fox lobar DVD
i recently got the Us edition of the movie on DVD. As far as i know it is uncut, but it is in fullscreen. Is this how the film was filmed or is this cropped?
shareIt was filmed in 1.66:1, which is not quite fullscreen, yet not quite widescreen. Probably not too much was lost, but that's still a shame that any fullscreen DVDs must be released.
shareI saw clips of the 1.66:1 film in the "Sex" episode of "Japanorama," from what seemed a pristine or restored print. I would love to see that released!
Fox Lorber did a craptacular job on this edition and on many of its preliminary releases (~1998-2000); but they seem to have gotten a handle on their audience's preference for correct aspect ratio (c'mon, how many full-screen wankers would pick up a "World Cinema Masterpiece" edition, and vice versa?).
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And of course, no surprise to see England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson in the crowd
I was a little underwhelmed with the DVD, too. Mostly because of the subtitles. They were about a line delayed. The actors would speak, but nothing would show up until the other actor responded. Half the time I got confused as to who was saying what. I'm fully capable of following foreign films, but this one just grated my nerves because of the "craptacular" (good term) synching of the subtitles with the actual dialogue.
Whatever. The movie itself was rather underwhelming, too. Oh well....
You had to choose between the subtitled cropped version or the dubbed widescreen. It was one of the most *beep* releases in the history of DVDs. i couldn't believe FL wrecked this classic. I had to go buy a bootleg version of it off the Asian grey market to get it in proper ratio and subtitled, AFTER I bought the subbed, cropped domestic crap from FL! Plus: No *beep* extras. What the *beep* This is one of the greatest films ever made. Why couldn't they screw up Citizen Kane and let this one alone.
LONG LIVE OSHIMA!!!
Solution:
1. Buy both, assuming they're separate.
2. Rip audio track and subs from full-frame. If full-frame is hardsubbed, get subs off the internet.
3. Rip video from widescreen.
4. Mux them all together in MKVmerge or VirtualDub.
5. Be happy.
Simpler solution:
Purchase the Criterion edition of this film, which comes out at the end of this week!! Everyone filled with win! :)
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I should warn you -- he's a Fourierist.