| The Mei Ah Laser Disc corporation have come out with some pretty poor ports to DVD from their old Laser Disc days, but this is an exception. The image quality may be on of the best I have seen from a Hong Kong Region 0 DVD. As a typical Zhang Yimou trait, it is rich in color, fully contrasted, but not saturated. The blacks are deep and true. The sound quality, often meant by the director to be scattered, is totally acceptable. My only drawback with the DVD are the removable English subtitles that occasionally zoom by the screen much too fast for normal reading purposes.
At $14 I would say this is a no-brainer to purchase. Unless The Criterion company, or more likely, Columbia Tri-Star, come out with a version with more extras soon, then there is no viable reason why any foreign film fan/DVD collector shouldn't own this. A commentary would be a great asset, but it might also detract from the innocence of the production. |
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