John Woo's The Killer in March on BD

[indiephantom]

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Killer-Blu-ray/9318/

Ultimate Edition sounds good. I missed getting the long OOP Criterion edition and this is certainly one of Woo's finest.

Very nice. I will definitely buy this even though I think I over the course of 10 years I have owned at least 3 different dvd versions The Killer.

[Kolpitz]

I hope this comes to fruition. This is my favorite John Woo film and the Winstar DVD I have isn't anamorphic.

[Erick H.]

Love that film,saw it in the theater.Dragon Dynasty has put out some very nice standard def discs,I hope their Blu's are equally fine.

[bigdaddyhorse]

This looks like a good time to re-visit this film. I'm still chilling with the Criterion laserdisc as the dvd was way too expensive. I'd rather it be Hard Boiled than The Killer, but both are great films.

[indiephantom]

Originally Posted by bigdaddyhorse

I'd rather it be Hard Boiled than The Killer, but both are great films.

I prefer that film, too. But I did manage to get the CC of Hard Boiled before prices got crazy, and I still haven't bought The Killer. It's been so long since I've watched it.

One of my action film favorites should kick some serious ass on High Def.

[Reverenddave]

I'm hoping someone will re-release the Hard Boiled blu-ray with a better transfer.

[Kolpitz]

Ouch! Early word from multiple sources is that the Blu-ray is absolute garbage. Here's the lowdown from DVD Beaver:

Certainly a disappointment. I can only state that my single-layered pre-release copy is interlaced (1080i) and we don't need to investigate much further than that to readily dismiss the transfer. However, it's easy to see that it also has some other issues - it is hazy and appears to have moiring. It does not look, or sound - for that matter, very good at all and judging by the running times this may be from a PAL source as well as riddled with annoying artifacts.

No lossless audio option and the, ridiculous, English DUB has a 5.1 bump but the original Cantonese is in 2.0 channel. There are optional subtitles in English or Spanish and my Momitsu has identified, my early copy, as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

Extras all seem re-hashed - the 5 deleted scenes were already on the UK Hong Kong Legends DVD from 2002, there is no commentary but there is an interview with director John Woo running almost 25-minutes and two American Cinematheque Q+A's (one on The Killer - the other on Hard Boiled with the director) from 2002. A short featurette on The Killer Locations and a John Woo Trailer Gallery.

Like the recent 36th Chamber of Shaolin Blu-ray from Weinstein (Dragon Dynasty) this interlaced transfer is unacceptable and while I know of no other upcoming HD edition of the title we can't endorse - even at the reasonable price. Many fans waited in abeyance for this and it is a real disappointment.

Truthfully, the images don't look all that bad to me (though they do look fairly DNRed). This movie has never looked good on the VHS I had or the multiple DVDs I've owned. Still, screen grabs rarely show the atrociousness of an interlaced transfer and, as the review says, an interlaced Blu-ray is simply unacceptable. I canceled my pre-order on Amazon. Hopefully, I can get the BD from Netflix and judge for myself.

[Erick H.]

I have my doubts about a Blu of this film.It is inherently grainy.Finding the right balance between getting a sharp high def transfer and ''cleaning up" the grain (as they tend to try to do with many BR's) may be a tough job.Go too far either way and people will bitch about it.

Dragon Dynasty is fucking up their blu rays royally. Forget grain. They seem intent on only releasing interlaced blu rays. Who the fuck is in charge over there?

[Matt89]

OMG wow. I was gonna buy this but FUCK THAT. Interlaced!!?? Jesus Christ what IS it with studios recently!? House on Sorority Row gets re-released interlaced, then Alliance over here in Canada releases a shitlad of blu-rays (The Others, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Halloween 6, Halloween H20, Halloween: Resurrection) - all interlaced. Dragon Dynasty's first blu-ray release, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is also interlaced.

Fuck, I'm actually really pissed. The Criterion has been OOP forever and it's non-anamorphic. Now we get this half-assed piece of shit blu-ray? Goddamnit. Motherfuckers.

And I fucking LOVE how they used the English title for the film instead of having the original title in Cantonese with "The Killer" underneath. Makes me wonder how accurate the subtitles are...

Fuckers...

~Matt

[mlock]

Too bad this bluray version of Hard Boiled isn't available, but it too would problably look like ass depending on who distributed it.


http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID....qx/details.htm

[springjack]

Bey Logan was the soul of Hong Kong Legends and Dragon Dynasty...

Now, Hong Kong Legends has turned into Cine Asia and Dragon Dynasty has lowered their often perfect standarts. They even made a deal with Hong Kong Legends so is no secret that the Killer is probably the same version of the old Hong Kong Legends with a bunch of new extras that were produced just to fill the disk.

You can only get quality releases of Asian movies if the name Bey Logan is on the credits and in the production of the Dvd...
________
BUY VAPOR GENIE

[X-human]

Originally Posted by Erick H.

I have my doubts about a Blu of this film.It is inherently grainy.Finding the right balance between getting a sharp high def transfer and ''cleaning up" the grain (as they tend to try to do with many BR's) may be a tough job.Go too far either way and people will bitch about it.

Erick, there is no restoration benefits in interlaced video nor digital artifacts. These are all faults of the mastering, not the source material. Fans have every right to bitch. Weinsteins also released a "why even bother" transfer on Blu-ray for Hard Boiled. And people wonder why they're going out of business.

In my mind let the source material speak for itself. There may be better source material out there than a company uses (like the case with the director's cut of Army of Darkness for example) but you'll never see me complain about grain, a scratch, a splice or a reel change marker. These are within the nature of the beast while DNR, EE, ghosting, compression artifacts and other tell tale video signs are completely avoidable by competent mastering.