Audition - Tartan or R3

[Jimmyboy]

Is the Tartan release worth the extra cash, or are you better off going for the cheaper R3 option ?.

[Mark B]

review of the Tartan copy here (http://www.dvdtimes.org.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=353&story=2311)

[Jimmyboy]

I've read the dvdtimes review and it doesnt help too much when comparing it to the R3.

[kanedaa]

thats cos i've not seen the R3 :D

from what i've heard it sounds as though the R2 benefits from...

A better transfer using an anamorphic print (albeit not a great one, but its not bad either)
The subtitle translation and grammer/spelling is FAR better
Extra features (interview is the only indepth one though)

R3 benefits from...

Good non-anamorphic transfer
Removeable subtitles, although everyone labels the translation as 'laughable' which too me doesn't sound too great for a film of this nature
Its cheap (about £6 cheaper i think)

Tartan do overcharge for their product, I payed the £15 and don't really regret it - but then if you pay £15 and don't like it you'll never sell it for much due to peoples ability to get the R3 dirt cheap.

dave.

[Hex]

bless you sir for starting this thread as I was wondering the same thing myself and was about to ask as the search function is French connectioned at the moment

Where can you get the R3 from cheap then? I was looking at getting this from Play for £14.99, but if there is a R3 out there that is equal to this in terms of quality I would get it - if only to add another region to my collection. :)

[Jimmyboy]

Originally posted by kanedaa
thats cos i've not seen the R3 :D


R3 benefits from...

Removeable subtitles, although everyone labels the translation as 'laughable' which too me doesn't sound too great for a film of this nature

dave.

Im a little worried about how bad the subtitles are, reviews seem to conflict a fair bit.

According to the blade website review -
These subtitles are generally good, remaining in time with the voices throughout, but there are some minor spelling mistakes in places.


Monodigital review -
The Japanese dialogue is presented with optional Chinese or English subtitles, which are grammatically awkward at times but get the meaning across well enough.

Splatterhouse review -
This is the only way that it's currently possible to see the film with English subtitles, outside of the cinema and the bootleg market (and the only bootleg available is a fairly rough time-coded screener, though it did have superior subtitles), so we should all be very grateful for it.

Tomb of DVD review -
I have heard many notes about the subs being poor on this film, but it is no worse than most HK productions I have watched-and nowhere near the level of vagueness as seen on the recent Mechanical Violator Haikaider disc, so it's really a moot point.


It doesnt make it easy to know how far off the spelling mistakes are, I'd imagine poor grammer in a film like this could be extremely off putting.

[adamvbarker]

The R3 version seemed perfectly good to me. True it's not anamorphic, but that's not a complete disaster.

The subtitles are badly done. Perfectly readable, just grammatically all over the place and awkward sounding. But you get used to it pretty quickly. They never make it impossible to follow what's going on. And subtitles are a thing far enough removed from the film that you don't judge the movie itself on that basis, and it doesn't make it seem as if the characters are really talking stupidly. I don't think having better subtitles would have vastly increased my enjoyment

It's strange that subs are so often so bad on far eastern disks. All it would take is one native english speaker to correct them. They wouldn't even need to speak the original language, as it's perfectly obvious what's tryingto be said, it just needs turning into decent english. (Perhaps I'll go to Hong Kong and offer my services.)

Audition can be had very cheaply from www.dddhouse.com .

It's a very powerful film, but you have to give it time as it starts quite slowly. And don't watch the trailer first as it gives way too much away.

[Shingster]

I haven't seen Audition on DVD yet, but a good test to find out if you can cope with the subtitles on the R3 edition would be if you have a copy of the R3 Peking Opera Blues. If you can tolerate those subs, you should be able to tolerate Audition's.
BTW Dave, how readable are the subs when they're against white backgrounds on the Tartan DVD? The ones on the Tartan VHS are so bad that for some scenes I had to turn the contrast right down & sit with my face 30cm away from the screen in order to read them.

[kanedaa]

There were only about 2/3 occasions where the subtitles were a slight strain, but never to the point where I would have to say pause the film or alter picture settings - just took my brain a little longer to process what was on screen.

I have to agree with everyone regarding the R3 subs, its very hard to ascertain just how bad they are. I said they were meant to be laughable as thats what I read at BulletsnBabes some time ago (in their forums). I've even read people asking 'what is she saying at the end' - i'm presuming they're referring to the "kiri kiri kiri" line in which case is that actually subbed on the R3???

I'm not sure why I never bought the R3 to be honest, been wanting to see this film ever since i heard about it but waited till the R2 arrived!

I'll fully admit that £15 is steep (***** vertical considering!) and thats why i said in my review that I do not believe its worth upgrading the R3 (even though i've not seen it) but for those looking to purchase it first time round the Tartan release is perfectly viable and probably the better option as far as overall presentation goes....maybe hope it crops up in a sale at some point?

dave.

[kat23]

Originally posted by kanedaa
I have to agree with everyone regarding the R3 subs, its very hard to ascertain just how bad they are. I said they were meant to be laughable as thats what I read at BulletsnBabes some time ago (in their forums). I've even read people asking 'what is she saying at the end' - i'm presuming they're referring to the "kiri kiri kiri" line in which case is that actually subbed on the R3???


I didn't think the subs were that bad, yes a few spelling mistakes and some of it is worded badly but never enough to put you off or make it difficult to understand what is happening.

And I don't remember the "kiri kiri kiri" being subbed, but I could be wrong.

[Michael Brooke]

I suspect that anyone familiar with Hong Kong DVDs will have no problem with the subtitles - if anything, they're above average in terms of accuracy. I freely admit they're not exactly in flawless English, but I never had a problem following them.

I can't remember if it's subtitled at all, but "Kiri kiri kiri" means "Deeper, deeper, deeper" (allegedly). But, trust me on this, it <U>really</U> doesn't matter if it's subtitled or not when it comes to that particular scene!

[BenH]

I think the R3 subtitles "kiri" as "Stick in" if i remember correctly, haven't got my disc to hand, but it's something ridiculous.

[Jimmyboy]

well if I dump Audition R3 in my shopping cart along with a couple of other titles, it works about about £7 del.
Obviously, this is a better option for me as its less than half price of the R2 & I don't really wanna be lining Tartans pockets whilst there happy to offload such poor products at silly prices.

I have to say though, I found the spelling mistakes on Shaolin Soccer to be quite annoying, if Audition is worse than this, I'll probably pass and hope I can pick the R2 up cheap later. If the R3 suffers from occasional spelling mistakes as opposed to consistant spelling mistakes throughout, I could probably put up with that for £7.
So...........? ;)

[samhain]

I seem to remember the subs being pretty poor - regular misspellings, and, as adamvbarker said, awkward sounding. It's been a while since I saw it, though. I'll watch it again tonight, and see.

[Shingster]

Originally posted by Jimmyboy
I found the spelling mistakes on Shaolin Soccer to be quite annoying, if Audition is worse than this, I'll probably pass and hope I can pick the R2 up cheap later.

I'd say that Shaolin Soccer has the best English subs I've seen yet on a R3 DVD.

[Jimmyboy]

Originally posted by Shingster


I'd say that Shaolin Soccer has the best English subs I've seen yet on a R3 DVD.
I found the subs to be well below average given the obvious time spent on the disc & many of the jokes got lost as a result.



So how bad are the subs then samhain ?.

[RichG]

The subtitles on the R2 version of Audition are certainly less than perfect. There are lots of spelling and grammar errors, although they don't really detract from the film that much.

And there are scenes with subtitles on white backgrounds, but I managed to read all of them no problem

[samhain]

The subs aren't as bad as I remembered. There are some misspellings ('only talneted girls can shoot movie'), and the sentences are clumsy, but this isn't really a film that relies on language as much as Shaolin Soccer, anyway.
Also, unlike a lot of HK disks, they have taken the trouble to translate all relevant written text. I've certainly seen much worse, and didn't find the subs distracting.
Having said that, Shaolin Soccer isn't the worst I've seen, either, so if that put you off I don’t know about this one.
The picture quality is better than most (sharp, correct ratio), but the black levels are off. It does have the advantage of removable subs, and can be bought for half the price. Swings and roundabouts.
Sorry if this isn't much help.