33 Black Snow

[What A Disgrace]

Officially announced on Second Run's website.

[What A Disgrace]

Second Run DVD is releasing this film next year, along with Fei's The Girl From Hunan, in the UK.

[What A Disgrace]

Has a release date of March 8, 2010 on Amazon UK.

[antnield]

Cover art:

[Bikey]

Our release will now also feature a 32-minute interview with the great Xie Fei.

[What A Disgrace]

That's a surprisingly meaty sounding extra. Can't wait for this release.

[What A Disgrace]

Beaver

[Bikey]

Full DVD detail on BLACK SNOW is now up at our website.
http://www.secondrundvd.com/release_bmn.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We'd also like to point you in the direction of Tony Rayns' review of the film and DVD in the new issue of Sight & Sound. We hugely respect Tony Rayns and are delighted that his prominent review of Black Snow will, hopefully, help this largely unknown film reach a wider audience willing to discover an excellent film containing a remarkable performance from one of the great actors in contemporary Chinese cinema.
http://www.secondrundvd.com/release_more_bmn_2.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bikey]

ReelSoundTheory

[Bikey]

Sight & Sound review courtesy of Tony Rayns

[antnield]

DVD Times

[Lemmy Caution]

In case anyone is wondering, the cover features in the background a blown-up copy of a 20 RMB note (value = a $3 bill; barbed wire not included).
About 5 years ago, Chinese bills were re-designed to have Chairman Mao on every denomination, each in a different color.

I'm mildly surprised that they didn't choose the red 100 RMB note, the largest bill in China, and so more representative of MONEY. And red is more evocative of passion, communism, blood, and China itself. Of course I haven't seen the film so no idea really on the themes (though red would seem to go with the barbed wire). But maybe they preferred the drab colors of the 20 RMB note, and the smaller-scale of wealth.

I'll probably see this within the week and report back.
But thought some folks might wonder about the cover background (or maybe it's clear to all that that is money?)

[Bikey]

Review at NEO

[Bikey]

Slarek's perceptive review at DVD Outsider
http://dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/reviews/b/black_snow.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bikey]

David Parkinson at Oxford Times

[yoshimori]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the terribly unsightly white horizontal line at the bottom of the frame that pops up every time there's a subtitle. It makes the first twenty minutes or so of the disc (until I become inured to the problem) nearly impossible to watch for me. You can see it faintly in DVD Beaver's "subtitle sample" capture, though the review proper says nothing about this recurring flaw. The line is much thicker and more irritating on both of my players+monitor than in the Beaver sample. The thick white line pops in and out with the subs just above the bottom of the image. Here's a frame taken from VLC. You can see the line here, but not the bottom of the image below that line that you can see on my players+monitor that makes the intermittent line all the more obvious.

subtitle bs

Never seen this phenomenon on any other Second Run disc, though I have seen the it on some very old South Asia dvds.

[bigP]

I just gave my disc another spin through on my T.V. using a couple of dvd players and didn't experience anything untoward, but I did pick up on the flaw when I played it in my dvd drive on the computer. How odd. I'm assuming when Gary wrote the DVDBeaver review he had watched the film on his T.V. set up and just hadn't noticed the error when he made the screencap.

[rs98762001]

Bizarre. I just took a look at my copy on my television, and didn't see any line at all. My laptop's in the shop, but I'll try it on that when I get it back.

[Duncan Hopper]

It's definitely something to do with your set-up. When I mess about with the aspect ratio and squash it to 16:9, I can get the white line.

When I play the film in it's correct ratio the white line is not visible.

[yoshimori]

It's definitely something to do with your set-up. When I mess about with the aspect ratio and squash it to 16:9, I can get the white line.

When I play the film in it's correct ratio the white line is not visible.

Really? Definitely? So my screencap with the white line is not the correct aspect ratio? And the DVD Beaver cap with the white line is not the correct aspect ratio?

[Bikey]

This is the first we've heard of this - so thanks for pointing it out yoshimori.
I've just looked at the DVD on the tv (no white line) and on two computer monitors and it does show up there (computer monitors as we know display information outside of the tv safe area).
Apologies if this is spoiling anyone's viewing.

[Bikey]

Gordon Thomas writes on Black Snow at Bright Lights Film Journal (scroll down aout halfway through for his review)

[jbeall]

Got this out of my kevyip (finally!) and thought it was excellent. And no white line on my tv, either.

Any updates on when The Girl from Hunan will be released?