Suicide Club - from Nihon Nights

[dickdarlington]

My order from RightStufAnime just shipped.

IT’S HAPPENING!

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by dickdarlington

My order from RightStufAnime just shipped.

IT’S HAPPENING!

Nice. Just placed an order.

[dubudavid]

I hope this is everyone's reaction when they see the disc, in a positive way of course lol



Very excited for you all to see the new restore, I am very proud of it.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by dubudavid

I hope this is everyone's reaction when they see the disc, in a positive way of course lol



Very excited for you all to see the new restore, I am very proud of it.

That screenshot looks rather good, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this in person.

[bsweetness]

Imported this on DVD 20 years ago when I was in college, and I've always liked the title it had at that time - Suicide Circle. Flows so much better than Suicide Club. Looking forward to picking this up.

[Dave_Zero1]

Saw it at a film Festival 20 years ago...

I still haven't recovered from it...

That said I ordered it yesterday.

[dickdarlington]

Originally Posted by dubudavid

I hope this is everyone's reaction when they see the disc, in a positive way of course lol



Very excited for you all to see the new restore, I am very proud of it.

That screenshot takes up an entire 16:9 display, so it’s already leagues above any release we’ve seen of this movie so far.

I can’t wait for my copy to arrive tomorrow.

[OutOfBoose]

Damn, looks incredible. The version that I saw was barely watchable.

[TheZeppo]

Just ordered mine as well!

https://www.rightstufanime.com/Suicide-Club-Blu-ray

[dickdarlington]

[Show spoiler]

Only bonus feature is the remastered theatrical trailer that was shared on Twitter when the announcement was made.

We really don’t deserve this disc.

I’ve only bounced around a few key moments, but this is the best the film has ever looked. For a film that uses multiple elements from miniDV to 16mm, this transfer is a revelation from what we were plagued with in past DVD releases and the various non-anamorphic, standard definition masters that made their way around the world. I’m not using my main hardware while testing the disc out (using a 27” DELL gaming monitor with a Xbox Series X), but I can report back later once I watch the film in full.

And the subtitles? Chef’s Kiss.

This is my first Discotek purchase, but what a release.

[dubudavid]

The subtitles were a challenge all on their own. I went through the movie at least twice on my own trying to improve them from the old ones from the DVD. And I had one of our translators go over it as well for things I couldn't verify myself. Arduous process, much like the restoration itself, and a vast improvement over the old releases. I'm super glad you noted that.

[DukeTogo84]

Man, I can't wait to get mine. Should have it either Monday or Tuesday, but it will be really nice to revisit this with a new remaster.

[dickdarlington]

So after a full play-through on the big guns (Panasonic UB820, TCL 6-Series, Vizio Atmos setup), I decided to put in the second-release TLA put out on DVD (the one that said it had an anamorphic transfer, but didn’t - albeit it’s a better transfer than the initial release). Weirdly enough this is one of the rare DVDs I still own as I never thought this day would come.

Knowing the fact that this was an extremely low budget film (supposedly $250,000 USD), a mixture of source elements, and the fact this DVDs were produced from pretty piss poor SD masters - this is a gigantic jump in quality.

The Blu-ray does suffer from a lot of grain / noise, and that’s especially noticeable in the hospital sequence early on. Like I know this is an issue with the source elements (16mm, poor lighting, etc). Everything here is extremely detailed unlike the DVD where you literally couldn’t decipher what was happening on screen. I don’t expect the film to look any better unless there was a lot more money thrown at the restoration.

Audio mix is serviceable. I completely spaced that previous releases were all Dolby Digital 2.0 - so at least we get an upgrade going to a lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 mix. Audio is clearer than the DVD. We get the original audio and that’s all we can ask for.

I’m not familiar with Discotek’s releases - but the player-generated subtitles here are bonkers. EVERYTHING gets translated and it’s all color coded (yellow for dialog, blue for music, and white for on-screen text). And when I say EVERYTHING, I mean EVERYTHING (we’re even getting definitions of some words as well).

It’s disappointing that the only bonus feature is a trailer. I know there’s probably not much out there previously made as all DVD releases were bare bones (unlike 2LDK which saw a plethora of vintage bonus materials make its way to the Unearthed Films release), but this was a cult film from the aughts. It might not be as well known as some other Japanese films from that era (Battle Royale), but there was discourse around it once people discovered it on DVD. I know there’s been allegations against Sion Sono over the past few years, so I completely understand the lack of people wanting to discuss or create materials after the fact.

I don’t understand the logic Third Window Films had behind not releasing it, as releasing a bare bones disc with the HD restoration is better than no release at all - especially since its been nearly two decades since the last physical release of this film.

I’m happy with the release as, again, I never thought this day would come.

I’d love to see Noriko’s Dinner Table hit Blu-ray, but I know that’s never going to happen. It cost less to make than Suicide Club and was shot entirely on DV, so it would be a glorified upscale at that point. I don’t expect it to ever happen, so that gets to remain one of the last remaining DVDs that I own.

[OutOfBoose]

Good to hear they didn't touch grain. If it's shot on a grainy stock, it should be in the film.

[DukeTogo84]

Got my copy and in and gave it a quick spin.

First, was this licensed from Kadokawa? I see their logo on the box, but had no idea it was with them.

As for how it looks? Utterly better than it ever has by a mile. Looks very film like with a lot of grain, but good detail overall. It looks a lot like Graveyard of Honor (2002) released by Arrow if you want to get an idea of colors, etc.

Overall, very pleased and can't wait to watch this again tonight. One less title to wish for on Blu-ray.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by dickdarlington

The Blu-ray does suffer from a lot of grain

Oh my goodness talk about it! I can't believe they'd release a film suffering with so much grain in the year 2023. Noise reduction is a valid tool. They should have used it! I'm skipping.

[dubudavid]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

First, was this licensed from Kadokawa? I see their logo on the box, but had no idea it was with them.

Yep, it was from them. They just sent us the raw 16mm scans and trusted us to do right by them and do a complete in-house restoration, which I certainly did not complain about lol.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by dubudavid

Yep, it was from them. They just sent us the raw 16mm scans and trusted us to do right by them and do a complete in-house restoration, which I certainly did not complain about lol.

Well, I'm sure they will be happy with the end results and trusting you guys with the work. Watched the film last night and man it felt like a whole new experience. It was really hard to see a lot of detail on the old DVD so it was nice to finally have a clear picture on the film.

Also great that you guys have a deal with Kadokawa. I wasn't sure if it was a deal or a one off with Another, but now with two titles, it looks pretty promising for more titles. Hoping you guys have a few certain Kadokawa titles from the late 70's to early 80's that I'm pretty surprised Arrow didn't release.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by dickdarlington

I don’t understand the logic Third Window Films had behind not releasing it, as releasing a bare bones disc with the HD restoration is better than no release at all - especially since its been nearly two decades since the last physical release of this film.

I think Third Window has trouble enough shifting discs loaded with extras, and the US market is larger than the UK so probably can take risks a bit more - especially as Discotek often does barebones releases.

Lots of 00s films deserve to be upgraded but are confined to serviceable DVDs.

[Zen_Amako]

Originally Posted by bsweetness

Imported this on DVD 20 years ago when I was in college, and I've always liked the title it had at that time - Suicide Circle. Flows so much better than Suicide Club. Looking forward to picking this up.

Just in case you didn't know, a "circle" in Japan is a bit like a club (circles are more relaxed and have a broader range of groups). In the West, circles aren't really a thing. The Western equivalent would be Suicide Club since the title isn't referring to a circle like the shape, but what would be called a club outside Japan.