Search - Ashes of Time on DVD

Good movie, botched dvd

California Boy | California | 07/16/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD is a botched production job, and Amazon will charge you to return it because it's "not the result of our error." Amazon's error is to distribute this dog of a product. Wait for a better release. Caveat emptor.

The sound track lags several seconds behind the picture (and the subtitles) for the first 45 minutes of the movie. And there's a lot of dialog. It's almost impossible to figure out who is saying what to whom.

But maybe the visuals alone are worth it? Not really: The bottom quarter of the picture is blacked out, to cover the Chinese subtitles -- which nonetheless peek out from time to time when there are two lines of them. This provides a nice black background for the English subtitles (which contain the predictable dumb typos), but wouldn't you like to see the whole picture? I know I would.

Only a couple of times, there are pixilated intrusions of images from some other movie, with white people in it, for a second or two. Spoils the willing suspension of disbelief, you know?

And only once, there is a snatch of dialog in English -- not likely part of this movie, whose setting is earlier than the advent of English.

You don't need to spend any money on this product. Amazon should be ashamed of itself for selling it."

Good movie, awful DVD

California Boy | 01/22/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is great movie. No doubt about it, but quality of DVD is horrible. Picture sometimes got blurred, sound is very low quality. This is worst DVD ever. Movie is more then worth to watch, but not from that DVD."

Wong Kar Wai's best

hikayat | 01/26/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This too is my favourite Wong Kar Wai movie. The non-linear story of love, lost, betrayal and regret is achingly beautiful. The cinematography is stunning. It's almost worth watching the film just for that alone. That said, it's not an easy movie to watch at all. It's one of those that require repeated viewings. And it's definitely one of those that you either hate or love. There are actually 2 dvd versions of this movie. The one released by World (?) video is hideous. However, if you can find the one released by Mei Ah, I hear it's pretty good. I'm going to sell my horrid dvd version of the movie and try and pick up the Mei Ah version."

Great movie - worst DVD transfer ever

atfrost | 09/30/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Seriously: the sound is the worst I have encountered on any DVD release, a big part of the screen is covered with a dark grey box to cover the original subtitles - there is a lot of video jittery things going on, it all adds up to my conclusion that the DVD version is transfered from a very, very bad analog copy. On top of all, the subtitles are totally out of sync and awfully misspelled. Dont buy this unless you are a fanatic WKW fan who already own all other releases......"