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This was mentioned in the "Forthcoming" thread, but I think it needs more scrutiny and discussion.

According to several online retailers, the unheralded Razor Digital Entertainment ("an important supplier of fitness, health and wellness product") is releasing two long-anticipated Zhang Yimou films on DVD: Ju Dou (1990) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

Pioneer previously released Ju Dou in a so-so transfer.

This will be the first DVD release in Region 1 for Raise the Red Lantern. Curiously, the film was distributed by Orion in the US and the VHS was released by MGM (which released Zhang's To Live on DVD), so I don't understand how tiny Razor Digital could have finagled the rights out of the Sony Corporation.

Already out from Razor -- my favorite Hupo Jianqi film -- "Life Show", starring the radiant TAO Hong:

(I have the Mei Ah -- which is subtitled and looks nice -- so I don't need to get this).

Also listed -- a couple of Chinese films I can't even find in IMDB and "Going to School with my Father on my Back".

Glad that you liked the movie and Tao Hong. I didn't see character actress in her and thought that she was just another inferior Ziyi Zhang. However, I would not rate "life show" as my favorite Huo movie. That has to be "Nuan", or to a lesser extent, "postman in the mountains".

"Going to School with Dad on My Back" is a little tear jerker. Was not really impressed with it when I first viewed it a while ago. I am glad that RDE is also picking up some obscure titles in their catalog.

Films like this are what criterion should be doing, not suzuki et al.

godardslave wrote:Films like this are what criterion should be doing, not suzuki et al.

=D> If you don't shut up, Criterion will give you another dose of Suzuki shot, including a nice Christmas gift of Suzuki box.

THE BEAVER wrote:Beware: Initial reports state 'Razor Digital's editions of "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Ju Dou" have atrocious video. They look worse than our screen shots of the ERA and Pioneer discs!

I didn't think that was possible...

Perhaps I should be posting this on a new thread in the International DVD forum (feel free to move it if this is the case), but yesasia has Australian releases of both Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou as coming out on March 16th. They don't have many details, and in my limited searching I didn't find any other information on them (the company releasing them isn't even divulged), however, they're both listed as being in their native NTSC, and Ju Dou is listed as Widescreen with 2.0 DDS (these details were left absent on the Raise the Red Lantern page)--does anyone now anything about these? Is there reason to believe we have serviceable releases on their way?

The fact that the cover art seems partly derived from the U.S. releases (cf. the "Zhang Yimou Collection" banner) -- and the fact that they're coming out less than a month after the U.S. versions -- suggests to me that these will be ports.

Also: what does "their native NTSC" mean? They're films, they don't have a native video format. It would be unusual if these Australian releases were actually in NTSC, seeing how Australia's a PAL country and all.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Also: what does "their native NTSC" mean? They're films, they don't have a native video format. It would be unusual if these Australian releases were actually in NTSC, seeing how Australia's a PAL country and all.

Given the fact that Australia is a PAL country, the fact that they're being released (supposedly) in NTSC would suggest that they've received NTSC masters and are avoiding the usually abhorrent conversion to PAL (this also may lend credence to the notion that they're just porting the US releases). Rarely do studios actually practice this--which was one of my reasons for optimism.

Of course, as vague as the descriptions are, it could be the info is faulty and they are being released in PAL format.

The YesAsia listing for the "Australia Version"shows it as being an all-region 0 disc, not an R4. Could this just be the same Razor NTSC release, either with wrong cover art, or a separate cover for non-NA areas? That might explain why it isn't PAL.

I note that has the Canadian release date Amazon.ca for this as March 21, so March may be the Razor date outside the US release in February.

Also, Barnes & Noble's listing shows this as a Region 0 disc, as does the Razor site. B&N may just be passing along incorrect info from Razor, but has anyone actually confirmed that the version being sold in the US is R1, not R0? The Razor, B&N, and both Amazon sites all agree on the same UPC code (690445022325), and the DVDBeaver review shows it as Region 0. The "Australian" listing at YesAsia may just be the same R0 NTSC disc with different packaging/UPC coding.

Yesasia now lists a digitally remastered r0 16x9 English subbed Raise the Red Lantern. From the caps posted at the asiandvdguide forum - linked here* - the disc looks like a huge improvement over the current r1 and r0.

*Now there's also a comparison with the r2fr disc posted on the same page which show, I think, the superiority of the new HK disc.

Looks great. Here's to hoping MOC or Criterion pick it up. I emailed JM about it ages ago, and he said no plans. I've been waiting forever for a good transfer, and some extras to go with it. One of my favourite films.

daniel p wrote:Looks great. Here's to hoping MOC or Criterion pick it up.

It's an MGM title, so a Criterion edition seems highly unlikely.

Raise the Red Lantern showing next month in a new 35mm print at the Film Forum.