Female Prisoner Scorpion Box set from Arrow in July

[47lab Guest Find all posts View Profile Close 47lab]

Any chance Arrow can pull a Shout Factory Bruce Lee Legacy Collection and recall this & fix it before shipping it out? The other Arrow release I was looking forward to was Kobayashi's HUMAN CONDITION trilogy blu ray set but I read that it's also been delayed. Did Criterion ever announce they were going to release it as well?

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

It would be nice hearing something regarding this from an Arrow representative. They usually are rather vocal about defending their in-house restorations, for instance the aspect ratio discussion of Blood and Black Lace comes to mind, which leads me to believe that they know this is a fuck up, and that said fuck up is on Toei's part. I have a hard time believing Arrow themselves would butcher a release like this, considering the care they usually put into representing their films accurately. An honest company would've rejected those masters outright if they got them like that from a license holder, but maybe they were delivered too late to cancel the box set. Who knows.

For the record: I'm not one to nitpick every new release on dubious grounds, like the lot on the BD forums. To base your conception on how a film should look on an old VHS release from the 80's is ridiculous. With colour timing there is usually so much room for different approaches, as long as you're historically accurate and respect the original wishes of the director and DP. This Sasori set however, seems to WAY miss the mark, at least to an amateur like me. Lesson learned, I guess: don't pre-order before you've seen screenshots. It's just too bad we won't get another HD release in the english speaking world for many years to come.

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Strange that no one from Arrow would be aware of these rather large differences in presentation..

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

http://arrowvideodeck.blogspot.co.uk/

Arrow claim this is the original colour scheme. They could have saved themselves a lot of flack by going with the previous look, so they must be convinced this is correct?

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

The plot thickens.....

[Derrick King Waterfall Puncher Find all posts View Profile Close Derrick King]

The other Arrow release I was looking forward to was Kobayashi's HUMAN CONDITION trilogy blu ray set but I read that it's also been delayed. Did Criterion ever announce they were going to release it as well?

no, they haven't.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

"The films of the Female Prisoner Scorpion Collection have been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films and are presented in their original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with mono sound.

A set of low-contrast 35mm prints struck from the original 35mm film elements were supplied by Toei Company, Ltd. These prints were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered 4K Northlight Scanner. Picture grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve and thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed using PFClean software. Overall image stability and instances of density fluctuation were was also improved. All restoration work was completed at Pinewood Studios.


The images on all four Female Prisoner Scorpion films favor a noticeably cyan/blue look throughout. This look was inherent in the film materials supplied and relates to how these lab materials were created, as well as how the original elements have faded over time. With these restorations, we have aimed to present the films as close to their intended original style and appearance as possible.


The original mono soundtracks were transferred from the original 35mm optical sound negatives and were conformed and restored at Pinewood Studios."

So Arrow did the transfers based off of prints taken from 'original elements' (they don't specify negatives) - that would mean these are not Toei masters and that Arrow did the color grading.

Huh.

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

The images on all four Female Prisoner Scorpion films favor a noticeably cyan/blue look throughout. This look was inherent in the film materials supplied and relates to how these lab materials were created, as well as how the original elements have faded over time. With these restorations, we have aimed to present the films as close to their intended original style and appearance as possible.

Was this cyan/blue tint prevalent in films of this genre and era? What are the chances that this blue/cyan tint is "close to the intended original style and appearance" of these films. Seems off to me but I'm no expert.

[MichaelB Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MichaelB]

Was this cyan/blue tint prevalent in films of this genre and era?

That's a bit of a red herring considering how deliberately and unconventionally stylised these films are - particularly the three directed by Shunya Ito.

For a rough equivalent, imagine you're discussing Suspiria and asking the same question about mid-1970s Italian films.

[Adrian Jones Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Adrian Jones]

I've seen good quality 35mm prints of these in Japan i've never seen the films look like those screenshots...horrible!

Also why is the TOEI HD master on Amazon Japan so different?

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

What a strange turn of events! I would've never guessed this was a deliberate choice on the Arrow team's part, with James White aboard even. I guess I can only believe what they're saying then, strange though it is, since I didn't see the films projected at the premiere, haven't seen the OCN, haven't talked to people involved in the films' production, etc. I'm an amateur, and can only base my preference off earlier home video releases as well as promotional material from the time, but I do find it very peculiar indeed that nobody's seen any hint of this radical colour timing before this release.

[Bogart Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bogart]

I know nothing about such things. I only know that once you watch a film a certain way you get used to seeing it like that. There is no "horrible" like people are saying. As long as it looks like a bluray colours etc play second fiddle. I would rather it was true to the original but I would leave stuff like that to the experts because I would be none the wiser anyway most likely.

[Adrian Jones Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Adrian Jones]

Why is the HD version that TOEI prepared for Amazon Japan like the version we know and love with no sign of the blue tint? See Takuma's post on page 2 of this thread.

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

I've seen good quality 35mm prints of these in Japan i've never seen the films look like those screenshots...horrible!

Glad to hear that.

I did see the first film on 35mm, but it was a poor quality print so I can't use it as reference. But of course it still looked nothing like the Arrow transfers.

Was this cyan/blue tint prevalent in films of this genre and era? What are the chances that this blue/cyan tint is "close to the intended original style and appearance" of these films.

About zero. I never seen anything looking like this before, and I have seen several hundred Japanese films from the 60 and 70 on 35mm (and hellava lot more on home video).

What a strange turn of events! I would've never guessed this was a deliberate choice on the Arrow team's part, with James White aboard even. I guess I can only believe what they're saying then, strange though it is, since I didn't see the films projected at the premiere, haven't seen the OCN, haven't talked to people involved in the films' production, etc. I'm an amateur, and can only base my preference off earlier home video releases as well as promotional material from the time, but I do find it very peculiar indeed that nobody's seen any hint of this radical colour timing before this release.

Additional note: none of the old dvds had this kind of color timing even though they came from various different prints. For example the Jailhouse 41 Toei dvd is (assumably) from a Japanese print, while the French Studio Canal and Pathe dvds come from a (cut) French print. All of them look a bit different to each other, and these is a bit more blue to some of them, but obviously nothing like the Arrow transfers.

Studio Canal


Pathe


Toei


Studio Canal


Pathe


Toei


Studio Canal


Pathe


Toei


Studio Canal


Pathe


Toei

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

I'd take a blue tint over a yellow one if I had a gun to my head. It seems like Toei like messing with the colours and this time gave Arrow a bluer version which they had to make the best of. At least the sky won't look like piss as in their old version!