Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle15
Hmm it wasn't produced in 4k to begin with? I've never actually seent it (no screenings here) buuuut in that case I might just import the Blu since I won't have to remux subtitles. (and it's a lot cheaper too!)
I'm onboard with upscales if they're done nicely but if it ain't much a difference here I'll skip the 4k.
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The film was produced in 2K SDR, and then upscaled to 4K by IMAGICA, HDR/Dolby Vision grading was carried out at Dolby's facilities in Japan, and the IMAX conversion was handled in the United States, the latter two having been approved by the DoP and Producer Toshio Suzuki. (The IMAX conversion disabled grain reduction)
The thing which makes modern Ghibli films harder to upscale than your average digital anime film is the processing applied. Yes, there's a layer of light fake grain, but that can easily be dealt with. Instead I'm talking about the gate weave. Look at a digitally produced Ghibli film starting with
Ponyo and you'll notice that Ghibli have mimicked projection gate weave by shifting the image up and down throughout the film's duration. That constant changing of the geometry makes upscaling their films rather tricky to get right, because data from previous frames may be useless due to the altered positioning (and the fake grain), so it requires a more thought out approach, which hopefully is the case here.
The Atmos audio mix is native, by the way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicwood
Thank you for your valuable info as always, this is very good to know. It’ll be a difficult decision for me as the extras on the Shout BD look very appealing but the Japanese UHD is obviously way more attractive from a technical standpoint with its Atmos track and the original titles / credits. Luckily we have both options and hopefully sales are strong and inspire more Ghibli 4K upscales / restorations.
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Thanks. I always try to be as informative as possible with these kind of posts. In particular, here are my sources (in Japanese) so people don't think I'm making things up:
Image article
Sound article
The Japanese discs for the Ghibli films have been handled by Panasonic Hollywood Lab (or whatever it's called now), because of how "particular Miyazaki is about image making" (
citation), and you can easily tell from the Japanese Ghibli discs. The encodes on them are outstanding, and easily best the ones produced overseas. They even utilise Panasonic's Master Grade Video Codec process for 12-bit video on certain (Japanese only) Panasonic players. It's incredible stuff.
Studio Ponoc, formed by ex-Ghibli staff who left after the "last hurrah" of the simultaneous releases of
The Wind Rises,
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and
When Marnie Was There (the last three Ghibli films for a long time), also uses them for their discs (also distributed by Disney in Japan), so
Mary and the Witch's Flower serves as a good taste test for 4K Ghibli, and it is outstanding. The encode is first rate, with a ~90 mbps bitrate that regularly peaks above 130 mbps, and preserves the grain and gate weave with no issues. We're in good hands for the Japanese UHD, assuming they do it (which I can't see why they'd only do the BD and not UHD; the BD has MGVC mentioned, so obviously Panasonic are doing that).
As for the back-catalog... the entire Ghibli filmography finished photochemically was restored in 4K SDR for the Blu-rays from 6K OCN scans, and you can really tell. The only questionable element is the colour grading. For better or worse, Miyazaki decided to askew grading the films for BD, and after the standard inversion of negative film, were left basically untouched... degraded from how they originally were. The only digital work done was image restoration (which I'd imagine was quite intense, seeing that in Japan, the standard practice for producing theatrical prints was to strike them directly off the OCN, rather than use a second or third generation element like was standard in the west. I believe some films in Hong Kong were done this way as well, which is why it's super common to hear about these titles being in such horrible physical condition; it additionally would explain why a lot of anime are restored from interpositives and not the OCN, as because of the way prints were struck, an IP could very likely look much better), and sans the
remastered disc of Nausicaä produced for the Japanese Miyazaki Blu-ray box set (which the GKids BD also uses), the colours have been left virtually untouched, and when compared to animation cels, often look different.
Now, I
LOVE the "warts and all" look of the Ghibli restorations (and fan artists online do too, given how many artists tend to use that palette for art because of
a e s t h e t i c qualities, even if some other retro aesthetics can be
dead on wrong), but it would be interesting to see the Ghibli titles graded with more accurate palettes. I'd also be fine with the existing 4K SDR masters being released on UHD as-is. They're of an outstanding quality given their vintage.
Oh, and the GKids UHD of
The Boy and the Heron has more extras than the Japanese release.
[Show spoiler]
Lastly, on the topic of the title, I think the international title is a reference to
Le Roi et l'Oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird), which Miyazaki is a big fan of (much of Count Cagliostro's castle is
ripped off borrowed from said film, as an example). That's just a guess on my part, though.
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The Boy and the Heron 4K UHD (2023) (GKIDS / Studio Ghibli)
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