criterionforum.org

Arn777 wrote:And if one of you could report on the quality of Tropical Malady DVD that would be much appreciated.

Just watched it last night. It's excellent! The commentary track and interviews are not subtitled, but the film itself has good English subs and I noticed no problems with the image or the sound. (The cinematography looked gorgeous -- I hope I can get to see it theatrically some time.)

Can anyone comment on the French DVD of Blissfully Yours and Mysterious Object at Noon?

Thanks Ola, I'll get that Thai dvd. I have the French DVD but haven't had the chance to go through it yet; will try to check it tonight. Only French subs though.

Don't bother with the Thai "Last Life in the Universe" DVD. The transfer's less than optimal.

As for TROPICAL MALADY, I SINCERELY urge everyone to see this once on the big-screen. It really demands a huge screen and enveloping sound, especially for the 2nd half. Believe me, the experience is just sublime.

Looks like eThaiCD are now selling The Adventure of Iron Pussy, too. English subtitles, same low price.

As for TROPICAL MALADY, I SINCERELY urge everyone to see this once on the big-screen.

Yes. My favorite movie of last year. S'posed to be released in the US in May, I believe -- though probably in an extremely limited way. I saw it (and re-saw the fabulous Mysterious Object at Noon) at the UCLA retro last fall and Mr G Farrow is right, the second half especially needs to be seen in a big cavernous jungle-black room with crisp sound!

Re: Adventure of Iron Pussy. I sooo looked forward to this one but was deeply disappointed. Should've been not-stop hilarity but fell way flat. I laughed only when Ms IP stopped to adjust her high heels while fleeing a hail of bullets.

I really quite liked IRON PUSSY! I was roaring with laughter from the first scene - anyone familair with Thai melodramas will find it utterly pitch-perfect in its parodies. Even the government propaganda of its days (like public announcements regarding drug use and such) are lampooned. Perhaps it's because I'm familiar with the conventions, but I think it succeeds. Especially if you've met Michael Shaowanasai (actor/co-director), who is SO different from the IRON PUSSY character...

Fianlly bought both TROPICAL MALADY and IRON PUSSY DVDs, and the picture quality, to my untrained eyes, look great! Obviously Apichatpong paid a lot fo attention to them. The extras are interesting as well.

A bit of a funny story..I went to buy these DVDs in Bangkok with my friend, the lead actor of TROPICAL MALADY. At first, the people around were staring at us from afar. Then, one of them came over to us and asked if he was a film actor. Sakda shyly said yes, and suddenly the whole store was buzzing! Needless to say, I quickly bought the DVDs and we got out of there. But it was interesting, since Sakda is obviously still not used to the attention, even after going onstage with Joei (Apichatpong) to receive the award at Cannes, live on TV.

The Good News: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's acclaimed 2004 film, Tropical Malady is being released in Region 1 on November 1st, according to DVD Planet. No specs yet.

The Bad News: The DVD is being produces by Pacific Media. Who???

The Weird News: Here are some selected DVD titles from Pacific Media:

Big & Busty Summer Cummings [part of the "Big & Busty" Collection]
Monumental Mams
Solo Male Ecstacy: The Man's Guide to Self-Pleasure [someone needs an instructional video for this???]
Uranus: Anal Massage

and I saved the best for last ...

Zen Pussy: A Meditation on Eleven Vulvas

The Bottom Line: This award-winning (Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival) Thai art film appears to be in capable hands ....

Update

Additional info from TLA Video:

SYNOPSIS
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at this year`s Cannes Film Festival and an official selection of the New York Film Festival, TROPICAL MALADY is the lyrical and mysterious new film by maverick Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Blissfully Yours), one of the most prominent young directors of the Thai New Wave. TROPICAL MALADY chronicles the mystical love affair between a young soldier and the country boy he seduces, soon to be disrupted by the boy`s sudden disappearance. Local legends claim the boy was transformed into a mythic wild beast, and the soldier journeys alone into the heart of the Thai jungle in search of him. (Thai with English subtitles)

DVD: PRE-ORDER: Available 11/01/2005 $20.99 [Retail: $24.99]
Catalog #: DV2172772

Studio: Strand Releasing

Languages: Thai - Primary
English subtitles

Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
Extras: Anamorphic

Features: Other: Deleted scenes, optional English subtitles

Audio Commentary: Commentary by the director and film critic Chuck Stephens

So it appears that Strand will be producing this DVD (perhaps Pacific Media will only be distributing). I'm excited that there will be a commentary, but the iffy DVD quality I've seen from Strand in the past doesn't convince me that they're up to the task.

Great news...I've been waiting for this film for quite a while. Lotsa blurbs and quotes on the cover art...maybe they'll get rid of some of that. "Ravishing???"

Pacific Media is a distro for Strand, TLA, Tartan USA and a bunch of small boutique labels.

I guess Criterions of some of those other titles are outta the cards...what a shame.

The Thai DVD has excellent picture and sound and is only $10.50. No commentary, but this film really is best unexplained, I think.

matt wrote:The Thai DVD has excellent picture and sound and is only $10.50. No commentary, but this film really is best unexplained, I think.

Watched a PAL R3 DVD last night. I think it's the one you're talking about. It looked awesome. And it did have a commentary, but it wasn't translated....

First review of this release has been posted at DVD Talk. Unfortunately, it's bad news:

this clearly appears to be a PAL sourced DVD. Therefore there is plenty of the mandatory for such transfers "ghosting" which mars an otherwise acceptable picture quality.

If it is a PAL-to-NTSC transfer, it appears to give the lie to this statement at the Strand Releasing website:

16x9 Digital Transfer Supervised by Director

I'm disappointed that the reviewer doesn't discuss the commentary by Weerasethakul. I'm assuming it's done in English, since "Joe" studied in the US, and critic Chuck Stephens is also present on the track (the R3 commentary is in Thai without English subtitles).

Clearly, I'll wait for the Beaver comparison before placing an order. Is anyone aware of a planned release in the UK?

The ICA showed it in the UK, so I would assume it may be releasedon DVD by ICA Project, and their previous DVDs haven't been particularly great. Go for the Thai one. The picture and sound are both fine and the disc is cheap.

If it is a PAL-to-NTSC transfer, it appears to give the lie to this statement at the Strand Releasing website:

16x9 Digital Transfer Supervised by Director

Maybe the supervision is a transfer too! I don't know about you, but I often dream of traveling the Region 2 lands after a direct port; disembarking with a slightly slower gait, a deeper voice (and a little ghosting).

Damn, this is becoming an irritating trend: superior transfers in other regions, better extras (particularly comentaries) in region 1, but with subpar PAL-NTSC conversions. It's my tendency to favor the better transfer (i.e. AE's Weekend over the R1 travesty) but I miss hearing what critics (Weekend, L'Argent, etc.) and directors (Tropical Malady) have to say. I guess the best of both worlds might be a Netflix account to catch up on the extras, but I'd rather DVD authors get it right, rather than be given two halves to make a whole.

Excerpts from Ed Gonzalez's more positive review at Slant Magazine:

Now, in terms of image and sound quality, this is a solid presentation. Colors are accurate and robust and contrast is profound, but sound is a little underwhelming and could have benefited from a 5.1 surround treatment.

Though the disc is anamorphic 1.78:1, Gonzalez notes that it may be improperly flagged as 1.33:1 (his DVD player transmitted a full-frame image). If you have a player which automatically detects the AR and you notice a vertically stretched picture, you may have to manually change the setting.

The commentary track by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and critic Chuck Stephens isn't so much a joint commentary as much as a two-hour question-and-answer jam session. In his answers, Weerasethakul reveals himself to be as playful, innocent, and unpretentious as Tong from the film, a fact that I'm not sure if Stephens is perturbed or mesmerized by.

I feel much better about ordering this now. I especially want to hear the commentary.

Thinking about the DVD Talk review noted earlier in this thread:

IMDb lists the runtime of the film as 118 mins.
Strand lists the runtime of the R1 DVD at 118 mins (as does Slant).
DVD Beaver lists the timing of the R3 PAL Thai disc at 114:20 (not quite 4% shorter).

If these timings are correct, this would lead me to conclude that the R1 DVD is based on an NTSC master.

Svet Atanasov, who wrote the review at DVD Talk recently joined this forum as "pro-bassoonist," perhaps he (she?) can comment on the actual timing of the R1 disc, or what led him (her?) to believe it is a PAL-to-NTSC transfer.

Svet Atanasov's reply:

Let me address your questions regarding the
R1 release of Strand's Tropical Malady. First of all the total timing for this print of the film clocks in exactly at 1.53.12. I don't know what IMDB lists and can not attest whether or not their timing is correct as they often tend to provide false information especially when it comes down to foreign releases. With this said the time above reflects the length of the film from the opening credits all the way to the final logo of the company producer.

Furthermore, this is clearly a flawed print. There is a substantial amount of “ghostingâ€

118 minutes is definitely the correct running time, so this would seem to suggest the U.S. DVD is a PAL-to-NTSC job. As for the "Processed by L.V.T-Paris" message, L.V.T. is a French company that provides laser subtitling for film prints. Many (if not most) of the foreign films I've seen theatrically have this message at the end. If Strand's transfer was made from a subtitled film print (as opposed to using a clean print and adding player-generated subtitles), that would explain the message.

Does anyone know if/when this will be released in the UK on DVD, and by what company? I know that Second Run don't have the rights to it from the thread for Blissfully Yours.

I'm trying to find out exactly what the UK rights situation for this title is. If I find anything out I'll let you know.

Bikey (Second RUN)

I'm more curious about why we haven't seen a French DVD -- both of Apichatpong's previous features are on DVD there, the movie was largely (mostly?) funded with French money, and there's a making-of documentary that apparently can't be included on any non-French DVD release of the film.