7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A lady fugitive on the run from corrupt government officials is joined in her endeavors by an unambitious painter and skilled Buddhist monks.
Starring: Chun Shih, Feng Hsu, Han Hsieh, Ying Bai, Ming-Wai ChanForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 16% |
Surreal | 7% |
Period | 6% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Mandarin: LPCM Mono
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Winner of Technical Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, King Hu's "A Touch of Zen" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new video interviews with actors Hsu Feng and Shih Chun; documentary film produced by Yann Brolli and Hubert Niogret; exclusive new video interview with acclaimed director Ang Lee; new featurette with film critic Tony Rayns; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring film scholar David Bordwell's essay "Prowling, Scheming, Flying: A Touch of Zen", notes on A Touch of Zen by King Hu, and technical credits. In Mandarin, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Mr. Gu
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, King Hu's A Touch of Zen arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This new digital transfer, sponsored solely by actor Hsu Feng, was created in 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative for the Taiwan Film Institute. The removal of splice marks was a heavy task: a movie with fast editing, A Touch of Zen is full of close splices. This work was done by manually reconstructing the damaged parts of frames with interpolation tools, adjusting for luminance and grain. Also involved with the restoration was cinematographer Hua Hui-ying, who supervised the color grading. As there was no vintage positive element available to use as a reference for color restoration, a 1992 print preserved at the TFI was consulted. Research results on King Hu's 1967 film Dragon Inn provided by the TFI and the lab's previous restoration experience on that film also helped the lab execute the color correction of A Touch of Zen, which was shot by the same cinematographer and film crew.
Restoration supervision: L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, Italy."
The technical description above confirms that the restoration of A Touch of Zen was an extremely challenging project. Because of fading and serious damage, plenty of rebalancing work was done to ensure optimal fluidity and stability. And in terms of fluidity and stability the end result is indeed very pleasing. The color grading, however, is unconvincing. Not only are there very obvious unnatural fluctuations, but in select areas there are massive color shifts that destabilize entire ranges of nuances and actually produce what are essentially digital anomalies. For example, there is daylight footage with an abundance of natural light where specific color grading choices have introduced unnatural flatness and in the process eliminated existing detail (see screencaptures #11 and 21). Similar and in some cases much stronger anomalies can also be observed during indoor/nighttime footage where shadow definition is collapsed and large unnatural blocks of gray/black are introduced (see screencaptures #8, 10, 14, and 17). Admittedly, source limitations are also partially responsible for some of the awkward flatness, but the bulk of it is clearly a byproduct of the manner in which the color grading was managed. (You can observe the lack of consistency and the shifts from the more natural palette in screencapture #22 to the more extreme stylistic appearances in screencaptures #9 and 13). Excluding a few segments with small inherited density fluctuations, grain is wonderfully exposed and resolved. There are absolutely no traces of problematic sharpening adjustments. Large debris, damage marks, cuts, stains, and other distracting age-related imperfections have been removed as best as possible. Ultimately, it is difficult not to agree that the film looks impressively healthy now, but I find the color grading and the film's overall very inconsistent appearance disappointing. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Mandarin LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
It immediately becomes obvious that the audio has been fully remastered. Dynamic intensity somewhat limited, which should not be surprising given the film's production history, but clarity and balance are excellent. There are not audio dropouts, pops., cracks, or digital distortions report in our review.
King Hu's legendary film A Touch of Zen is undoubtedly responsible for the emergence and establishment of the wuxia genre. During the years it has served as a blueprint for countless action films that are now considered cult classics. It has been recently restored in 4K with the involvement of its cinematographer, Mr. Hua Hui-ying, but I find the end result disappointing. However, Criterion have produced an excellent selection of supplemental features that make the new Blu-ray release very easy to recommend. RECOMMENDED.
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