Il Mare (R3) Spectrum
 

I ordered this film from DVDAsian a few weeks ago. This is a fine DVD and a fine film. It really makes me angry that U.S. moviegoers are short-changed from seeing so many fine world films. "The Lake House" was a good film, but the acting in "Il Mare", the original story was superb and the film had an almost 60s kind of feel, especially with the Christmas motif that seemed to be toned down a bit for the American version.

One interesting thing about this disc that I hadn't noticed on another disc I've had was the ability to set it either 4:3 pan and scan or 4:3 letterbox. Most DVDs I've had have letterbox as default with no pan and scan. I know this can be a touchy subject, and get into the director's original vision and whatnot, but what I'm saying is it's a rare thing to actually have a DVD use some of the features so often touted but rarely use.

The Spectrum DVD is the best, although to be honest, the only one I ordered. It also comes with the film soundtrack, which is superb. What puzzles me is that the use of English is so dominant as a world language, that even the menu was in English (for the most part). I wonder how Korean monoglots navigate their way through it!

The DVD also includes an audio director's commentary, but only in Korean, no English subtitles. I wish I could understand Korean, would love to know what he said.

I also ordered a Filipino film from them, but it has been backordered. The experience with them has been "interesting" to say the least. However I am much pleased with "Il Mare" and highly recommend it. Be warned, it is most definitely a "chick flick", not a lot of action or anything. ;-) But a really good film, I highly recommend.

Larry

If you search you can find other threads about this movie. It's been discussed here for a long time. :)


http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....hlight=il+mare

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....hlight=il+mare

this dvd still has dodgy subtitles right ?

Il Mare? I don't remember any sub problems with this disc.

Are you thinking about another release?

No, this is what I heard, too...that there's no release out there with well-translated subtitles.

I don't recall that the subs were that bad. I didn't jump out at me when I watched it before reading complaints about the subs later. It's nothing like the machine generated translations that some recent mainland companies have been using.

The 2 Disc KR release I have had crappy subs. The case is the one with the foldout held together with a magnet. You had to read it twice to get what their saying. There was a lot of grammatical errors.

From what I've heard: The Spectrum release has the poorly written subtitles. The Edko release (that I have) has much better translations but many are cut off before they end. You can usually figure out what's cut off by the context but it's distracting and annoying. AFAIK there is no release that is satisfactory.

I watched the Il-Mare Re-Edition 3DVD set I bought from dvdfromkorea last night.

http://www.dvdfromkorea.com/

It’s a gorgeous package for a beautiful and moving story. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the transfer - colors seemed washed out, and many artifacts, etc, and yes the subtitles are appalling. But, definitely worth watching.

Yeah, the subtitles left a lot to be desired. The translation was not perfect, but not so bad you couldn't understand what was going on. I cannot compare it to the other releases as I haven't bought them.

Wish the Director's Commentary would have had subtitles. Also the Spectrum release has a bonus CD soundtrack. Great music IMHO.

Larry

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22293

My review of the 3-disc Re-release.

bumped.

So there's still no "definitive" version of this film available? I just watched "The Lake House", which was better than I expected, and now I REALLY want to see "Il Mare".

Still nothing, eh?

Maybe I should give up... :(

Even if there still isn't a good one, you should get it, one version or the other, pick your poison, poor translations or truncated subs. Even though either choice is far from ideal, the film is wonderful and that shines through. An 80% experience of a wonderful film is better than no film at all.

Or you could learn Korean. ;)