Our Little Sister 4K UHD (2015) from Plain Archive

[qw0aszx]

Plain Archive is releasing Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2015 film OUR LITTLE SISTER on UHD.



According to their social media, the feature will be presented with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision grade, English subtitles will be included for the feature film. The making-of documentary will be presented in HD for the first time.

[qw0aszx]

This film was shot on 35mm film and the DI was finished in 2K, so I'm curious how the end result would be. PA posted the comparisons between HD and 4K yesterday, unfortunately I'm getting the senses of AI enhancement in those increased details of the 4K caps, similar to the Well Go USA release of The Wailing 4K, and those "remastered" releases from Turbine which was actually AI enhanced. Following are the comparisons:

[Show spoiler]

[nicwood]

As a huge fan of Kore-eda, I was already rejoicing when I saw the thread title but this is just disappointing. Why can’t they just use the 2K DI and encode it properly on a UHD with its full color gamut or maybe subtly grade it for HDR similar to Inglorious Basterds and all the other faithful 2K DI upscales we’ve gotten in the past.

A part of me wishes that this release fails but if it does, it’ll send the wrong lesson to them that there isn’t demand for films like that on 4K. And if it sells, they’ll carry on with more AI upscales like this.

[Magyalmar]

Does anybody know at what time the preorder will start? I saw the info somewhere but can't find it back.

[r32]

Pre-order start at 4pm (Korea) on July 16th, release date is Aug 19th.

[ZombAid]

Pre-Order is up.
65$ shipped to Germany is a bit too steep for me.
I liked the film very much, but the possibility of this being a mediocre (AI) upscale really makes the purchase price even more of a wild gamble for me...

[Magyalmar]

I couldn't sit out on that one since it's easily in my top 100 films. I'll happily play the crash test dummy and will let you know what the result looks and sounds like.

Worst case scenario it should be easy to resell.

[Blasst67]

I ordered it today also, I have wanted to watch it, but never got around to it, hoping for a good 4K UHD on this one.

[KamomeShokudo]

One of my all time favourite movies, ordered it today without hesitation. Am sickened to see that it's an AI upscale. The "newly upgraded in HD" note on the making of documentary now makes even more sense. Can't believe a company like PLAIN is going to these lengths, for no good reason other than a few more sales, terrible.

[CelestialAgent]

I asked PLAIN about the master and this was their response.

https://twitter.com/plainarchive/sta...1za4uTgS1m74kA

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by KamomeShokudo

Am sickened to see that it's an AI upscale. The "newly upgraded in HD" note on the making of documentary now makes even more sense.

In the follow up reply, they say the documentary was produced in HD and is not an upscale, despite the previous DVD release.

[KamomeShokudo]

Well that's something, because I'm seen some dreadful AI upscale jobs on special features on blu-ray release lately, especially from Imprint. I still think their statement on the master skirts around the fact they've used AI and (I'm assuming) have added fake grain. There's only so much you do with an upscale before you start creating details inauthentically that aren't there.

[Jack Priest]

Originally Posted by qw0aszx

This film was shot on 35mm film and the DI was finished in 2K, so I'm curious how the end result would be. PA posted the comparisons between HD and 4K yesterday, unfortunately I'm getting the senses of AI enhancement in those increased details of the 4K caps, similar to the Well Go USA release of The Wailing 4K, and those "remastered" releases from Turbine which was actually AI enhanced. Following are the comparisons:

[Show spoiler]

There is a suspicious level of clarity, especially in the first image. Suspiciously sharp also. However, I can't see anything wrong with the images. It's hard to say what they've done. The Little Drummer Girl was originally 2K, but they rebuilt that from scratch for their 4K release, so it's not out of the question for them.

Here is their Facebook comment (from the international page) about The Little Drummer Girl:

"* The Little Drummer Girl: Director’s Cut - 4K Transfer

We’ve described the video as 4K ‘Native’. According to the LAB tasked with DI, it means: NOT 2K Upscaled.

The Little Drummer Girl was shot in 3.4K(source). While putting the Director’s Cut together, the 3.4K source was slightly upconverted to 4K DI. A mere 1% of the show has been 2K upscaled due to CGI.

The original televised version shown by the BBC and AMC is 2K DI. The IMDB page states 2K DI, which reflects the broadcast version. The Little Drummer Girl: Director’s Cut is available exclusively from Watcha, a Korean streaming service and Plain Archive."

[qw0aszx]

Originally Posted by Jack Priest

There is a suspicious level of clarity, especially in the first image. Suspiciously sharp also. However, I can't see anything wrong with the images. It's hard to say what they've done. The Little Drummer Girl was originally 2K, but they rebuilt that from scratch for their 4K release, so it's not out of the question for them. I think for that release they said just 2% of it was upscaled due to CGI, but the rest was the real deal.

This is definitely not a rebuild from the original scans, even they said it's an upscale from 2K master (though they do not clarify if it's AI upscale or not). This is very similar to those "remastered" releases from Turbine, they use AI enhancement to the image, just enough to add the fake details but not too much obvious, you can see one of the results of their AI remastered disc here: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...174026&i=1&l=0

[Jack Priest]

Originally Posted by qw0aszx

This is definitely not a rebuild from the original scans, even they said it's an upscale from 2K master (though they do not clarify if it's AI upscale or not). This is very similar to those "remastered" releases from Turbine, they use AI enhancement to the image, just enough to add the fake details but not too much obvious, you can see one of the results of their AI remastered disc here: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...174026&i=1&l=0

I mean, I suppose any upscale is AI to some.degree, but yeah, to get results like that, they've definitely done some tinkering then. I have this pre-ordered, in the post right now actually, I love the packaging, would rather it just included a standard Blu-ray with a left-alone image though. I don't like where this is going.

[PGW]

If it was just a matter of the clarity in Suzu's hair (in the first comparison shot) I'd suspect AI was involved, but the entire image is clearer, and so are the other screenshots. For heaven's sake, look at the shot of Sachi and Suzu walking in the woods - if AI is responsible for the uptick in clarity there, then all power to it.

We'll know fairly soon, I guess. I just got a shipping notice.
By the way, it looks like the Limited Edition is sold out @ plainarchive even before the release date.

UPDATE: It's available again!

[Peach Boy]

Plain Archive shipped fast, already got mine. Wish I had time to watch it today, but I'll have to check it out tomorrow.

[PGW]

I got mine today and just skimmed through it - very, very detailed image. Nothing looked fake or artificially sharpened to me. Looking forward to reading other people's opinions.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by PGW

I got mine today and just skimmed through it - very, very detailed image. Nothing looked fake or artificially sharpened to me. Looking forward to reading other people's opinions.

Are you by any chance able to make screenshots?

[Peach Boy]

I'm also looking forward to what anyone else thinks of the transfer once they can examine the technical stuff.

I just finished watching it, and only one scene towards the start of the final quarter (near a beach) stood out as looking noticeably little weird to me. But I really have no eye for this kind of thing so, hard for me to say.