This Blu-ray has a couple of errors on its packaging. First, it claims to run 174 minutes, but it actually runs 167 minutes, although if it were running at 24 fps, then 174 minutes would be correct (the DVD of the theatrical version has the correct running time). The aspect ratio is correct at exactly or approximately 2.00:1. (IMDb currently claims the film runs 162 minutes and is 1.85:1). Secondly, the film (and the miniseries) does come with English subtitles, but they are not listed on the packaging and not in the menus, you have to enable them with your remote.
I discovered that these releases were English-friendly thanks to information posted in English on the listings at Laserdisken.
The Dolby Digital track is audio description, while the small Danish subtitle file is for non-Danish dialogue (there is some subtitled German dialogue in the film). The larger Danish subtitle file is said to be Danish HoH (Danske for hørehæmmede), though I didn't spot any captions when checking. The English translation uses British English spellings and the quality is excellent, however, the film's title is not subtitled. All subtitling is in white font.
As for the extended TV version, I have not watched it yet, but it has only Danish HoH and English subtitles (once again, the English subtitles are not mentioned on the cover or found in the menu) and a choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 (the default track) or DTS 5.1. I checked the first episode and here the title is subtitled as "A Fortunate Man", though in the past the source novel has been known as "Lucky Per", as well. The discs are 2xDVD-9 and each has two episodes of approximately 55 minutes each. Since the Blu-ray is also running at 25 fps, this means the TV version is about 53 minutes longer, though some of that may be taken up with credits for each of the four episodes.
Neither edition has any extras.
The Blu-ray will not play in a Region A player, so I assume it is Region B locked, as indicated on the packaging. Likewise, the DVDs from the extended version will not play in a Region 1 player, so I assume they are Region 2 locked, as indicated on the packaging.
Code:
Total Video
Title Codec Length Movie Size Disc Size Bitrate Bitrate Main Audio Track Secondary Audio Track
----- ------ ------- -------------- -------------- ------- ------- ------------------ ---------------------
00000.MPLS AVC 2:46:55 44,990,419,200 45,180,204,373 35.94 30.00 DTS-HD Master 5.1 3567Kbps (48kHz/24-bit)
I watched the DVD of the extended TV version today and thought it was good, but it didn't make a huge difference over the Blu-ray, even though two or three of the added scenes do flesh out certain subplots better than in the theatrical version. The source novel is around 800 pages long in English, so clearly, a massive amount of content has to be jettisoned even from this miniseries version, and with only four 55-minute episodes and recaps and end credits on all the episodes, there is probably less than 50 minutes of additional content, some of which is just dialogue extensions cut from scenes. Unfortunately, the DVDs look pretty poor on my 77" 4K TV, enough that I really wished Nordisk Film had put a Blu-ray version out. The theatrical Blu-ray is not perfect itself, but the extended version DVD looks flat and drab in comparison and I also feel that the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track on the Blu-ray is noticeably superior to the DTS 5.1 track on the DVD, particularly for the music and effects, both of which are more vivid on the Blu-ray. The English subtitles are credited to the same subtitler as the theatrical version and are identical except for the added content. I only noticed one or two very small spelling / grammar errors, but obviously, the DVD subtitles, while the same font as the Blu-ray, are rendered in SD and can be a bit rough to look at in comparison to the HD subtitles on the Blu-ray.
I said yesterday that the extended version DVDs have audio description like the theatrical version, but I was mistaken and they do not, so I have amended the previous post. I did try to look at both DVD discs in my PC, but my BD-RE drive absolutely refused to properly load the first disc, even though it worked fine in my region-free Oppo BDP-103 player.
It also seems as though the TV version is now out-of-print at most shops in Denmark, so finding it may be difficult and I wouldn't pay a premium unless you know Danish and / or love the book. The theatrical version Blu-ray is still readily available from most shops, so if you can play 1080/50i Region B discs, I would definitely go for the Blu-ray first.
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Lykke-Per / A Fortunate Man (2018)
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