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Anyone knows if the video transfer of Scent of the Green Papaya is anamorphic?

kinemax wrote:Anyone knows if the video transfer of Scent of the Green Papaya is anamorphic?

Since no one's leaping forward with a definitive answer, I'll say that I'm fairly confident the R1 is not anamorphic and is full-frame. It's been awhile since I've seen it, but I'm 90something percent certain. I would expect that a more definitive review/listing is googleable.

There was a French box set from Arte that included Scent and Cyclo and some early short films (not otherwise available). My recollection is that this set was superior to any of the other releases -- and the two feature films were both subtitled in English. For some reason, Cyclo and Scent were on a flipper disc -- while the extras were on a separate one.

I know at least one of the two films in the set was anamorphic -- not sure if both were. All I could tell on my system is that they were both widescreen.

Unfortunately the Arte DVD isn't available anymore, at least not for a reasonable price.

On the Arte flipper, Cyclo is anamorphic and Scent of Green Papaya is not.

Second Sight released Papaya in the UK, so that's probably a better bet than dropping 50+ euros on the Arte set. Dunno if it's anamorphic, though. The R1 (which is OOP, mercifully enough) isn't just full-frame, it's pan and scan -- completely unacceptable.

Too bad about the Arte set being out of print. The Papaya there looked pretty good -- non-anamorphic or not..

Ironically, this is a rare case where I liked the extras (the short films) a lot more than the main features.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Second Sight released Papaya in the UK, so that's probably a better bet than dropping 50+ euros on the Arte set. Dunno if it's anamorphic, though...

It's perfectly serviceable, but non-anamorphic 1.66:1.