| | | | Links | | |
E D I T O R I A L
Monday, January 29: Better or best?
Recently Anchor Bay was forced to recall their reissue of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow due to a messed-up audio track. The corrected DVD should be available shortly. Recently I read some negative reviews of Columbia/TriStar's reissue of Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China due to imperfections in the video quality (if I remember correctly, the anamorphic conversion was called to task). This makes me think again about the crowded intersection where Hong Kong movies and the DVD format collide.
I'm a short-term HK film fan, but I've read many comments and reviews by long-time viewers, and it's clear that, by and large, the video tapes made available in the past were less than stellar. Despite this, I believe the fan base has grown over the years because the quality and variety of the movies were superior to that produced by the major Hollywood studios.
The DVD format has taken off, especially in the last two years in the United States, and has raised the standard for home viewing as far as audio and video quality is concerned. Concurrently, DVD buyers have come to expect that the films will be presented in their original format and usually expect multiple features to be included.
Now we come to HK films on DVD. We can all rejoice at the increased selection of films being made available, readable and removable subtitles, widescreen format, original language audio tracks, trailers, filmographies, and so forth. But for whatever reason, many of the original source prints were not well cared for by the HK studios and so the audio and video quality of many DVDs are inferior to their Hollywood counterparts. The same sloppiness that led to the original source prints not being preserved has led to some DVDs being carelessly mastered. Surely the speed with which some titles are rushed to market hinder the potential quality of the final product.
Frankly, I don't know enough about the challenges of film preservation and DVD mastering, much less what the economics are, to roundly condemn entire companies as money-hungry decadent bastards. Some of them may be, but perhaps others are simply doing the best they can. The thing is, even the best and most honest efforts may result in DVDs that look shabby when compared to a reference quality bigger-budgeted Hollywood film.
Personally, I put the quality of the movie ahead of the quality of the DVD presentation. Obviously I want both to be top-notch. Forced to choose, I favor a great movie with an average DVD over an average movie with a great DVD. What about you?
As usual, feedback, whether positive or negative, is always welcome.
Current Editorial | Index of Editorials
| | | | Links | | |
corrections? broken links? criticism? praise? please e-mail webmaster
this site is a non-commercial resource for region 1
original content copyright 2001 peter a. martin all rights reserved