Little Buddha 4K UHD (1993)

[Pieter V]

Coming Soon on 4KUHD & Blu-ray!
Little Buddha (1993) Starring Keanu Reeves, Bridget Fonda, Chris Isaak, Ruocheng Ying & Alex Wiesendanger – Shot by Vittorio Storaro – Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto – Screenplay by Rudy Wurlitzer & Mark Peploe – Story by Bernardo Bertolucci – Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
To be released in selected theaters by Kino Lorber Repertory
https://kinolorber.com/list/kinolorberrepertory

https://www.facebook.com/KinoLorberStudioClassics/

[bergman864]

I think I watched this in school once. I remember liking it then. Can't believe it's getting a 4K. Pretty awesome news.

[Monterey Jack]

Hey, Little Buddha...!

[Leandrino]

Great news! I hope it'll be the original 2.39:1 aspect ratio and not Storaro's Univisium version, or what it's called...

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by Leandrino

Great news! I hope it'll be the original 2.39:1 aspect ratio and not Storaro's Univisium version, or what it's called...

The Imprint BD already comes with a 4K restoration, maybe it’s the one KL licensed as well. The AR is sadly 2.00:1 Univisium.

[Leandrino]

Originally Posted by nicwood

The Imprint BD already comes with a 4K restoration, maybe it’s the one KL licensed as well. The AR is sadly 2.00:1 Univisium.

That would be very disappointing... but you're probably right, I just looked up the Imprint version online.

I wonder why The Last Emperor was finally restored in the original 2.39:1 AR, although for years only a Univisium version was available...

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by Leandrino

That would be very disappointing... but you're probably right, I just looked up the Imprint version online.

I wonder why The Last Emperor was finally restored in the original 2.39:1 AR, although for years only a Univisium version was available...

The restoration was done by Turbine in Germany without the involvement of Vittorio Storaro, definitely the key reason that we got the OAR back after so many years.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

This supposedly comes from TF1 or StudioCanal (both of which control parts of the CIBY2000 catalog) as Kino are screening it theatrically. Since Kino doesn't have theatrical rights to Miramax titles, it's obvious their rights had expired at some point.

IIRC, isn't the 4k on the Imprint BD an older one done in SDR? Since Kino are doing UHD and almost never have 4k SDR releases, I imagine this could be a new HDR master and possibly in OAR as opposed to the 2:1 Universim.

[qw0aszx]

Originally Posted by nicwood

The Imprint BD already comes with a 4K restoration, maybe it’s the one KL licensed as well. The AR is sadly 2.00:1 Univisium.

Is the Imprint BD truly from a new restoration? They always using old HD master then claim it's a new 2K or 4K restoration, so I doubt if their release of LITTLE BUDDHA is from the new restoration.

[dkelly26666]

Always great to get more Betrolucci.

[Leandrino]

I had the chance to compare the German disc from 2015 and the Australian disc from last year... well, I'd say it's the exact same master used on both discs. Minor dirt and debris seem to be visible in the same spots. Grain - when visible at all - looks often coarse. Since it seems to be a that old master then, I'd say there is still a good chance we'll get a new scan with more restoration work and an HDR pass done on the 4K disc! Maybe even the original aspect ratio, be it 2.20:1 or 2.39:1 due to the different negative film used for shooting the movie, will be restored.

And another thing I wanna mention are those terribly blue scenes in Seattle. Good grief, were they really THAT blue in cinemas when the movie came out? It looks like day for night scenes mostly! I know that the blue tinge is on purpose, but I still think that for the old master the blue was just cranked up way too hard.

[zoozilla]

Interesting comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvNVG6UOvP0

Clearly there's an increase in resolution, but the framing is shifted to the left and the color timing is pretty drastic. Oh, Storaro...

[bigrob]

At one point, i swear there was a cap for Avatar in there with all that BLUE

[MifuneFan]

The blue shots are to show nit levels. The movie does not have any drastic blue grading.

[meremortal]

Now that's a random uhd release. IIRC, this movie was sold for a short time on vhs at McDonald's. It was actually kind of a big deal at the time and I wouldn't be surprised if they moved a ton of copies of that Garth Brooks greatest hits cd in the 90s that way.

[bigrob]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The blue shots are to show nit levels. The movie does not have any drastic blue grading.

You sure about that?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by bigrob

You sure about that?

[Show spoiler]

Sorry, yeah,,you're right. There are scenes that are "normal" that are changed to blue to highlight nit levels (see pic below), so I missed the ones that were actually blanketed teal while skimming the video. I don't know what this film is supposed to look like, but it really does seem like a pretty large change from previous presentations.

[JohnCarpenterFan]

Considering it's a Bertolucci film, I'd say the neturalized and more "natural" looking grade is the one to be suspicious of. Granted that this is a film I've never seen, but I don't think I've ever seen a Bertolucci film on 35mm which didn't have a strong yellow/gold push with a number of cyan-drenched (teal! ) moments.

The filmcolors.org comparisons of two 35mm prints of Bertolucci's The Last Emperor gives a good idea of what I'm talking about: https://filmcolors.org/galleries/the-last-emperor-1987/

There's also a page for another one of his films although it contains far less images than The Last Emperor and only really shows off the warm golden look so many of his films had: https://filmcolors.org/galleries/the...ring-sky-1990/

Comparisons to older video masters don't really mean much considering how inaccurate and disgracefully unfaithful so many of those telecines were. Sadly it seems people have become so accustomed to this home video telecine look that they have conditioned themselves into thinking that this is how film should and did look pre-digital which couldn't be further from the truth.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterFan

Considering it's a Bertolucci film, I'd say the neturalized and more "natural" looking grade is the one to be suspicious of. Granted that this is a film I've never seen, but I don't think I've ever seen a Bertolucci film on 35mm which didn't have a strong yellow/gold push with a number of cyan-drenched (teal! ) moments.

The filmcolors.org comparisons of two 35mm prints of Bertolucci's The Last Emperor gives a good idea of what I'm talking about: https://filmcolors.org/galleries/the-last-emperor-1987/

There's also a page for another one of his films although it contains far less images than The Last Emperor and only really shows off the warm golden look so many of his films had: https://filmcolors.org/galleries/the...ring-sky-1990/

Comparisons to older video masters don't really mean much considering how inaccurate and disgracefully unfaithful so many of those telecines were. Sadly it seems people have become so accustomed to this home video telecine look that they have conditioned themselves into thinking that this is how film should and did look pre-digital which couldn't be further from the truth.

You’re right in general but in this particular case, Storaro supervised the old master as well as he already altered the framing then. And that master had such drastically different colors to the new one that he’s the one who contradicts himself and the film’s original colors. Had he wanted to teal these sections at the time the film was last remastered for Blu-ray, he could’ve done so and in my opinion should have done it if that was the original intention he and Bertolucci had during filming.

To me, the new grade looks so blatantly revisionist that it destroys every last bit of credibility and especially when paired with extremely poor grading in the other comparisons. I can’t imagine that any colorist who’s working at labs like Cinecitta would comfortably sign off on stuff like this if it weren’t for a DP like Storaro.

[JohnCarpenterFan]

Originally Posted by nicwood

You’re right in general but in this particular case, Storaro supervised the old master as well as he already altered the framing then. And that master had such drastically different colors to the new one that he’s the one who contradicts himself and the film’s original colors. Had he wanted to teal these sections at the time the film was last remastered for Blu-ray, he could’ve done so and in my opinion should have done it if that was the original intention he and Bertolucci had during filming.

To me, the new grade looks so blatantly revisionist that it destroys every last bit of credibility and especially when paired with extremely poor grading in the other comparisons. I can’t imagine that any colorist who’s working at labs like Cinecitta would comfortably sign off on stuff like this if it weren’t for a DP like Storaro.

I don't put much stock in his approval of whatever release either. His cropped and approved HD master for The Last Emperor doesn't look anything like the original 35mm grade for the film.

I can't even find out which (if any) of the releases of Little Buddha had his input and approval either. I can't even remember the last master he approved for any film as he thankfully seems to have not been involved in framing/grading them which is why I'm surprised that this is apparently in a 2:1 aspect ratio. Apparently the German Blu-ray is in a 2.20:1 aspect ratio which would seem to be how it was presented in 70mm.

I'm not saying that the UHD is completely accurate but the strong yellow look with some scenes being drenched in cyan doesn't scream revisionism to me considering this look was so common in the photochemical grades for Bertolucci's films.