The Twilight Samurai (2002) - November 11, 2014 - Limited to 3,000 copies

[Akijama]

Pre-order http://www3.screenarchives.com/title...-SAMURAI-2002/



Courtesy of Twilight Time

One Of The Best Reviewed Films Of The Year

Set in the late nineteenth century as the feudal Shogun period was giving way to the Meiji Restoration, Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a low-ranking samurai of the Unasaka clan in Shonai Province of northeast Japan. The divorce of his childhood friend Tomoe (Rie Miyazawa) leads him into a confrontation with her violent ex-husband, a high-ranking samurai. Just as Seibei begins to dream that despite his impoverishment he might win the hand of the long loved Tomoe, he is caught in the shifting turmoil of the times and is assigned, against his wishes, to confront and kill a renowned warrior on the wrong side of a clan power struggle.

IMDB - 8.2 ( 15,823 users )

Rotten Tomatoes - 99 % ( 68 reviews counted )

The Twilight Samurai Movie Trailer HD (2002) - YouTube

[MifuneFan]

Great movie. Too bad it's with TT though, I likely won't spend $35 for this..

edit: There is an HK version that's very cheap. Not sure how the transfer is though:

http://dddhouse.com/v3/product_detai...roductID=11620

[tsetse27]

!!!

who own the right of this one in US? does this means TT has access to other studio's library now (not just Sony/Columbia/MGN)?

I have the HK one, and it is not good: I am not AV expert but I believe the contrast is wrong (black become like gray.)

[Swift1246]

I want this movie badly! But Twilight Time, at $35 is rediculous.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by tsetse27

!!!

who own the right of this one in US? does this means TT has access to other studio's library now (not just Sony/Columbia/MGN)?

I have the HK one, and it is not good: I am not AV expert but I believe the contrast is wrong (black become like gray.)

I read any contrast issues might be inherent to how it was filmed. A few people have said the PQ us very good, including Blu Titan just now in the TT thread.

[ultlife2013]

Originally Posted by Swift1246

I want this movie badly! But Twilight Time, at $35 is rediculous.

It's also ridiculous.

[manicsounds]

$35 is not that ridiculous considering the Japanese blu-ray is listed at $50, and didn't carry over the 200 minutes of extras from the DVD edition.

I'd like to know what Twilight Time will do with the extras. Hard to believe that the US DVD was non-anamorphic widescreen...

[lolwut]

Wow, 99% and 8.2. I've never heard of this film. I don't like romances though.

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by tsetse27

!!!

who own the right of this one in US? does this means TT has access to other studio's library now (not just Sony/Columbia/MGN)?

I have the HK one, and it is not good: I am not AV expert but I believe the contrast is wrong (black become like gray.)

The levels were encoded high on the US dvd too. I wouldn't expect the TT release to be any different, unless they tweak the levels themselves. I'd presume it to be from the same master - US producers don't always have much say over the master they're provided for foreign films, not even the majors like Sony. Foreign producers don't tweak their home video product as heavily as some US producers do. As such their masters are often more faithful: more detail, less ringing, the levels haven't been cranked to appease the masses. The only downside is that such sometimes means less meticulous compression (artifacting that hasn't been digitally cleaned/corrected in problem spots) and a greater likelihood of encoding errors, like lip sync or color timing.

If the video levels are only encoded higher than they're supposed to be or higher than you prefer, that can easily be corrected by lowering your displays white levels. Remember, calibration only optimizes the display, not the material. In most cases black and white levels are one of the few things that we consumers can pretty effectively compensate for ourselves, if the studio messes them up, without seriously compromising fidelity - which in the case of black and white levels, we can only guess at what the DP intended. If post was rushed, even the theatrical run may not have been what they wanted. Regardless, your own enjoyment is what most matters. And if lowering brightness enhances the movie for you, sobeit.

This is one of your better non-Kurosawa samurai films. I'd definitely recommend it for what the HK import is selling for on amazon, assuming the criticism above is all that ails it and it's the official release, not some bootleg. If resolution still looks like HD and compression doesn't make it look like some streaming rental or youtube video, all else can be fixed or greatly compensated for by the end user.

[Mansinthe]

some gamma adjustment did do wonders to the HK bluray on my projector !
but still it didnt look much like a HD Release after all. ;(

i got the first two movies from HK (BD) and part 3 from the UK (DVD)
there is not really much of a difference between these 3 releases in picture quality..

[Canvas of Flesh]

I have the HK releases for both The Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade. From what I could see, the films definitely aren't very pretty, but it looks like most of that comes down to the source material. I don't think either of the releases had special features. They both had very good audio, but they're not really action films, so don't expect a ton of LFE or anything. The subtitles were also great and I don't remember seeing any typos or grammatical errors.

If you're just looking to see these great films, I'd suggest importing them.

[Grethiwha]

I've looked at Twilight Time's November releases – how did I not notice this one until now? My favourite modern samurai movie, a phenomenal film. Is this not the first Japanese or even foreign-language film TT's put out? Never would've expected to see this from them.

Anyway, I just imported the HK blu-ray back in June, so I don't think I'll be double-dipping, not considering TT prices. I sampled the PQ on the HK blu-ray though, and was not very impressed; it looks very soft, weak contrast... I can live with it... But I'll be interested to see how the TT release compares.

[Scottie]

RELEASE DATE: November 11th, 2014
PRE-ORDER DATE: Wednesday, October 22nd at 4 pm EST.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Isolated Score Track / Original Theatrical Trailer

[MifuneFan]

Looks good. A little sparse, but that fits the movie. The empty space in the left is bothering me a little though, like the Feng Shui is off or something

[Fellini912]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I have not bought anything by TT, and plan to keep it that way, the cover is very deceiving. This is definitely not a Zatoichi film.

Buyers should understand the blood stain on the cover is exactly the same quantity of blood you will see in the film. If not less.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Fellini912

I have not bought anything by TT, and plan to keep it that way, the cover is very deceiving. This is definitely not a Zatoichi film.

Buyers should understand the blood stain on the cover is exactly the same quantity of blood you will see in the film. If not less.

I don't think many would think of Zatoichi when looking at that just because of one bloodstain. I'd also hope people paying $35 for the movie wouldn't be doing so blindly off just some cover art.

Also, the cover is inspired by original poster art

[Grethiwha]

Neat. Well, it beats the Hong Kong cover art anyway.

Twilight Time's November slate is actually ridiculously good; Birdman of Alcatraz, Judgment at Nuremberg, When the Wind Blows, Twilight Samurai... better dare I say than any of Criterion's selections in a given month this year. Not a TT fan though, and Birdman is the only must for me, from them. But this could be a tempting double-dip.

Also, Hiroyuki Sanada!

[joenostalgia23]

Twilight Time is always hit or miss with their artwork.

With this one, I would've preferred the actual poster than what they've done here. I also really don't like the title treatment, it's cheesy with that font and hard to read. Also Japanese text is written from top to bottom, but columns from right to left so it looks like the film is called Samurai Twilight The.

They should've just used the original English title treatment and kept it horizontal.

Also the blood stain looks like he sharted Bad Grandpa style.

[Icemouth]

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

Also Japanese text is written from top to bottom, but columns from right to left so it looks like the film is called Samurai Twilight The.

Luckily it's not Japanese text then

[GxyExpress999]

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

Twilight Time is always hit or miss with their artwork.

With this one, I would've preferred the actual poster than what they've done here. I also really don't like the title treatment, it's cheesy with that font and hard to read. Also Japanese text is written from top to bottom, but columns from right to left so it looks like the film is called Samurai Twilight The.

They should've just used the original English title treatment and kept it horizontal.

Also the blood stain looks like he sharted Bad Grandpa style.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the BD artwork either, but at least the title font is a bit less confusing than the ones used for The Fury IMO.