Member waywardsage Posted October 14, 2011 Member Share Posted October 14, 2011 Apparently the lady snowblood films are going out of print on Animeigo. So they've discounted both of them to $8 each! I picked up both and just received them in the mail. It's a shame that more and more samurai classics are going out of print from US distributors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JimPV Posted October 15, 2011 Member Share Posted October 15, 2011 Only seen the first film, but the DVD of it wasn't great. Be terrific if we got a nice blu-ray of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member waywardsage Posted October 15, 2011 Author Member Share Posted October 15, 2011 In this economy, I doubt we'll be seeing a Blu ray of it. Looks like Animeigo's rights to the film are expiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member John Posted October 30, 2011 Member Share Posted October 30, 2011 I think we'll get a Japanese BD of this in a few years; "slow but steady" would seem to describe their release schedule habits. Inasmuch as an Animeigo disc though...quite frankly, I'm not enthusiastic. They're considerably expensive releases that have been mediocre to mortifying these past few years; the example of Lady Snowblood is one where they have tinkered with the Japanese master's colour timing to ill-effect. Even if I didn't speak Japanese, I'd still be more willing to shell out for a Japanese BD and reauthor it than deal with the Anime-ego... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted October 30, 2011 Member Share Posted October 30, 2011 The Animeigo transfer indeed compares poorly to the Japanese Toho dvd. That being said, Toho's transfer isn't anywhere near pristine either, but certainly better than Animeigo's. Toho also has great extras, such as cast and crew interviews. And nice artwork. Some scans below (sorry, couldn't resist) I wouldn't hold my breath for Japanese BD, though. Tokusatsu aside, Japanese companies have almost zero interest in releasing genre classics on BD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted October 31, 2011 Administrator Share Posted October 31, 2011 Some scans below (sorry, couldn't resist) Sorry you couldn't resist? I'm not! Thanks for sharing these bro. Beautiful shots. As far as the discussion on the merits and weaknesses of the Animeigo releases... Their original VHS releases were the first time I ever saw the LADY SNOWBLOOD films. I was absolutely thrilled to see them uncut, English subbed and letterboxed. The print quality is not perfect, but it certainly never bothered me. I think the prints are totally acceptable (of course, everyone's got a different tolerance for this sort of thing). I totally dig their choice of regular and explanatary (sp?) subtitles. Yes, I agree that Animeigo's discs are a bit expensive, but for me they're worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted October 31, 2011 Member Share Posted October 31, 2011 Well, Bob's right about the Animeigo discs being sufficient. It's certainly great that companies like Animego put these films out on passable quality dvds. My critisism was partly due to the unbelievable praise these discs got at the time of their release, even though they were clearly flawed. Animeigo's shortcomings (oversaturated colors, harsh audio, lack of extras) were also a bit irritating considering the Toho disc which was released the same year improved on all of these areas (in my opinion, the audio was a bigger improvement than the video). In any case, the US disc(s) are perfectly passable, but those with language or custom subbing skills may want to look for superior releases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted October 31, 2011 Member Share Posted October 31, 2011 Here's a fun little post I made years ago... (includes slight spoilers for Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Lady Snowblood 1) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member John Posted November 9, 2011 Member Share Posted November 9, 2011 Well, Bob's right about the Animeigo discs being sufficient. It's certainly great that companies like Animego put these films out on passable quality dvds. Let's just get one thing straight though; the problems with Animeigo's Lady Snowblood are a direct result of their tamperings with the Japanese master. Their fiddling with Lone Wolf and Cub seems to be minimal and curiously, these appear to be some of their better looking discs... Additionally, "passable" does not describe several recent Animeigo releases. Stuart Galbraith IV details: AnimEigo has been extremely hit or miss with its Toho live action releases. The company's Samurai Assassin (1965), another Okamoto title, was an out-of-focus disaster of a transfer, totally unwatchable. Last spring's Shinsengumi wasn't much better; that transfer suffered from extreme combing-type defects. Battle of Okinawa at least looks great. The 16:9 transfer maintains the original CinemaScope screen shape, and the colors are good and the image impressively sharp. (A high-def transfer was done in Japan and the impressive results aired on NHK's high-def channel.) Oddly, the film retains its original title card but offers no other credits (nor does AnimEigo provide translated ones at the end of the presentation, as is their norm), which wasn't the case in the high-def version. Unfortunately, the mono sound is appalling. Listening to the film, it brought back memories for this reviewer of 25 years ago when I used to watch Super-8 sound movies (including many features) on my old Canon projector, with the mechanical whirring of that machine dominating the room. The battle scenes almost drown this defect out, but during quiet moments the buzz is almost deafening. It's not clear whether Toho provided AnimEigo with a defective master or if they screwed up in the authoring, but in any case this definitely should not have been released the way it is. It's a problem that demands correction. If anyone at AnimEigo would like to make a comment about this problem and how it happened and what their plans are regarding replacement discs, I'll be happy to report it here. -http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/31329/battle-of-okinawa/?___rd=1 I've noticed these combing effects in the Sleepy Eyes of Death series. As far as I can remember, this was never a problem on the Japanese discs. If you remember the Urusei Yatsura TV discs they were a ghosting nightmare. It's a spotty history, to be sure. On the one hand I can understand why people want to support the idea of releasing obscure cinema greats in markets where they are unknown. However, I for one draw the line at quality control. I don't REALLY care how much I have to pay for competance, much less actual excellence. We live in the flipping 21st century and these doofuses are periodically oozing some pretty amateurish technical problems. You might expect this of a newbie company, but this company is still doing the job the same way they did a decade ago. As we're no longer at their mercy, I can't imagine this ending nice for Animeigo if they keep up with this behaviour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted April 29, 2012 Member Share Posted April 29, 2012 UK BD: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=8614 Thanks Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member OpiumKungFuCracker Posted April 29, 2012 Member Share Posted April 29, 2012 @Takuma is one of the reasons why I visit this forum often.. He is on his game when it comes to Japanese Cinema... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted April 29, 2012 Member Share Posted April 29, 2012 Half of the time I'm just forwarding info created/digged up by someone else... But thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member OpiumKungFuCracker Posted April 29, 2012 Member Share Posted April 29, 2012 Half of the time I'm just forwarding info created/digged up by someone else... But thanks. Nah, you're cool in my book.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member blue_skies Posted April 29, 2012 Member Share Posted April 29, 2012 UK BD: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=8614 Thanks Sam do the price on titles like these ever fall? £23 on Amazon Is extortionate:squigglemouth: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JimPV Posted May 9, 2012 Member Share Posted May 9, 2012 Hope we get these blu-rays here in region A - please-oh-please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShaKwon Posted May 15, 2012 Member Share Posted May 15, 2012 Here's a fun little post I made years ago... (includes slight spoilers for Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Lady Snowblood 1) What is the name of the anime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted May 15, 2012 Administrator Share Posted May 15, 2012 What is the name of the anime? The anime shots are from KILL BILL. Those pics were each a photo from KILL BILL, then below that a photo of where the inspiration (or steal) came from. Then another photo from KILL BILL, and below that another photo of a film where the inspiration came from. Et. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShaKwon Posted May 23, 2012 Member Share Posted May 23, 2012 The anime shots are from KILL BILL. Those pics were each a photo from KILL BILL, then below that a photo of where the inspiration (or steal) came from. Then another photo from KILL BILL, and below that another photo of a film where the inspiration came from. Et. Thanks Bob. I was so hoping that I would be informed of a Lady Snowblood anime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member blue_skies Posted May 23, 2012 Member Share Posted May 23, 2012 Thanks Bob. I was so hoping that I would be informed of a Lady Snowblood anime. in case you're interested the anime sequences are little bit longer in the Japanese DVD of Kill Bill volume 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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