El Cosmico here, I've just had the pleasure of watching my newly received Region 3 CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON DVD, so I've whipped up some scans for you, and have a review.
Done by Columbia/Tristar, this disc and packaging give the impression that the version reaching our native Region 1 will be very similar, if not nearly identical. First of all, there is extensive use of English in the packaging, and the multiple language soundtracks and subtitles appear to be completely ready for the North American market.
Included soundtracks are: the original Mandarin in 5.1, an English dub in 5.1, Cantonese in surround stereo, and Thai in surround stereo, with subtitles to accompany them all. There is also an excellent commentary track, with director Ang Lee and writer/executive producer James Schamus, in which Ang Lee sums up my own personal feelings about dubbing with his quote, "To me, dubbing is worse than anything." Right on, Ang.
More than that, though, the commentary track is just fun to listen to. Ang Lee and James Schamus seemed to genuinely enjoy doing the track. Of course, the two men are old friends, having worked on a number of projects together, so that helps the mood of the commentary considerably. There is a good amount of self-effacing humor, interesting background information, and just overall perspective on the making of the film. I've heard better commentaries, but this one is still a keeper. Most of all, it gives the sense that the two aren't full of themselves, that they see problems with the film that most people would never notice; this same humble perspective is probably one of the key reasons that the film ended up being so good. I've heard a number of director's commentaries where a director constantly says how proud he is of this or that shot, or how a scene he finds amazing occurred to him in a dream, when the film itself is either mediocre or complete crap. It's refreshing to listen to the CTHD commentary, which speaks of such an excellent film, in a joking and down-to-earth fashion. Also, I enjoyed hearing Ang Lee's disparaging comments about dubbing. Because dubbing SUCKS.
Ah, well, I never can seem to say that enough. Anyway, the sound mixes themselves are beautiful. Just wonderful. As for the video transfer, well, in my opinion, while the quality of detail and compression is very good, I think the brightness and contrast should have been adjusted to provide a better home viewing experience. Of course, this film was a bit darker than is usual, but on this transfer, I found that I needed to increase the brightness and color saturation about 50% higher than I normally do for most DVDs. Even after a good deal of adjustment, I could never quite get the disc to look how I wanted it to. Very close to what I wanted, still beautiful, and still, without question, worthwhile, but not a top-tier transfer. Not stunningly beautiful, which I think it should have been. Again, I wouldn't say it's a bad transfer, only that I wish it had been better. It is tolerable, but most people don't have sets that are as adjustable as mine, and a good video transfer should look great without much adjustment at all. When this disc comes to Region 1, perhaps these changes can be made. I hope so, since it is my only real criticism of this disc, and I think it is significant.
The menu navigation wasn't the greatest, but neither was it bad. Interspersed are various cutscenes, and I think overall it is a fairly good job. The extras on the disc are pretty cool too, and I hope they make it to Region 1. There is the theatrical trailer, which is actually a trailer I'd never seen, the Mandarin and English version of the Coco Lee music video for "A Love Before Time" are included, there is a cool photo montage with lots of great music playing, showing a lot of behind the scenes stuff, as well as some of the beautiful costumes and action shots. Then, there are "talent files", featuring biographical information, as well as filmographies. Good stuff. For example, did you know that Michelle Yeoh was Miss Malaysia? The final special feature on the disc is an excellent interview with Michelle Yeoh. Great stuff. Of course, I would have liked interviews with all of the principal actors, but nevertheless, the interview with Ms. Yeoh is an excellent addition to this disc. After all, she's one of the most beautiful, talented and compelling actresses in the world.
My intention in doing this review actually isn't to get you to go out and buy this disc, which, as I said, is a Region 3 version. Certainly, I am a proponent of Region-Free equipment, and would like to see a world without regional restrictions. Given our current situation, however, I realize that most of you won't be getting region-free equipment, and now that I've seen this disc, I have some hopes for the future.
First, I hope that all of the extras on the Region 3 disc are brought to the Region 1 disc. Of course, if the original Mandarin track isn't brought to Region 1, I and a great number of people will be incredibly pissed off. I don't think there's any danger of that, though, since Sony Pictures Classics has shown a great amount of taste and excellent judgment in their strategy for releasing thus far. I think I've praised them for it before, but I'll say it again, bringing such an excellent film to North American theatres in a subtitled version, and progressively releasing to more and more screens has been an act of great wisdom and bravery. They should be commended for it, many times.
My second hope in writing this review is that I'll get a few more people interested in seeing this excellent film. It just opened in Austin this past Friday, as part of an expansion from 172 to 693 screens. Again, as it has done many times now, it had by far the highest per-screen revenue... and it still isn't in wide release. The next major expansion is into 1000 screens, and even in limited release, it is already the second-highest grossing foreign language picture in the US domestic market. To be sure, even though I have it on DVD, and even though I've seen it on the big screen twice already, there is NO WAY I can resist seeing it at the Metro here in town, multiple times. If you're lucky enough to live where it's playing, you need to go see it as well. We all know that foreign DVDs are nice, but you probably can't view them anyway, and there is no comparison to seeing it on a big, beautiful screen, with real theatre sound.
Finally, I hope that Sony/Columbia/Tristar takes heed of the few issues I have with this disc, primarily, I hope that someone is listening, and that the Region 1 release has a better video transfer. As I said, contrast, brightness and color saturation all need to be adjusted. It would be a shame if this didn't happen, and I'm sure there is time to do it. PLEASE do this. I and countless others will be very grateful for it. The only other thing I would add would be interviews with the other principal actors. Other than that, the extras on this disc are great. Word is, the Region 1 disc will have more extras and will also be anamorphic. Hopefully, this will be a new transfer, and will address my main problem with this disc.
So, there you are. Not a perfect disc, but such a wonderful film, that it's hard to
resist anyway. Also, there is just something EXTREMELY satisfying about having it on DVD,
which still looks a million times better than VCD. Like I said, though, you need to see
this film in the theatre. It's just not negotiable.
So, "El Cosmico," you ask, "What if I don't have a codefree player, or I want to wait
until they fix the video on this thing? What DVD do I buy then?" Well, the answer is twofold:
for the kung-fu-minded, on February 6th, we should see the Region 1 release of WING CHUN, starring Michelle Yeoh,
featuring fight direction by Yuen Wo Ping. It will also
be playing here in Austin on March 4th, at the ever-
excellent Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for their extremely popular Hong-Kong Sunday. For those
of you who've seen the previews Tim plays at the Drafthouse, Wing Chun is the film where
Ms. Yeoh defends a table with a box of Tofu on it from a frustrated attacker. It is truly a
kick-ass film.
For the more dramatic-minded, on January 23rd, THE SOONG SISTERS, with Michelle Yeoh, Vivian Wu, (The Last Emperor) and Maggie Cheung (Irma Vep) will be released. Not quite as kick-ass a film, but certainly, a good bit more drama and emotional depth, as well as beauty.
So, there you are. Take it for what it's worth. I've included a bunch of scans I made below, for your viewing pleasure. If you click on the first three, you'll be linked to a much larger version in PNG format, with which you should be able to read all of the included text. Hey, I even included some fun coupons that I can pretty much guarantee you WON'T be seeing in the Region 1 disc. Oh, I know you're thrilled. Happy day,
-El Cosmico
