Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs: R1 vs. FR vs. R2J vs. RA BD vs. TV

[HungFist]

1st: HK Video DVD (Coffret Femmes Fatales box set) (2004)
2nd: Discotek DVD (2005)
3rd: Toei DVD (2011)
4th: Neon Eagle BD (2023)
5th: Toei Channel (TV) (selected caps only) (2020)

























































































This film has always been a bit of a mess on DVD.

HK Video has great sharpness and looks good in the opening (first two caps) and closing scenes (last 2 caps), but pretty bad for the rest of the film. I don't know what they do with their transfers, but characters always end up having crazy white and purple skin tones. I really hate that.

Discotek is somehow the opposite. It doesn't look so good in the opening and closing scenes, but it's pretty solid for the rest of the film.

Toei is the most consistent of the three. Although a bit soft, a bit green, and never looking quite fantastic, it always looks more or less natural. Overall, I'd say Toei has the best, or shall we say least problematic, transfer.

Audio is fine on all three releases, but I recall Discotek having a little bit less punch than Toei and HK Video. I could be wrong, though.

I saw the film on 35mm recently in Tokyo. It was an excellent print, much better than what we have on any of the DVDs.

2024 edit: Neon Eagle Video (BD) and Toei Channel (TV) added to the comparison. Easy win for the Neon BD.

[Markgway]

Like you say, these transfers are very inconsistent. At first I thought you might've muddled the caps. Overall, I'd go with the HK Video, but it needs a remaster.

[HungFist]

Neon Eagle Video (BD) and Toei Channel (TV) added to the comparison.

[HungFist]

I was very curious about what Neon Eagle would do about the splice lines, so I did a bit of additional comparison between Neon and Toei Channel. Last year when Mondo Macabro released A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse on BD someone pointed out the disc runs 40 seconds shorter than the TV broadcasting, and this turned out to be because there were 40 seconds worth of frames removed from the film to get rid of the splice lines.

Below you can see three consecutive frames from Zero Woman.

Toei Channel (TV)


Neon Eagle Video (BD)


Toei Channel (TV)


Neon Eagle Video (BD)


Toei Channel (TV)


Neon Eagle Video (BD)


This is quite curious. The last frame of the first shot is missing from Neon Eagle, meaning it's frame cut. The first frame of the next shot, however, is intact and has been fully cleaned up. The Toei Channel broadcasting had both frames intact with visible slice lines.

Here is another comparison with two consecutive frames.

Toei Channel (TV)


Neon Eagle Video (BD)


Toei Channel (TV)


Neon Eagle Video (BD)


This time both frames have been cleaned up, and nothing is missing from the Neon disc.

It seems that on the Neon release some of the frames with splice lines have been removed, while others have been cleaned up. The Neon Eagle release runs 1:27:24. The Toei Channel TV broadcasting is approximately 1:27:48, or about 24 seconds longer with tons of splice lines visible throughout the film.

Note that this is not intended as criticism towards the Neon Eagle disc. Cutting frames with splice lines is quite a common practice and I'm sure everyone has loads of such titles in their DVD/BD/UHD shelf, only we usually never find out about it unless it's something like the older Shaw Brothers masters which could have 3 minutes worth of frame cuts. With these Toei titles we are talking about a frame here, a frame there.