Johnnie To's Vengeance - HK

[Volume11]

Originally Posted by Sagacious Koreo

Honestly, it's not the most impressive thing on bluray. The sound was good I suppose, but even that could've been better. I don't know if it was the type of camera To used, but things seemed out of focus sometimes and it just wasn't as pristine as I had hope overall. Still, I'm sort of glad I have it at the same time. I still really liked the film despite it's flaws.

To be honest, most of To's work has a soft look to it and all of the BDs I own of his work all have soft tones and muted colors. Even Eureka's high quality MOC director approved by TO himself release of Mad Detective, while looking great, isn;t demo material for people who like eye candy.

[Sagacious Koreo]

Ya, that's true. Mad Detective was like that...and Exiled too, I remember. For some reason though, that softness kind of adds to the film for me though. It almost kind of lets me know that I'm watching a To film. Kind of a trademark almost.

[Volume11]

Originally Posted by Sagacious Koreo

Ya, that's true. Mad Detective was like that...and Exiled too, I remember. For some reason though, that softness kind of adds to the film for me though. It almost kind of lets me know that I'm watching a To film. Kind of a trademark almost.

DVDbeaver had great comparison shots of Mad Detective's Eureka release (with muted colors, director approved) and the HK (Deltamac, I think) release with had at the least majorly boosted contrast and possibly color timing changes...

The Eureka release looks to be more in line with most of his work and since its director approved I'd wager Vengeance is meant to look like it does.

And like you I love it. Its To's trademark look and does remind you that you aren't watching green screen CGI fest.

[Hayabusa85]

My order of this, Rebellion, City of Life and Death and Accident finally arrived today and for once they brought it to my house instead of leaving it at the post office and making me go pick it up. So while slower than usual that was nice at least

[Offender_Mullet]

Originally Posted by Volume11

DVDbeaver had great comparison shots of Mad Detective's Eureka release (with muted colors, director approved) and the HK (Deltamac, I think) release with had at the least majorly boosted contrast and possibly color timing changes...

The Eureka release looks to be more in line with most of his work and since its director approved I'd wager Vengeance is meant to look like it does.

And like you I love it. Its To's trademark look and does remind you that you aren't watching green screen CGI fest.

After reading the comparison a few months ago, it made me go with the Asian release. Here's the link for that: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...ve_blu-ray.htm Everything looks more natural to my eyes with the Mei Ah version. Plus, it's on a 50GB disc (compared to the UK's 25GB). The feature takes up 25.5GB of disc space (compared to the UK's 20.23GB) & there is the 7.1 PCM track with the Asian release. Do those things make a difference? I don't know but its' a fantastic movie regardless.

[lhslancers]

Originally Posted by Offender_Mullet

After reading the comparison a few months ago, it made me go with the Asian release. Here's the link for that: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...ve_blu-ray.htm Everything looks more natural to my eyes with the Mei Ah version. Plus, it's on a 50GB disc (compared to the UK's 25GB). The feature takes up 25.5GB of disc space (compared to the UK's 20.23GB) & there is the 7.1 PCM track with the Asian release. Do those things make a difference? I don't know but its' a fantastic movie regardless.

I got the UK version for 19 bucks. Crank up the contrast.

[AnimeOnBlu]

Originally Posted by Offender_Mullet

After reading the comparison a few months ago, it made me go with the Asian release. Here's the link for that: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...ve_blu-ray.htm Everything looks more natural to my eyes with the Mei Ah version. Plus, it's on a 50GB disc (compared to the UK's 25GB). The feature takes up 25.5GB of disc space (compared to the UK's 20.23GB) & there is the 7.1 PCM track with the Asian release. Do those things make a difference? I don't know but its' a fantastic movie regardless.

The UK version is both a To approved transfer and a Director's Cut version of the movie. The HK version is horribly contrast boosted and by doing so (imo) ruins the entire feel of the movie. Ip Man also seems to suffer from this (as apparently the UK version is closer to theatrical prints than the contrast boosted HK version is from some posts I have seen).

[Volume11]

Originally Posted by Offender_Mullet

After reading the comparison a few months ago, it made me go with the Asian release. Here's the link for that: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...ve_blu-ray.htm Everything looks more natural to my eyes with the Mei Ah version. Plus, it's on a 50GB disc (compared to the UK's 25GB). The feature takes up 25.5GB of disc space (compared to the UK's 20.23GB) & there is the 7.1 PCM track with the Asian release. Do those things make a difference? I don't know but its' a fantastic movie regardless.

I think at first glance the Contrast boosted caps obviously pop more and call more attention to themselves than the Eureka caps do but I think the latter looks more natural and, as others pointed out, its director approved and certainly looks like the color timing and style of most of To's work. Plus, the MoC Eureka series is just plain awesome and I would rather support them.

And, some may not care but I do, but the UK Eureka version comes with an essay booklet (like Criterion releases often do) that is actually quite enlightening and helped me understand the film after watching the first time with a tad more depth. It also made revisiting it more enjoyable.

[Offender_Mullet]

Looks like I'm the minority here, but I respect your opinions. What's the run-time for the U.K. blu-ray?

[ArieS]

Pro-B,
Have you heard if this movie will come out in the US? A BD would be great and a DVD release would do it to check it out.

[pro-bassoonist]

Hello ArieS,

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any preliminary plans for a US BD release.

Pro-B

[Xorp]

https://images.blu-ray.com/reviews/2458_3_1080p.jpg

wow, just wow. Temporal denoising set to 11.

[rich_adamson]

Originally Posted by Xorp

https://images.blu-ray.com/reviews/2458_3_1080p.jpg

wow, just wow. Temporal denoising set to 11.

That is hideous. It does look better in motion though...

[r0pe]

Hi,

is it right, that the actors speak English, French and Chinese in the movie?

My problem: I own a Region B BR-Player, but the HK-Version is Region A Locked. Then there is a French version of the movie, but it contains only French subtitles... The French and Chinese parts would be very hard to unterstand....

Is there another version with English subtitles and Region B or unlocked announced? Thanks in advance.

r0pe


EDIT: It's about "Vengeance"

[pro-bassoonist]

Good afternoon,

At this point, I do not believe that there is another English-friendly Region-B version of the film. Perhaps a UK or Australian versions are somewhere down the road, but I am yet to see any preliminary release plans for these markets.

Originally Posted by r0pe

Hi,

is it right, that the actors speak English, French and Chinese in the movie?

Yes, but the overwhelming amount of the dialog is in (broken) English.

Pro-B

[r0pe]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Good afternoon,

At this point, I do not believe that there is another English-friendly Region-B version of the film. Perhaps a UK or Australian versions are somewhere down the road, but I am yet to see any preliminary release plans for these markets.



Yes, but the overwhelming amount of the dialog is in (broken) English.

Pro-B

Thank you for the fast reply. But I'm better gonna wait for another version, because I want to understand everything

mh.. maybe I should work on my plan to buy a Region A BluRay player

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by r0pe

mh.. maybe I should work on my plan to buy a Region A BluRay player

That's what I would recommend. And then -- picking up Criterion's Der Himmel über Berlin

Pro-B

[ArieS]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Hello ArieS,

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any preliminary plans for a US BD release.

Pro-B

Thanks Pro-B, I guess I'll wait and see...

[McCrutchy]

If anyone is curious, here is the disc specs from BDInfo:

QUICK SUMMARY:

Disc Title: VENGEANCE
Disc Size: 23,045,186,273 bytes
Protection: AACS
BD-Java: No
Playlist: 00001.MPLS
Size: 22,450,114,560 bytes
Length: 1:48:41
Total Bitrate: 27.54 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 20960 kbps / 1080p / 24 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English / Dolby TrueHD Audio / 7.1 / 48 kHz / 1978 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Embedded: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -4dB)
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -4dB
Audio: Chinese / Dolby Digital Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -4dB
Subtitle: English / 8.929 kbps
Subtitle: Chinese / 9.600 kbps
Subtitle: Chinese / 8.619 kbps

Full report attached.