Member kungfusamurai Posted May 17, 2010 Member Share Posted May 17, 2010 I noticed that in all the full screen versions of this film, it looked soft, like someone had smeared vaseline all over the camera lense. I was hoping that the french DVD would be widescreen and crisp, if not a little dark like most of the french discs. But the weird thing is that even though it's widescreen, it also looks like someone smeared vaseline over it. Has anyone seen a crisp focused version of this film, whether in full or widescreen? Or was that just messed up right from the original film stock? KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gaijin84 Posted April 30, 2013 Member Share Posted April 30, 2013 Bump... Can you please provide a link/cover shot of the French DVD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Kwok Choi Posted May 2, 2013 Member Share Posted May 2, 2013 I noticed that in all the full screen versions of this film, it looked soft, like someone had smeared vaseline all over the camera lense. I was hoping that the french DVD would be widescreen and crisp, if not a little dark like most of the french discs. But the weird thing is that even though it's widescreen, it also looks like someone smeared vaseline over it. Has anyone seen a crisp focused version of this film, whether in full or widescreen? Or was that just messed up right from the original film stock? KFS The 35mm release prints were fine in all aspects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member gskmeva Posted June 15, 2013 Member Share Posted June 15, 2013 I noticed that in all the full screen versions of this film, it looked soft, like someone had smeared vaseline all over the camera lense. I was hoping that the french DVD would be widescreen and crisp, if not a little dark like most of the french discs. But the weird thing is that even though it's widescreen, it also looks like someone smeared vaseline over it. Has anyone seen a crisp focused version of this film, whether in full or widescreen? Or was that just messed up right from the original film stock? KFS I've loved Kung Fu films since a young child and my love for the movies sparked my interest to learn more about the technical aspects of movie making throughout the years. Sadly, I have yet to have seen a classic Kung Fu film on 35mm so I can only give you my understanding about the "softness" of 35 Crazy Fists. With a movie like 36 Crazy Fists and many Kung Fu films from the 1970s to mid 1980s, it was filmed with anamorphic lenses for a wide 2.35:1 aspect ratio (also known as "scope"). Unfortunately, a common photographic and technical problem that I have seen with a lot Kung Fu movies is that they often have a soft look due due to focus problems, lower quality lenses and cheaper film stock. Firstly, focusing for an anamorphic film is a lot harder than movies filmed with standard spherical lenses for "flat" films (an aspect ratio of 1.85:1). I've seen many Kung Fu films where the picture in many scenes are not entirely 100% in focus or just completely out of focus. Again, most movies are still being filmed with manual focus and requires very good focus pullers to pull the focus rings of those heavy cameras. Secondly, anamorphic lenses are usually technically softer than spherical lenses because the lenses squeezes about twice the amount of light and picture onto a square area on the 35mm negative, resulting into a wide aspect ratio when projected using a special lens. Thirdly, anamorphic lenses are expensive and most independent Kung Fu productions are gonna only able to rent lower quality and cheaper equipment. Lastly, film stock is not cheap and depending on the budget, the movie will have a better look if higher quality film stock is used instead. To solve these problems, many Kung Fu movies started filming in the "flat" ratio with spherical lenses starting in the 1980s. The wide scope look was gone but filming the movie was more convenient and cheap. Actually, this practice still continues today with the use of Super-35 and Digital Intermediates and movies using anamorphic lenses has become less common. In sum, Crazy 36 Fists will never have the sharpness of a modern Hollywood film, nor would it technically look as good as the Kung Fu films from Golden Harvest or Shaw Bros (again, more money, better equipment). Still, you would have to see an actual 35mm print of the movie projected onto a big screen to make a better judgement about the actual look. That would be awesome! Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted June 15, 2013 Member Share Posted June 15, 2013 Bump... Can you please provide a link/cover shot of the French DVD? There's this one, released by Bach Films: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member jiujitsu77 Posted June 30, 2013 Member Share Posted June 30, 2013 wow....well stated, gksmeva I know personally finding a print of ANY kung fu movie stateside that is 35mm and scope is a huge rarity. I am willing to bet that 36 Crazy Fists is a title that was made on the cheap, so any definitive release or transfer you have is the best it is going to look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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