Wolf Totem 3D Blu-ray (2015) [Region A Locked]

[Paul H]

Wolf Totem was released on 3D Blu-ray in the USA - the disc is locked to Region A. There was also a Region B release in France but note that the film was shot in Chinese so the disc only has French subtitles. Only the Region A locked US disc includes English subtitles.

Original post:


Per Amazon.com:
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Dubbed: French, Spanish

Amazon.com Pre-order

Per IMDb: Redcode RAW (5K) (dual-strip 3-D) (source format)

[Hardkore]

Found the movie trailer...looks good.

Wolf Totem - Official Trailer - In Theaters September - YouTube

[1blufan]

This has been out for awhile everywhere else except the US. I think it looks good also, but some reviews haven't been so kind to it.

[the13thman]

There's still no English-friendly Region B release that I'm aware of, so it would be nice if this was region free...

[br3ttD]

Actually saw this in IMAX 3D here in Colorado.
There was no advertising for it at all. I just happen
to stumble across it while I was searching thru
Fandango.
It's an ok movie but kind of depressing tho. Doubt
I'll want to see it again. Depth was pretty good. Looks like it was either a conversion or hybrid with some scenes shot in 3D and others
converted.

[BleedOrange11]

It's 1/4 native on 5K Red cameras and 3/4 converted from 2.8K 2D Arris.

[Jbug]

Wolf Totem got a 71% fresh at RT. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wolf_totem/

[philsfan]

Finally saw this after owning it for way too long. Its the story of two Beijing students who get shipped out to the Mongolian plains in an area populated with wolves. Subtitled. Lush cinematography in this "arty" film that I never found inaccessible. 3D a little inconsistent but definitely added a nice element. Another one I never would have watched if it wasnt 3D, but very pleased with the experience. Quite thematically dark at times but would recommend for a more adult 3D experience as there are not too many other 3D films in this genre.

[Yetz]

Is there still no english friendly reg B edition of this?

I accidentaly ordered the french version, without english subtitles, and the parts I watched without subtitles looked quite good and with beautiful scenery.

[the13thman]

Originally Posted by Yetz

Is there still no english friendly reg B edition of this?

I accidentaly ordered the french version, without english subtitles, and the parts I watched without subtitles looked quite good and with beautiful scenery.

Unfortunately no, it's another reason to go region free.

[ufso]

Just ordered my copy from eBay with English subs.

[ufso]

I'll be watching this tomorrow.

[WaverBoy]

I’m thinking about picking this up — I’d love to read more thoughts on the film and the 3-D.

[Joe D.]

Originally Posted by WaverBoy

I’m thinking about picking this up — I’d love to read more thoughts on the film and the 3-D.

Hi Waverboy

It's a beautiful story, magnificently filmed and a must for me. The following review by avs forum best sums up the 3D quality:

"Natively shot in 3D this presentation boasts superlative depth and an abundance of high level detail. The plethora of brilliant colors is vividly alluring as the deep primaries and resplendent secondary hues leap from the 2.40:1 framed video. Contrast balance is spot on as the various shades of green, brown and blue are gradationally revealing and whites appear bright with crisp highlights that preserve detail. Blacks are delineated, deep, and rich, which provides low level images with excellent perspective and depth of field. This film make wonderful use of the 3D platform. There are a variety of sequences that provide an entertaining reach out and touch sense of dimensionality. Objects onscreen have a discerning sense of depth with natural degrees of separation that impart a defining perspective relative to their virtual placement. Resolution is strong as the vastness and scope of the recorded elements offers transparently rendered detail, eye pleasing color, and a rewarding sense of depth and dimension that simply looks terrific in high definition. I didn’t notice any signs of ghosting/crosstalk or 3D related anomalies."

[BleedOrange11]

About 3/4 of this movie is a conversion by Real D Square, a defunct South Korean company. Just from memory, the production story goes that the film crew didn't know how to operate the 3D rigs and decided to shoot 2D while they waited on technical experts to travel to Mongolia to show them how to use the rigs. The native parts fare slightly better, but the whole thing is relatively mild 3D, albeit still a nice artistic experience. The story, cinematography, locations, and animal actors are better than the 3D.

[ufso]

Just viewed my copy a few days ago and it was excellent!

[Telegram Sam]

Finally caught up with this one last night.

I thought the film had a sort of bleak beauty about it. Lovely photography and beautiful wolves, all set against what I thought was a somewhat desolate backdrop.

I thought the 3D was certainly adequate - but rarely impressive. A shot in a snowstorm briefly brought some life to the stereo, and one or two other shots were very nice too like the view down on a very small explosion but, overall I felt it was another one of those movies that just happened to be in 3D, most of which was okay, but hardly ever anything more.

There was one sequence where it felt like the 3D did actually add to the feel & story, when one character went into a confined space (a wolf's den) that I'd say fits the line in the review from AVS that Joe quoted above, "This film make wonderful use of the 3D platform". Other than that sequence though, I really didn't think it did.

It made me think of Alpha a lot, mainly because I watched that film again a week or so ago and would have loved to have a 3D Blu-ray of that fantastic film. They're very different movies, of course, and a Chinese film made by a Frenchman isn't going to have the same kind of sentimentality as Alpha ...but I have to confess I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

Anyway, overall I'd recommend Wolf Totem - but a cautious recommendation, and don't go in hoping for a 3D classic.

Probably not relevant, and unique to my situation: My Region A 3D Blu-ray player stopped working after I recently took apart and re-built my rack. Still scratching my head to figure out what's gone wrong. So I had to rip the disc and watch it via my Zidoo player. The subtitles were in bad 3D space, that's to say frequently behind parts of the image. I tried various adjustments but was unable to totally dial out this issue. (I could have just moved them to below the image, but I watch on a screen masked for 'scope.) I suspect this may be just related to my rip/playback but, if it's also an issue on the disc that would be annoying.