The Bullet Train (1975) [Eureka | Eureka Classics] - April 24, 2023

[MechaGodzilla]

Coming from Eureka on April 24 this year.

SYNOPSIS

Ken Takakura stars as a mad bomber who plants a device on a high-speed Japanese train, programmed to detonate if the train’s speed drops below 80 kilometres per hour. The trains conductor (Sonny Chiba) must keep the train moving whilst the police track the madman down.

Most well-known for inspiring the 1994 Hollywood blockbuster Speed, The Bullet Train is a remarkably tense thriller from director Junya Satō, and Eureka Classics is proud to present it in this definitive edition for its UK debut on Blu-ray.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Limited Edition slipcase featuring new artwork by Tony Stella [2000 copies]
• 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the original film elements
• Original Japanese theatrical version and alternate dubbed International version included
• Optional English subtitles
• Brand new audio commentary by Jasper Sharp and Tom Mes
• Brand new interview with author / critic Kim Newman
• Brand new interview with Tony Rayns
• "Big Movie, Big Panic: Junya Sato on The Bullet Train" archival featurette
• Trailers
• A limited edition collectors booklet featuring a new essay by film writer Barry Forshaw [2000 copies]

Eureka official site link: The Bullet Train

[McCrutchy]

As I posted in the Eureka thread, I have already ordered this as my Twilight Time BD is packed away somewhere. I think the US version is around 115 minutes, so I'm a bit nervous about two versions of the film and extras on one disc given that the original version is already 152 minutes, but hopefully there is a great encode. The new extras are also enticing and the artwork is another nice touch.

Here is Eureka's trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygBhZDeKnuQ

[Takuma]

I posted this in the Eureka thread already, but I guess it won't hurt to post it here as well.

Originally Posted by Ben_C

I see Dvdbeaver have their review up for The Bullet Train. The Eureka release looks rather nice compared to the Twilight Time one.

Originally Posted by Dailyan

Looks like an old HD master with all the sharpening, black crush, and clunky "grain".

Originally Posted by latehong

Can't say I like what I see, either. I was hoping for the master the German Subkultur Blu-ray used back in 2013, or an improved version of it. (Caps-a-holic comparison between Twilight Time and Subkultur)



Wonder if the upcoming Discotek Media version will use the same master.

Well this is very, very odd. Toei Channel has been airing a 4K remaster on TV (down-converted to 2K) since 2019. I recorded it two years ago. So why is the 2023 Eureka release being touted as "2K restoration of the original film elements"? And why has the Eureka turned teal while the TV master has much more natural colors?

I took a few screencaps of my recording with MPC and compared them to DVD Beaver and Caps a Holic caps.

Twilight Time (DVDBeaver)


Eureka (DVDBeaver)


Toei Channel (TV) (screencap by me)


Twilight Time (DVDBeaver)


Eureka (DVDBeaver)


Toei Channel (TV) (screencap by me)


Twilight Time (Caps a Holic)


Subkultur (Caps a Holic)


Toei Channel (TV) (screencap by me)


I'm not sure how did this happen. How did we go from Toei's natural looking 2019 4K remaster to Eureka's 2023 teal edition? Did Toei send it to them like that? I hope Discotek will fare better. They released Shogun’s Samurai last year, and that disc at least looked more or less the same as Toei’s 4K that airs on TV, though I haven't done a comparison.

[derek_1999]

The 'wonders of teal' LOL... it's something all modern grading artists seem to add to everything.

I yearn for the 'golden' hues of the 60's & 70's, alongside strong blacks/whites (to avoid the flat de-saturated & de-contrasted look that's also 'popular').

Having said that, I'll end up buying this anyway

[NLScavenger]

I'm gonna wait for proper screencaps without color space conversion issues or aliasing in colors because of low quality nearest neighbor chroma upscaling. It's funny that people subscribe to DVDBeaver's Patreon for poor quality VLC screencaps.

[M A]

Originally Posted by Takuma

I'm not sure how did this happen. How did we go from Toei's natural looking 2019 4K remaster to Eureka's 2023 teal edition? Did Toei send it to them like that? I hope Discotek will fare better. They released Shogun’s Samurai last year, and that disc at least looked more or less the same as Toei’s 4K that airs on TV, though I haven't done a comparison.

The Toei master looks magenta pushed to me in those screencaps

[DukeTogo84]

I would say the Toei channel version is easily the best looking. I'm curious what the Eureka final version will look like and will be interesting to see if the Discotek release will also have the huge teal push. I asked them, so lets see what they say.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by M A

The Toei master looks magenta pushed to me in those screencaps

Only because you're seeing it next to the teal shot. It is not.

[M A]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Only because you're seeing it next to the teal shot. It is not.

I checked the hex codes of it and you are right. Then I checked the settings of the monitor I was viewing them on and I realised they were all wrong

[MifuneFan]

It's definitely has a more heavy teal push in certain scenes, but if you look at some of the other (smaller) caps from DVDBeaver, it's at least not a blanket teal job. These look fine to me. Takuma, feel free to post any matching shots to these

[russweiss1]

Eureka is now shipping this if you ordered direct.

[hanz0]

THE BULLET TRAIN Unboxing Video - YouTube

[tomblu]

Just watched this one.

Fantastic film, thoroughly enjoyed it. Transfer looked great and so does the artwork. Not had chance to check the extras out or the booklet yet.

Any recommendations of similar Japanese titles or more from the actors in this one?

[AlanUK]

Arrived today

[rapta]

Originally Posted by tomblu

Just watched this one.

Fantastic film, thoroughly enjoyed it. Transfer looked great and so does the artwork. Not had chance to check the extras out or the booklet yet.

Any recommendations of similar Japanese titles or more from the actors in this one?

Eureka have already mentioned they have another title from the director Jun'ya Sato on the way (which will most likely be Golgo 13) but in the mean time check out these if you haven't already:

[raybestos]

Why bother to even include the English-dubbed version if you're going to give it an absurd bitrate of only 10 mbps? That's an insult and the reason I'm not buying the disc. Even though I actually like the film. Why did they have to be so cheap so as to not give us another disc with a properly-encoded version of the International version? Damn it.

Also, we have a ridiculous tealification job here. Why? "Modernization"? A 1975 film shouldn't look like a bastardized 2023 film. The previous Blu-ray release had much better color-timing, but less detail. This Eureka release looks digitally-tweaked and artificially sharpened to appeal to "modern" audiences. Fail.

I've usually been highly impressed with Eureka, but not this time, by a longshot. At least give us the option to place a dubbed English audio as a second audio track synced in the Japanese cut (with subtitles in the Japanese-only footage). That way, quality would remain high and we wouldn't need tp watch a compression artefact-fest in the lousy other version.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I've also seen their whole explanation of how they're presenting the export version, and it just seems so weirdly shoddy compared to their usual handling of alternate versions for Hong Kong movies, for example. In particular there's this wishy-washy approach to titles unique to the export version -- you get the English opening and closing credits, but anything during the film is left in Japanese with a subtitle track giving the text of the English titles.



Just so weirdly compromised and not committed to any one approach, even ignoring the allotment of space on the disc.

I was already planning to wait and see if Discotek's release also had the export version; now I'll probably just go for theirs whether it's there or not -- Eureka's presentation isn't good enough to justify importing it, and even if Discotek doesn't improve on it, I could do it myself.

[saltysam]

i watched this today, the longer version and thought it looked very good

[John Earls Umbrella]

Originally Posted by raybestos

Why bother to even include the English-dubbed version if you're going to give it an absurd bitrate of only 10 mbps? That's an insult and the reason I'm not buying the disc. Even though I actually like the film. Why did they have to be so cheap so as to not give us another disc with a properly-encoded version of the International version? Damn it.

Also, we have a ridiculous tealification job here. Why? "Modernization"? A 1975 film shouldn't look like a bastardized 2023 film. The previous Blu-ray release had much better color-timing, but less detail. This Eureka release looks digitally-tweaked and artificially sharpened to appeal to "modern" audiences. Fail.

I've usually been highly impressed with Eureka, but not this time, by a longshot. At least give us the option to place a dubbed English audio as a second audio track synced in the Japanese cut (with subtitles in the Japanese-only footage). That way, quality would remain high and we wouldn't need tp watch a compression artefact-fest in the lousy other version.

Just got mine today, but considering sending it back in light of this.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by raybestos

Why bother to even include the English-dubbed version if you're going to give it an absurd bitrate of only 10 mbps? That's an insult and the reason I'm not buying the disc. Even though I actually like the film. Why did they have to be so cheap so as to not give us another disc with a properly-encoded version of the International version?

Agreed. They could have done a 2-BD LE for the international version and made good money like they did for Millionaire Express, and Arrow has done for several of the Argento movies. I guess someone at Eureka made a poor decision during the authoring phase. I'm not a big bitrate counter but 10Mbps (assuming that's the average) does sound quite low, reaching near DVD levels. It's similar to Criterion's blu-ray encoding of their specially produced English text version of Vampyr, which also had an abysmal bitrate and looked barely different from the DVD version.