The Bullet Train (1975) [Eureka | Eureka Classics] - April 24, 2023

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by tomblu

Just watched this one.

Fantastic film, thoroughly enjoyed it. Transfer looked great and so does the artwork. Not had chance to check the extras out or the booklet yet.

Any recommendations of similar Japanese titles or more from the actors in this one?

I had gone through a Sonny Chiba kick years ago, which is when I first came across Bullet Train. Out of his films, I deeply enjoyed Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon, The Executioner, The Street Fighter series, and GI Samurai (also known as The Time Slip). I recall seeing 1980's Virus and thinking it was okay. I kind of warmed up Ninja Wars as a guilty pleasure. I'd say most of these are fun, but The Street Fighter is probably the most essential of the lot.

But as far as movies like Bullet Train go, if it's more thrillers and suspense you're looking for, High and Low should be worth a look too.

[AlanUK]

Arrived today

[raybestos]

Why bother to even include the English-dubbed version if you're going to give it an absurd bitrate of only 10 mbps? That's an insult and the reason I'm not buying the disc. Even though I actually like the film. Why did they have to be so cheap so as to not give us another disc with a properly-encoded version of the International version? Damn it.

Also, we have a ridiculous tealification job here. Why? "Modernization"? A 1975 film shouldn't look like a bastardized 2023 film. The previous Blu-ray release had much better color-timing, but less detail. This Eureka release looks digitally-tweaked and artificially sharpened to appeal to "modern" audiences. Fail.

I've usually been highly impressed with Eureka, but not this time, by a longshot. At least give us the option to place a dubbed English audio as a second audio track synced in the Japanese cut (with subtitles in the Japanese-only footage). That way, quality would remain high and we wouldn't need tp watch a compression artefact-fest in the lousy other version.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I've also seen their whole explanation of how they're presenting the export version, and it just seems so weirdly shoddy compared to their usual handling of alternate versions for Hong Kong movies, for example. In particular there's this wishy-washy approach to titles unique to the export version -- you get the English opening and closing credits, but anything during the film is left in Japanese with a subtitle track giving the text of the English titles.



Just so weirdly compromised and not committed to any one approach, even ignoring the allotment of space on the disc.

I was already planning to wait and see if Discotek's release also had the export version; now I'll probably just go for theirs whether it's there or not -- Eureka's presentation isn't good enough to justify importing it, and even if Discotek doesn't improve on it, I could do it myself.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Originally Posted by raybestos

Why bother to even include the English-dubbed version if you're going to give it an absurd bitrate of only 10 mbps? That's an insult and the reason I'm not buying the disc. Even though I actually like the film. Why did they have to be so cheap so as to not give us another disc with a properly-encoded version of the International version? Damn it.

Also, we have a ridiculous tealification job here. Why? "Modernization"? A 1975 film shouldn't look like a bastardized 2023 film. The previous Blu-ray release had much better color-timing, but less detail. This Eureka release looks digitally-tweaked and artificially sharpened to appeal to "modern" audiences. Fail.

I've usually been highly impressed with Eureka, but not this time, by a longshot. At least give us the option to place a dubbed English audio as a second audio track synced in the Japanese cut (with subtitles in the Japanese-only footage). That way, quality would remain high and we wouldn't need tp watch a compression artefact-fest in the lousy other version.

Just got mine today, but considering sending it back in light of this.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by raybestos

Why bother to even include the English-dubbed version if you're going to give it an absurd bitrate of only 10 mbps? That's an insult and the reason I'm not buying the disc. Even though I actually like the film. Why did they have to be so cheap so as to not give us another disc with a properly-encoded version of the International version?

Agreed. They could have done a 2-BD LE for the international version and made good money like they did for Millionaire Express, and Arrow has done for several of the Argento movies. I guess someone at Eureka made a poor decision during the authoring phase. I'm not a big bitrate counter but 10Mbps (assuming that's the average) does sound quite low, reaching near DVD levels. It's similar to Criterion's blu-ray encoding of their specially produced English text version of Vampyr, which also had an abysmal bitrate and looked barely different from the DVD version.

[CrockettandTubbs]

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-B...327112/#Review

Less than stellar PQ, according to blu-ray.com's review.

"I found the technical presentation very frustrating and ultimately disappointing. It appears that someone was guessing how the film should look, so when the 2K master was graded several mistakes were made that destroyed its native appearance. For example, virtually all whites and blues are affected by a harsh green cast that makes different sections of the film have a neon-esque appearance."

"Daylight footage can look particularly poor because the green cast eliminates the different white, blue, and even proper green nuances."

[Ben_R]

Originally Posted by CrockettandTubbs

[Show spoiler]https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-B...327112/#Review

Less than stellar PQ, according to blu-ray.com's review.

"I found the technical presentation very frustrating and ultimately disappointing. It appears that someone was guessing how the film should look, so when the 2K master was graded several mistakes were made that destroyed its native appearance. For example, virtually all whites and blues are affected by a harsh green cast that makes different sections of the film have a neon-esque appearance."

"Daylight footage can look particularly poor because the green cast eliminates the different white, blue, and even proper green nuances."

I wouldn’t let that review be your guidance. Pick it up, watch it with your own eyes, in your own environment on your own equipment. If you like it keep it, if you don’t sell it.

If you don’t like it, wait until it’s OOP and chuck it on eBay in an auction. You won’t loose out.

[Modman]

Originally Posted by Ben_R

I wouldn’t let that review be your guidance. Pick it up, watch it with your own eyes, in your own environment on your own equipment. If you like it keep it, if you don’t sell it.

If you don’t like it, wait until it’s OOP and chuck it on eBay in an auction. You won’t loose out.

The reviewer may be right but of course the reviewer is saying my assumptions about what the film should look are correct.

[CrockettandTubbs]

Originally Posted by Ben_R

I wouldn’t let that review be your guidance. Pick it up, watch it with your own eyes, in your own environment on your own equipment. If you like it keep it, if you don’t sell it.

If you don’t like it, wait until it’s OOP and chuck it on eBay in an auction. You won’t loose out.

No - I was always going to buy it

Tony Rayns AND Kim Newman!

[saltysam]

i watched this today, the longer version and thought it looked very good

[Takuma]

All I can say is that I’ve seen roughly 250 Japanese films from 50s to 80s from 35mm prints in Tokyo and Osaka, and the number of prints I recall with teal colour timing is ZERO. In fact, the number of prints with any odd colour timing that wasn’t clearly intended as a “special effect” or a likely result from print degradation is ZERO.

Bullet Train is included in the count btw (Sonny Chiba film festival, Cinema Vera, 2014).

Of course my memory could be failing me. The prints could have been incorrectly colour timed. Elvis could be alive.

[Jackie Scanlon]

Well, like a stopped clock being correct twice a day, I suppose Svet would statistically be correct occasionally.

[Ben_C]

I was fairly happy with the presentation tbh (my only other point of reference being the old Optimum dvd). Certainly didn’t strike me as a 2.5/5 PQ, but hey ho.

[russweiss1]

Just based on those screen shots I prefer the look of the Eureka. The TV version looks slightly washed out in comparison.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

Just based on those screen shots I prefer the look of the Eureka. The TV version looks slightly washed out in comparison.

lol

[Modman]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

Just based on those screen shots I prefer the look of the Eureka. The TV version looks slightly washed out in comparison.

I can see the differences but I am in no way offended by the look of the Eureka release, I wouldn't say its had a complete teal job done on it.

[annubis44]

It will be interesting to see how the Discotek release compares.

[DatLOLBoi]

The new color correction seems to be done by Toei btw, so it's not like Eureka's to blame for it. Only thing that I really find unappealing about this release is the 10 mb/s bitrate for the export version.

[Rutger Lundgren]

While that looks quite different, I don't mind Eureka's look at all. I'm not a purist, and I suffered through Curzon's Memories of Murder and lived to tell about it.