Ashes of Time
 

I know that the Mei Ah and Zoke versions have horrible transfers, but I found a version I've never heard of on Yesasia.com. Can anyone tell me about the transfer of this DVD.

http://us.yesasia.com/assocred.asp?C...ection-videos/

Good question. The absence of English subs have kept me away and that's probably why there is a lack of English language reviews of this disc. But, ASHES OF TIME seems to be a film that always suffers from bad presentations, and it's really a shame because it's an amazing film. I just hope that this isn't due to problems finding decent source prints of the film and that a full restoration can happen someday. (it's sad that a film so recent can run into problems like this but Hong Kong isn't known for good film preservation, unfortunately).

The Japanese DVD has no eng subs if that is important.
Dont know about the transfer....

couldn't find a comparison including this release... not even a screenshot anywhere. I'm sure you noticed, but not only does it lack english subs, but the audio track is Japanese dubbed too. If the transfer was good, someone with alot of free time could take the video and create a subtitle track file and burn it and make heaps off ebay. Mei Ah has been re-releasing some of their films lately with better transfers and such, so maybe this will be on their list.

That's probably our best hope!

I noticed the mention of a Japanese audio track at yesasia, but I'm sure that's a mistake. CDJapan mentions a "Chinese" audio track (surely Cantonese), and Japanese releases very rarely (if ever) substitute a Japanese dubbed audio track for the original soundtrack (they may offer it as an option at times, but not instead of). It's funny, I was thinking that if the transfer was good, it would be worth it to try to add subs (I would like to try this with the French SE of FIST OF LEGEND :) ). Let's hope for a Mei Ah remaster. :up:

As they say, patience is the best virtue, especially when it comes to Wong Kar-Wai.

Expect more than just a remaster with Ashes of Time.

Interesting...are you at liberty to tell us a bit more? :)

This is my favourite Wong film and one of my favourite films overall, so I'm just dying for a nice DVD of it.

I won't go into details, but the mess over international rights of Ashes of Time was solved only recently. Let's just say that you are likelier to see the film in a theatre again in the near future.

That would make it identical to the Japan-pressed Hong Kong laserdisc release, which had a Cantonese mono track, a Japanese stereo track, and Chinese and English subtitles (and the most beautiful foldout cover, with two different inner covers). Quite good PQ for a HK laserdisc, too.

:jawdrop: :up: :up:

That's right....
 

Wong just oversaw a new transfer/cut of the film.

Cooooool.

I've never seen the film, not bought the DVDs because of the reportedly terrible quality... so I'd be very interested in seeing it on a big screen. And hopefully then again on DVD. :)

Anyone heard anything new about the new print/transfer of Ashes of Time?

awesome news...i'll sell my disc off when it hits theaters....good movie, great director. Who will get the dvd rights i wonder.

need updates...

Damnit Cam! I was planning to do a 1 year bump on this. Anyway ...

Any updates to the status of this?

Nope.

Oh well ... thanks anyway Grim

Last time I saw Wong he was busy with other projects. Looks like he's put this on the backburner. But I'm not sure, since that was a few months ago...

so whats the best version out there of this film?

Theres is no good version

Plus the Region 1 version just went OOP.

Finally!!!

http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/008075.html#more

Redux? I wonder if anyone's going to bitch about this like they do about Lucas changing Star Wars or Spielberg changing E.T.?

Is this version worth a crap? http://www.fnac.com/Shelf/article.as...b80230008&Fr=0

The only reasons anybody would have to complain about a redux is if Wong digitally replaced Leslie Cheung with Hayden Christensen or replaced everybody's swords with walkie talkies. ;)

Patience with this has been extremely difficult. I'm glad a nice transfer is coming sometime in the near future. :up:

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...php?fid=2944#4

From that, it looks like you're working with forced French subtitles and some forms of cut in the runtime.

Four minutes of the opening scene (the two swordsmen fight and the attack of the outlaws) are missing and I suppose the PAL speedup which reduce of 4% the duration.