Bullets 'n' Babes

I have heard that the sound is muffled on pretty much every ZU release. Probably has a lot to do with the film just sounding crappy to begin with, would be my guess.

The Media Asia remix is muffled and missing sound effects.

The mono on the Joy Sales is mostly decent but one scene has some horrid electic crackling.

Audio imperfection comes with the territory, doesn't it?

Wouldn't be a HK disc if there wasn't something wrong...

Regardless the JS DVD is AV-wise the best available.

The only reason one might want to hang on to the HKL is the director's commentary.

Markgway wrote:Audio imperfection comes with the territory, doesn't it?
The only reason one might want to hang on to the HKL is the director's commentary.

And deleted scenes. Both releases have 1 unique scene (if I remember rightly)

Guilty of Romance (2011) - 4/5

I loved the use of coloured lighting.

HORSE BOXING KILLER (1979)

Fairly typical for a 1979 Taiwanese indie, this is the usual mixture of mild revenge with silly comedy. In this case, there is a male and female lead whose stories don't seem to connect at all for much of the film, leading one to suspect they were two unfinished films patched together, but no, they do finally meet up!

The English title is rather misleading, as for the most part (including the opening titles) the focus is on Swallow Boxing. The Horse Boxing Killer only turns up 50min into the movie (finally starting the plot) and doesn't get to use his style (which looks rather daft) until near the end of the film.

Top billed is Yuen Siu Tien. However, he only appears for 10min early into the picture playing, what else?, the Drunken Master. Like many of his 1979 films, he looks very tired and old. Leading man Wong Goon Hung is very stolid and serious, like he's wandered it out of an early 70's basher. Liu Hao Yi is cute but a bit annoying as the heroine.

Acting kudos goes to Lung Fei as the villian (despite his goofy horse style) and the extremely agile (and convincingly elderly) Wang Tai Liang. Their climatic fight is very effective.

Nothing special but fun and nicely familair, and with a good compiled score (seriously, how awesome is that Hang Em High theme), enjoy!

7/10

Rabbit Horror (2D) (Japan, 2011) – 1.5/5
Takashi Shimizu has only directed one good film (Marebito) on his career. Rabbit Horror does little to change this situation. The bunny horror packs potential, with occasional beautiful images and the ridiculously fascinating idea of giant fake rabbit tormenting its characters, but results are typically underwhelming. As usual, Shimizu opts for z-grade psychology, using a traumatized child and an equally disturbed young adult (Hikari Mitsushima) as his characters to minimize any real psychological depth. The screenplay is a J-horror cliché collection that ought to have been filmed 10 years ago, if even then. Only if Shimizu would ever again find the same directorial touch that have birth to the genuinely original and stylish Marebito.

Kueki ressha (Japan, 2012) – 3.5/5
Fan favorite Nobuhiro Yamashita's latest is a welcome return to slow paced, rather non-commercial cinema. With a 19 year old protagonist who burns his money on booze and strippers, and whose father is a sex criminal, it's certainly a film of old school Yamashita ingredients. Yet, the minimal and slightly overlong film is neither as good nor quite like his early slacker masterpieces. Perhaps because of the source material - an autobiographical novel by Kenta Nishimura, adapted into screenplay by pink maestro Shinji Imaoka - Yamashita's approach favors darker tones and drama over the charming humor that filled his highly personal early works. That being said, the recognizable elements are all here, just with modified emphasis. The start studded cast fare reasonably well, especially Mirai Moriyama who takes a gamble with his career here. Flawed but pleasing, Kueki ressha may have a bit of difficulties finding its audience despite the puzzling Toei multiplex distribution that feels almost like a twisted joke by itself.

I received the ZU 2-disc DVD today and am pretty happy with it. Next up I am looking to upgrade to anamorphic copies of the CHINESE GHOST STORY trilogy. Are the Blu-rays horrible? They seem to be about my only option.

Apparently upscales with bad remixed audio.

How were the HKLs? They released the first 2 films. I don't have them, but they might have been Media Asia mixes, which usually featured like one of two relatively harmless additions per film. At least the first film. No?

Myself I have the German dvds (with no eng sub) which I recall being quite good. I think they probably had good mono tracks, though there's a slight chance of a downmix, but in any case they were no Fortune Star crap.

dvd comparison:
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... php?t=3910

Thanks, guys.

BTW, ordered a dub of IT'S NOW OR NEVER yesterday, so assuming it arrives, that's one grail scratched off the list.

Himizu (2012) - 3.5/5

HungFist wrote:How were the HKLs? They released the first 2 films. I don't have them, but they might have been Media Asia mixes, which usually featured like one of two relatively harmless additions per film. At least the first film. No?

I'm sure that the HKLs were Media Asia remixes.

the HKL CHinese Ghost Storys aren't too bad, but the sound mixing is sloppy at times, with foley getting muted too much.

Ivan Drago wrote:the HKL CHinese Ghost Storys aren't too bad, but the sound mixing is sloppy at times, with foley getting muted too much.

The lesser of two evils...

Markgway wrote:

Ivan Drago wrote:the HKL CHinese Ghost Storys aren't too bad, but the sound mixing is sloppy at times, with foley getting muted too much.

The lesser of two evils...

True, but the mono tracks didn't have this problem on the old tapes.

Hansel and Gretel (2007-South Korea) ***

Disturbing fairytale is intelligent and affecting though tough to take at times.

The children are excellent.

Adrift in Tokyo - 4/5

Typical Miki Satoshi, which is a good thing, funny and charming.

Mother (2009) - 4/5

I recorded that off Film4 last night.

It'll be interesting to compare scores.

My least favourite by Bong Joon-Ho, but that doesn't reflect the film's quality.

My favorite Bong Joon-ho, and I think Mark will like it, too. 4/5

I think Memories of Murder is his best film

Mother (2009-South Korea) **½

Intriguing, but flawed murder mystery. I was hooked most of the way, but the film was a bit too 'quirky' for my taste (the undeveloped incest theme), and the retarded son's behaviour changed every time he appeared, depending on what direction the script required. I think with a bit of editing there's a *** movie in there though. Kim Hye-Ja is terrific as the titular character.