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Suggestions for "Ju Dou"

#1
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12/30/08 at 8:41am
  • Joined: May 2002
  • Post Count: 6,931
Last night I took a peek at my VHS tape of "Ju Dou," which I recorded off IFC several years ago, and was wondering if there's a decent import out there. I see YesAsia has Korean and Taiwan versions, but neither have English subtitles.

And I would have thought we'd get some decent treatment of Zhang's older films by now, or some super spectacular collection.

He was one of those people who would be neither a follower nor a leader, but only an aspiring heart, impatient in the failing body which imprisoned it. -- T. H. White, "The Once and Future King"

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#2
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12/30/08 at 1:32pm
  • Joined: December 1998
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Re: Suggestions for "Ju Dou"

I really like Gong Li so I purchased Ju Dou sometime ago from an Asian seller on EBay. There didn't seem to be any other way to obtain a copy of the DVD.

The DVD is mastered in NTSC and the region code is "All". The video is full screen and the audio is Chinese Dolby Digital 5.1 with English subtitles. The full screen fits the video I saw no evidence of cropping. The movie didn't appear to be filmed in widescreen.

The video is soft lacking detail with some imperfections. Similar in quality to many of the early STD DVDs that were released in 4 x 3 letterbox. Colors are faded and at times run together.

The story is excellent and if you can purchase the DVD fairly cheap then I think the purchase would be okay. Check EBay those sellers normally charge between $8 - 12 dollars.
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#3
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1/2/09 at 9:16pm
  • Joined: May 1999
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Re: Suggestions for "Ju Dou"

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ernest
I really like Gong Li so I purchased Ju Dou sometime ago from an Asian seller on EBay. There didn't seem to be any other way to obtain a copy of the DVD.

The DVD is mastered in NTSC and the region code is "All". The video is full screen and the audio is Chinese Dolby Digital 5.1 with English subtitles. The full screen fits the video I saw no evidence of cropping. The movie didn't appear to be filmed in widescreen.

The video is soft lacking detail with some imperfections. Similar in quality to many of the early STD DVDs that were released in 4 x 3 letterbox. Colors are faded and at times run together.

The story is excellent and if you can purchase the DVD fairly cheap then I think the purchase would be okay. Check EBay those sellers normally charge between $8 - 12 dollars.
I have owned this film from two different companies, and neither is good. This film requires rich, true, fully-saturated color, the way GATES OF HELL does (God knows if we'll ever see that on DVD, unless Criterion comes to the rescue), but the colors on the versions I've seen are muddy and brownish and soft. Since the dyes used for the silk are so integral to the film's plot and color scheme, anything less than a stellar, restored edition will fall short. I have researched the aspect ratio but have not come to any definitive conclusion. It could be 1.66:1, but it isn't wider than 1.85:1. The DVD releases so far have been 1.33:1 and 1.45:1 (approx.).
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