Kiss of the Dragon (2001)

[4K display]

It pains me to post this:

Video 1.5/5

VIDEO:


The video reeks of low grade film or DVD. After seeing the trailer in HD on another Fox title, I feared the worst from this one. And that fear is what I found. It's in detail where this one suffers most. Resolution is extremely wanting by HD standards and fairly wanting even for SD more often than not. The soft lighting and general look of the film doesn't seem to help detail stand out either. Oddly though, the film starts very well, showing a reasonable amount of detail for a title mastered over five years ago. But resolution drops off suddenly and never fully recovers more than a glimpse here and a glimpse there. And there aren't too many of those.

Colors are tainted by the lighting, but lack the brilliance and clarity we've grown accustomed to. The film has a very seedy, dingy look that seems appropriate to the setting and story. But if this is all the photography's got, it's a very poor choice for an opening wave of titles set to sell people on the format.

I don't know what happened with this one, or even if anything did. Compression doesn't appear to have a heavy hand, nor should it considering the drought of extras. I expect the video is superior than SD, but this felt like watching DVD far too much.
35mm

After reading Chad's review I looked around for some D-Theater version reviews (mediocre to average) and it seems something went terribly wrong with this BD. Oh well I wasn't buying this title anyway..hopefully this is Fox's one dud done with and out of the way.

[BTBuck1]

just removed this off my wish list.

[Zvi]

Sux I already bought it. I liked that movie, IMHO one of the better ones with Jet Li.

[KenThompson]

Saw that one in the theater,wasn't that great there

[GTP]

Was not inpressed with the D-theater version either......but I have heard from several D-theater owners that Stir of Echos looks real nice on BD.

[Early Memphis]

I think this is a really underappreciated movie. I've owned the DVD for years but I was reluctant to upgrade because of the crap BRDC video review. With all due respect to Sir Terrence (and especially to Chad - whoever he is) : . It is true that I had to A/B the DVD and the BD thru several scenes over the first 30 minutes or so to be sure, and in the beginning I almost thought the DVD was gonna win out - but eventually it was clear that the BD was a definite, if slight, PQ upgrade (sound was never in question). Is it a 5/5, not even close; but it's more of a 3/5 any day or night than a 2 or a 1-and-a-half! Some folks must expect shiny, polished eye candy in everything. Most of the movie takes place either at night or in overcast and dingy places - not in bright, shiny sunlight. It's a grim tale, hence, much of the time, the grim lighting.

That being said, I'd love to see a better transfer with an AVC codec - it's a crime for this movie to be left this way - but that's probably not gonna happen. However, after shying away for a long time because of those overly-negative reviews, I picked this up for $5 at Target and I'm glad I did. Alas, I still have to keep my DVD because they put it out on a cheap 25GB disc and left off all the extras, but ... if you like the movie and own the DVD, it's a step up and certainly worth $5.

[Sky_Captain]

I have the German disc.

Much like the US Anchor Bay re-release, it's the same master as the Fox release, but re-encoded in AVC.

However, unlike the US re-release, it has 6.1 English audio and all the extras ported across.

Ignore the whole 'uncut' thing, they're exactly the same. Previous cuts for the German market were simply restored.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

I have the German disc.

Much like the US Anchor Bay re-release, it's the same master as the Fox release, but re-encoded in AVC.

However, unlike the US re-release, it has 6.1 English audio and all the extras ported across.

Ignore the whole 'uncut' thing, they're exactly the same. Previous cuts for the German market were simply restored.

The master was the issue more than anything

[Sky_Captain]

Indeed, no amount of re-encoding could wring much more out of it and the small file size on the German disc reflects this.

As far as I know, there's no French BD at this point.

[hanshotfirst1138]

Was the Best Buy exclusive even a moderate improvement? Is there any half-decent BD version of this out there?

[Early Memphis]

So, if Sky Cap is correct (and I have no reason to suspect not - especially as no-one has commented otherwise), there's no reason to buy either the German or the new Anchor Bay release if you're looking for ANY PQ improvement, right? And yet, obviously being obtuse and addicted, I'm still tempted so as to see for myself 'cause AVC has to beat MPEG-2! And it's not popular enough to hope for a remaster. Crap!

[TXMoviebuff77]

So how is the quality of the Anchor Bay release, worth buying?

[PuppetMasterBlu]

Originally Posted by TXMoviebuff77

So how is the quality of the Anchor Bay release, worth buying?

It's not great but it's the best one out there. I just bought it for like 7 bucks. Not bad I guess for that price.

[hanshotfirst1138]

I just bought it and kept my
DVD for the extras. Best we're going to get.

[Early Memphis]

BTW, just to confirm: The German Kiss Of The Dragon (AVC) is noticeably sharper/better than the US release (MPEG-2). That might seem obvious but I’ve seen posts saying there was no improvement. The real head-scratcher is why the 6.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sounds less defined than the US 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. I went back and forth well after I determined that there was a slight but definite PQ improvement and I’d swear I was listening to a lossy track on the German disc as opposed to a lossless US track. And, although the US BD is a Db or two hotter, that doesn’t seem to explain the AQ difference.

P.S. The German release may have all the extras the US Anchor Bay release didn’t have. I’ll have to double check that against the US DVD, but there were a bunch (mostly titled in German on the DE disc menu).

[red84140]

I hope a 4K release is on the horizon!

[Markgway]

Holy unnecessary bump, Batman!