Noble House (1988 Mini-Series) Blu-ray (Kino Studio Classics)

[MifuneFan]

Kino will be releasing Noble House, the 1988 Television Mini-Series on Blu-ray on February 25th, 2025. It's based on James Clavell's (Shogun) novel of the same name. Each episode will have a commentary track, including one from HK movie expert Frank Djeng (first collab with Kino). The aspect ratio has been confirmed to be 1.66:1.

https://kinolorber.com/product/noble-house

Synopsis

James Clavell’s (Shōgun) blockbuster novel of rivalry, extortion and murder comes to life in this mesmerizing miniseries set in the high stakes business world of Hong Kong. Ian Dunross (Pierce Brosnan, Goldeneye) is named “Tai-Pan” (supreme leader) of the powerful British-East Asia trading company, Struan & Co., just as a rival (John Rhys-Davies, The Lord of the Rings) attempts a hostile takeover. Suddenly plunged into a criminal underworld of international espionage, deception and financial crises. Dunross turns up the heat by engaging in a dangerous romance with his nemesis’s aide (Deborah Raffin, Death Wish 3). But with danger lurking around every corner, Dunross ultimately sees he has no choice but to fight for his company’s honor and survival.

Extras

• Episode 1 Audio Commentary by TV Historian Amanda Reyes
• Episode 2 Audio Commentary by TV Historian Amanda Reyes and Hong Kong Film Historian Frank Djeng
• Episode 3 Audio Commentary by TV Historian Amanda Reyes and host of The Projection Booth podcast Mike White
• Episode 4 Audio Commentary by TV Historians Amanda Reyes and Scott Humphries

[OceanBlue]

Glad to finally see some details about Kino's planned Blu-ray release of Noble House. Haven't checked the main Kino thread yet, but how many discs will there be?

[Righteous Dude]

Still no word on whether this will be a new scan in the original 1:33 aspect ratio. Not holding out much hope at the moment.

[loxly]

is it a good show? enjoyed the book

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by loxly

is it a good show? enjoyed the book

Yeah. It's a good show.

[chanbara]

Can anyone who's gotten it confirm that this release is actually in the original 1.33.1 aspect ratio as the listing page suggests or if it's the same cropped 1.66:1 Studio Canal print from years ago?

[Sommerswerd]

Originally Posted by chanbara

Can anyone who's gotten it confirm that this release is actually in the original 1.33.1 aspect ratio as the listing page suggests or if it's the same cropped 1.66:1 Studio Canal print from years ago?

Someone posted a picture of the back and unfortunately it looks like it is 1.66:1

[chanbara]

Originally Posted by Sommerswerd

Someone posted a picture of the back and unfortunately it looks like it is 1.66:1

Bummer. Thanks for the confirmation.

[Righteous Dude]

Originally Posted by Sommerswerd

Someone posted a picture of the back and unfortunately it looks like it is 1.66:1

Disappointing, but not unexpected.

[torrance_viewer]

This is one of my favorite mini-series of the 1980s. (actually, if we're just looking at US programming, it might be the only 1980s mini-series I care about)

I'm very disappointed to hear it's not a 4:3 release. Furthermore, the existing DVD always struck me as being very good and modern looking. There's no way a 1980s flying spot telecine made something like that, even if it was transferred onto the best SD tape format at the time, D1. So I think it was given an HD transfer when it was first prepared for DVD. I think that started to become standard procedure by the early to mid 2000s, right? They did HD transfers even for things they were going to release on DVD - putting it on something like HDCAM. And now, since Kino says nothing about it being 'remastered' for this release, I suspect they are just taking the same transfer they made in 2008 and putting in on Bluray!

Maybe I'm wrong, hopefully we get a review from someone. However, even if it is better image quality, I'm not going to buy a widescreen version. The DVD looks great at normal viewing distance on my 65" LG OLED.

EDIT: oops I just noticed the other thread about this release. Confirming it had been mastered in 2008. I would wonder how many more of these "we were being future proof in the 2000s, so we scanned at HD resolution" bluray releases there will be of other things.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by torrance_viewer

This is one of my favorite mini-series of the 1980s. (actually, if we're just looking at US programming, it might be the only 1980s mini-series I care about)

I'm very disappointed to hear it's not a 4:3 release. Furthermore, the existing DVD always struck me as being very good and modern looking. There's no way a 1980s flying spot telecine made something like that, even if it was transferred onto the best SD tape format at the time, D1. So I think it was given an HD transfer when it was first prepared for DVD. I think that started to become standard procedure by the early to mid 2000s, right? They did HD transfers even for things they were going to release on DVD - putting it on something like HDCAM. And now, since Kino says nothing about it being 'remastered' for this release, I suspect they are just taking the same transfer they made in 2008 and putting in on Bluray!

Maybe I'm wrong, hopefully we get a review from someone. However, even if it is better image quality, I'm not going to buy a widescreen version. The DVD looks great at normal viewing distance on my 65" LG OLED.

EDIT: oops I just noticed the other thread about this release. Confirming it had been mastered in 2008. I would wonder how many more of these "we were being future proof in the 2000s, so we scanned at HD resolution" bluray releases there will be of other things.

I'm sure it's the same master as on the Aussie release I have from last year. Sadly, so many vintage TV shows have been cropped for widescreen TVs, at least this is only 1.66 and not 1.78.

[torrance_viewer]

Yep, I shelled out for the 4K Seinfeld Blu-rays not because I thought 4K would, on its own, be an notable improvement in my viewing experience, but because it was the only version in the correct aspect ratio! Sheesh..."there oughta be a law"! It does seem the tide is turning a bit towards media producers realizing, "yes, people want to see things as they were originally framed" and "no people aren't worried anymore about destroying their plasma TVs with burn-in" or whatever silly reasoning made full screen, cropped releases of 4:3 content favored for the first couple decades of digital media.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by torrance_viewer

Yep, I shelled out for the 4K Seinfeld Blu-rays not because I thought 4K would, on its own, be an notable improvement in my viewing experience, but because it was the only version in the correct aspect ratio! Sheesh..."there oughta be a law"! It does seem the tide is turning a bit towards media producers realizing, "yes, people want to see things as they were originally framed" and "no people aren't worried anymore about destroying their plasma TVs with burn-in" or whatever silly reasoning made full screen, cropped releases of 4:3 content favored for the first couple decades of digital media.

As physical media is becoming a niche collector market, yep, I think the tide is turning back to OAR for 4:3 TV, mercifully.