Any reviews on Chungking Express yet? (1 Viewer)

[Marc Colella]

It's being released tomorrow, and usually a DVD review would have been up 1 week before the release date.

Anyone have their copy yet?

What's the transfer like?

 

[DonaldB]

I haven't heard anything yet, but after the botching of Belle de Jour, I'm holding onto my copy of the Criterion LD until there's enough testimony showing that BV/Miramax has done this one right.

 

[Christopher D]

I just got this one in the mail. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but laughed hard that the list of "Bonus Material" on the back cover includes "Original Language Track (Chinese)."

Thanks a lot for that big bonus, Miramax!

 

[Matthew Brown]

I should be watching it very soon.

If this is a good release, it is going to fool people into thinking that Miramax has changed it's ways. There are three Hong kong movies that will be released in the near future by miramax that are all cut and dubbed. I will try to watch this one tonight.

Matt

 

[Peter Kim]

I've got this one coming from Best Buy. One big, welcome difference is that this film is presented in widescreen anamorphic vs. fullscreen on the VHS tape.

Has anyone seen this one during its theatrical run either here or in HK? Even when I get this dvd, I'll have no idea whether this was butchered since I have nothing to benchmark from.

Well, at least the series will now have been completely released on dvd.

 

[Matthew Brown]

Peter -

From what I have read in the past, this is the international cut of the movie which is slightly different from the HK version. I have never seen the HK version so I can't compare the two.

Matt

 

[Brook K]

I'm waiting to see as well, BV's HK track record is not good. I thought this wasn't coming out until next week though?

 

[teapot2001]

My copy shipped today. I've only seen the VHS version too, so I'll probably be happy with this.

Brook, if you haven't bought it yet, I think DVD Empire has the best deal with the $5 coupon.

~T

 

[Peter Kim]

Mucho thanks, Matt. Doing a little checking, I see that the runtime on the new dvd is exactly the same as that on the VHS - 102 minutes.

Christopher D...have you had a chance to scan the extras? On DVDEmpire's site, the extras listed are as follows:

Theatrical Trailer

Original Hong Kong Trailer

Quentin Tarentino Introduciton

Quentin Tarentino Wrap-up

Original Language Track (Chinese)

However, I think most, if not all of these extras can be found on the tail end of the VHS version.

 

[Peter Kim]

Brook...I was under the same impression - I even logged this release under the 28th on my calendar. That's how much I love this film.

Have no idea why the release was quietly bumped up. But not complaining anyway.

 

[Christopher D]

Peter - sorry, haven't had a chance to do much more than take a quick look at it. The picture and sound seemed OK at first glance, but my look was very cursory. I was not hugely impressed with the menu or setup. There is no sound changing on the fly, and the original language track is actually somewhat hidden. You have to go to the subtitles page and select English subtitles, and then it switches to the Chinese audio. If you want to watch it in Chinese without English subtitles, you're out of luck.

The other listed features are there on a bonus menu -- I just haven't watched them yet.

 

[Matthew Brown]

I'm going to watch this over the weekend. I am going to do a full review on it on my site and I want to see how much different it is than the laser disc. I love this movie so I may even watch it twice before I write anything.

Matt

 

[Rich Malloy]

Go reviewers, go!
Whether this disc shines or shinolas is certainly one of the great mysteries of the summer season. I've been hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst for a few months now, so please don't keep me in suspense much longer!
(If the news is bad, I hereby promise not to go ape-shit a la my "Belle de jour" tirade in February... well, at least not publicly!)

 

[Peter Kim]

Yeah! Ditto Rich. I'll be anxious to see those reviews...guys, you have a captive audience. (and thanks).

 

[Mark_Wilson]

My R2 copy is 1.66:1 and the BV disc is listed as 1.85:1. Running time seems the same 100min. PAL to 102min. NTSC

 

[teapot2001]

I think Christopher may have a different copy than the one I have. On my copy, Chinese is the only language track and you can watch the movie without English subtitles.

I only had time to skim the movie. The sound is in Dolby Digital 2.0 and the picture looks good to me, although I had only seen the VHS copy and I'm not an expert on DVD picture quality.

~T

 

[Rich Malloy]

That's promising! Can you confirm whether it's anamorphic, Thi?
Anyone?

 

[teapot2001]

The back cover lists it as being enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

~T

 

[Christopher D]

Thi - I went back and checked mine a bit more. You *can* watch in Chinese without English subtitles. And there *is* an English dub track on there. It seems to be pretty much pot luck which one comes up. The first time I tried this, the language tracks actually changed on the fly as I changed the subtitles. Then it seemed to get stuck on Chinese.

I have no idea how one is supposed to actually choose what they want, but I suppose I would start by choosing the appropriate subtitle track.

All the supplements are there. Transfer OK but nothing spectacular -- noticed a few scratches here and there. I haven't compared it to my LD.

 

[teapot2001]

Well, I just tried everything possible to try to access an English track (not that I want one) and couldn't find anything. It must be an Easter egg.
~T