Dust in the Wind Blu-ray Lian lian feng chen

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Dust In The Wind" or "Lianlian fengchen")

Determined Wan and his girlfriend, Huen, leave their employ in the minute mining village where they reside and move to the bustling city of Taipei to find careers. Wan becomes a delivery boy while Huen becomes a seamstress assistant. Touching, almost humorous, vignettes abound with the culture shock of the move. To tell of her families shoe sizes at the store Huen pulls out pieces of paper with the outlines of her family's feet traced on them. Heartwarming and still dynamically real evidence of small town innocence fighting for survival in a large metropolis.

Hou again collaborated very successfully with writer Chu T'ien-wen. With 'less being more' Hou almost ignores any hint of sentimentality or dramatization. It just 'is'. Bresson would be smiling in his grave. Dust in the Wind may have the most strikingly memorable cinematography I have seen in a Hou film, yet it refreshingly maintains its minimalist qualities. Another Hou masterpiece.

Theatrical Release: 13 September 1987 (Toronto Film Festival)

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Comparison:

Sino Movie (Taiwan) Collector's Set - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Central Pictures / Sony Music - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Sino Movie (Taiwan) Collector's Set - Region 0 - NTSC LEFT vs. Central Pictures / Sony Music - Region FREE - Blu-ray RIGHT

Box Cover	NOTE: A different cover, but it is the exact same as the sold out first printing Boxset!	Only available as part of a double feature with A Time to Live and a Time to Die North Americans: Rest of World:
Distribution	Sino Movie (Taiwan) Collector's Set - Region 0 - NTSC	Central Pictures / Sony Music - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:49:36	1:49:59.993
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 8.12 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1080i Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 24,652,348,224 bytes Feature: 19,646,287,872 bytes Video Bitrate: 20.849 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: DVD
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	Mandarin (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby)	LPCM Audio Chinese 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Subtitles	English, Chinese, Japanese, None	English, French, Japanese, Chinese
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sino Movie [A Taiwan-Based Distributor] Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • 56-Page Color Booklet (text only in Chinese) • Menus in Chinese only (except sub selection) DVD Release Date: October 28, 2003 Fold-out Slip Case inside Boxset (DVDs are inside plastic sleeves tucked into slots - see photo above).	Release Information: Studio: Central Picture / Sony Music 1080i Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 24,652,348,224 bytes Feature: 19,646,287,872 bytes Video Bitrate: 20.849 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Behind the Scenes (24:00 in HD - optional English subs) Blu-ray Release Date: July 2010 Standard Blu-ray Case inside cardboard slipcase Chapters: 7

Central Pictures Corporation has digitally remastered six classic films from the 80s and the 90s, producing brand-new digital prints that guarantee to overcome the test of time. After Dust in the Wind, four more of these films are arriving in high-definition on Blu-ray for fans to see these films the best way they have ever looked before.

Edward Yang's The Terrorizers	Chen Kuo Fu's The Personals	Yu-Hsun Chen's Tropical Fish	Ming-Liang Tsai's Vive L'Amour	Hsiao-hsien Hou's Dust in the Wind

North Americans: Rest of World:	North Americans: Rest of World:	North Americans: Rest of World:	North Americans: Rest of World:	North Americans: Rest of World:

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Firstly, the region free NTSC DVD is from the "HOU HSIAO-HSIEN ~ 4 DVD DELUXE BOX SET ~ 1983-1986" reviewed HERE that doesn't appear available anymore... anywhere? It was widescreen-letterboxed - roughly 1.72:1 (non-16X9 enhanced) and also pictureboxed (black bars on the side edges) further limiting the resolution. Considering all that it wasn't too poor if viewed on a smaller CRT - although, even then compression artifacts were present.

The Blu-ray release is stated as being from 'Central Pictures / Sony Music' and is 1080i (interlaced) but obviously the image quality is a huge improvement in every area possible. It is 1.78:1, single-layered and colors and detail look significantly superior. The HD image is imperfect but is such a huge advancement that I'm not complaining. I purchased mine from the JSDVD.MALL site and it has English-friendly options for buying. (Thanks to George for alerting me!)

Audio too advances with a linear PCM track - also in 2.0 channel. I haven't rechecked the Sino subtitle translation but it seems that this Blu-ray is more advanced in this area as well - less précising/correct spelling etc. There are the same options for English, French, Japanese and Chinese subtitles. The menus are also English friendly.

There is an excellent 24-minute piece ('Behind the Scenes'), in HD, that also has optional English subtitles - it has Hou and others involved in the production giving input. It is not overly revealing but the tidbits of detail are interesting.

Fans of the director can see this masterpiece in a digital version that is much closer to theatrical than every before offered. The Blu-ray communicates the experience and original intent, both audio and video, much more personally than the DVD and for that reason alone it is worth it - even beyond the superior subtitles and the featurette. This is an easy purchase and a disc I'm very happy to have in my collection. Let's hope for more Hou (like Millennium Mambo) in the new format!

Gary W. Tooze

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Sino Movie (Taiwan) Collector's Set - Region 0 - NTSC LEFT vs. Central Pictures / Sony Music - Region FREE - Blu-ray RIGHT