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 S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Bu san" or "Bu jian bu san")

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/tsai.htm
 Taiwan 2003

The DVD of "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" is compared to the Blu-ray HERE

Good Bye, Dragon Inn marks a milestone in Tsai Ming-liang’s new frontier of filmmaking: it is both a devoted homage to director King Hu (who passed away in 1997) and a melancholic yet humorous look at the sometimes forsaken state of cinema – and cinemas – today. Tsai begins with Hu’s 1966 masterpiece, Dragon Inn, projecting it as a backdrop for his own story and borrowing much of its dialogue: the film’s words resound, distorted, inside a large theatre in Taipei where it is screened in front of a gradually thinning audience. We seldom see the images from Hu’s action movie, but its sounds fall from the screen – a sort of cinephile’s rap – as a disjointed commentary on the “action” going on in the near-empty theatre.

It rains and a Japanese tourist takes refuge from the weather inside a once-popular cinema. The usual activities that characterize a Chinese movie theatre still go on – people in the audience noisily crack watermelon seeds and move around – but the atmosphere is eerie. Male figures slowly emerge from the dark, a gaunt army of pallid ghosts testifying to what this cinema has become: a meeting place for gay encounters.

Excerpt taklen from Giovanni Fulvi's review HERE

Theatrical Release: 29 August 2003 (Venice Film Festival) (premiere)

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DVD Review: Wellspring -  Region 0 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover

   

CLICK to order from:
Distribution Wellspring - Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime 1:21:39
Video 1.70:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.12 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
 

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:

 

Audio Mandarin (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby), Mandarin (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles English, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: Wellspring

Aspect Ratio:
Original aspect Ratio 1.70:1

Edition Details:

        * Short Tsai Featurette - 'The Skywalk is Gone' aka 'Tianqiao bu jianle' (2002) - approx 22:00 (widescreen - non- anamorphic)
        * Tsai Filmography
        * Trailers for "What Time is it There", Goodbye, Dragon Inn" and "The River"


DVD Release Date: February 15th, 2005
Keep Case
Chapters: 18

 

Comments: The DVD of "Goodbye, Dragon Inn" is compared to the Blu-ray HERE

Needless to say I had some problems with this disc playing in my computer drive. I don't think it is a fault of Wellspring but suspect it is because of the manner of authoring as I have had similar troubles with other Wellspring editions and have never had problems with any other DVDs. It played fine on my Malata and Sony, just had various problems on my computer drive.

Aside from that it has other issues, briefly comparing to the Catalyst Logic Region 0 - NTSC (2 disc) edition reviewed HERE (see bottom captures) this Wellspring edition is cropped quite a bit on the bottom and noticeably less sharp. The Catalyst edition has audio problems as indicated by Paul's review, and can only be ordered used (see HERE), but does include "The Missing" (written and directed by Lee Kang-sheng) . What a mess this all is. On the positive, these subtitles seem well done on the Wellspring, they give you an audio option of 2.0 or 5.1 and it includes a neat little Tsai short called "The Skywalk is Gone". I suppose true Tsai fans need both for the two other film offerings that are included. We can hope a superior edition of Goodbye, Dragon Inn is released in the future because neither of these are acceptable.

Say all that, neat film and one worthy of repeat viewing. I've never been crazy about Wellspring but they often show improvement in some areas (as in extras) and at least they release some of these non-mainstream offerings. Let's give this DVD package out of .

GaryTooze

Recommended Reading in Chinese/Hong Kong/Taiwanese Cinema (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

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The Skywalk is Gone (Tsai Featurette)

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/tsai.htm

 

 

 
 
Goodbye Dragon Inn comparison
 
(Wellspring - Region 0 - NTSC - TOP vs. Catalyst Logic - Region 0 - NTSC - BOTTOM)
 
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Distribution Wellspring - Region 0 - NTSC

 



 

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