Tony Block

Criterion is soon releasing In the Mood for Love, Feb. 26, but for those of you who can't wait here's a review of a Canadian version of the disc from Seville Pictures.


http://www.currentfilm.com/dvdreview...rlovedvd2.html

Mark McLeod

Thanks for posting that. I wrote the review but I didn't have a chance to post here when it was put on the site.

Purrcey

Thanks for posting this- I'mpicking this up tonight (being a Canadian, the Criteron DVDs are very expensive here) along with Ang Lee's Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

Mark McLeod

No problem. I'm thinking about picking up Eat, Drink, Man, Woman since Seville didn't send out review copies of that disc.

jtkv

I just picked up this DVD, and scanned through it for this report.


In The Mood For Love
released by Seville (Canada)
catalog: 22031DV
region 1
NTSC
runtime: 98 mins
DVD-5
image: 1.85:1 and 16:9 enhanced
audio: Dolby Digital
language: Cantonese
subtitles: optional English and French
24 chapter stops with animated scenes

Extras:
Trailer - fullscreen and too much contrast
picture gallery - nice images with music, of footage not used in final cut
Cast & Director profile - Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung and Wong Kar-Wai
World of In The Mood For Love - text screens of info for costumes, hair-style, and food of the 60's
Awards - text screen of International awards
Production Featurette - behind the scenes and interviews (looks like also on the French DVD)
Trailers for: The Chinese Box, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Three Seasons

Thoughts:
DVD cover art same as the Mei Ah (non SE) release
No booklet, liner notes, or chapter stop list included! Just the DVD...

Nice looping animated menu, with music, animated background, and images scrolling across the screen

Large subtitles; white text with black border; does not stay on-screen long enough (for my liking); opening text screen is translated

fairly clear audio, but not sure if it's DD 2.0 or DD 5.1

compression bitrate varies between 3MB and 7MB; averaging around 4.5-5MB
master is from a used print; tiny white speckles are seen throughout, but not distracting; print is generally clean
Colours are vibrant and well saturated
grain evident in scenes with low lighting
lightly visible compression artefacts, but not distracting
contrast fluctuations are noticeable on brighter scenes

This looks like the transfer from the French release, but with lower compression rate. For those that can't play PAL/R2 DVDs, this is a fairly good alternative, and is very nicely priced. I don't know if this is available in the US.
For those that want better, there's the French/UK R2/PAL release, or wait for the Criterion Collection release, slated for Feb 28th(?)

The review from Mark McLeod gave it a 9/10 for the video.
I strongly disagree. I'd give it a 7/10.
But I agree with him about the rest of his review, except for the extras, which is a little lacking....


J.T.