6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
William Lee wrote, produced, directed and starred in this film, which concerns a secret agent guiding an adventurous female professor on a search for the Treasure of the Ninja.
Starring: William Lee (XII), Constance Lester, Darin Waugh, Gary Burton (IX), Ajay KumarMartial arts | 100% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 1.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
The commentary track on this disc suggests that AGFA and Bleeding Skull regulars Joe Ziemba and Annie Choi are decidedly big fans of William Lee, the auteur (?) behind Treasure of the Ninja and a number of other films collected for this release, and for them, as well as for anyone else who may have stumbled into Lee's cinematic orbit, the IMDb suggests that this perseverant film maker is still at it, with several projects either in post-production or moving toward that target. Bleeding Skull's website has a fun article about Lee and Treasure of the Ninja that covers some of the same territory as the commentary on the disc, outlining how Lee made the film on what I've often joked as being an "aglet budget" (not even enough for a shoestring, in other words) while he was a student at Ohio State University. Lee shot on Super 8 without sound, since that was so much cheaper, and then post-looped the entire affair, providing several character voices himself. Unable to find a distributor, Lee resorted to selling tapes himself until "real life" beckoned and he moved on to other pursuits. Decades later when he noticed online auction sites were selling Treasure of the Ninja for considerable sums, "real life" seemed to be offering a new avenue for recognition and maybe even a bit of income, and this Blu-ray is at least part of the after effects of that awakening.
Treasure of the Ninja is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive and Bleeding Skull with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. The back cover of this release states that this is culled from a "new transfer from the original 3/4" master tape", while also offering the following:
Notice! Treasure of the Ninja was shot on Super 8 and edited on tape. Please approach the technical quality of the transfer with empathy.Maybe I fall into that same category as Jennifer Aniston once accused Brad Pitt of being in, lacking a "sensitivity chip", but there's simply no getting around the pretty ragged appearance of this transfer, one that is unfortunately hampered both by its Super 8 source and its "edited on tape" workflow. As can clearly be seen in many of the screenshots, there are any number of anomalies that accrue aside and apart from "typical" age related wear and tear like scratches and dirt (both of which are quite prevalent). For just a couple of examples, look at the weird crosshatched pattern that extends from the man's face down across his sweater in screenshot 6, or the really noticeable quasi-ghosting in screenshot 4 (pay special attention to the legs in the frame). The palette is generally decent looking, but does tend to skew kind of oddly toward greens at times.
As is mentioned in the commentary, Treasure of the Ninja was shot silently and all sound was added later, and so the DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track does show expected signs of "loose sync". While not as problematic as the video side of things, there are some recurrent issues on the audio track as well, including a rather odd and long lived anomaly that I frankly initially thought was a helicopter rotor as the film began, only to realize sometime later after no flying craft appeared, that it's some kind of damage that ebbs and flows through the track at various times. Surprisingly, it's completely absent at times, including during the credits sequence which offers a rather boisterous and full bodied funktastic song. Dialogue is generally cleanly presented, though there are some amplitude deficiencies at times. The sound effects are often quite funny and enjoyable. Though it's not listed on the menu, optional English subtitles are available via the button on your remote.
Annie Choi kind of gushes a little bit in her praise of William Lee on the commentary track, though she probably rightly points out that Treasure of the Ninja has a certain ebullience that is infectious, though less tolerant types might also point out that there's an obvious "student film" quality to it all. This is another AGFA release that is seemingly custom designed for a cult audience, and those folks will probably be willing to cut this release's technical limitations some slack.
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