Curtis_Baefield
New member
Face/Off on early HD is the disc I reach for when someone tells me the format's first wave still holds up. Robert Harris described it as amazing plastic video, no detail, video game imagery, and that is exactly what I remember. It was one of those transfers where the noise reduction had been turned up until every face looked poured rather than photographed.
So a Kino 4K release is genuinely welcome news. Paramount put out a Blu-ray last July that I skipped for the same reason a lot of people did, which is that the memory of the original HD version was enough to keep me away without checking.
The thing I'd actually watch for is how they handle the opticals. This is a 1997 film, shot on 35mm, and Woo's whole visual grammar is dissolves, slow motion, layered composites and that ridiculous mirror sequence. Every one of those goes through an optical printer, which means an extra generation of grain and softness baked into the negative itself. A good 4K scan makes that difference more visible, not less, and it's where these late-90s catalogue titles usually trip up. Half the shots look astonishing and the composited ones look like they came from a different movie.
No word yet on what elements they're working from or whether the audio gets touched. Given how much of that film is gunfire and doves, the sound design is worth as much attention as the picture. Anyone here seen a recent Kino 4K of a comparable 90s title and come away happy with how the opticals landed?
So a Kino 4K release is genuinely welcome news. Paramount put out a Blu-ray last July that I skipped for the same reason a lot of people did, which is that the memory of the original HD version was enough to keep me away without checking.
The thing I'd actually watch for is how they handle the opticals. This is a 1997 film, shot on 35mm, and Woo's whole visual grammar is dissolves, slow motion, layered composites and that ridiculous mirror sequence. Every one of those goes through an optical printer, which means an extra generation of grain and softness baked into the negative itself. A good 4K scan makes that difference more visible, not less, and it's where these late-90s catalogue titles usually trip up. Half the shots look astonishing and the composited ones look like they came from a different movie.
No word yet on what elements they're working from or whether the audio gets touched. Given how much of that film is gunfire and doves, the sound design is worth as much attention as the picture. Anyone here seen a recent Kino 4K of a comparable 90s title and come away happy with how the opticals landed?
