Huozhe
(aka 'To Live', 'Lifetimes', 'Leben!', 'Vivre!')
directed by Zhang Yimou
China 1994
"Not unlike Abbas
Kiarostami’s films, the simplicity and elegance portray many hidden themes that hit with deep and lasting impact. Addiction, death, separation, birth, hardship, friendship, war, fortune are all explored with an adept level of un-cloying sentimental balance."
— Gary W.
Tooze from his review HERE
More reviewss and information can be found at an alternate comparison at Chiaroscuro HERE
Posters (Click far right to enlarge)
Film Reviews |
DVD Reviews
DVD Comparison
ERA Home Video NTSC (Taiwan) Region 0 vs. TV1 Vidéo PAL (France) Region 2
R2 screenshots courtesy of
Markus of Chiaroscuro
More important information can be found at an alternate comparison at Chiaroscuro HERE
| DVD Box Covers |
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| Distribution | ERA Home Video Region 0 (Taiwan) |
TF1 Vidéo Region 2 (France) |
| Runtime | 126:36 min | 127:16 min (+ 4% PAL Speedup = 132 min) |
| BitRate
ERA
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
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| Bitrate TV1 |
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| Video | 1.69:1/4:3 Letterboxed WideScreen Average Bitrate: 4.52 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s |
1.85:1/16:9 Average Bitrate: 6.93 mb/s, 6.46 GB PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s |
| Audio | Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround | Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Français Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround |
| Subtitles | Traditional Chinese, English (removable) | Français (non-removable in the Mandarin version) |
| Features | • None | •
Interview with Gong Li (Cannes 1994) (4:3, 05:38 min) • Theatrical Trailer (16:9, 02:40 min) • Filmographies: Zhang Yimou, Gong Li • Web Access |
| DVD Release Date: 3rd quarter 1998 Keep Case Chapters: DVD Encoding: NTSC Region 0 SS-SL/DVD-5 |
DVD Release Date: 6 December 2000 Keep Case Chapters: 15 DVD Encoding: PAL Region 2 SS-SL/DVD-9 (7.3 GB) |
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| Comment | Compared to the ugly, letterboxed and vertically squeezed ERA transfer, the TV1 Vidéo R2 DVD is much superior in every domain: it's anamorphic, has better sharpness, definition, detail, more accurate colours. The encoding of the TV1 Vidéo transfer, alas, is nevertheless sub-standard. Compression artifacts, mosquito noise, edge enhancement and aliasing will give you a headache (cf. the beginning of chap.7). French subtitles can't be removed on the Mandarin soundtrack. Markus of Chiaroscuro |
DVD Menus
(ERA NTSC R0 left, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 right)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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(ERA NTSC R0 top, TV1 Vidéo PAL R2 bottom)
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Report Card:
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Image: |
TV1 Vidéo |
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Sound: |
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| Extras: | TV1 Vidéo |
| Menu: | TV1 Vidéo |
