Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical:
Blu-ray: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Japan)
Disc:
Region: A (North + South America, parts of Asia)
Runtime: 93:50 m
Chapters: 12
Size: 50 GB
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
Release date: April 23, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Audio:
English True HD 5.1, Japanese DD 2.0
Subtitles:
Feature: English, Japanese. Extras: English,
Japanese
Extras:
• Audio Commentary with Actor Ewan MacGregor,
Director Danny Boyle, Producer Andrew Macdonald,
Screenwriter John Hodge (recorded for Criterion in
1996).
• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary
• Music track index
• featurette on the adaptation process and making-of
(9.5 min. 4:3)
• 2 brief interviews with the filmmakers on making
of.
• 2 brief interviews with the filmmakers on the
music and sound mixing.
• interviews with the novelist, screenwriter,
director and producer (37 min.)
• 2 featurettes on injection effects (13 min.)
• Cannes snapshot (7 min.)
• 4:3 preview (2 min. with PAL speed-up)
The Film:
The Movie : 9
(see DVDBeaver SD comparisons
HERE)
Let's get the cut thing out of the way right off:
Yes, this is the Director's Cut. (By the way,
note the Universal rather than the Miramax logo at
the beginning of the film.)
There are so many things I love about this movie:
the language for starters, certainly: I would not
hesitate placing Ewan McGregor's bloggish voiceover
narration among the greats: Michael Holdern (Barry
Lyndon), Martin Sheen (Apocalypse NowI), Irving
Pichel (How Green Is My Valley), Michel Subor (Jules
et Jim), Art Gilmore (The Killing), Morgan Freeman
(The Shawshank Redemption), Edward Norton (Fight
Club), Dick Powell (The Bad & the Beautiful) and
Joanne Woodward, even though I still think it's
redundant, (The Age of Innocence). Then there's
Robert Carlyle's scene chewing performance and the
reason God gave us subtitles; Kelly Macdonald for
her freshness; Irvine Welsh's novel and John Hodge's
adaptation that connects us at more levels than we
can keep track of. And not least, for its
compelling, vicarious experience of one of the most
seductive and destructive chemicals known to man.
Image:
Image : 8.5 (8~9/9+)
The score of 8.5 indicates a relative level of
excellence compared to other Blu-ray DVDs. The score
in parentheses represents: first, a value on a
ten-point scale for the image in absolute terms;
and, second, how that image compares to what I
believe is the current best we can expect in the
theatre.
The image is subtly, but definitely better than the
already pretty darn good 2-disc Region 1 Miramax. It
also has a little more information at the top and
bottom of the frame. The color is richer, the image
has more dynamic punch with more solid blacks and
more tangible skin tones. But don't expect too much.
Trainspotting still shows its Indie roots
from time to time. All the same, the longer I looked
at it the better it seemed, rather than the more
critical I became.
Burned-in
Subtitle Sample
Selectable Subtitle sample
SD - TOP vs. Blu-ray BOTTOM
SD - TOP vs. Blu-ray BOTTOM
SD - TOP vs. Blu-ray BOTTOM
Audio & Music:
Audio & Music : 7/10
Just one of this movie's delights is its brilliantly
contrived score made up of some of the best in the
over- and underground scene, and which fixes the
time squarely into the 1980's. There's Lou Reed,
Iggy Pop and Brian Eno on the one hand and
Underworld and Damon Albarn on the other. This was
one of the few compilation soundtrack albums I ever
purchased, and was lucky enough to find an LP in a
UK pressing. Under the circumstances, the score is
whackingly well executed in the True HD or 2-channel
mixdown. Ewan McGregor's brilliant narration is
clear and engaging. Robert Carlyle's Begbie is just
as unintelligible as he ever was and just as scary.
Operations:
Operations : 6
For the non-Japanese reading visitor, the Extra
Features menu is like a video game quest, but it's
laid out in a sensible and familiar manner.
Everything else is a piece of cake. I do wish that
none of the subtitles were burned in – but they're
here just as they were on the SD.
Extras:
Extras : 7
Unless your Japanese is a whole lot better than
mine, I predict you will have a bit of a chore in
front of you sorting out the Extras, but they make a
certain sense once you get the hang of it. Almost
all of the extras found on the 2-disc Miramax
Collector's Series is ported over. Looks like we're
missing a French audio track, and maybe the
biographies of the cast & crew. HD presentations
would have been nice, but hardly necessary. The
image quality varied considerably, but most often it
was pretty good.
Bottom line:
Recommendation : 9
Not cheap, certainly, but as of this writing, this
Japanese edition is the only high definition
presentation of Trainspotting available.
(Amazon/Japan's current price shipped to North
America is about 4500 Yen or roughly US$43.) The
image is more solid than the best SD incarnation of
the movie, though I have seen more impressive
differences compared to 480i editions of other
films. In any case, I doubt it will bettered with a
new try; so for fans of the film, and until a local
edition is forthcoming (and that might not even be
as good), this Blu-ray is not to be missed.
Leonard Norwitz
May 3, 2008
