[Idea] A Better Tomorrow correction/regrade?

[Serums]

Hello everyone,

I'll start by saying that I recall the thread Colek posted in regards to working on a similar project. I've not seen his release, just the screencaps that were posted here. But as I understand it, he doesn't have as much time to work on customs these days. I don't wish to step on anyone's toes, but I recall some comments made in my Supercop thread some time ago stating that the ABT remaster would look good with some scene by scene correction/tweaking. Would it be worthwhile for me to take a shot at it?

I should say that I don't have much in the way of resources for ABT's video (I think I've only got the blu-ray and the HK DVD (from the two pack with 'The Killer'), so if anyone knows of a release that has good/preferred colours, I'd be happy to hear any information, comments, and/or thoughts on it.

I've heard the story that John Woo approved the colouration that Ritrovata did for this remaster, but I've always wondered if what he saw on their monitors is the same as what we wound up getting.

Thanks!

[LucasGodzilla]

I should say that I don't have much in the way of resources for ABT's video (I think I've only got the blu-ray and the HK DVD (from the two pack with 'The Killer'), so if anyone knows of a release that has good/preferred colours, I'd be happy to hear any information, comments, and/or thoughts on it.

I've heard the story that John Woo approved the colouration that Ritrovata did for this remaster, but I've always wondered if what he saw on their monitors is the same as what we wound up getting.

Whenever I read about a director or cinematographer or some other big-name going in to approve a transfer, I usually take this with a grain of salt for a number of reasons. The biggest takeaway I have to say though is that a source to reference off of is stronger than a named approval.

Anyways, as for source, looking back to Colek's old thread...

John Woo's masterpiece and my favourite movie always seemed to be overlooked in my opinion. When last year Fortune Star released 4K Remastered version, I was stunned by quality of new transfer, but yet I was dissapointed at how poor audio was and colors were completely wrong. So I decided to get on with this. I've released a quick Laserdisc original audio synchronization along with new reworked English subtitles by kuyahukduk custom Bluray over a year ago, but I was still not fully satisfied. This is my little tribute to this movie.

Video is undergoing shot-by-shot color correction. Currently, I've only used DrDre's ColorMatch to match colours to best looking copy, colour-wise, which was Golden Cinema's Laserdisc release, which was provided to me by IcePrick (Thanks a lot!). Current results can be see below.

Now I have not seen this laserdisc master, however, I have seen instances where some laserdiscs have near-spot-on color grading when compared to a 35mm print (such as in the cases of The Fog & Never Say Never Again). So unless you suddenly are able to find a decent film element source of the movie or trailer (though sometimes the latter has different colors than the theatrical release), I'd suppose that Golden Cinema laserdisc release would be your best bet (though I have to admit, judging by Colek's early previews at the time, I'm betting there's an incorrect reddish-magenta push that seems to be a trend on many older masters of movies).

[Serums]

Thanks for the insight! Yeah, that's roughly how I feel about it. Although (and I think this was brought up in the thread too), it seems like colour grading mightn't have been terribly important to John Woo for ABT.
As you say though, if there's an older release that has spot on grading (perhaps looking a lot like the colours on a film print), I can't see why a director (or even a colourist) would say 'no, it should be like this' 25 years after the fact. Unless there was something that went wrong at the time of release that they were never able to correct.

Great. I'll try to hunt down a transfer of the laserdisc.