Asian 3D Blu-ray Imports - Hong Kong Japan China Taiwan Thailand Korea etc

[BleedOrange11]

I watched a couple of Korean animations yesterday, Pororo's Racing Adventure (2013) and Speckles: The Tarbosaurus (2012) AKA Dino King, opting for the original Korean audio tracks on both because, while not spectacular, they are less whiny than the English dubs.



Pororo has nice-looking native 3D depth. Volume of the subjects looks good and is extremely consistent. The film is about Pororo the Penguin and his forest friends teaming up to win a super sleigh race to save a wintry town from being taken over by a bullying bear. It's a bit like Mario Kart: The Movie but more juvenile. The plot is baby-safe and rather dull, but the racing sequences are fun, sometimes exciting, and the runtime is brief. Tunnel sequences look great, and there are a few instances of hyperstereo. The filmmakers take every opportunity to send the cast of characters flying out of the screen in slow motion. There are several far-extending pop-outs that make you want to reach out and touch the image. Recommended for anyone interested.

The German Blu-ray 3D comes with the 2013 International English dub. If you care to remux, acquire the American Lionsgate DVD. It has the original Korean audio, which syncs with lip movements, with corresponding English subtitles, as well as the 2014 Simka Entertainment English dub, which adds a few Hollywood voices in supporting roles, and corresponding dubtitles. I used an audio offset of -3500ms although that is not an exact calculation. There are interviews with the American dub cast on the DVD and four bonus shorts from the Minuscule (2006) French TV series.

Movie - 2.5/5
3D - 4.5/5




Speckles has nicely-rendered native 3D CGI dinos composited on converted live-action landscapes. The CGI often has strong 3D volume, but the converted imagery is poorly separated although sometimes still layered with generous depth. There are plenty of flat scenes and equally as many strong pop-outs of dino heads and particle effects.

The story is about a T-Rex's odyssey across the Korean peninsula from birth to fatherhood and his struggle to thrive. There is a surprising amount of hard animalistic violence. It occasionally swings into docudrama mode, briefly spouting tour-guide facts about dinos' habits and the Cretaceous Period. The voice track is the film's biggest failure. I have a suspicion that the film was originally designed as silent and that a non-existent music-only track would solve most of its problems.

Only the main dino receives dialogue. We hear his inner thoughts, and they are completely useless, flatly describing what we already see happening (or ruining what is about to happen) on screen. Speckles is voiced by three actors, one for his child, teenage, and adult years. The child voice is abrasively whiny (although slightly less in Korean), the teenage voice is okay, and the adult is fine. If you'd prefer the original Korean audio with English subs, seek the Korean Blu-ray 3D, probably from Yukipalo. The original score performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra is utterly phenomenal and sweepingly emotional, too good for the film even. There is a 38min non-subtitled behind-the-scenes featurette on the Korean disc.

Movie - 2.5/5
3D - 3/5

[BleedOrange11]

Tsui Hark's new 3D film, The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero, is getting a prime Lunar New Year theatrical release, Jan. 29, 2025. Make an extra effort to catch this limited in theaters. There's no better 3D experience than a Tsui Hark film on the big screen!

For those of you unfamiliar, this is an adaptation of the final seven chapters of the most widely read wuxia novel of all time, The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It received an official, four-volume English translation over the past few years, and now the publisher is working on the second book in the trilogy. I'm listening to the audiobook version now, and it's a page turner.

#肖戰 å¾�å…‹ 射雕英雄傳 大年åˆ�一見éƒ*é�– #XiaoZhan Legend of the Condor Heroes 29 Jan 2025 see Guo Jing! #肖战 - YouTube

[osmos512]

Originally Posted by BleedOrange11

3D shorts:
Kamen Rider: Run All Over the World (1989) - released in Japan on Blu-ray 3D
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156681/

Toei Heroes Great Gathering (1994) - released in Japan on Blu-ray 3D
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/266404

Super Sentai World (1994) - released in Japan on Blu-ray 3D
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076345/

Kamen Rider World (1994) - released in Japan on Blu-ray 3D
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156677/

r/BleedOrange11, our resident Asian 3D expert, put these shorts on my radar. I ordered the boxsets from Japan after gritting my teeth re the price. And I'm happy to say all 4 kick ass. Nothing but tokusatsu thrills and strong Silver Age-level 3D. They're easy to follow without subtitles, as they're all 100% fight scenes. All the good guys look like power rangers and all the bad guys look like horror movie monsters from the 80s.


Kamen Rider: Run All Over the World (1989)
This is the longest of the bunch around 15 minutes. There's a handful of flat and/or misaligned shots, but the rest of it is gold. Lots of fun tokusatsu effects and sharp popouts.

Kamen Rider World (1994)
This is shorter, more of a sizzle reel than a ride. It reuses some footage from Run All Over the World.

Super Sentai World (1994)
Five different Super Sentai/Power Rangers teams assemble for an all out brawl with their usual foes. Lots of fun fight choreography and high production values, plus you get some giant robot action at the end. Probably the funniest of the bunch, for how overpowered the good guys are. I'll definitely screen this before my next viewing of Pacific Rim.

Toei Heroes Great Gathering (1994)
This is also a shorter sizzle reel, which reuses some footage from Super Sentai World.


The price for these is very steep, but as a 3D collector, I'm overjoyed to have this in my collection. I can't wait to screen them for guests. Thanks again to r/BleedOrange11 for his dedication to Asian 3D media.

[BleedOrange11]

Originally Posted by osmos512

I'll definitely screen this before my next viewing of Pacific Rim.

Lol, great combo!

[globalimages2]

Just letting those interested know that Toei Great Heroes Gathering has also an IMDB entry https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35309820

The screencaps I think are not in 3D ATM I don't think.

[xenago]

Originally Posted by osmos512

Kamen Rider World (1994)
This is shorter, more of a sizzle reel than a ride. It reuses some footage from Run All Over the World.

I have uploaded subtitles for this, as my copy of Kamen Rider Elite Kollection arrived today from Media Blasters. I OCR'd and retimed the subtitles to match the Japanese 3D Blu-ray release and they work perfectly!

https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/sub...rider-world-en

[BleedOrange11]

Wow, excellent! Thanks for sharing the subtitles.

[xenago]

Originally Posted by BleedOrange11

Wow, excellent! Thanks for sharing the subtitles.

No problem. It has been a real pain acquiring subtitles for some of these shorts so I hope at least a few other 3D enthusiasts will be able to benefit

Originally Posted by osmos512

Kamen Rider: Run All Over the World (1989)
This is the longest of the bunch around 15 minutes. There's a handful of flat and/or misaligned shots, but the rest of it is gold. Lots of fun tokusatsu effects and sharp popouts.

Using a similar process as I applied to extract hardsubs from a low quality copy of Digimon Savers 3D, I also produced plaintext subtitles synced up to the 3D Blu-ray version of Kamen Rider Run All Over the World:

https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/sub...r-the-world-en

[xenago]

Originally Posted by Box for Pee-wee

Just finished watching Little Ghostly Adventures of Tofu Boy. The disc is not English friendly though I could follow along for most of it.

I finally managed to produce subtitles for the Japanese 3D Blu-ray of Tofu Boy (AKA 豆富小僧, Tôfu kozô, Toufu Kozou)! Here they are:

https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/sub...of-tofu-boy-en

Originally Posted by helpcentermc

Is this movie converted 3D, or is it native digital 3D?

The movie is at least partially in native 3D, though it takes a fairly subtle approach for the most part and incorporates converted elements throughout. Even the Hollywood press wanted more oomph from the stereo. Regardless, many shots have obvious standout 3D elements (including complex particles), and some also incorporate flatter layers composited in at specific depths:







I also spotted a minor stereo rendering error with character outlines in one shot; as an example, this is frame 55902:



And for flavor, some backstory on the English subtitles...

Although a low quality cropped DVD with english hardsubs was uploaded to the Internet Archive, extracting thousands of lines of burned-in text for an entire film would be a massive pain so I didn't bother going down that road immediately. Instead, last year I found an eBay lsiting for a Malaysian DVD release of the film, purportedly in proper uncropped aspect ratio with English subs. I bit the bullet, and waited a month for it to ship. When it did, I was bemused by the awful state in which it arrived; the package was disgusting with nearly destroyed shrink wrap, and disc was the most obviously rotted/degraded I'd ever seen right out of the box. It didn't read properly in my drives or players. Ok, fine - got a refund, and I ordered another. Two months later, the replacement arrived... in an equally awful state. At this point, I realized that the seller must have a whole bunch of these probably-bad discs and figured it was a lost cause since no one else seemed to be selling copies with English subtitles. The DVDs sat on my shelf until yesterday, when I realized that I had a PC DVD reader without BD capability hiding in a box with my PS2. I figured as a hail-mary I would try it; after a few attempts, I managed to get one of the DVDs to work well enough to pull out a full rip of the VobSub tracks! I OCR'd the subs, then went through to fix all the obvious errors and adjust the timing.

Another obscure 3D title down, many more to go!

[BleedOrange11]

Thanks again! Another home run post from Xenago!

[jchung30]

Originally Posted by xenago

I finally managed to produce subtitles for the Japanese 3D Blu-ray of Tofu Boy (AKA 豆富小僧, Tôfu kozô, Toufu Kozou)! Here they are:

https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/sub...of-tofu-boy-en





The movie is in native 3D, though it takes a fairly subtle approach for the most part. Even the Hollywood press wanted more oomph from the stereo. Regardless, many shots have obvious standout 3D elements (including complex particles), and some seem to also incorporate flatter layers composited in at specific depths:

I also spotted a minor stereo rendering error with character outlines in one shot; as an example, this is frame 55902:

And for flavor, some backstory on the English subtitles...

Although a low quality cropped DVD with english hardsubs was uploaded to the Internet Archive, extracting thousands of lines of burned-in text for an entire film would be a massive pain so I didn't bother going down that road immediately. Instead, last year I found an eBay lsiting for a Malaysian DVD release of the film, purportedly in proper uncropped aspect ratio with English subs. I bit the bullet, and waited a month for it to ship. When it did, I was bemused by the awful state in which it arrived; the package was disgusting with nearly destroyed shrink wrap, and disc was the most obviously rotted/degraded I'd ever seen right out of the box. It didn't read properly in my drives or players. Ok, fine - got a refund, and I ordered another. Two months later, the replacement arrived... in an equally awful state. At this point, I realized that the seller must have a whole bunch of these probably-bad discs and figured it was a lost cause since no one else seemed to be selling copies with English subtitles. The DVDs sat on my shelf until yesterday, when I realized that I had a PC DVD reader without BD capability hiding in a box with my PS2. I figured as a hail-mary I would try it; after a few attempts, I managed to get one of the DVDs to work well enough to pull out a full rip of the VobSub tracks! I OCR'd the subs, then went through to fix all the obvious errors and adjust the timing.

Another obscure 3D title down, many more to go!

[BleedOrange11]

I don't own this to review or confirm, but for anyone interested, there are supposed to be three Tachikomatic Days 3D short films included on the bonus disc with the Japanese Limited Edition Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. - Solid State Society Blu-ray 3D. Note that the Japanese Blu-ray 3D does not include English subtitles, whilst the Hong Kong version (which I do own) does but without the bonus features. The standard edition of the Japanese Blu-ray 3D does not include the bonus disc.



https://myanimelist.net/anime/10950/...hikoma_na_Hibi

EDIT - The Hong Kong Blu-ray 3D does include these short films with English subtitles!

[Cabanon]

HK doesn't have bonus but indeed have English subtitles

[xenago]

Originally Posted by Cabanon

HK doesn't have bonus but indeed have English subtitles

I have the HK release (black slipcover), and it has three Tachikomatic Days shorts on it in native 3D, though there is no separate bonus disc, they are on the same one as the film. Each one is about 1GB in size and has English subtitles like the feature itself.



The shorts are mentioned on the slip:

[BleedOrange11]

Thanks for correcting that! I’ll have to check my disc.

[osmos512]

Would love to hear y’all’s review of the shorts, if ya have time.

[xenago]

Originally Posted by osmos512

Would love to hear y’all’s review of the shorts, if ya have time.

They're fun and straightforward, comedic/parodical in nature. They made a bigger impression on me than the film, to be honest lol. The animation is simple, some robots in a white void having conversations but with fairly nice & sharp 3D.


'The Body' is about the imagined benefits and disadvantages of the human body:


'The Shield' features them daydreaming about the possibilities of nanomachines:


'The Whipper' is a play on Twitter:

[osmos512]

Originally Posted by xenago

They're fun and straightforward, comedic/parodical in nature. They made a bigger impression on me than the film, to be honest lol. The animation is simple, some robots in a white void having conversations but with fairly nice & sharp 3D.

Word! Thanks for the review! I’m on a quest to collect all 3D shorts so I’ll start hunting for this disc.

[BleedOrange11]

Ok, I checked out my HK Ghost in the Shell: SAC - SSS 3D disc to watch the Tachikomatic Days shorts. The shorts, each 4min long, are incredibly dialogue-heavy with baby-style voice acting. They are subtitled but still difficult to follow. I gather the tanks are parodying themes/scenes/characters from the film. They're silly and mostly about AI bots misunderstanding human behavior. They're all directed by Kenji Kamiyama himself and all evoke his tendency toward long-winded philosophical conversations without much action.

The opening title is a gorgeous Silver-Age-style native 3D CGI far-reaching pop-out of a Tachikoma tank (Xenago screenshot #1). The main shorts are 2D animation converted to 3D and not as impressive. They are not storyboarded for 3D, failing to take advantage of stereo space, particularly the first two shorts. Frequently, there is not much depth to the tanks, and they are recessed far behind the screen to look more 3D than they actually are. The depth in the last short, The Whipper, is easily the best (Xenago screenshot #4). This short has more transparencies and dramatic camera angles that receive more separation. The closing credits have another great-looking native 3D CGI animation pop-out.

There is a 3D trailer for Solid State Society on the disc as well. The main film mirrors the exact formula of these shorts. Awesome 3D CGI opening but disappointing 2D-3D conversion for the film proper--even more lackluster and wonky than the shorts. Amazing sci-fi art and atmosphere but too talky to the detriment of story momentum. Kamiyama's 009 Re:Cyborg repeats the formula too but has beautiful native 3D cel-shaded animation with a style that is totally unique in modern cinema.

[Cabanon]

Originally Posted by xenago

I have the HK release (black slipcover), and it has three Tachikomatic Days shorts on it in native 3D, though there is no separate bonus disc, they are on the same one as the film. Each one is about 1GB in size and has English subtitles like the feature itself.



The shorts are mentioned on the slip:

sorry for the late reply. I have the HK version with the girly cover, not the black one. I'll have to double check if what you say is the same thing on this version.