Zatoichi (2003) UK

[Telemachus]

Diabolik and Atomic have preorders up for the Imprint/VV Zatoichi Kitano disc. Taking a chance on it, they at least have the same audio specs as the Bandai Blu ray which is a good sign it has nothing to do with the awful Disney/Miramax Blu.

[tomblu]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Diabolik and Atomic have preorders up for the Imprint/VV Zatoichi Kitano disc. Taking a chance on it, they at least have the same audio specs as the Bandai Blu ray which is a good sign it has nothing to do with the awful Disney/Miramax Blu.

I emailed them to ask about the transfer, they confirmed it will be the same master as the US disc.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by tomblu

I emailed them to ask about the transfer, they confirmed it will be the same master as the US disc.

I might get some flack for this, but I actually prefer the colors on that master. There are so many colorful costumes and locations and then to have them dulled, seemed to be a disservice to the beauty of the film. With the "newer" master the world Kitano created seems more alive and makes the film a better experience IMO even though it wasn't intended to look that way. If you're going to spend so much time on beautiful locations and costumes, but then suck the color out of them, it just felt like a strange choice.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by tomblu

I emailed them to ask about the transfer, they confirmed it will be the same master as the US disc.

Bruh lol not good. Then the question becomes is the Disney special sauce baked in or did they get it clean before the changes. I can deal with the color grading, but if it's the exact same messed up transfer 1:1 from the old BD it will have the DNR/sharpening. At least it would have the lossless Japanese sound now, but won't have the lossless English dub from that disc. Dang, this film is a mess on home media outside Japan.

[tomblu]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

I might get some flack for this, but I actually prefer the colors on that master. There are so many colorful costumes and locations and then to have them dulled, seemed to be a disservice to the beauty of the film. With the "newer" master the world Kitano created seems more alive and makes the film a better experience IMO even though it wasn't intended to look that way. If you're going to spend so much time on beautiful locations and costumes, but then suck the color out of them, it just felt like a strange choice.

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Bruh lol not good. Then the question becomes is the Disney special sauce baked in or did they get it clean before the changes. I can deal with the color grading, but if it's the exact same messed up transfer 1:1 from the old BD it will have the DNR/sharpening. At least it would have the lossless Japanese sound now, but won't have the lossless English dub from that disc. Dang, this film is a mess on home media outside Japan.

I have never seen this film actually, I am around 80% through the Criterion set. I recently bought the UK steelbook, it is from Artificial Eye, I am not sure if that was a wise purchase, but I bought that before they announced this one.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by tomblu

I have never seen this film actually, I am around 80% through the Criterion set. I recently bought the UK steelbook, it is from Artificial Eye, I am not sure if that was a wise purchase, but I bought that before they announced this one.

I've seen three different versions of this on disc. The Miramax DVD has bad edge enhancement but no DNR, the Miramax Blu has bad EE and bad DNR. Both have the same colors and lossy Japanese sound. The Bandai Blu ray looks like an upscale, probably just a bad HD transfer who knows, which is my guess why Disney hit the US versions with so much digital tampering. I haven't seen the UK/Euro Blu rays but if capsaholic is anything to go by they also both look different. It's anyone's guess what the Imprint disc will look like, but if it has the bad sharpening and DNR I just won't bother. The Bandai disc is still in print for $30 but it's just not worth it for the presentation you get. Kitano's Brother on Blu ray also looks lower than HD resolution to me and has bad DNR, there's some mosquito swarming on that disc were the algorithm didn't get the grain it's a bit funny watching it. All Kitano's films need UHDs, the Outrage films look the best imo.

As for this film, it's awesome, definitely worth having around in some form, never gets old.

[CelestialAgent]

Imprint are a weird label, not to criticise them too much as I have a few of their releases, but can seem arbitrary what goes through Imprint vs. Via Vision (Stephen King, Conan, Drag Me to Hell, Wolf Creek, Four Rooms, The Prophecy, Carry On, On the Buses). They rely on existing masters (some quite mediocre encodes or from DVD era masters), with many titles later going 4K soon after (The Straight Story, As Good as it Gets, The Dead Zone, The Warriors, Days of Heaven, The Wicker Man, The War of the Worlds) or at least getting remastered (The Bad News Bears, The Day of the Locust). Problematic masters I’ve seen discussed include Sorry, Wrong Number and My Summer of Love. With a shrinking Australian market, Imprint rely heavily on importers, but still have a lot of crossover with other labels with titles like The Pawnbroker, The Offence, Serpico, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Hard Times, Johnny Handsome, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (and , the noir boxsets. Sometimes the only new extras are commentary/video essay, or some of the more recent titles barebones but still full price (extras dropped at the last minute), and unnecessarily padded out boxsets that take up lots of shelf space by giving each film (or even just a special features disc or different cut) a full size case and no booklet. So if I bought some of their other releases I might switch out cases to save space.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Kitano's Brother on Blu ray also looks lower than HD resolution to me and has bad DNR, there's some mosquito swarming on that disc were the algorithm didn't get the grain it's a bit funny watching it.

Are you talking about the German Blu-ray, the Japanese Blu-ray or both?

[Telemachus]

Did anyone grab the Via Vision disc? How is it?

[tomblu]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Did anyone grab the Via Vision disc? How is it?

I ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet. I contacted them and was told it is the same master as the US release so I would expect it to look very similar. I'm not expecting it to look very good.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by tomblu

I ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet. I contacted them and was told it is the same master as the US release so I would expect it to look very similar. I'm not expecting it to look very good.

I can deal with the master being the same, if it's before DNR/EE, which was the case with The Arrival. Please give your impression after you check it out

[tomblu]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I can deal with the master being the same, if it's before DNR/EE, which was the case with The Arrival. Please give your impression after you check it out

I have it pre-ordered with a few pre-orders for late April so won't be getting it for a while, but happy to help if reviews/caps aren't already out then.

[Cinematt]

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003) | NEW HD Trailer - YouTube

The trailer certainly looks like the Miramax colours, but the youtube encoding is too poor to judge any further. I was hopeful but maybe I'll just grab a copy of the Artificial Eye release, it's an upgrade on my old Hong Kong DVD still and it does a decent job on the colour timing.

[Ben_C]

I need some Kitano 4Ks in my life. Most of the Third Window output is oop nowadays, and no idea who owns the rights or would be in a position to make it happen, but I would re-buy every title in a heartbeat if it meant getting them all in even better quality to what were already mostly excellent releases from TWF and BFI.

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by Ben_C

I need some Kitano 4Ks in my life. Most of the Third Window output is oop nowadays, and no idea who owns the rights or would be in a position to make it happen, but I would re-buy every title in a heartbeat if it meant getting them all in even better quality to what were already mostly excellent releases from TWF and BFI.

I know TWF licensed the 6 they did directly from Office Kitano.

[Telemachus]

I rewatched all my Kitano Blu rays this year, I have a mix between the Bandai discs and the Film Movement ones, but everything uses the Bandai materials afaik. I think Kids Return could use a UHD, the master looks pretty old, same with Sonatine, still the Blu is very servicable when I watch it. Of course I would rebuy Violent Cop and Kikujiro, but I'm actually happy with most of these discs, they have grain and texture and don't look too messed with. The Outrage films would be an instabuy from me, hopefully they just come out as a UHD trilogy at some point. It's great Bandai has these all in print still and they are English sub friendly, I even noticed Amazon US sells most of them through the Japan storefront deep in the search function with free shipping.

Still would like to hear if that new ViaVision Zatoichi is worth it

[Captain Paranoia]

As far as I know, the Via Vision/Imprint Blu-Ray contains burned-in English subtitles, but it does contain an exclusive commentary so people who show interest in that may want to seek it out.

[Faustus]

I watched the Artificial Eye Blu earlier tonight. Having read the reports of others in advance I expected it to look underwhelming, but it looks worse than the original AE DVD in places.