The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
人間の條件 第３部望郷篇／第４部戦雲篇
War, Drama, History • 2h 58m
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Kokinji Katsura, Jun Tatara, Michirō Minami, Kei Satō, Kunie Tanaka, Ryōhei Uchida, Kan Yanagiya, Kenjiro Uemura, Kaneko Iwasaki, Mayumi Kurata, Taketoshi Naitō, Hideo Kidokoro, Yoshirō Aoki, Rō Ose, Tamotsu Tamura, Toru Takeuchi, Izumi Hara, Sen Yano, Akio Miyabe, Takashi Ebata, Keiji Sada, Yūsuke Kawazu, Susumu Fujita, Minoru Chiaki, Shōji Yasui, Fumio Watanabe, Jun Hamamura, Akiji Kobayashi, Keijirō Morozumi, Shōbun Inoue, Shojiro Ogasawara, Shōji Ōki, Isao Suenaga, Hisashi Igawa
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 5 months ago
Overview
Kaji, sent to the Japanese army labeled Red, witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against a fellow recruit. He also sees his friend Shinjô defecting to the Russian border, and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
MoC slightly better than Criterion http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_reviews_69/kwaidan_blu-ray.htm
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray poor compression, otherwise Second Sight has best Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
> BFI 4K Blu-ray. caps Criterion presents the master as originally graded in SDR whereas FiM added HDR / Dolby Vision for the BFI.
Criterion 4K Blu-ray's audio mix has more detail than BFI’s and same applies to the subtitles, covering both English and France spoken word
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
Director: Luis Buñuel
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
More War on Blu-ray
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Anthony Mann
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Olive Blu-ray
Barebones Olive BD of a Paramount HD master. Visually it's solid overall with some moments of great clarity, primarily in the big outdoor and aviation sequences. Otherwise it shows its age.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, new restoration/remastering of the mono mix which should be better than the 1999 WB DVD, revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1987 and for the first time ever on physical media, the film will be in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Box Set coming on October 20th with FiM encode
DTS:X mix most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD has additional features not found on the 4K Blu-ray
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K
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