Questions:

The DVD I have is Pan&Scan or Fullscreen - was it filmed for widescreen? Is there a widescreen release planned?

The DVD I have also had a small subtitle problem. Everything was pretty much flawless, except for the scene in which Sulle's husband takes a few arrows for Jinha during their final battle... they don't subtitle his dying words - what the hell did he say?

Comments:

I really liked this film - it's really formulaic like I've heard the rest of the Korean films are, but it's very stylish and the story is good. Timelines kinda blur and at times it's hard to follow what's going on until minutes later when you piece things together... Exploding bodies and decent action as well. CG effects kept to a minimum which is great considering the overuse of the latest HK period swordfighting films (The Duel, StormRiders, and Man Called Hero). It felt alot like Butterfly and Sword and seemed like a refreshing throwback to the great films that were being produced in HK during the early 90's. Very polished and decent acting and all around good. What did you guys think?

The DVD had some cool features that I could get nothing out of since they aren't subtitled... making-of and music videos. Nice package though - I feel as though it should've been widescreen.

"...what the hell did he say?"

...he said: "arggghhh gurgle gurgle chhh" - but in Korean, of course!

. . .

rotfl

that's funny, but it doesn't help.

...well, the movie was obviously filmed for an AR of 2.35:1, as the screen captures of the disc's menu show:

http://www.dvdrama.net/news.php3?3036

This (French) site says the Hong Kong DVD (released on the Deltamac label) includes dts, DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 soundtracks, optional English subtitles, as well as a 'Making of...' and two clips...

. . .


[Edited by Hendrik on 07-01-01 at 07:55 AM]

I shouldn't be doing this, but shameless plug of my review ;) http://pub5.ezboard.com/fhongkongdvd...icID=596.topic with my view of the film.

The movie was presented in widescreen for it's Korean theatrical release...err well of course it was. It may have been shot Super-35 and matted for theatrical presentation. I haven't had the chance to compare shots, but if you want to you can confirm if this is the case by seeing if the widescreen trailers etc have more side picture info than the dvd full screen program (which would corrispondingly have more top picture). The Korean dvd is slated to be offered in widescreen presentation.

As for the movie, I thought it was great, though the cinemtography was a bit stilted in it's capturing of the fight scenes. Too many close in shots me thinks.

Just watched it the other night and I was really impressed :) Very good film with some nice fight scenes albeit with Matrix-esque sounds. Recommended - although I'm gonna have to sell my Deltamac version for the forthcoming widescreen version.

Pete

Is there any word on when a widescreen version will be available?


I thought the 2 disc set for Shiri was really nice. Hopefully they will release something along those lines..

Supposedly there will be a Korean DVD release in August. Unfortunately the only info I can find is in Korean and it doesn't list any special features anyway. I'm keeping an eye on the Korean DVD sites so I'll post when I know more.

Thanks for the info..

My wife who is Korean and speaks it fluently says she seen it and it was bad. She said the acting is very bad and the story is based on a comic book.

I wonder if she's talking about the same movie that everyone is raving about...

I still want to see it though.

The R1 version coming out in a couple of weeks is widescreen http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=33130

Tai Seng is just importing the Deltamac DVD from Hong Kong. It's not a new DVD. Tai Seng are saying it's widescreen when it really isn't in hopes they will sucker a few people in. They did the same thing with Mei Ah's God of Gamblers DVD.

Same could be said about Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon really. But as someone watching the film not knowing the language, you really don't know whether the acting is good or not (CTHD again forms comparison).
I would recommend this the same way people recommend CTHD.

Are you sure about this? I know TS is getting a little better about doing their own DVDs now. Some of the recent ones have included commentaries and "behind-the-sceens" features that are special to the TS release only.

I'd have to agree that this is the Deltamac version. It has exactly the same features and it seems as if Deltamac did the fullscreen version because Spectrum is doing their own widescreen all region special edition. I'd wait another month or so and get the Korean DVD from DVDAsian.

What I can say for certain about the Korean version is that it's anamorphic widescreen, has a making of and outtakes. The rest I'll have to post when I translate the info.

Yes but are the special features in english/subtitled. That's the main reason I've been sticking to the TS imports for some of the recent ones....

Probably not. So far no Korean DVD has subtitled extras but the Deltamac DVD that TS is importing is fullscreen and this movie absolutely must be seen in its original aspect ratio. They use the full screen for the action so you're definitely losing important picture information. Besides, the extras on the TS DVD aren't subtitled either since Deltamac doesn't subtitle their extras (China Strike Force as well).

thanks for the info. I guess we'll see what happens. If it doesn't turn out to be what it says it is I can always return it ;)

Dying words translation
 

Closest to original and more literal:
"Now, we should be able to remain friends"

Perhaps better, albeit less literal:
"Now, we can remain friends"

In Korean (if supported):
"ÀÌÁ¨, ¿ì¸° Ä£±¸·Î ³²À»¼ö ÀÖ°ÚÁö"

Thank you so much. :)

Yeah, i think if you dont speak and understand korean, it should be fine... i personally found the acting to be unbearable.. jinha is a pretty crummy actor and is damn scrawny in real life as well as in the movie. the main actress on the otherhand is a total cutie and yes she cant act worth a lick either. purely from a korean speaking persons point of view of course.

the acting was OK in crouching tiger. what really sucked was everybody's mandarin chinese. chow yun fat and michelle yeoh have noticeable accents that grew more annoying as the film went on. but i do have to say the drama acted out was pretty decent