Cast
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Chow Yun-Fat

Chow Yun-Fat

13 films on Best Blurays10 in 4K3 in HD

Chow Yun-Fat photo

Chow Yun-Fat (Chinese: 周潤發, born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the five Hong Kong action heroic bloodshed films: A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer, Once a Thief and Hard Boiled, and in the West for his roles as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. He mainly plays in drama films and has won three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor in Taiwan. Chow started his career in movies in 1976 with Goldig Films, the third largest film company at the time.

Biography from TMDB

Leading role · Director: Ringo Lam Ling-Tung

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Shout! Factory US 4K Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Ang Lee

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony Pictures US set 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Sony Pictures US set 4K Blu-ray has DV

Leading role · Director: John Woo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Correct grade and archival extras missing from the Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Criterion LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Criterion USA LaserDisc [CC1397L]: Original Cantonese mono.

Best Cantonese mono still was from Criterion LaserDisc, as the Shout one was boosted with clipping, with some filtering and losing dynamic range over the Criterion LD.

There’s no need for other Cantonese audio, as all 5.1 remixes are extremely bad and not worth including.

For English Dub the Shout offered the best, it was pure mono. All other 5.1 remixed of said dub are also terrible and offer no value, only less fidelity and more echo.

More info.

Leading role · Director: Antoine Fuqua

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Theatrical: Mill Creek Blu-ray

Extended: Sony Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: John Woo

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in August

Leading role · Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Leading role · Director: Ringo Lam Ling-Tung

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Arrow 4K UHD

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Seems to be the same transfer see Finch's review

caps for the new Arrow/Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray upgrade compared to previous BDs

Arrow has better subtitles

Additional Info:

Arrow UHD has much better English subtitles and additional extras making it the far superior release to the Shout version of the same master.

Leading role · Director: John Woo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56

Best Audio:

Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD

Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)

Audio Notes:

Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)

Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD

Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)

Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.

Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.

Additional Info:

Arrow has a much better translation.

Arrow LE has the Taiwan Extended Cut which will not be present on the standard edition. However, Imprint is FiM and has its own archival extras not present on the Arrow.

Leading role · Director: John Woo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Disk Kino/WCL China import

review: Disk Kino

Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow

Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono

Leading role · Director: James Foley

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Toy Robot 4K Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: John Woo

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Supporting role · Director: Lam Nai-choi

Best English-Friendly & Video:

88 Films UK or Vinegar Syndrome US Blu-ray (preference)

Video Notes:

Different color gradings, 88 Films disc is encoded by FiM but Vinegar Syndrome encode (by Marcus Johnson) is more than robust

Audio Notes:

Vinegar Syndrome potentially has better audio than 88 Films, due to VinSyn possibly having EQ'd the audio mix after Fortune Star scanned the track in a way that makes it sound too hot, whereas 88 left it alone without addressing that issue. However, no direct comparisons exist

Small role · Director: Gore Verbinski

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Disney 4K Blu-ray

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