Has anyone seen the DVD of Himalaya? (1 Viewer)

[Rain]

Hi!

So I just won this DVD from the Virgin Megastore.

Apparently the film was up for the Best Foreign Film Oscar last year.

I know absolutely nothing about the film or the DVD and I couldn't find any reviews, so any thoughts/opinions on either would be greatly appreciated.

In particular, I'd like to know how the video quality of the DVD is and whether the subtitles are optional (burned-in translation-only subs are one of my biggest pet peeves).

Thanks in advance.

 

[Sebastian_A]

Hey there Rain.
This Switzerland/Nepal production has to be just AWESOME! I ordered this and am looking very much forward to this release. From what I heard, sound and picture are terrific, so is the commentary and the documentary.
If you want to sell it at a humane price,
lemme know.
Sebastian.

 

[Roger Mathus]

I received this DVD about a week ago. Although I have not watched the entire disc, my initial impression is very good. I have heard many good things about this film. It appears to be anamorphic, although not labeled as such. I plan to watch this coming weekend.

 

[Rain]

My copy is labelled anamorphic.

So, are the subtitles optional?

 

[Mark McLeod]

Rain,

The US and Canadian releases appear to have different covers as they are distributed by two different studios. Kino in the US and Mongrel Media in Canada.

They are both anamorphic but since I don't have either I couldn't tell you about the subtitles.

While I'm here. I think your policy about removable subtitles is a bit over the top. I'd rather have burned in subtitles that aren't removeable then crappy player generated ones.

 

[Rain]

Mark,
My position on subtitles is this.
If the subtitles are inherent to the original film, such as in Close Encounters of the Third Kind or some of the Bond films or Annie Hall, they should definitely be burned in.
If the subtitles are for translation purposes only and not inherent to the film, they should not be burned in. And I'd add that I've never experienced problems with player generated subtitles on movies like these. I'm big on cinematography, so sometimes I'll want to view a scene without the subtitles obscuring it. I also don't want to see them if I'm listening to a commentary track.

 

[Mario Bartel]

I watched this last week, and the video and audio presentations ARE very good. In fact, the film's production values are astounding considering the hardships the crew endured. The soundtrack is wonderful.

The making-of documentary that's included on the disc is also excellent, as it shows you some of the bumps and warts of this film's journey.

As for the subtitles, I think they're burned in.

 

[Hendrik]

"...I'd rather have burned in subtitles that aren't removeable then crappy player generated ones..."
...ahh... there's no such thing as "player generated" subtitles...
...the player doesn't "generate" anything - it merely 'reads' the bitstreams that are encoded on the disc, be they picture, soundtrack(s)[*], commentary track(s), separate music and/or effects track(s) - and subtitle tracks [*]...
[*]...e.g.: my Region 4/Australia DVD of Gone In 60 Seconds features two optional DD 5.1 soundtracks (English and Russian), plus six optional subtitle tracks (English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Icelandic) - and to stay OT, this particular movie gains in 'quality' - i.e. it looks one heck of a lot more interesting - when hearing Nicolas Cage et al. speak fluent Russian and trying to decipher the Icelandic subs...
...it has always struck me as funny/weird the way many people mention "player generated" subtitles, when it would probably never occur to these same people to talk about player-generated soundtracks...
. . . . . .

 

[Hendrik]

...for instance... among other things my French PAL DVD of Himalaya features a fine anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer, four soundtracks (one Tibetan, two French, one commentary) and French (only) subs...
http://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/fiche.php3?id=695

. . . . . .

 

[Gary Cliff]

Rain,

In the responses so far, the actual subject matter of the movie hasn't gotten much coverage. IMHO, this is the type of movie that a person will either love or hate. I note that you are big into cinematography. Well, this film has some breath-taking Himalayan vistas (though I haven't seen the DVD version, so I don't know how well this has been captured).

On the other hand, for people big into action films, this film will undoubtedly put them to sleep. This is a story about yak caravans delivering salt. It is all about interpersonal dynamics (in a different culture, which makes for some interesting moments), but there is only one scene that I can think of that could be classified as "exciting."

Personally, I loved this movie. But then, I realize that other people have different tastes in movies than I do. I hope you find these comments useful.