Got my copy from Jokers directly (my last purchase from them directly - horrendous packaging). It’s a big and heavy set although not without its flaws. The packaging looks nice from the outside but for whatever reason they decided to use the worst kind of disc hubs. It’s the same ones Criterion used for their initial pressing of All About Eve, these black foam-like things. I took all the discs out and couldn’t get them back in. A nightmare.
It’s funny that Jokers specifically advertised this particular packaging as "an exceptional packaging without any plastic". I’m not sure if I should laugh here.
And by the way, it appears they produced these discs in Mexico. My UHD has scratches and a fingerprint. The rings of the discs look that way too, so no Sonopress or other European manufacturing logos. What about the carbon footprint now, The Jokers? Are the French pressing plants so busy?
I kind of regret giving them my money for this but the UHD (BD-100 with Dolby Vision) is too "necessary" to let that opportunity slide. First of all, the new Atmos mix is very good and adequately bombastic. The image is a direct port of the original DI, which is sadly not so great news as Bong Joon-ho employed an abundance of tools to shape the celluloid capture into the digital mush the film is locked inside now. Resolution on this UHD is never more than HD and the VFX are as bad as in The Pianist with DNR and all the rest. A fine shot is often followed by a watercolor painting. In addition, Bong employed grain management nearly throughout the film. This has been the case from day one on the old BD and is the exact case here. The only big difference: Encoding. The Jokers’ encoding is so much superior to the old Optimum BD (VC-1) that it’s shocking in the best sense. This UHD painfully reveals the visual shortcomings of the film without any filter. We’ve got to accept this if we want or not - if they didn’t do a rebuild for this edition, they likely won’t for another one. This UHD is what a well-mastered BD should have always looked like. For that I’m happy but blame any issues on Bong.
No English subs are available and the French subs are not forced. Original Korean subtitles during foreign portions, such as the opening English dialogue, were taken over, which is wonderful.
The extra swag inside the edition looks lovely (no idea about the bonus disc), especially the storyboard book which is (admirably) translated into French AND English, both appearing underneath the original Korean. I’m sure this will remain my favorite extra of the edition.
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The Host 4K UHD (2006) (France)
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