I read Jamie S. Rich's DVD review of Chinese Odyssey 2002 at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=38317 and...

Thanks for the review Jamie - I'm surprised Kino didn't change the title to Chinese Odyssey 2009...Can you tell me the difference in the English subtitles with this version and the HK version? Are they the same, better, or worse? I have noticed that any Western release of a HK film usually has better translated English subtitles. Do you remember with your HK DVD if the English subtitles were done well? For example, the English subtitles of the unrelated Chinese Odyssey movies on HK DVD are just plain awful which make those movies unwatchable.

I would worry that this version is similar to the version I saw at the Walter Reade Theater in NYC a few years ago. The film was being distributed by a British distributor, and a few scenes had been cut. The most obvious and utterly inexplicable cuts were the three songs that occur during the course of the action in the movie, on of which features Leung Chiu Wai doing the moonwalk. These cuts not only ruined the continuity (as such) of the movie, but I thought they were pretty funny also. Hard to imagine they were deemed too silly in such an already extremely silly movie.

I highly recommend seeking out the HK version. The subtitles are fine, and any improvement on them in the Kino version I think would be far outweighed by what they've cut out of the movie. This is one of my favorite movies: It's funny, it's got great performances by not only the main stars but a lot of great actors in small roles (e.g., Athena Chu's rabbit character), and it's even kind of touching in the end.

I find it odd that a movie this good would sit around for 7 years and then get picked up and edited down for release.

Sorry I didn't respond right away. I wanted to do a sampling of the old DVD before answering and kept forgetting. The HK disc is definitely less smooth than the Kino version, but I wouldn't call it unwatchable. Granted, with these kinds of discs, mileage varies, but I agree with the previous poster that though the HK is not as well-written in terms of translation, it's still worth it.