Oldboy - feedback on picture quality please

petet66 · 12-11-2009, 7:54 PM

I've seen some wildly varying reviews on Amazon and Play regarding the image quality on the UK release of Oldboy. Has anyone got it and what are you views? Also has anyone seen the US version - is the picture quality any better and is it region free? (I saw one online site retailer that said the US version of the movie was region free but the bonus disc was region coded US only!).

Having just been introduced to this classic movie (and it leaping straight into my all time top ten favourite movies) I want to own it in the best quality possible but am wondering if I should save my cash and go for the DVD version and watch it upscaled via my Blu Ray player.

rebel_scum · 12-11-2009, 8:49 PM

The BD knocks the crap out of the DVD, it also has the correct colour scheme. Both UK and US discs are identical, I believe.
The DVD included with the US release is indeed region coded, but worth having more than the redundant DVD copy of the movie, that the UK release had originally.

I've owned numerous versions of Oldboy and the BD puts them all to shame.

RickDastardly · 12-11-2009, 10:01 PM

Definite favourite of mine. Always seems quite expensive though. I keep waiting for it to come down in price.

petet66 · 12-11-2009, 10:55 PM

Amazon have the Blu ray for £11.88 - not a bad price (Play etc have it for £17 still). Thanks for your feedback guys - think I will be adding it to my Christmas list!

Leumas_10 · 12-11-2009, 11:23 PM

Yup, is definately worth £11.88

looks great and a 7.1 DTS-hd soundtrack too.

simonblue · 13-11-2009, 1:11 AM

Great P/Q got mine from HMV £8.99,but got it a while ago

mentasm · 13-11-2009, 11:32 AM

I wouldn't put any stock in the opinions of most of the people who post on Amazon or Play. Oldboy on BD looks great - looks a lot more like the original Korean release of the film (green tint, blown contrast, different framing). Got all three of the Vengeance films now, although I actually ended up with two Lady Vengeances because I wanted both colour and fade to black and white.

rebel_scum · 13-11-2009, 11:43 AM

What did you think of the faded version of Lady Vengeance? I thought that it wasn't a bad transfer,(for a Tartan release), and would have looked stunning in full colour.

TheBlueFalcon · 13-11-2009, 1:21 PM

Owning pretty much every DVD version of Oldboy ever released (and most of them differeing in quality for both picture and sound) I decided to get both the US and UK Blu-Rays. As far as the movie itself goes, there isn't much difference between them and (as rebel_scum has pointed out) the BD (US or UK) is far better than any of the DVD versions. It's a little tricky doing back to back comparisons, but I think the US BD is very slightly sharper and has a touch more colour to it. I'm only talking very slight differences though, so I would recommend either version.

mentasm · 13-11-2009, 1:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebel_scum

What did you think of the faded version of Lady Vengeance? I thought that it wasn't a bad transfer,(for a Tartan release), and would have looked stunning in full colour.

It's not too bad. It has all of the problems of the DVD and it's never been my favourite version of the film. I had to get the colour version from Hong Kong as well, and that looks very good.

TheBlueFalcon · 13-11-2009, 2:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mentasm

It's not too bad. It has all of the problems of the DVD and it's never been my favourite version of the film. I had to get the colour version from Hong Kong as well, and that looks very good.

If you don't mind me asking, did you get Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance from HMV? Is Mr Vengeance decent? Where did you order the theatrical Lady Vengeance from please?

petet66 · 13-11-2009, 5:53 PM

Are the other two movies of the Vengeance trilogy available on Blu Ray?

And excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by the faded version of Lady Vengeance?

I always like to watch films in the director's preferred version so want to make sure I get the best copy.

TheBlueFalcon · 13-11-2009, 7:11 PM

They are available exclusively at HMV for a limited time, but will eventually be available at other retailers. The "faded" version of Lady Vengeance starts in colour then gradually fades, leaving the last 30 minutes in black and white. This is the Directors Cut.

mentasm · 13-11-2009, 7:44 PM

It's not the director's cut, but it's a common misconception. There's a whole featurette about it on the DVD/BD, in which Park explains that he originally planned to do it so that he could be the first person to utilise the process, but changed his mind. It does slightly conflict with his comments in the introduction on the disc though.

The film has had numerous releases. The original Korean 2-disc SE had both the fading and colour versions, but - and it's a big but - the colour version was far more muted than the true theatrical version. It's like they changed the colour timing ready for the fading version and then just used that altered colour version on the second disc. The US and UK DVD were the theatrical versions with more vibrant colours. The UK got the fading version as part of the VT boxed set, but the theatrical version wasn't in that so you had to buy both. The Hong Kong DVD had the theatrical colour scheme as well.

I got the theatrical version from DDDHouse because they were the cheapest. Still cost me about £19.50 with shipping, which is the second highest price I've ever paid for a single BD. I'm a bit of a collector when it comes to the trilogy though, so I had to have both. So far I have:

Mr. Vengeance

Korean 2-disc SE
US single disc
UK BD

Oldboy

Korean SE
Korean FE
UK BD

Lady Vengeance

HK DVD
US DVD
HK BD

Also got the VT boxed set with the hammer etc. Always meant to pick up a cheap copy of the UK Oldboy on DVD for the extras, but never got around to it.

I know it's an Oldboy thread and I've already hijacked it a bit, but I thought I'd add a couple of caps to illustrate the Lady V differences for those interested. These are from a scene before it starts to fade to black and white!

Even in this scene you can see how the detail is crushed by the colour changes.

TheBlueFalcon · 14-11-2009, 10:58 AM

Interesting to know. I have the Korean 2-disc DVD (CJ Entertainment) of Lady Vengeance, but so far have only watched the Fade to Black version. I must admit I have never looked at any extras or further information about the movie (other than it being part of the Vengeance Trilogy) so didn't realise that the Fade to Black version isn't the Director's Cut, but that is how it was originally advertised.

But to get back to Oldboy. I sold a few of them, so I now have 6 different versions of it on DVD. I was really happy to get the Korean Ultimate Edition, although I had to pay for it twice as I got ripped off by thedvdetective.com, but at least I got one.

Pecker · 14-11-2009, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mentasm

It's not the director's cut, but it's a common misconception. There's a whole featurette about it on the DVD/BD, in which Park explains that he originally planned to do it so that he could be the first person to utilise the process, but changed his mind. It does slightly conflict with his comments in the introduction on the disc though.

Given that his comments appear to be slightly contradictory, and are translated from Korean, I don't think you can definitively say that the 'fade' version either is or isn't his preferred vision.

One thing is for sure, after the full colour cinema release, Park himself has been personally responsible for pushing for the 'fade' version to be released on DVD.

I think it's fairest to say that both versions are alternative and legitimate tales on what the director tried to do.

Steve W

mentasm · 14-11-2009, 6:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pecker

Given that his comments appear to be slightly contradictory, and are translated from Korean, I don't think you can definitively say that the 'fade' version either is or isn't his preferred vision.

One thing is for sure, after the full colour cinema release, Park himself has been personally responsible for pushing for the 'fade' version to be released on DVD.

I think it's fairest to say that both versions are alternative and legitimate tales on what the director tried to do.

Steve W

I disagree. His comments in the featurette are pretty conclusive, even allowing for translation. I would imagine that's why the original Korean DVD release had both versions of the film. The introduction is the bit that's not clear, but he's pretty explicit in the featurette about the fading version being an experiment that he abandoned. The cinematographer seems to back that up with his statements as well. In any event, it's not really a 'director's cut'. If I ever meet him I plan to ask!

allchin1 · 14-11-2009, 7:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertPaulson

They are available exclusively at HMV for a limited time, but will eventually be available at other retailers. The "faded" version of Lady Vengeance starts in colour then gradually fades, leaving the last 30 minutes in black and white. This is the Directors Cut.

are mr vengeance, .old boy and lady vengeance region free from hmv

mentasm · 15-11-2009, 6:29 PM

From what I remember, Oldboy is region free and the others are B.

petet66 · 15-11-2009, 11:37 PM

Ordered from Amazon tonight - thanks guys

CJPowers81 · 23-09-2010, 8:01 PM

Looks like Oldboy is getting the "Collectors edition" treatment next month. It's up for pre-order priced £29.99 and exclusive to HMV. No artwork or any info on the content yet.

hmv.com: Music CDs, DVDs, Games & More

featherhall · 23-09-2010, 8:11 PM

What a film !!!
I have the copper box edition which was limited edition in Korea (DVD etc)
my pride and joy. Can't bear to cheat on it and get the bluray though ;-)
I do have both the vengeance films on blu though (HMV) and they are fantastic for quality

featherhall · 23-09-2010, 8:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJPowers81

Looks like Oldboy is getting the "Collectors edition" treatment next month. It's up for pre-order priced £29.99 and exclusive to HMV. No artwork or any info on the content yet.

hmv.com: Music CDs, DVDs, Games & More

Cheers for the heads up. Bizarre though that for their own exclusive which is 2 or so weeks away from release that they have no info at all on their site

rebel_scum · 23-09-2010, 9:39 PM

I've bought Oldboy enough times and I'm perfectly happy with the current BD.

LanceR · 24-09-2010, 9:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebel_scum

I've bought Oldboy enough times and I'm perfectly happy with the current BD.

Gawd I agree, I'm happy with my Blu as well.

Pecker · 25-09-2010, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by featherhall

What a film !!!
I have the copper box edition which was limited edition in Korea (DVD etc)
my pride and joy. Can't bear to cheat on it and get the bluray though ;-)
I do have both the vengeance films on blu though (HMV) and they are fantastic for quality

It's a thing of great beauty - but you have to be careful handling it as the box is slightly 'oily'.

Steve W

dave1de · 08-11-2010, 1:37 PM

Im dragging up a bit of an old thread here but oh well

Decided to pick this up on Blu-ray yesterday as I spotted it in HMV for £12, which I thought was fairly reasonable for high street prices. I think it's a fantastic film and that it was time to upgrade my DVD. At one point (a good few years ago now) I was lucky enough to own that copper tin ultimate edition, but only kept it for about 3 months before realising that I had basically paid £150 for one film! So on ebay it went.

Anyway, to be honest I feel really let down by what i've seen on the Blu-ray so far. Probably will watch the whole film tonight as it's been a while since i've seen it, but after skipping through a few chapters I thought the quality was actually one of the worst I have seen on Blu-ray, probably the worst that I currently own too. Really doesn't look any better to an upscaled version of it really. Ah well, should have done some research rather than spur of the moment buying

rebel_scum · 08-11-2010, 1:46 PM

Bugger all wrong with the BD.

mentasm · 12-11-2010, 1:20 AM

Yeah, something is off if you don't think it looks any better than an upscale. It's actually a pretty decent transfer that is very faithful to the original look of the film, which none of the UK DVDs were.

featherhall · 12-11-2010, 7:51 PM

Side note, but how much do you think my copper box is worth ? It's pristine and has the foam inserts so no damage at all.