movies by a long-time and generally trustworthy poster:
My copy just came in the mail. I fully retract the statement I made
below calling this an improvement in any way over the Mega Star/Media
Asia HK release. This Columbia TriStar version is a piece of **** that
needs to be avoided like the plague unless you can't get any other
version. The picture quality isn't just worse than the Media Asia
version, it's MUCH worse. The mono audio track I've been waiting for
(which was my primary reason for repurchasing this title) sounds worse
than my old non-subbed Star Entertainment Co. VCD of this film, which
has deeper bass and a clearer high end. To make matters worse, the
track seems to have an echo-drenched sound suggesting that it may have
been derived from the Media Asia 5.1 mix! I can't confirm this, as I
lent my copy of the Media Asia disc to a friend who lives out of state,
but certainly it seems to have more of an echo than the VCD I have. I
only listened to a minute of the audio commentary, during which Ric
Meyers claimed that another name for the film is "Wong Fei Hung 99", as
it is (according to him) the 99th Wong Fei-Hung film. The most
infuriating thing is that the 100 minute English dubbed version looks great!
01-08-01, 10:33 PM
#2
DVD Talk Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Cape Ann, Massachusetts
Posts: 10,928
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
They trimmed 34 MINUTES off the original cut to make the English dubbed version!? The guy that decided to do that needs a couple "no shadow kicks" to the head.
01-08-01, 11:33 PM
#3
Member
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Telford, UK
Posts: 63
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
If you can play PAL R2 disks, then Hong Kong Legends are releaseing this film on the 22nd Jan along with Armour of God. They produce some excellent DVDs and restore both the picture and sound.
