The Crow (Japan - Geneon Universal) impressions

[eastx]

I might have to buy this. Is there no US version in sight?

[hoosier2007]

No date for us release, as of yet ...

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Paul Arnette

I'm trying to finish collecting information regarding this disc to create a contribution to DVD Profiler. Would anyone be able to translate the overview of the film on the back for me? Also, was this film rated R-15 in Japan?

I extracted the overview of the film from the back of the case in Japanese from some websites that have the text on their product description (had to piece it together from 3 different sites) to make it easier to apply some automatic translation tools:

「クロウ」シリーズの記念すべき第１作にしてゴシック・ホラー・アクションの金字塔!

退廃と欲望渦巻く近未来都市。ロック・ミュージシャンのエリックは、犯罪王トップ・ダラーの一味によって婚 約者ともども惨殺されてしまう。一年後、現世と冥界とを結ぶというカラスの力を得て蘇った彼は、一味への壮 絶な復讐を開始する…。

1980年代のアメリカで人気を博したカルト・コミックの映画化となる本作は、 『ブレイド』、『アンダーワールド』など後の“ダークヒーロー”作品に多大な影響を与えたといわれる。主演 は、ブルース・リーの子息ブランドン・リー。メジャー初主演作「ラピッド・ファイヤー」の成功をうけ、これ からのアメリカ映画界を背負うホープと目されていた彼は、 本作の撮影中の発砲事故により、28歳という若さで還らぬ人となった。

It would take me a bit long to translate it properly myself as I only have intermediate Japanese skills and I don't read kanji all that well (my spoken Japanese is much better than reading/writing).

Here's what Google translate provides from that in English:

"Crow" series, a monument to commemorate the actions and the gothic horror film!

Swirling futuristic urban decay and desire. Rock musician Eric, the company would be engaged by the savage killing of gang crime king top dollar. One year later he obtained the power of the crow蘇TTA of this world and enter into a permanent dream state and is a fierce start to the gang revenge.

1980's comic book and movie of the cult's popularity in America, Blade, Underworld, and, after the "dark hero" said to be heavily influenced his work. Cast, Lee's son Brandon Lee. His first major starring "Rapid Fire" received the success he and Hope were the first American film lead in the future, by accident while shooting the film shooting, 28 people in the age of還RANU was.

I'm not sure what the film's rating was in Japan, if it was R-15 there might be some small text about it in the back of the case or somewhere but I can't see any. Can't find the rating info easily with Google either...

[Paul Arnette]

Originally Posted by kannisto

Here's what Google translate provides from that in English:

I'm not sure what the film's rating was in Japan, if it was R-15 there might be some small text about it in the back of the case or somewhere but I can't see any. Can't find the rating info easily with Google either...

Kannisto, thanks for your help! I will use your translation and assume the R-15 rating for the submission.

[REDBULL74]

Watched my copy last night and damn this film looked great in HD! I remember seeing this at the theater way back in 1994, but haven't watched it since I owned the laserdisc in the late 90's. The Japanese transfer is really strong and looked better then I expected. The look of "The Crow" was always drab because the director chose to filter out the colors some when Erik comes back to life. The reds and flashback sequences have some beautiful colors that really shine. The overall detail and filmlike quality of this is amazing and any hardcore fan of this film needs to buy this!!

[Skwege]

Originally Posted by kannisto

The soundtrack of the movie is pretty nice too, I like Joy Division (though their song was a cover version by Nine Inch Nails) and The Cure as well, I have some CDs of both bands.

I agree. I'm not even a big NIN fan but it was a very good cover of "Dead Souls"

Burn was also very good as well. Last great thing The Cure ever did as Boris Williams left the group immediately after that and they went to shit and never recovered.

[saltysam]

Someone over at AVS claims this is the same transfer as the UK BD which is a hell of a lot cheaper! can anyone confirm this?

[FourToedStatue]

Originally Posted by saltysam

Someone over at AVS claims this is the same transfer as the UK BD which is a hell of a lot cheaper! can anyone confirm this?

The UK version is region locked to B. A problem unless you're in Europe.

[Cochise]

Originally Posted by FourToedStatue

The UK version is region locked to B. A problem unless you're in Europe.

And the UK version is 1080i50 Hz, which is a problem for most North American players and TVs. The Japan version is 1080p24 and in no way the "same transfer" as the UK version. The only thing they have in common is the name of the movie.

[Arkadin]

well I just read the post at avs.
what dude claims is that it is the same transfer EXCEPT it is now encoded in 1080p/24
he says it exhibits the same artifacts in the same places, etc. etc.
so who knows.

[erack]

Originally Posted by Cochise

And the UK version is 1080i50 Hz, which is a problem for most North American players and TVs. The Japan version is 1080p24 and in no way the "same transfer" as the UK version. The only thing they have in common is the name of the movie.

Wrong. A transfer is the scanning of the film elements to a digital master. The UK and JP releases use the same master transfer, but are encoded differently.

[Arkadin]

that may be technically true, but people use the word "transfer" also in the way of expressing a general look of the material, i.e.
"the transfer is not the same"--as in "the version of the bd from Spain has a different transfer and exhibits lots more EE than the one from France"
technically the bds may be based on the same "transfer", but one is obviously worse as far as overall quality due to encoding procedures.

[erack]

^Yes but would be nice if people used the correct terms. It make more sense for only the telecine process to be called the transfer because you are actually transferring the images off analog film to the digital domain. All releases from that digital master are just different manipulations of it, there's no transferring of anything going on.

[Cochise]

Originally Posted by erack

^Yes but would be nice if people used the correct terms. It make more sense for only the telecine process to be called the transfer because you are actually transferring the images off analog film to the digital domain. All releases from that digital master are just different manipulations of it, there's no transferring of anything going on.

Yes, you are indeed correct. And it is commonly misused to mean the encoding of the final product onto a home video format. There is indeed very likely only one telecine transfer master for The Crow. So, one could say the transfer for The Crow Japan blu-ray is the same transfer as the VHS release. But, the vast majority of folks would misunderstand that to mean the Japanese release The Crow blu-ray is no better than VHS.

It would indeed be nice if people used the correct terms. My pet peeve is people calling margarine "butter". I think we know yours.