Pulse (2001)

[Flack999]

Cure has been released on BD in Spain a few years ago (without english subtitles of course).
So a HD master is available... hoping this one will appear next year from Arrow.

[Mobe1969]

Oh my god I've been waiting for this news so long. I love that movie.

[MechaGodzilla]

I never got around to seeing this one and have been waiting for it to hit Blu-ray. Very happy Arrow are the ones releasing it.

Now let's get some Cure, Noroi, Ju-on and Ring...

[UFAlien]

Wasn't Noroi shot on SD video?

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Whoa!

Pulse (Kairo) is my favorite of the Japanese horror films, and it's quite possibly my favorite horror film of the 2000s.

Merry Christmas to The Great Owl!

To all of you people who haven't seen this movie, prepare to be freaked out.

My sentiments exactly. Such a scary, moody, atmospheric ordeal! The "would you like to meet a ghost" scene was something I never expected to see and that entire sequence horrified me for days.

[Griff Morpho]

Hello. Can anyone verify that this will be both Region A & B, whether purchased in the UK or the USA?
At the moment, the price is lower on UK Amazon, and if there is no difference in the versions (except possibly the pesky rating symbol on the lower right corner of the cover for the UK release), then it seems better to pre-order on Amazon UK.
Thanks.

[Moe Szyslak]

There is/will be an absurd amount of great horror on blu in 2016. I'll definitely pick this one up.

[Doctor Mister]

Originally Posted by Mobe1969

Oh my god I've been waiting for this news so long. I love that movie.

Same here, love love love this one. I can finally retire my DVD copy.

Now if only Ring and Ju-on could get the same treatment...!

[eidas]

Newbie here. Thought I'd pop in for the first time for a little heads up regarding Arrow Films. Some of you are perhaps aware of the extent to which they completely flubbed the Female Prisoner Scorpion series. With Kairo there's the potential for the same. It depends upon the print they use for their 'close-your-eyes-and-push-a-button' approach to mastering. There are two polar opposites out there. On the one hand the dark and dirty green of the Japanese (original?). A HD TV rip out of Japan that has been circulating on the net over the last months is nicely sharp and grainy but the blacks swallow even more detail than the Magnolia DVD that came out in the US years back. Then there's the French Arte master. Completely different. Detail comes out of the woodwork, good color and contrast balance, saturation, etc. Perfect for a romantic comedy. Unfortunately, Kurosawa is anything but romantic. The film (I think we agree) should be dark. The question is what is the happy compromise. Does anyone have a clue as to the path Arrow took? If I can figure out how to do it (and if anyone cares) maybe I'll try to post a couple of caps to let you see what I'm on about. Anyway nice forum.

[eidas]

By popular demand (and since you all asked so nicely) here are just a couple of pairs of screen shots to give you something to chew over the next couple of months.

Pulse 2001 Arte 3.jpg

Pulse 2001 JTV 3b.jpg

Pulse 2001 Arte 6.jpg

Pulse 2001 JTV 6b.jpg

French DVD vs Japanese TV. You can just imagine what the dark scenes look like. Dunno, I'd maybe hold off on those pre-orders for now and wait and see what Dark Water turns out to be like. Would be nice to hear the DOP's remarks on the matter. For me Kairo will be the litmus test of Arrow's capability of giving tender loving care to a difficult film. Cheers

[dullboy]

I'm hoping that the DTS-MA track will have the effect that the 5.1 track had on the Region 3 HK DVD during the scene where the ghost in the wall says "help me". All ambient sound was eliminated a split second before "help me" appeared in the surrounds with scary crystal clarity. All the chills. The US dvd only had a 2.0 stereo track and the effect was lost.

[roguejp]

Originally Posted by eidas

Newbie here. Thought I'd pop in for the first time for a little heads up regarding Arrow Films. Some of you are perhaps aware of the extent to which they completely flubbed the Female Prisoner Scorpion series. With Kairo there's the potential for the same. It depends upon the print they use for their 'close-your-eyes-and-push-a-button' approach to mastering. There are two polar opposites out there. On the one hand the dark and dirty green of the Japanese (original?). A HD TV rip out of Japan that has been circulating on the net over the last months is nicely sharp and grainy but the blacks swallow even more detail than the Magnolia DVD that came out in the US years back. Then there's the French Arte master. Completely different. Detail comes out of the woodwork, good color and contrast balance, saturation, etc. Perfect for a romantic comedy. Unfortunately, Kurosawa is anything but romantic. The film (I think we agree) should be dark. The question is what is the happy compromise. Does anyone have a clue as to the path Arrow took? If I can figure out how to do it (and if anyone cares) maybe I'll try to post a couple of caps to let you see what I'm on about. Anyway nice forum.

Maybe you should check out how Audition and that will tell you something.

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by roguejp

Maybe you should check out how Audition and that will tell you something.

Not necessarily as that was a new scan done by Arrow, but for Kairo and Dark Water it is just existing scans provided to them.

[Dylstar]

Tried watching Dark Water blu last night and made it 6 min before the PQ was actually causing me stress LOL - it's so bad.

The Netflix version of Pulse was bad too, so bright. You could see an actor hiding in shadows that was supposed to be hidden until she moved, as an example.

This is one of my fave films of all time and I hope Arrow prove me wrong but this isn't looking very promising.

[Mobe1969]

Originally Posted by Dylstar

Tried watching Dark Water blu last night and made it 6 min before the PQ was actually causing me stress LOL - it's so bad.

The Netflix version of Pulse was bad too, so bright. You could see an actor hiding in shadows that was supposed to be hidden until she moved, as an example.

This is one of my fave films of all time and I hope Arrow prove me wrong but this isn't looking very promising.

Ah gee, I hope they get it right. Netflix has the Japanese Pulse, or the American one?

[Shingster]

I would expect it to look like the dark the grabs in eidas's post. Shout are working with Japanese masters not French, and that's how it looked on DVD in Japan and that's how it looked on HDTV in Japan. A poster in the Arrow Dark Water thread pointed out that their Dar Water release looks similar to the Japanese itunes release in HD, so make of that what you will.

To me the film has always looked grey and gloomy with overcast exteriors and shadowy, underlit interiors. That's the look I associate with Kairo on DVD having only ever seen the HK, UK and JPN editions of the film.

[malakaheso]

Interesting film. Looking forward to revisiting it.

[horrorscreamer]

Well I've seen the Japanese HD-print that will most likely be used and it's decent enough, it's not awesome, but it does the trick. I've also seen the American HD-print that's on Netflix and US iTunes and that one is extremely bright and overexposed, but I wouldn't expect Arrow to use that HD-print.

[DaveyJoe]

Posted on Facebook:

*** PULSE RELEASE DATE UPDATE ***

Unfortunately due to some ongoing production work on the extras included in this package, the UK and US release dates for Pulse have had to be revised and are now as follows:
UK- 27th February 2017
US - 28th February 2017

We apologise in advance for any disappointment this may cause and hope you all enjoy the set on release.

[Dan8700]

Unbelievably sad.