Member Juon 408 Posted March 12, 2010 Member Share Posted March 12, 2010 Here's the dealio.... The set comes in a clamshell with an identical cardboard slip-cover. The only company listed anywhere on the packaging is Videoasia- same as Morgoth's (I was tempted to call you Gorgoth. That is way cool.) It's a single disc, double-sided, with two films per side. None of the films are anamorphic. MACHINE GUN DRAGON- Picture quality is decent. Doesn't look like it came from a remastered print or anything. It's subtitled. SOUL OF CHIBA- Same quality as the last few DVD releases -okay, but not great. It's English dubbed. (The last release also included a subtitled version.) FIGHTING FIST- Same as the others- passable picture, but nothing special. It's English subtitled, but it has Japanese audio (despite being a Hong Kong film), at least during the scenes that I saw as I checked it. Chin Kar Lok and Sibelle Hu were both dubbed speaking Japanese. DOBERMAN COP- does NOT look like it's from the recently remastered Japanese DVD, but perhaps it is, and they just did a poor job making these DVDs. Videoasia... poor job? Imagine that! English subtitled. The really strange thing is that all the films in the set were letterboxed at approximately 1:85:1. This is definitely the correct aspect ratio for FIGHTING FIST, but seems incorrect for the others. I've never seen SOUL OF CHIBA as a wider print, but based on it's framing I've always suspected that it should be. But MACHINE GUN DRAGON and DOBERMAN COP? Mid '70's films from Japan that weren't shot at 2:35:1? Seems unlikely. After close inspection (find the circles...) it appears that these two are each slightly cropped on the sides and a bit stretched vertically. Hope that helps those that are interested. You are correct about Doberman Cop. It is supposed to be 2.35. So that's a huge fuck up on their part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Vegeta84 Posted March 12, 2010 Member Share Posted March 12, 2010 I just got my hand on this set. It seems like these come from some kind of VHS prints. The quality on Machine Gun Dragon wasn't bad and by that I mean it was watchable. However, I was disappointed in the quality of Doberman Cop. The good news out of this, is that I finally got to see this film as I am a huge Fukasaku fan. While, it nice that there is now a R1 DVD of the film, it still doesn't mean we shouldn't get a better quality version in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JimPV Posted February 21, 2011 Member Share Posted February 21, 2011 Received this set a couple days ago (off eBay - 7 bucks, shipped) and just finished watching Machine Gun Dragon. It's... watchable, I guess; and was certainly great to see it (been wanting to ever since reading about it in Patrick Macias' seminal book "Tokyoscope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion"). But - sheesh! - I haven't seen a DVD this primitive since the early days of the format. I feel like I'm in '98 again! None are anamorphic, all are 16:9 (when at least Machine Gun Dragon and Doberman Cop are most certainly 2.35:1), and two movies are crammed onto a single layered, 3.3 gig DVD side. MGD Just ends, cutting off the music mid-note and omitting "The End" - and then goes directly to the beginning of Doberman Cop; no return to the title menu, nothin'. Oh, and they've reeeeally got a pair putting MGD onto a "Sonny Chiba" set: a movie that Chiba-san appears in for a total of probably 2 minutes(!). Ug - is this the future of digital versatile disc? A return to the cropped, non-anamorphic, low-bit rate, old VHS/laser disc-transfer-dumped-onto-DVD days? Say it ain't so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted February 21, 2011 Member Share Posted February 21, 2011 I haven't seen the US release, but the Japanese 2008 dvd for Doberman Cop is pretty solid. Anamorphic 2.35:1 of course. Not Toei's best work by any means, but good enough. The original trailer is quite nice for coming with a bunch of promotional footage not found in the film. (the actual film doesn't even feature any dogs... there's a pig, though) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JimPV Posted February 22, 2011 Member Share Posted February 22, 2011 ...the Japanese 2008 dvd for Doberman Cop is pretty solid. Anamorphic 2.35:1 of course. Not Toei's best work by any means, but good enough. That does look nice - though no engrish subs I'm bettin'...? (the actual film doesn't even feature any dogs... there's a pig, though) I guess with a title like Doberman Cop, they figured they had to get a shot of a doberman at least in the trailer. Oh, and thanks for the screen grabs, Takuma! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted February 22, 2011 Administrator Share Posted February 22, 2011 That does look nice - though no engrish subs I'm bettin'...? That's correct. No English subtitles. Sadly, I don't think I've ever seen a Japanese DVD release with English subs. It's a shame, because despite their outrageous cost, I would buy a few here and there of special titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted February 22, 2011 Moderator Share Posted February 22, 2011 Sadly, I don't think I've ever seen a Japanese DVD release with English subs. It really depends on the popularity of the movie, but even this doesn't always work as a rule of thumb. For example the recently released Beat Takeshi movie 'Outrage' came with English subtitles, which I thought would be due to his popularity overseas. However in that case you would think the same thing applies to Miike Takashi movies, but no such luck. Also if a movie has foreign investment, there is a good chance it will have English subtitles, such as the Japanese releases of 'The Machine Girl' and 'Tokyo Gore Police'. Some old school Golden Harvest kung-fu movies often come with the English dub as well. For example I picked up a copy of my namesake, 'One Armed Boxer', which comes with the dub....and is probably the best copy of the movie out there. But all in all, if you don't understand Japanese, the overall lack of English subtitles on their DVD's is quite frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member HAZ Posted February 22, 2011 Member Share Posted February 22, 2011 That does look nice - though no engrish subs I'm bettin'...? I guess with a title like Doberman Cop, they figured they had to get a shot of a doberman at least in the trailer. Oh, and thanks for the screen grabs, Takuma! Merlin has a subbed version of this with the Japanese print. That's the version worth getting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted February 22, 2011 Administrator Share Posted February 22, 2011 It really depends on the popularity of the movie, but even this doesn't always work as a rule of thumb. For example the recently released Beat Takeshi movie 'Outrage' came with English subtitles, which I thought would be due to his popularity overseas. However in that case you would think the same thing applies to Miike Takashi movies, but no such luck. Also if a movie has foreign investment, there is a good chance it will have English subtitles, such as the Japanese releases of 'The Machine Girl' and 'Tokyo Gore Police'. Some old school Golden Harvest kung-fu movies often come with the English dub as well. For example I picked up a copy of my namesake, 'One Armed Boxer', which comes with the dub....and is probably the best copy of the movie out there. But all in all, if you don't understand Japanese, the overall lack of English subtitles on their DVD's is quite frustrating. You're just haunting me tonight with your corrections, aren't you? LOL Just kidding! I'm learning... You've schooled me again. As I said "I don't think I've ever seen a Japanese DVD release with English subs." I should have mentioned... I've only ever seen two Japanese DVD releases. No, seriously, this is the first that I've ever heard that they ever have English subs. As you mentioned, I have seen them with English dubs occasionally, including that AMAZING release of ONE-ARMED BOXER. What a stunner that was! Hey... wasn't that originally a Shaw Brothers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted February 22, 2011 Moderator Share Posted February 22, 2011 You're just haunting me tonight with your corrections, aren't you? Ha ha....what is tonight for you is tomorrow morning for me! Time differences eh...I have to go to work! Hey... wasn't that originally a Shaw Brothers... Classic!....it would have been great if Chiba had made a movie with Wang Yu or Sammo, that would have been something to see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted February 22, 2011 Administrator Share Posted February 22, 2011 Ha ha....what is tonight for you is tomorrow morning for me! Time differences eh...I have to go to work! Hey, how is tomorrow shaping up so far? Have a great day bro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member HAZ Posted February 22, 2011 Member Share Posted February 22, 2011 I think the JPN release of Under The Blossoming Cherry Trees had subs. That was a pretty cool movie with Wakayama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JimPV Posted February 22, 2011 Member Share Posted February 22, 2011 There doesn't seem to be any rhyme-or-reason whether a disc gets subs in Japan. I have the "Gamera: The Box" 5 disc set of the 90's films, and the features have subs. But when the movies came out shortly after as individual releases - no subs! I think most (if not all) of the Miyazaki stuff gets subs, too. I don't think Toho, though, has ever put English subs on anything. I have quite a few of their SF/kaiju stuff, and there ain't an English subtitle anywhere to be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member JimPV Posted March 13, 2011 Member Share Posted March 13, 2011 Just got finished watching Doberman Cop and... what a sad transfer on this DVD set. Not anamorphic, cropped to what looks like 1.85:1 (or so), and looks to be from a VHS tape (seriously). And of course the film stops dead (just like Machine Gun Dragon) - no fade out, "end" title-card, or anything. Sheesh!! The Machine Gun Dragon transfer was no great shakes, but it was better than this. Sad, sad, SAD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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