Holmes/UFO/Thunderbirds on Japanese BD

Recently in Japan, some notable blu-ray releases of British TV shows were announced.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett)

Release date: Dec. 04, 2012
Publisher: Happinet Pictures

Region code: ALL
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono / Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: Japanese / Japanese for dubbs / English
Video: 4:3
Discs 12
Running time: 2392 mins

Contents: all 41 episodes of the series.

Extras (all in SD):

• Some multi-part featurette entitled "How to enjoy Sherlock Holmes" (this may be in Japanese audio only) which has:
  
  • Holmes' art of detection
  • Baker Street 221B
  • Illsutrations of Holmes
  • Holmes and Jeremy Brett
  • Holmes and pipes

Also includes a booklet.

Personal comment
I'm slightly skeptical about this release, because previous DVDs of the show from Happinet had poor video quality. I hope they'd acquired HD remasters from UK this time around.

UFO

Release date: Dec. 05, 2012
Publisher: Geneon Universal Entertainment

Region code: ALL (Amazon claims A, but Geneon confirmed ALL)
Audio: Japanese dts SR Mono / English dts-HD MA 5.1 / English dts SR Mono
Subtitles: Japanese / Japanese for dubbs
Video: 4:3
Discs 7
Running time: 1300 mins

Contents: all 26 episodes of the series.

Extras (130 mins):

• Video interviews with Japanese voice cast (15 mins +)
• Original version of the opening Ep.1 （5mins）
• 2 deleted scenes from Ep.2 (Foster and Koffax [3 mins], Foster and Dr. Jackson [9 mins])
• SID sings （3 mins）
• Studio recordings from Ep.6 (Foster [2 mins), Straker [2 mins])
• Textless ending (1 min)
• SHADO Secret File (24 mins)
• Retrospective documentary "The UFO Documentary" (55 mns)
• Textless ending of Ep.14
• Effects test for Ep..24
• Unused sound effects for Ep.26

Booklet (40 pages):

• Introduction
• Cast bios
• Mechanics guide
• Episode guide

Note:

• Restored from the original 35mm negatives, telecine was done by Technicolor Creative Services (USA)
• DNR'ed with Teranex
• Scratches and dirts were repaired with HD Edifis

Here's a promo video on YouTube:

[ADDED Oct.6: One thing should be noted for foreign UFO fans.
It's very likely the Japanese BD will have the episodes in irder of the Japanese TV broadcast, as in the previous Japanese DVDs.
The Japanese order is significantly different from the original UK broadcast order (see Fanderson page).

Here's the Japanese broadcast order, preceded with the original ep.# in []:

1. [01] Identified
2. [05] Exposed
3. [04] Survival
4. [06] Conflict
5. [13] Close Up
6. [16] Kill Straker!
7. [17] Sub-Smash
8. [19] The Cat With Ten Lives
9. [18] The Sound Of Silence
10. [09] Ordeal
11. [15] E.S.P.
12. [02] Computer Affair
13. [03] Flight Path
14. [11] The Square Triangle
15. [21] The Man Who Came Back
16. [22] The Psychobombs
17. [20] Destruction
18. [10] The Responsibility Seat
19. [23] Reflections In The Water
20. [25] Mindbender
21. [07] The Dalotek Affair
22. [14] Confetti Check A-O.K.
23. [12] Court Martial
24. [24] Timelash
25. [08] A Question Of Priorities
26. [26] The Long Sleep

]

Thunderbirds

       

Release date: Feb. 06, 27, 2013 [date changed on Feb. 2, 2013]
Publisher: Geneon Universal Entertainment  (not much information as of this writing)  
Region code: A    
Audio: Japanese / English    
Subtitles: Japanese    
Video: 4:3  
Discs 9    
Running time: 1500 mins    

Contents: all 32 episodes of the series.    

Extras (over 170 mins):

• Documentary "Thunderbirds Companion" (50 mins)
• UK version preview (3 mins)
• All about the secret base (23 mins)
• Century 21 Files (2 mins x7)
• Thunderbirds in Tokyo (20 mins)
• Episode guide (2 mins x 32)

Booklet (60 pages):

• Introduction
• Cast bios
• Mechanics guide
• Episode guide

Note:

• Film scanning, telecine, restoration were done by JCA (UK).
• Original negatives were cleaned with ultrasonic.
• Films were scanned in 3K with Arriscan Film Scanner, output to super 2K DPX file, and digitally restored.
• Broken films and other problems such as kicks, flicker, were repaired semi-automatically and manually. Restoration technicians checked them frame by frame afterwards.
• All materials were tuned with Cinnefilm Dark Energy.
• Finally colors were adjusted, and restored materials were tuned as one program with Pandora Revolution Grading system.

Geneon has set up a promotional website for UFO and Thunderbirds here.

Follow Me (The Public Eye) - Japanese BD

In this article I refer the film with the title "Follow Me", because

1. it's much familiar to me than "The Public Eye".
2. it's the title on the BD package I write about

In Nov. 2010, Japan's King Records released the DVD of the movie



In Sep. 2012, they released the BD edition, which is the main topic of this article.

BD

The Package

The initial pressings come with a few goodies:

• Slipcase
• 16-page booklet
• 3 pieces of 35mm film strip (5 frames each)

The booklet is a miniature reproduction of Japanese theatrical souvenir book of 2010 re-release (more on this later). As such, mostly it's Japanese text, which serves well for Japanese fans, but probably useless for others.

Basic disc specs

Disc format: Single-Sided, Single-Layered
Region code: A
Running time: 94 mins
Video: CinemaScope (16:9 enhanced) / MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: English / Japanese; both dts-HD Master Audio Mono
Subtitles: Japanese / Japanese for dubbs / None
Extras: Original trailer (4:3 letterboxed, English audio)

Navigation

When you insert the disc, after usual copyright warning (in Japanese)
and some company logos, the movie starts right away.
Audio and/or subtitles may default to Japanese at this point.
You may have to go to the main menu (or popup menu if you prefer) to change them.

The main menu is accompanied by the theme song.
The image in ellipse area is animated.

Unfortunately menus are basically in Japanese only.

From left to right, they are:

• Play
• Chapters
• Set up
• Original trailer

Also, chapter index doesn't have associated images, which must be difficult for non-Japanese.

The text roughly says:

1. The Anxiety of Mr. Charles Sidley, an accountant
2. Opening credits
3. Enter the Great? Detective
4. How they met and fell in love
5. An Eye for an Eye
6. Cristoforou's Report
7. A Spying Housemaid
8. Belinda confesses
9. Walking around in London
10. Confrontation and reunion
11. Let's not quarrel
12. The Public Eye
13. The Second Proposal
14. End credits

The setup menu has language options.

From the top to the bottom, they are:

• Audio
  
  • Original English Mono dts-HD Master Audio
  • Japanese dubbs Mono dts-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles
  
  • Japanese
  • Japanese for dubbs
  • None

Video

The 2010 DVD used the "new HD master" which I believe from the new print for the theatrical re-release earlier that year. Probably the BD was made from the same master.

The picture looks very clean and there's no blemishes. Overall I have no major complaint.

However, although I had never seen the film before this BD, I'm under impression that colors should be a little stronger, and image should be a bit sharper, like, for example, the UK BD of "The Italian Job" (1969).



You may think these films are too different to compare.
But both are British films from roughly the same period, and some scenes appear to have similar setting and color scheme.

Here are some screenshots from both BDs:

Follow Me	The Italian Job

I'm not sure if these screenshots demonstrate the differences I saw on 60 inch screen,
but in terms of color vibrancy, sharpness and crispness, "The Italian Job" is better than "Follow Me".
I suspect if "Follow Me" is given the same treatment in UK, it might look like "The Italian Job".

Of course I may be wrong here, and this Japanese BD may represent "Follow Me" as it should look. And this is really nitpicking to begin with.
(Maybe "The Italian Job" looks exceptionally good for a 1969 film?)

Audio

English audio track is also clean. I have no complaint here too.

Extras

The only extra is an original trailer which doesn't look and sound very good, but serviceable.

Overall impression

I think this is a good product. The lack of extras is understandable.
The problem is, as always with Japanese BD/DVD, its high price.
If you can't wait for your domestic release and are willing to pay such price. this is recommendable.

Reception of the film in Japan

"Follow Me" seems to be very well received in Japan.

In 2010 it was re-released as part of "Film Festival at 10 AM" - a series of re-releases of 50 classic films with new prints in various theaters in many cities.
"Follow Me" was especially successful at box office.
Also, it was voted #4 by the audience. That's quite remarkable when you consider what films it competed:

• 12 Angry Men
• 2001: a Space Odyssey
• A Room with a View
• Amadeus
• The Apartment
• Babette's Feast
• Ben-Hur
• The Bridge On the River Kwai
• Bullitt
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Casablanca
• Duel
• East of Eden
• Les Enfants du Paradis
• Fantastic Voyage
• Il Ferroviere
• Field of Dreams
• The Godfather
• The Great Dictator
• The Great Escape
• Kramer vs. Kramer
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Limelight
• Love in the Afternoon
• The Name of the Rose
• North By Northwest
• La Nuit Americaine
• Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• Papillon
• Plein Soleil
• Rain Man
• Rear Window
• The Right Stuff
• Roman Holiday
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Singin' in the Rain
• Some Like It Hot
• Somewhere in Time
• Stand By Me
• The Sting
• There's No Business Like Show Business
• The Third Man
• Un Homme et une Femme
• The Way We Were
• West Side Story
• The Wild Bunch
• Witness

Some related products in UK:


and USA:



[Jun. 13, 2015: Modified product links according to the changes made by Amazon.com]