enoque

MGM/Sony must have a good print of it in their archives because they made the initial theatrical release in the US. Their "To Live" DVD was excellent. I wonder why they didn't release the Raise the Red Lantern on DVD before their rights to it lapsed. I'm guessing that they wouldn't let Razor use their print or they're asking for a lot of money.

Anyway, has anyone heard anything about the Australian Release?

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...id-1004136419/

Dan Average

Interesting. The banner at the top is almost identical to the one on the R1 release. I suspect it's a direct port, but it might look marginally better since it could be a native PAL transfer (the R1 release is a very very bad PAL-to-NTSC conversion). I still wouldn't get excited, though.

mcarver

There is also a "Scholar/ShengChi/Shin Shan Dai/New Generation" Asian Region 0 release. Does anyone know the difference between the 3 (ERA Version 1 & 2, and the Scholar release)?

uebetan12@yahoo

a copy of this movie is better than nothing at all! let's hope that after a year , a new aND IMPROVED VERSION WITH EXTRAS WILL AGAIN BE RELEASED. I HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS MOVIE YET, SO I HAVE TO BUY WHAT'S AVAILABLE FOR NOW.

Dan Average

We've been over this. The Razor Digital release looks worse than the awful-but-much-cheaper (and region-free) Hong Kong release. There's absolutely no reason to be grateful to Razor Digital for this DVD.

LorenzoL

Did you read this thread??? Dan Average summarizes our argument nicely.

If this was a company that cared about the movie and its importance, they would have waited to acquire a decent print and then release this movie on DVD. I have seen bootlegs with better PQ.

RevKarl

Gary has now posted his comparision of the ERA & Razor releases of Red the Red Lantern over at DVDBeaver:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview/rtrl.htm

To answer an earlier question in this thread, he states that it is his understanding that both ERA releases have the same transfer, just different box covers.

GHackmann

I got a copy of this from NetFlix tonight, and the only word I can think of to describe it is "travesty". The video and audio quality are just as horrific as the reviews make them out to be. But to add insult to injury, the subtitles are a mangled mess.

It's obvious that the subtitles were never proofread by a native English speaker: nearly every sentence contains some kind of glaring grammatical or spelling error. To kick things off, the title card is mis-translated as "Raise Red Lantern". And whatever impact the closing line might have had, it was destroyed by (SPOILER, obviously) this bizarre subtitle. In between, things are a little bit better, but there are still quite a few odd translations -- like "savant" being using in the place of "servant" during half the movie, and Third Mistress's bewildering advice "Don't be so groovy".

It's one thing for DVDs produced in Asia to have subpar subtitles, since English speakers aren't their primary audience. For a DVD supposedly produced for the American market, subtitles like these are completely unacceptable.

Ralph Jenkins

I recently ordered a copy of the ERA R0 DVD and a used copy of the Orion laserdisc. Sadly, I'm guessing the laserdisc will be the best version. It's P&S, but I figure it will at least have good subtitles and a solid transfer.

LorenzoL

DVDBeaver.com has posted a comparison review of the ERA Region 0 release and indicates that the DVD is progresive, anamorphic and dual-layered.

http://www.criterion.dvdbeaver.com/f...eview/rtrl.htm

gryffinmaster

Damn. What an improvement.

This really is a stunning picture, and this pirstine transfer is exactly what it needed. In the Razor release, I remember the grain being so bad on the blue house shots that it appeared it was snowing ... when it was summertime.

Thanks for the link, LorenzoL.

bunkaroo

Thanks so much for the link! Already placed my order with yesasia.com. It appears they ship from the US-I'm guessing Hawaii.

Ralph Jenkins

I watched the new ERA DVD over the weekend. The video is not perfect, but it is a MASSIVE improvement over the previous DVDs. Having removable subtitles helps, too.

Perkinsun Dzees

I see MGM will be releasing this on July 24.

I wonder if this will be an improvement over the Razor Digital version?

LorenzoL

I'll wait until the MGM version gets released but I don't have too much faith on MGM doing a proper job considering their treatment of various foreign films like Jean de Florette.

Lipid

LOL @ that cover they're using for the re-release. Talk about too much photoshop. It almost looks like she's a cartoon character.

canaryfarmer

That is awful. There's no facial definition at all! How embarrassing.

GHackmann

I thought MGM did a respectable, if not amazing, job on To Live.

At the very least, it'll be hard for the MGM release to be anywhere as poor as Razor Digital's hack job. You'd think Razor Digital was actively trying to put out the worst DVD they possibly could.

tofferman

An 'abysmal' cover is an understatement here. I bought the digitally remastered version (ERA) after reading the DVDBeaver review last year and will await reviews first before triple dipping.

Giles

I can't really comment or elaborate on how it looks, but HDNet Movies has aired a HiDef version of the movie.

Amel

capitalizing on the huge anime crowd

I've passed on the dvd's so far. I too have caught it on HDNet movies and it looks pretty damn good.

Chucky

Crappy cover aside, DVDBeaver gives it good marks:
Raise the Red Lantern DVD Comparison

I'm still shocked this doesn't have a super special edition, but increasingly it looks like it never will. I'll be buying this DVD.

PopcornTreeCt

Looks like this is the one to pick up. MGM has been getting kudos in my book for their recent special editions.

Richard Malloy

Hmm. I know still images aren't the best to judge by - and so I put much more weight on Gary's subjective impressions - but do the ERA still-shots appear to be slightly more detailed than the MGM's, particularly the medium/long shots? (See, for example, in the first shot, the detail in the brick background and on Gong Li's clothes.)

tofferman

Quoting Gary Tooze:

"The new MGM edition has the same color scheme and framing as the remastered ERA - probably inferring that is from the same source print."

After reading Gary's review, I had a hard time discerning the difference in the transfers between the ERA (remastered vs. MGM). As a result, I don't see the value in a double dip here.