Help! Which version of Musa to buy?
 

I gotta a Toshiba-4900 on the way and am now (hopefully be) able to finally watch non-region 1 dvd's. I'm a complete newbie to the asian dvd's and trying to figure out which copies are legit is pretty confusing. It looks like there have been several releases of Musa since the the lasts posts on the subject. There seem to be many different dvd's of the 2-disc Korean 155min version. I want the original version with English subs on both the movie disc and the extras disc. And from what I've read it's been released in 2 different AR's.

Do I have to buy a Korean disc for the original 155 min cut and OAR and the US cut for english subs on the supplemental disc?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

YesAsia.com - Musa: SP (2-Disc)

http://i3.yesasia.com/assets/imgs/vi...1001822727.jpg

I did not notice it was out of print... I, myself, bought it from YesAisa three weeks ago...

Cheers :beer:,

DVD Smurf :)

The r3 Korean 2-disc release is the only one that is uncut afaik. The R2 UK 2-disc is cut and is in PAL, but it has all features in english or subbed in english. i don't know about the r1, but the HK release is the non-extended cut of the film (otherwise uncut) and it is region 0 and has no extras. I have the Korean dvd and it's got spectacular picture and sound and great packaging - it comes with a cool hardbound book as well.

The hardbound book version was a LE and hasn't been available for quite some time. I have both the R3 and the R2 PAL from Premier Asia. One for the uncut version and the other for the extras and English dub so I can show it to friends who don't like subs. I might add that my friends are a bunch of idiots but what can I do.

The "R1" release is just the R0 release sold in the States. It even has Chinese lettering on the package. The video quality is decent and the audio quality is very good (the DTS track is near-reference quality) so it's a good, cheap way to pick up the theatrical cut.

Like everybody else said, yep, you gotta buy 2 DVDs. Get the Korean 2-disker for the movie and the HKL 2-disker for the extras.
However, even after you've watched all the extras from the HKL DVDs, you still have some stuff on the Korean disk that isn't on the HKL DVD. Some 'Filmmakers Interview', 'Filmmakers Profile', and 'Favorite Music' are not availabe on the HKL disk, as well as the commentary track from the Korean disk are missing. On the other hand, HKL has an interview with Yu Rongguang and a commentary with Bey Logan and Mike Leeder that isn't on the Korean DVD.

I read one review that said that the PA disc was a better picture than the Korean. Do you agree with this?

Personally, I enjoy the shorter version much more than the extended one. I thought the pacing was much better, and on the HKL disc you have the option of watching the deleted scenes if you want to see what you missed. Then you could always pick up the Korean version later if you think it's worth it. But be warned, the sub-titles are not that great on the Korean disc.

IIRC, the korean dvd had perfectly fine subtitles except for one scene that was missing what one guy says just as he dies or something... I could be remembering wrong though.

I'd like thank you all for the suggestions! I'm still waiting for my 4900 to arrive. Once I get it I'm hoping I'll be able to modify it like others have. I'm almost a complete idiot when it comes to doing that kind of stuff. I'm not too computer savvy.

I have a region 2 music dvd that I'll try out and if successful I'm gonna order the Korean 2 disc set. Everything I've read says the longer version, while slow in some parts, helps certain scenes in the movie make more sense.

Are you thinking of the Korean DVD for Bichunmoo? There was an unsubtitled death scene for that film....

I can't directly compare DVDs for Musa, but I have the Korean disc and thought it was very nice. I appreciate extra character development, which is what I believe the longer cut has; even if that makes for a longer movie. I didn't find it to be tedious.

I do like Bey Logan commentaries, so maybe I, too, will be double- dipping in the future.

That's quite possible... I just remember asking on this forum if anyone knew what was said as the person was nearing his death and their reply was "Aaaahhhhhrrghhh..." or something like that. Quite witty, but frustrating.

From memory (it's been a while since I watched it), the main problem with the subtitles on the Korean release was that they would sometimes run to the far edges of the picture, outside if your TV overscans.

So it's my TV that's overscanning? How can I stop it? Seems like every set I've ever owned and played DVDs on does this. I always thought it was the DVD player overcompensating.

It's the TV. You have to own a dvd player like the Malata DVP-520 which has the infinite zoom feature. You can use the feature to zoom out and size the image to your TV eliminating any overscan. Even on my widescreed 57" Hitachi, I have to correct for the overscan. It always reduces the picture by 10-15%.

http://pub127.ezboard.com/fhongkongd...cID=6507.topic

http://www.futurefilm.fi/movie.php?35111

this is the newest verion i've read about that is 3 dvd's, finnish, haseng. subs. has long/short cuts. not sure if the subs are good though. the 2 dvd korean subs are pretty bad. hoping for more reviews of this 3 disc set though.

Just got it other day. Awesome, awesome movie. I absolutely loved it. Got the Korean R3 155min cut and did NOT find it slow in some parts at all. I can't even imagine what they cut out of this film. I'm gonna pick up the R2 for the extras in a couple of months. I watched some of them anyway even though I can't understand what they're saying.

I have no idea how accurately the subs are translated, but as fas as being in correct english they're pretty bad/funny. I understand what they mean, but a lot of times they use the wrong context/spelling. And I did notice that sometimes, rarely, that the subs extended beyond my screen.

But again, AWESOME movie. And, a lot more violent/bloody than I expected. I kept reading how tough Korea is with their movies, that they don't allow a lot of violence or sexual content. Maybe I got them confused with another country.

Korean dvds have been nothing short of horrendous when it comes to spelling and sub-formatting. Since Memento Mori I have totally given up...In a number of occasions there are spelling errors, missing phrases, or even words that are linked unnecessary together thus creating unrecognizable phrases. If you however are willing to intentionally neglect these imperfections then I suppose you could view their releases.

Pro-B

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one... Overall Korean DVD's are a lot better than say, Hong Kong DVD's in terms of Subtitle quality. Mark W. will back me up on this one...

I never compared Hong Kong dvds to Korean dvds :). My observation is based on the consistent subbing mistakes that I have witnessed with their releases. As i mentioned before there are two problems that appear rather often:

1. Purely grammatical mistakes that for some could be distracting (as far as I am concerned, I simply appreciate the fact that the Koreans actually go the extra mile and provide English subs). You, however, are correct the Korean products are MUCH better than their HK counterparts. I still think however that subs could be significantly improved.

2. On a number of discs I have noticed that there is a synchronization problem. The subs appear too quickly and disappear faster than normal (I am not sure how one would qualify "normal" but let's assume a reasonable time for the viewer to be able to read the subs). In fact DVDTIMES had a rather interesting editorial (in one of their reviews) regarding specifically this issue (in addition to some of the compression problems Korean dvds often have). All in all though in terms of design I will place them at the top* and in terms of video/audio presentation I think that they come second after Japan.

*There are a number of excellent Japanese packages but they come rather pricey for the US consumer so the Korean equivalents are obviously the best choice here.

Pro-B

ps
By the way I dont know if you have this already but....I loved the presentation...
http://www.dvdasian.com/cgi-bin/dvda...XbL&mv_pc=6702

Yes!!! Well, I haven't watched it but I got it just the other day with OLD BOY. Looking forward to it...

I agree, it is tempting...