422 The Last Emperor

[cdnchris]

I took screen grabs of what should be the same frame from each version (it's the first frame following the cut to this shot):

2009 Blu-ray
2024 Blu-ray
TV Cut from 2024 Blu-ray
4K from 2024

It's also proof that Storaro was clearly out of his mind when framing for home video.

[ryannichols7]

it's appalling how terrible the older masters (and framing) look. this was an edition where they had a shot at a good redo of everything but didn't see it being necessary, evidently

[captveg]

It makes me wonder if there was some strange compromise with Storaro that both HD versions would remain 2:00 in order to get the UHD in 2.35.

[nicolas]

It makes me wonder if there was some strange compromise with Storaro that both HD versions would remain 2:00 in order to get the UHD in 2.35.

Storaro thankfully didn’t have anything to do with the new restoration. LSP did it in Germany and they deliberately avoided including him in the process of fear that he’d do the same BS all over again. And this is actually justified as Imprint originally announced a new 4K restoration of Little Buddha in 2.00:1 and the BD was also supposed to come with a new interview with Storaro. That tells me that he didn’t change his stance at all as he surely wouldn’t have worked with them had they not played along. However the Imprint BD was then pushed back and they threw out the 4K master for an older one and the interview was also canceled. (The restoration now comes out first in France in September I believe and KL also announced a UHD).