MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist, and Random Speculation

[ryannichols7]

much like Arrow Academy/Video, I feel the line between MOC and Eureka is increasingly blurring here...

[Finch]

Amazon has listings up for Lady Reporter (Eureka), Samurai Reincarnation and Revenge (both MoC).

[rapta]

Sometimes they list something on Amazon as either MoC or Eureka Classics, and then switch them around. I've been confused by their listings before, only for that confusion to dissipate upon official announcement.

That said, who knows? Fukasaku is certainly an accomplished director, but I would say he's better known for his 'cult' status in the same way as Romero, Verhoeven, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam etc. I'd expect something like Under the Flag of the Rising Sun, Fall Guy, Virus, or one of his yakuza titles to fall under MoC, but assumed things like Samurai Reincarnation and even Shogun's Samurai would automatically be Eureka Classics. I mean, Sonny Chiba was firmly under Arrow Video even when Arrow Academy existed.

[MichaelB]

Arrow’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne plays with Arrow Video branding and menus in a Region A player and Arrow Academy branding/menus in a Region B player - Arrow Academy didn’t exist in the US at the time, and to be honest that particular film is a blatant crossover candidate anyway.

[ChunkyLover]

The Beaver Train.

It seems like Eureka used an older HD master.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Did they? The detail on the Eureka release is far richer.

[yoloswegmaster]

Irongod has provided some hints for upcoming HK titles:

1 Girls with Guns title (a fave of mine) some heroic bloodshed films & two old school classics!! Many more to come including something very special that may be getting an UHD release!

The Heroic Bloodshed titles are probably going to be Rich and Famous and Tragic Hero, while one of the old school classics is going to be Beach of the War Gods. I'm hoping that the Girls with Guns title is She Shoots Straight.

[tenia]

The Beaver Train.

It seems like Eureka used an older HD master.

There seems to be 2 HD masters for the movie, one used by Twilight Time and Carlotta, and one used in Germany (and it seems by Eureka too now). The German one looked slightly sharper to me but still felt dated.

[ChunkyLover]

There seems to be 2 HD masters for the movie, one used by Twilight Time and Carlotta, and one used in Germany (and it seems by Eureka too now). The German one looked slightly sharper to me but still felt dated.

It seems like this Eureka one might be entirely different compared to the German one (it doesn't have the blue bias the Eureka has).

[Finch]

Takuma took caps of the Toei TV screening of the 2k resto and it looks more like the old Twilight Time but cleaned up.

[ChunkyLover]

Takuma took caps of the Toei TV screening of the 2k resto and it looks more like the old Twilight Time but cleaned up.

If anything, it looks more like the Eureka master rather than the TT (the framing and geometry are practically identical when comparing).

[Finch]

I don't see teal in the Toei caps though which was my point.

[yoloswegmaster]

Announcements are on Thursday and Eureka are hinting at releases for Golgo 13 and Rich and Famous/Tragic Hero.

[dwk]

That would be the 1973 Ken Takakura Golgo 13 (the one Discotek is releasing in the US) not the 1977 Golgo 13 with Sonny Chiba.

[Finch]

On top of the teal-leaning grade, Bullet Train also has macroblocking and he points out that their In The Line of Duty releases are also affected. Makes me all the more grateful that I went for the 88 set of ITLOD instead.

[tenia]

There have also been audio comparisons between the UK and German BDs of ITLOD 3 in which the UK disc sounds quite muffled compared to the German BD, despite the UK disc being lossless and the German one being DD 2.0 384kbps (though it seems to be on a scene-by-scene basis).

As for the PQ, I'm wondering if what nicwood reports on the "recent Michelle Yeoh releases" is down to the encodes or from the source. I've only quickly gave a spin to Yes Madam for instance, and there are a few scenes with frozen grain but not in ways that I'd attribute to the encode. However, the compression on this one at least has at times a cyclic aspect to it, as if I-frames were good but P and B frames were dropping the ball a bit. It's not as obvious than on several French BDs though, in which this cyclic aspect gives you good frames and then absolute rubbish frames before returning to a good ones. Here, grain simply seem a bit less sharp.

[nicolas]

Hi tenia,

this is nicwood from the other forum. I just signed up to reply to you.

To be honest, I was a slightly careful with my post not to trigger a storm regarding bad encoding on Eureka’s part. I feel like it’s a general thing in the collector’s world that there are some labels which people like to bash on more or less and if one label which doesn’t get much criticism is “attacked” there are many that come to that label’s defense without reason.

This is why I was so surprised to see that the encoding of the Hong Kong masters I was referring to and now Bullet Train are more problematic than usual with Eureka. Usually 2K restorations itself are something to cherish as they are leagues ahead old Telecine transfers (and the Michelle Yeoh restorations certainly are) but The Bullet Train isn’t.

The disc in this set is crammed to the brim with the film twice plus a good amount of bonus features. I believe that somebody like David Mackenzie would have done a far better job. We would have had a definitive release if he did it, clearly. In my opinion the same is true for the Yeoh discs. There is too much on one disc for this encoder to handle. If there is less bonus material he does a good job. I recently got the now-OOP Inherent the Wind which looks better than the Kino. There are countless examples of that being the case as well - that’s how Eureka got their great reputation and deservedly so.

This amount of macroblocking and frozen grain looks like it’s not inherent to the master. For that to be true the other portions of the image would have to be affected as well. I mentioned this in my recent Three Colors 4K post concerning the Curzon release. The master is astounding in that case but all the highlights are clipped. These discs are very much watchable still, but The Bullet Train is difficult especially on a larger screen like my 83-inch LG OLED.

I mentioned the Zulawski set as a good development since they’re not cost-cutting as much any more by splitting the films to three discs.

Edit: I forgot to mention that previous Fortune Star (2K) masters which were released by Eureka, Arrow and even Criterion are usually good to excellent when it comes to the picture quality with no anomalies built-in. Japanese masters as of late are also generally great in my opinion (although there are some problematic ones like The Inugami Family but that was Kadokawa if I remember correctly). So, again, I believe these issues are due to the encode. Hope this helps. :)

[Finch]

Good to have you around, nicholas. Your input is very much appreciated! Feel free to chime in on any future 4k releases too.

[nicolas]

Good to have you around, nicholas. Your input is very much appreciated! Feel free to chime in on any future 4k releases too.

Thank you for the warm welcome Finch, I’ll try my best. ;)

[tenia]

Hi tenia,
this is nicwood from the other forum. I just signed up to reply to you.

To be honest, I was a slightly careful with my post not to trigger a storm regarding bad encoding on Eureka’s part. I feel like it’s a general thing in the collector’s world that there are some labels which people like to bash on more or less and if one label which doesn’t get much criticism is “attacked” there are many that come to that label’s defense without reason.

Thanks for signing up here just for replying to me !

There's no problem with your blu-ray.com post, which felt to me quite matter-of-fact-y and written in a fair fashion. It is known anyway that Eureka is one of the UK labels using different encoding companies/people who aren't all as efficient as each other, so it might very well be that in the cases you're mentioning, these haven't gone to the most skilled ones and as a result, the encodes aren't as good as they could have been. I can also totally understand how, in the context of these releases (like the amount of material they're embarking), a more careful choice could/should have been done.

In the case of Yes Madam, which is the only disc I had a look at just earlier and only gave it a quick look, it simply felt to me like it wasn't looking blocky as a disc can usually be with such sources. That's what prompted me to wonder if it's encode or source related, and thinking it might be more source-related than encode. I might very well be wrong, and I suppose that, in any case, doing a A/B comparison with the US or the German discs would answer that in a more definitive fashion.

I don't own Eureka's The Bullet Train since I already have the French BD release of it, so won't be able to assess this one anyway.

[nicolas]

All good, thanks for letting me know.

You probably did the right thing in sticking with the French disc for The Bullet Train but the Eureka is obviously a winner in the extras department.

Hopefully these video issues is just a one-off and not a first indicator of decreasing effort and / or budget they put into each release. I honestly suspected the latter already when they initially announced their Zulawski set with all on-disc content spread over just two discs. Hopefully things are still well in their company.

[tenia]

As I wrote when it was announced, there was no way the announced content of the Zulawski set would fit on 2 discs only, so I too am glad they came back to their senses on this one.

[Peacock]

Although the issue with that set still isn’t clearly resolved. Many of our favourite labels put films on single layer disks to save money so hopefully MoC aren’t now planning two single layers and a dual layer… because otherwise there wouldn’t be any advantage in the three disks.

And the issue was always mainly where the Silver Globe documentary went size-wise as it seemed (and seems) unlikely they’ll stick it on a disk with Third Part or The Devil.,,

[ChunkyLover]

Usually 2K restorations itself are something to cherish as they are leagues ahead old Telecine transfers (and the Michelle Yeoh restorations certainly are) but The Bullet Train isn’t.

After "Violent Streets", I get the feeling a lot of these "2K scan/restoration" Toei films are just exactly that: old HD masters/telecines that are either DVD-era masters or "quickie" HDTV masters.

[nicolas]

Usually 2K restorations itself are something to cherish as they are leagues ahead old Telecine transfers (and the Michelle Yeoh restorations certainly are) but The Bullet Train isn’t.

After "Violent Streets", I get the feeling a lot of these "2K scan/restoration" Toei films are just exactly that: old HD masters/telecines that are either DVD-era masters or "quickie" HDTV masters.

As sad as such mislabeling is on the part of Toei, I find it much more concerning that Eureka eschews total transparency by doing exactly the same. Fran of Radiance often talked about misunderstandings between the quality of masters the studios claim to have, similar to this case here but he can then “correct” the narrative in case he licenses them.