DVD Review HTF DVD REVIEW: The Last Emperor (1 Viewer)

[SteveJKo]

Colin this is exactly what I was thinking, and Storaro's discussion of the issue sounds very much like Lucas's excuse making. But I love this film and just don't see another full scope release of it coming any time soon. Like the original Star Wars trio, I'll be buying this because it's the only way I can have it.

 

[cafink]

I'm puzzled. "The only way you can have it?" Both the original Star Wars trilogy and the full 2.35:1 version of The Last Emperor are available on DVD. In the case of Emperor you'll need a region-free DVD player, but they're extremely easy to come by these days and won't cost you much more than the $40 Criterion is asking for their release of Emperor.

 

[Lyle_JP]

This revisionist cropping is all about Storaro pimping Univisium, and Criterion let themselves be used in the furthering of this still-born film "format".

2.00 is and never will be the proper aspect ratio of this film. But it doesn't matter to Storaro, so long as the cause of Univisium is moved forward. I will not buy this disc.

 

[SteveJKo]

I purchased the Star Wars trilogy before the eventual re-release of the special editions with the original versions as extras. Mr Lucas has enough of my money at this point and besides, in his own words those transfers are state of the art for 1993. So yes, I could purchase them on DVD if I want to re-purchase the special editions all over again with less than the best transfers of the originals.

As for the Last Emporer, yes I guess I could own the European version if I want to but a region free DVD player for just one movie.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

What player do you have? Perhaps it already can be made region-free (and handle the needed PAL->NTSC conversion). Some/many Denon and Philips players w/ the Faroudja FL23xx series DCDi chip can be for instance -- and often, it only needs some remote control code, not even a firmware hack. IIRC, some Toshiba's can also do it like that...

_Man_

 

[Simon Howson]

It is very strange that so many U.S. players still have region coding.

It is very difficult in Australia buying a player that HAS region coding! Most players are now region free out of the box, while the minority that having region coding turned on can have it turned off by a remote key combination.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Amazon has dropped its price on this to $39.99.

==============================

Has anyone picked this up (since the conversation has died down) and care to share their thoughts?

 

[Bob Cashill]

It's a fantastic set, first-class Criterion all the way. If you can live with the compromised AR--and I'm not saying you should have to--I can't imagine not purchasing it, simply to enjoy the bounty of extras. (It's only two dollars less than what I paid for it, so it's not that big a difference, perhaps more of a psychological one, "under $40" and all that.)

 

[Nelson Au]

I was curious if there were more comments on this set. AR issues aside, it sounds like an excellent set. My interest was distracted, but I saw a few bits of this film on PBS last night and it reminded me of this set.

I was going to buy it, but I read, of all places, a discussion on IMDB that said Criterion will be issuing this on Blu-Ray in October. All extras included and the pricing was to be the same.

I might wait then and continue to study Bu-Ray player options.

 

[Jon Smith]

Finally got round to watching it.

I am not overly familiar with the movie only seen it once in the TV cut form. I have to say the cropping did hurt it a lot. There were far too many scenes where people were cut off from the edge of the screen. I simply can not believe for one second it was intended to be 2.00:1.

I'm not sure whether to pick up the R2 version. The TV cut doesn't look great in the Criterion edition and I can imagine the R2 one being a lot worse.