Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin = EH DVD vs CT DVD

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chenlung
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Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin = EH DVD vs CT DVD

Post by chenlung »

Practically, the only merit of the disgusting Eastern Heroes DVD is that it's longer than the Columbia Tristar DVD (although cut itself). The captures I've provided show Eastern Heroes used a print that's credits were tampered with. I've no idea why they are different but they look 'original'.

Columbia Tristar is a flawed but pretty decent DVD. It maybe cut over 5 minutes, dubtitled, no extras or full remastering, but it's anamorphic OAR, acceptable colours e.t.c, Mandarin and English mono soundtracks.

If you can't wait, I'd go for the Columbia and pick up the Eastern Heroes DVD only if you are insane about the 5 minutes. Fortune Star remastered this title in HD and uncut but it's yet to surface English subtitled and mono (HKL and Joy Sales have this title, otherwise Brentwood or Dragon Dynasty may give it a go). Aside from some interesting fights, this is a stinker.

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thelostdragon
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Post by thelostdragon »

The German DVD uses a Fortune Star print.
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chenlung
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Post by chenlung »

A non-remastered one I believe but it may have the Mandarin mono.
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bradavon
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Post by bradavon »

OMG the Eastern Heroes has to be one of the worst looking DVDs ever!
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Keung
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Post by Keung »

bradavon wrote:OMG the Eastern Heroes has to be one of the worst looking DVDs ever!
I agree, completely! That is bad!
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tom2681
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Post by tom2681 »

They've taken a 4/3 Pan-Scan print and cropped it to 16/9. :lol: :lol:
I used to be "the man who loves the movies you hate".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
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Keung
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Post by Keung »

Well, it certainly shows that they've done nothing right with this DVD.
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chenlung
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Tom

Post by chenlung »

tom2681 wrote:They've taken a 4/3 Pan-Scan print and cropped it to 16/9. :lol: :lol:
Not always. Most times however. For this one, they may have done it for half the film (as evidenced by the comparison).
Last edited by chenlung on 30 Oct 2006, 01:40, edited 1 time in total.
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bradavon
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Post by bradavon »

Why would you bother to even put this out? Surely the damage to your reputation would be greater than the money made.
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Markgway
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Post by Markgway »

EH is horrendously cropped on all four sides and frankly looks pish.
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Markgway
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Post by Markgway »

bradavon wrote:Why would you bother to even put this out? Surely the damage to your reputation would be greater than the money made.
Wait! Do Eastern Heroes have a reputation?? When did this happen?
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Killer Meteor
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Post by Killer Meteor »

The EH DVD - in ignorance, I must admit - was my first old school film and I LOVE this film! Can't wait for the Joy Sales release!

That last shot looks like it's 1.85:1 cropped from 2.35:1 rather than full screen matted. Some of the other EH Jackie DVDs - most notably Spiritual Kung Fu - were made from a variety of sources
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chenlung
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Post by chenlung »

One annoying habit was EH not filling up the whole 1:78:1 and you've got black bars at the sides. The picture is distorted and you can correct by stretching out.

Spiritual Kung Fu was made up using various sources (maybe the 'Art Seasons Entertainment' and 'Aquarius Releasing' VHS) yet it's still not complete (missing about 1 minute).

I bet their sources were: VHS (something from the US) and laserdisc (Ocean Shores - thus their fullscreen sources which didn't seem too VHS quality). God knows where they got a 1:85:1 source.
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