'Curse of the Golden Flower' - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Kenneth's review of 'Curse of the Golden Flower' is up. He says martial arts fans
may find the film a bit slow-going at first, but if you stick with it, the flick more than makes up for it in the end. As a Blu-ray release, he says this one certainly delivers on the bottom line, boasting a solid high-def transfer and an even better audio mix that brings the sights and sounds of the film to life.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/curs...denflower.html

[swatch60]

My trusty PS3 says 'Curse' is an AVC-encoded film, not MPEG-2... can anyone else confirm/deny this?

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by swatch60

My trusty PS3 says 'Curse' is an AVC-encoded film, not MPEG-2... can anyone else confirm/deny this?

Thanks for catching that mistake -- the review has been fixed.

[kindredwarr]

Hi, bit of a newb to these forums, but I have a question..

I'm watching this fantastic movie on a 1080p HD set via HDMI through my PS3, and there's an amazing amount of detail in every shot.. and also a heck of a lot of grain, like an amazing amount of grain. Mainly on their faces and on brighter scenes (especially ones where the flowers take up much of the frame)

Anyone else getting this? or do I need to tweak my picture a bit?

I was hoping that perhaps it was the fault of a bad master of the disc, hell, I was pretty dissapointed after looking forward to picking this movie up on Blu-Ray; but after reading the review, I'm wondering if I need to go back and try to readjust the settings on my TV.

[illegalprelude]

Originally Posted by kindredwarr

Hi, bit of a newb to these forums, but I have a question..

I'm watching this fantastic movie on a 1080p HD set via HDMI through my PS3, and there's an amazing amount of detail in every shot.. and also a heck of a lot of grain, like an amazing amount of grain. Mainly on their faces and on brighter scenes (especially ones where the flowers take up much of the frame)

Anyone else getting this? or do I need to tweak my picture a bit?

I was hoping that perhaps it was the fault of a bad master of the disc, hell, I was pretty dissapointed after looking forward to picking this movie up on Blu-Ray; but after reading the review, I'm wondering if I need to go back and try to readjust the settings on my TV.

More so then not, you have to take into consideration what the director wanted. Alot of times, Directors want grain and some movies that are shot with zero grain, later have grain added to them

[LizardMan101]

Again, I ask the question: Why would a director want grain? How does it add "depth"? I've never looked at a grainy movie and thought "Wow, these little dots on the screen really give the picture depth". Maybe it's just me...

[Godstar]

I doubt for a movie such as this, that there would be grain added. Why would you want to distort the beatiful visuals? It could have been the directors intention, and if so you can't fault the transfer, but if it isn't artistic, then the film isn't what it's been made out to be.

[nelll]

This review is so accurate. I respect it a lot. I do not have a BD player but the SD in my HD-A2 looked superb. The plot is a B+. I loved this movie. A must see.

[kindredwarr]

Originally Posted by LizardMan101

Again, I ask the question: Why would a director want grain? How does it add "depth"? I've never looked at a grainy movie and thought "Wow, these little dots on the screen really give the picture depth". Maybe it's just me...

definitely not just you. and I'm in agreement with Godstar as well. This is a truly beautiful movie, Zhang Yimou films usually are, and Curse is probably his best looking IMHO. So why would he want grain, all this grain to ruin something as great looking as this?

That's why I'm still wondering if maybe this is just my set acting a bit weird, as there's hardly any mention of grain in the Video section of the review, just a little bit about grain in the blacks.

And I also want to add that I noticed an incredibly odd bit of noise on some stairs in a background. I thought it was a glitch, but I rewound and there it was again. It's towards the end of the movie, on the left hand side of the screen, like a little block of the stairs was complete noise, cut to another scene and the whole stair case is complete noise. the heck is that all about? Maybe there's just a problem with my disc or something..

[Godstar]

Originally Posted by kindredwarr

definitely not just you. and I'm in agreement with Godstar as well. This is a truly beautiful movie, Zhang Yimou films usually are, and Curse is probably his best looking IMHO. So why would he want grain, all this grain to ruin something as great looking as this?

That's why I'm still wondering if maybe this is just my set acting a bit weird, as there's hardly any mention of grain in the Video section of the review, just a little bit about grain in the blacks.

And I also want to add that I noticed an incredibly odd bit of noise on some stairs in a background. I thought it was a glitch, but I rewound and there it was again. It's towards the end of the movie, on the left hand side of the screen, like a little block of the stairs was complete noise, cut to another scene and the whole stair case is complete noise. the heck is that all about? Maybe there's just a problem with my disc or something..

I get this film tonight, and after I watch it I'll compare notes with you. If you can provide a time when you noticed the noise, graining in the blacks, etc. that would be helpfull.

[kindredwarr]

Okay, here goes.

To begin with, the scene with the stairs I was talking about is Chapter 13 at 1:29:55 or about there, you can see quite a bit of noise on the left hand stair case some rails on the left hand side and about a third of the wall on the right hand side closest to the end of the screen.

This one was a bit hard to catch the time of, cause it's there, then gone, it lasts for only about a sec or two because of the cut to a different camera angle.

chapter 13 1:30:05, it's not very long after the last bit of odd noise. Pretty much all of the background looks oddly distorted, all of the stairs and the walls in the background.

I don't have the ability to take a screen cap, I could try a digital camera though for anyone curious, but it may not look all that great.

As for the grain, I'm not finding it as grainy today, maybe because I'm watching it while it's a bit lighter and brighter, so it's not as apparent. Or I could've just been making a mountain out of a mole hill. However, it's pretty noticeable around here: Chapter 1: 00:02:54 when Gong Li is walking through the halls. The skin tones on any character around here appear fairly grainy to me, especially around the 00:03:20 mark when it's a close up of her walking through the hall.

[illegalprelude]

Originally Posted by LizardMan101

Again, I ask the question: Why would a director want grain? How does it add "depth"? I've never looked at a grainy movie and thought "Wow, these little dots on the screen really give the picture depth". Maybe it's just me...

watch Monster house for a clear example. Impossible for an animated movie to have grain yet it does, why? because director added via post production. It is said many times that grain adds a more dirty, life like feel while a pure crisp picture can tend to look to "camera"

[Godstar]

Originally Posted by kindredwarr

Okay, here goes.

To begin with, the scene with the stairs I was talking about is Chapter 13 at 1:29:55 or about there, you can see quite a bit of noise on the left hand stair case some rails on the left hand side and about a third of the wall on the right hand side closest to the end of the screen.

This one was a bit hard to catch the time of, cause it's there, then gone, it lasts for only about a sec or two because of the cut to a different camera angle.

chapter 13 1:30:05, it's not very long after the last bit of odd noise. Pretty much all of the background looks oddly distorted, all of the stairs and the walls in the background.

I don't have the ability to take a screen cap, I could try a digital camera though for anyone curious, but it may not look all that great.

As for the grain, I'm not finding it as grainy today, maybe because I'm watching it while it's a bit lighter and brighter, so it's not as apparent. Or I could've just been making a mountain out of a mole hill. However, it's pretty noticeable around here: Chapter 1: 00:02:54 when Gong Li is walking through the halls. The skin tones on any character around here appear fairly grainy to me, especially around the 00:03:20 mark when it's a close up of her walking through the hall.

Ok, I'll check it out and let you know. Thanks for the update kindred.

[LizardMan101]

Originally Posted by illegalprelude

watch Monster house for a clear example. Impossible for an animated movie to have grain yet it does, why? because director added via post production. It is said many times that grain adds a more dirty, life like feel while a pure crisp picture can tend to look to "camera"

Again, I'm confused. I look around with my eyes and see things that are not only life-like, but are indeed real, yet I see no grain. The only real use I can see grain having is in flashback sequences. I can't think of any reason a director would want their film mudded with thousands of little dots.

[tindizzle]

Ken,
Curse of the Golden Flower is BD50. Please update the review page.