Collaborations: The Cinema of Zhang Yimou & Gong Li - 20 October 2021 - Imprint Films

[hiwilliam]

The Story of Qiu Ju:

[BunyipPouch]

Has anyone gotten a shipping notification from a US retailer yet?

[themp3000]

Nah, I’m not expecting one until closer to release date or later for DeepDiscount.

[hiwilliam]

To Live:

[hiwilliam]

Shanghai Triad:

[hiwilliam]

Curse of the Golden Flower:

[hiwilliam]

Coming Home:

[useless watcher]

Originally Posted by hiwilliam

[Show spoiler]

Most of the colors look pretty natural and balanced to me in those Red Sorghum screenshots, but I was surprised by how much this one shot differs from the version found easily on youtube, which I assume to be from the WCL blu-ray. Is that supposed to be a day-for-night (or "day-for-dawn") filter on the Imprint, or...? (The shot is preceded by nighttime scenes, but in context is the beginning of a daytime sequence. Regardless of which colors are more accurate, I think the warmer version looks more pleasing in general...)

[Yami]

For those that have the release, what are the audio specs? Imprint told me they'd be lossless but the release page did say Dolby Digital for a few so I'm wondering what turned out to be correct

[vamatt99218]

Anyone know if this is region free?

[Mose Harper]

I'm not familiar with these films, other than Ju Dou which I actually saw at a theater when it was making it's rounds in '91.

I don't have a good recollection of what it looked like, other than they were making a big deal in the PR for it about some relationship with Technicolor. I can't recall what it was exactly, but I think one of the last Technicolor processing facilities was shutting down, and this was the last film processed there...or something like that.

The thing was, I went in expecting some dazzling eye-popping color, and I remember being disappointed in that respect. It was an enchanting movie visually because of the setting, but theatrically, and again on the subsequent laserdisc, I remember wondering what all the fuss with Technicolor was about.

In any case, the caps generously provided by hiwilliam seem to be consistent with the PQ from the set's trailer that Imprint put out.

Collaborations: The Cinema Of Zhang Yimou & Gong Li (Trailer) - YouTube

The clips look great to me in that, so as long as there are no issues with compression artifacts, it looks to be a pleasing set- visually at least.

[darry]

Originally Posted by Yami

For those that have the release, what are the audio specs? Imprint told me they'd be lossless but the release page did say Dolby Digital for a few so I'm wondering what turned out to be correct

DTS HD 5.1 for Ju Dou, Raise The Red Lantern, Curse of the Golden Flower and Coming Home. The rest are LPCM 2.0.

[danielvh]

The delivery date on my pre-order from Amazon Au is still pending. I think my order may have fallen into a black hole...

[useless watcher]

Originally Posted by darry

DTS HD 5.1 for Ju Dou, Raise The Red Lantern, Curse of the Golden Flower and Coming Home. The rest are LPCM 2.0.

Thanks! Question for you if you remember or the next time anyone else plays these discs: do Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern also have 2.0 options? I’m hoping so since their original mixes were stereo.

[hiwilliam]

Originally Posted by useless watcher

Thanks! Question for you if you remember or the next time anyone else plays these discs: do Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern also have 2.0 options? I’m hoping so since their original mixes were stereo.

Yes, they do.

[darry]

Originally Posted by useless watcher

Thanks! Question for you if you remember or the next time anyone else plays these discs: do Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern also have 2.0 options? I’m hoping so since their original mixes were stereo.

yeah, Curse of the Golden Flower, Ju You, and Raise The Red Lantern also have LPCM 2.0.

[vamatt99218]

Has anyone tested the discs on a Region A player? I would like to buy it but don't want to spend $180+ to try them out. I know Imprint blurays in the past are usually region free but just want to double check. Thank you.

[Aunt Peg]

Originally Posted by vamatt99218

Has anyone tested the discs on a Region A player? I would like to buy it but don't want to spend $180+ to try them out. I know Imprint blurays in the past are usually region free but just want to double check. Thank you.

I just checked two of the films - Raise the Red Lantern & Shanghai Triad and they both played fine on my region A player.

All the discs themselves don't state any region nor does the packaging. They also don't say ABC.

[spongwapkaplet]

I have waited for quite a few of these films on Blu-ray for a very long time, having purchased so many different DVD versions of some of the titles to try to get something of high quality. And out of the blue to see this set released in Australia and to finally receive it a couple of days ago was quite emotional.

I have watched 2 of the films so far: Red Sorghum and Ju Dou, and compared them to the WCL Red Sorghum and Korean Nova Media Ju Dou Blu-rays that I also own.

I think the WCL Red Sorghum is easily the better of the 2 versions due to stable frame and reduced compression artifacts. The WCL also has compression artifacts in motion, e.g. in between the frame of the sedan chair carriers, in the sky etc, but the Imprint Red Sorghum has a significantly higher number of compression artifacts in detailed scenes (such as the scene where the sedan chair is moving through the field) and sections of similar colours, such as cloudy sky. Even the main title in the Imprint has compression noise in the Chinese characters compared to the strong image of the WCL. The sweat on foreheads etc of the WCL has greater clarity, with the Imprint looking more waxy. You can see the brown iris of Gong Li's eyes in the WCL, whereas it was hard to make out any colour in her eyes in the Imprint version. However for much of the film the Imprint is still engaging and is high resolution. Bottom line = the WCL is the best if you want the best, but if you can't get the WCL, the Imprint is still significantly better than any of the DVD versions that I've ever seen (including Xinsheng, Verve etc). English subtitles on both are clear, but the Imprint subtitles are more specific "I'll cut your chest open" vs WCL "I'll kill you".

I think the Imprint Ju Dou is better than the Korean Nova Media release. Imprint has significantly higher detail throughout, an extremely stable image, and really great colour. Nova Media also has a stable image and high resolution, but the Imprint has increased detail - there's a scene where Gong Li is looking up at the owner's nephew who is atop a ladder, and on the Imprint you can see individual hairs on her head with clear separation, whereas on the Nova Media her hairs are blurry by comparison. However both Blu-rays are significantly better than any of the DVD versions (Razor etc). Excellent sound quality on both.

But these early films from are careers of Zhang Yimou and Gong Li are fantastic to have, and I have been so happy to watch them all over again. The Imprint version of Red Sorghum, despite the compression and telecine wobble issue, is such a satisfying movie compared to Zhang Yimou's recent work such as The Great Wall 4K. Likewise Ju Dou at 1.37:1 on either Imprint or Nova Media is more satisfying than Shadow 4K.

Looking forward to the next ones in the set, which I'm expecting to be excellent given the screen captures that have been posted here.

I should mention I watched the discs on a 65-inch OLED LG screen played from a an LG UBK90 4K player.

[useless watcher]

Thank you @spongwapkaplet, this is more valuable specificity than I’m expecting from most professional reviews, since I doubt most will actually have the WCL and Nova releases on hand for comparison! I look forward to your reactions to the rest of the set (and not because I’m still worried that it could be enough of a disaster that I’d want to cancel my order. It feels like we’re at least in “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” territory, which was probably always the most likely outcome for this set until anything else like it comes along.)