The case is unique (see image below) - although fans can be picky and want congruity to their blossoming Blu-ray collection as they sit on their shelves.

Audio (linear PCM) is kind of a non-event as there is hardly any dialogue in the film and no score. When words are spoken (Mandarin) they are audible but subtitles have some grammar missteps - which I forgive since I don't believe there is any important sub-text to those communications. There is no hiss or drop-outs. My Momitsu has verified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.  

Before the film we get a few words from director Chen Kuo-Fu  on the restoration (removing dirt, print damage, stabilizing the frame/color grading etc.) of these 'Taiwan New Cinema' films that have been revamped and digitally remastered by the 'new management' of the Central Pictures Corporation of Taiwan. Then there are some split-screen samples (the menu itself does this as well for Vive L'amour). This introduction into the tranfer is about 2-minutes long with some eventual caveats that they cannot improve upon the source of synchronization issues. There is nothing on the Blu-ray in terms of extras.

There is a second disc - a dual-layered DVD in its own case that has the feature film and a 30-minute piece -> a subtitled 'interview' with Tsai. It has some merit as an interesting discussion on the film. Before this the same 2-minute 'intro' on restoration is shown.

Okay, despite the notable mistakes -> subtitle translations (not fatal), the MPEG2 transfer as opposed to AVC and sharing the 'interview' on the same DVD as the feature when it could have more easily fit on the Blu-ray disc - I am not deterred as I am such a big fan of the movie and this is the best way to see it outside of a retrospective (Good luck!). It was my introduction to Tsai and for many years it was in my top 10 films of all time. While I can forgive those authoring mistakes - for most the price is out-of-line. I can only recommend to those BIG fans of both the film and the director. Personally, I LOVED seeing it so improved from the DVDs. Perhaps it will come on sale one day. Let's hope. I'd endorse if it was 50% of the current price. As for now - few would consider it being worthy of the $40 US price tag.

***

ON THE DVDs: I recently viewed your comparison of Tsai Ming Liang's Vive L'amour and was wondering if you noticed that Bitwin region 3 version is censored. The scene where Lee Kang-sheng enters the tub naked was edited so that we can't see his butt. Fox Lorber, even though it has inferior image quality, has a uncensored version of him entering the tub. (Thanks - Mitchell)

***

Well, both DVDs leaves a bit to be desired. I didn't find excessive examples of 'combing' or 'ghosting' in the Fox but the Bitwin shows some pronounced 'combing' in horizontal pans telling us it is not progressively transferred. Both are non-anamorphic widescreen with the Fox being cropped in certain areas. The subtitles are ingrained on the Fox and removable on the Bitwin with the inclusion of English, Korean and Chinese.

In regards to the image the Bitwin is sharper with far better color separation.  On the Fox the colors can tend to bleed a bit and overall appears to be a bad Video transfer (flatline bitrate dead giveaway). Neither should be considered the definitive edition at this stage and with the director gaining popularity (and this one of his strongest films) perhaps there is hope for a better 16X9 progressive transfer in the offing. This remains one of my most watched DVDs solely for the film itself and from that standpoint we recommend the Bitwin which is the superior of the two.

NOTE: The Bitwin comes in a very cool book-style case!

Gary W. Tooze