Aliases: toho
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
> Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps: https://slow.pics/c/s7AfL3XW
Grain is sharper/clearer on the new Carlotta/Criterion 4K; BFI's grain resolves slightly worse and more so in motion, being a standard Blu-ray; The Toho 4K's grain is softer, probably DNR'd.
BFI Player used to have the same mastering available to stream in 2019.
Director: Jūzō Itami
Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray for uncensored Japanese audio and original 6.1 mix
Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray is an upscale of the original 2K DI but has no English subtitles, all past releases are flawed scans from filmout sources.
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Caveat: Songs are only in Japanese, even with the English dub selected.
JP Toho 4K Blu-ray for the alternate Japanese audio with English songs, and US OOP Funimation Blu-ray for the English dub with English songs
(US GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has a higher bitrate than the Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray, but improvements are minimal, if visible.)
Directors: Shinji Higuchi & Hideaki Anno
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
> France 4K Blu-ray > Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray; caps
US disc includes original Japanese intertitles, as well as stylized English translations for all of them, both burned-in.
US Toho/GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has no limiting, unlike other releases.
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray
US/UK Crunchyroll 4K Blu-ray
Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray
Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray/Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray
Hong Kong Neofilms 4K Blu-ray has better bitrate and detail than Japan Toho 4K Blu-ray, both releases have English subtitles.
The original theatrical Atmos mix has not been given a home release.
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