Reviews written by pokute
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DURIAN DURIAN (Japan Version)
May 13, 2010 Brilliant!Boring in the second half? Cinema Verité?! Neither of these is a fair statement about Durian Durian. This is in fact a brilliant, complex film that explores the hard, prickly, funky, and sweet aspects of life from the perspective of a young woman overflowing with hard, prickly, funky sweetness. And since it's Fruit Chan, it's also all about China, and about all of the rest of the world. Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
The Mission (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
May 1, 2009 Great film, AWFUL dvdAs folks have already mentioned, there are multiple problems with this dvd. If the poor video and audio quality were the only issue, it would not be notable when compared to other Mei-Ah hatchet jobs... But all Mei-Ah releases of the mission have TWO LINES OF CHINESE TEXT AS A WATERMARK RUNNING ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE IMAGE!!!! This is true even of the so-called Tai-Seng "U.S." release, which is the Mei-Ah R0 release with a gold Tai-Seng sticker stuck on the dvd case. Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
Tactical Unit - No Way Out (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Tactical Unit - No Way Out (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region All
(1)Our Price: US$10.99Usually ships within 7 to 14 daysRelated promotions:March 19, 2009 Somewhat better than "The Code"The second followup to the impressive PTU is certainly an improvement on the first, but can't hold up when compared to the original. Johnny To is plainly scrambling to scrape together some cash at the expense of his fans. This film is only for die-hard fans of the original PTU film. If you liked the first sequel, The Code, then this will put you into orbit, since it's a good deal better than that bit of fluff. Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
Hero (2007) (DVD) (DTS) (Standard Edition) (English Subtitled) (Japan Version)
Hero (2007) (DVD) (DTS) (Standard Edition) (English Subtitled) (Japan Version) DVD Region 2
(1)Our Price: US$35.49Usually ships within 7 to 14 daysRelated promotions:March 18, 2008 Poorly mastered DVDThe HERO movie brings most of the cast members of the 2001 TV series back for a much deserved encore. Fans of the TV show will be very pleased by this film.
The DVD has Dolby and DTS 5.1 audio tracks, and excellent English subtitles. The video is presented in 2.20 cinematic widescreen letterboxed into 16:9 anamorphic format, which is the standard for high quality dvd presentation.
The video track has some serious problems, however. The video is unsharp, and there are noticeable compression artifacts in the form of ringing or "mosquito noise". I have noticed similar problems with other recent Toho releases. If this were a $10 disc, it would not be worth commenting on, but when the disc costs $40, I expect it to be properly mastered.Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
A Chinese Odyssey Part 1 (Taiwan version)
A Chinese Odyssey Part 1 (Taiwan version) DVD Region All
(1)Our Price: US$12.49Related promotions:3 people found this review helpful
May 8, 2006 Great Movie - BAD EDITIONThis disc (described as the Taiwan DVD) is actually a poor transfer of a vcd into dvd format. The sides of the image are missing, and the picture quality is HORRIBLE. The Chinese and English subtitles are BOTH hard-coded into the picture on this disc!!
Buy the DTS version dvd, which also has a regular dolby soundtrack. It costs LESS than this disc, and has far superior picture quality. It also has selectable Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean subtitles and is only $7.99Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
March 21, 2006 A Charming Masterpiece
This is a lovely little film. It is at once simple and sophisticated, and proves that Takeshi is a master filmmaker, not just a master of cinematic violence. There is only very brief mild violence, and it is important in terms of defining the central character's moral position.
The transfer on this dvd is excellent, and the musical score for this film is Hisaishi at his best, reminding me very much of his work on Totoro.Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
A Scene At The Sea (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
A Scene At The Sea (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3
(3)Our Price: US$12.49Related promotions:March 20, 2006 An Interesting FilmA Scene At The Sea is one of those films that doesn't produce a strong impression when you first watch it, but which you can never forget after seeing it. The two central characters are deaf mute, and the film has very little dialogue. What dialogue it does have does not contribute significantly to the film, and may even be intentionally banal in order to stress the unimportance of spoken language.
Technically, this dvd is badly flawed. It is *approximately* 16:9 format matted into a 4:3 frame with the edges of the image wiggling around noisily, and there is extreme colr bleeding. Alas, this is the only transfer available as far as I know.
This film is in striking contrast with Takeshi Kitano's other films in that there is no violence whatsoever.Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
The Great Yokai War (DTS Version) (Hong Kong Version)
The Great Yokai War (DTS Version) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3
(4)Our Price: US$14.99Related promotions:March 18, 2006 A Great Kid's Film - A Defective DVDThis DVD does NOT have English subtitles. There is an 'en' subtitle stream on the DVD, but it has Chinese characters!! The disc is defective, or the packaging and substream ID's are intentionally misleading. You decide. Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This) -
Journey To The West (I) Vol.1-25 (End) (US Version)
Journey To The West (I) Vol.1-25 (End) (US Version) DVD Region All
(9)Our Price: US$45.99Related promotions:March 6, 2006 Best version, but dodgy picture qualityThis is the definitive version of Journey to the West, following the text of the standard edition pretty closely. However, the video quality is marginal. The episodes on these dvd's are heavily denoised versions of the VCD's, and are very blocky/blurry. But this is probably as good as it's ever going to get, so you might as well buy it!! Did you find this review helpful? Yes (Report This)
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