The Last Samurai (2003)
Drama, Action, War • 2h 34m
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Timothy Spall, Tony Goldwyn, Hiroyuki Sanada, Koyuki, Shin Koyamada, Billy Connolly, Togo Igawa, Shichinosuke Nakamura, Masato Harada, William Atherton, Chad Lindberg, Scott Wilson, Ray Godshall Sr., Masashi Odate, John Koyama, Satoshi Nikaido, Shintaro Wada, Shun Sugata, Sosuke Ikematsu, Aoi Minato, Seizō Fukumoto, Shoji Yoshihara, Kosaburo Nomura IV, Takashi Noguchi, Noguchi Takayuki, Sven Toorvald, Yuki Matsuzaki, Mitsuyuki Oishi, Jiro Wada, Hiroshi Watanabe, Yusuke Myochin, Hiroaki Amano, Kenta Daibo, Koji Fujii, Makoto Hashiba, Shimpei Horinouchi, Takashi Kora, Shane Kosugi, Takeshi Maya, Seiji Morita, Lee Murayama, Takeru Shimizu, Shinji Suzuki, Hisao Takeda, Ryoichiro Yonekura, Ryoichi Noguchi
Brazilian/Hong Kong/Polish/Korea/Thai Warner Bros Blu-ray for the TrueHD track
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 7 months ago
Overview
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
Director: Edward Zwick
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Victor Fleming
3D: Warner Bros 3D Blu-ray or Apple Vision Pro
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
Director: Martin Rosen
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Roman Polanski
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Caveat: No IMAX expanded aspect ratio
Director: James Gunn
Commentary is only on Streaming
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray (includes Extended Cut on regular Blu-ray)
Original theatrical 6.1 mix: 2009 Warner Bros Blu-ray Ultimate Edition (Theatrical Cut only)
Extended Cut 5.1 mix: Warner Bros Blu-ray
DTS:X remix: Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
The film is titled Sorcerer's Stone in the US, India, and the Philippines.
Wizard's/Hogwarts Collection has all the bonus features for all the 8 films.
The lossless version of the original 6.1 mix is only available on the ultimate edition blu-ray not to be confused with the ultimate collectors edition blu-ray.
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Joel Coen
Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)
Director: Liliana Cavani
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Iain Softley
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn included an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH
Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Bruce Robinson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion
Director: Olivier Assayas
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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.
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
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