2021-04-14, 10:35 PM
(2021-04-14, 02:18 PM)PipperPiper Wrote:(2021-04-14, 02:46 AM)shiftyeyes Wrote: I purchased the Criterion box set of some of WKW's films a few weeks back and was hyped to rewatch his entire filmography, including "Ashes of Time" (which wasn't included). I dusted off the old Mei Ah DVD and watched the original version for the first time. It didn't look great. Of course, it made me wonder about potential fan restoration projects and I found this thread in the search. It seems I'm not the only one who was thinking about this film last month.
I had never heard of the Pony Canyon disc so I thought I'd look into it. As luck would have it, there was a mysterious DVD listed on Amazon Marketplace with a tiny thumbnail that resembled the Pony Canyon cover at YesAsia and the seller was located in Japan. The price was a bit hefty but not too unreasonable for something supposedly this rare. I bit the bullet and it came in today! It is indeed the Pony Canyon DVD and it's still pretty rough, but better than the Mei Ah for sure. It's letterboxed and is missing the Chinese onscreen text (for example, those describing the fates of the characters).
I was thinking of creating English subtitles for this and possibly playing around with it, but my technical expertise is a bit lacking when it comes to upscaling, video editing, etc.
If there's more interest in the quality or using this DVD as a basis for something, let me know and I'll try to help.
Excellent news, can only hope that it leads to a project to restore the theatrical version. At least somebody found a copy of the disc, was beginning to think it didn't really exist.
In addition to some screenshots, can you please take a quick image of the cover? Always have been curious to what it looked like.
In addition, my custom subs can be found here for whomever wants them:
https://ufile.io/lzx4ox6c
It's really strange how rare this disc seems to be. Google only turns up a few results and the only image of the product is this tiny thumbnail from YesAsia.
p1003011921.jpg (Size: 10.59 KB / Downloads: 122)
Here's a scan of the cover, though resized to this forum's limits.