2020-04-21, 06:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 2020-04-21, 06:49 PM by simpjake1999.)
I have multiple copies of BITH, Blu-Ray, VHS festival cut, Nordic Scanbox dvd rip, Tai-Seng VHS and the fan-made composite version.
The Scanbox to me looks the best having been a film print (scratches and dust) along with an Italian audio track and a english version audio track.
The Blu-Ray looks very soft and dark in places and looks like DNR was applied to the DVD upscale and it uses the original Cantonese track with original SFX instead of the modern 5.1 remix used on the HKL DVD.
The Tai-Seng VHS release is the worst release of the film since the PQ and audio suffer with the scene where Ben crashes into Pauls car and shooting his bodyguards was cut entirely just jumping forward from the boardroom to the car joust which was an awful edit.
The Festival Print being the longest version of the film in my scope comes from a low quality vhs with mediocre audio. Scenes are extended which better fit the pacing of the scenes. I’ve heard the piss drinking deleted scene was put in the HKL dvd but I haven’t got a copy to see how good the quality is.
Fan-Made Composite Cut uses the DVD and the festival cut spliced together along with the boardroom ending instead of the car joust ending.
The Mei Ah VCD which is on YouTube is the theatrical cut with the boardroom ending in place with the entire movie having the original cantonese audio on the left audio channel and the mandarin audio on the right audio channel.
I would like to see a proper 4K restoration done, but hearing from sources the original negative for Bullet in the Head has been lost, we might not see it happen for a while. I did hear the soundtrack is coming out for the 30th anniversary which I don’t know if its true or not.
The Scanbox to me looks the best having been a film print (scratches and dust) along with an Italian audio track and a english version audio track.
The Blu-Ray looks very soft and dark in places and looks like DNR was applied to the DVD upscale and it uses the original Cantonese track with original SFX instead of the modern 5.1 remix used on the HKL DVD.
The Tai-Seng VHS release is the worst release of the film since the PQ and audio suffer with the scene where Ben crashes into Pauls car and shooting his bodyguards was cut entirely just jumping forward from the boardroom to the car joust which was an awful edit.
The Festival Print being the longest version of the film in my scope comes from a low quality vhs with mediocre audio. Scenes are extended which better fit the pacing of the scenes. I’ve heard the piss drinking deleted scene was put in the HKL dvd but I haven’t got a copy to see how good the quality is.
Fan-Made Composite Cut uses the DVD and the festival cut spliced together along with the boardroom ending instead of the car joust ending.
The Mei Ah VCD which is on YouTube is the theatrical cut with the boardroom ending in place with the entire movie having the original cantonese audio on the left audio channel and the mandarin audio on the right audio channel.
I would like to see a proper 4K restoration done, but hearing from sources the original negative for Bullet in the Head has been lost, we might not see it happen for a while. I did hear the soundtrack is coming out for the 30th anniversary which I don’t know if its true or not.
