Oldboy (Blu-ray SteelBook) (Plain Archive Exclusive No.30) [Korea]

[teddyjun]

Release date: November 7, 2016
Purchase links: Type A - Type B - Quarter Slip - Dual Pack - Triple Pack - (Pre-order on September 29, 2016)
Price: Type A: $46.89 - Type B: $46.89 - 1/4 Slip: $45.69

Type A: 2,000 copies - Type B: 2,500 copies - 1/4 Slip: 1,000 copies

Spoiler

- The steelbook illustration is by Krzysztof Domaradzki.
- The artwork for the slipbox was used previously for the Oldboy vinyl LP. It was co-ordinated by Nicolas Winding Refn, the director of Drive, and illustrated by Laurent Durieux. The director of Oldboy Park Chan-wook wanted one of our editions to feature this artwork so we reached out to Milan Records and illustrator Laurent Durieux. You'll be able to see more of the artwork since parts of the top and bottom were cropped out for the vinyl LP.



Old mock up

 

[Modulus]

Like it or not, but it's director's approved transfer. I really like colors of it, but it has heavy grain in some scenes. And if it's director's choice i'm OK with it.
I cut one minute clip to those who interrested how this grain looks like http://dropmefiles.com/hRDWl
But note not all movie looks this way, only some dark scenes

 

[batmobilly666]

Oh and a modern film I found really grainy was a place beyond the pines but maybe if I revisit that it will be better now.

It was shot on 35mm film, there's bound to be grain because it's part of the medium. I didn't find it to be overly grainy, though, I think it looks stunning on blu-ray. As I've said before, over-sharpening or other features that are supposed to "enhance" the picture can heavily exacerbate the graininess.

 

[Flloydo]

Like it or not, but it's director's approved transfer. I really like colors of it, but it has heavy grain in some scenes. And if it's director's choice i'm OK with it.
I cut one minute clip to those who interrested how this grain looks like http://dropmefiles.com/hRDWl
But note not all movie looks this way, only some dark scenes

That don't even look like it has grain

Mines still not as good as that on that particular scene but it's better than it was. Wish I could of properly videoed it for you lot to see what I was seeing.
I thought I was going to have to call an exocsist to get rid of the demon in my tv

 

[Flloydo]

It was shot on 35mm film, there's bound to be grain because it's part of the medium. I didn't find it to be overly grainy, though, I think it looks stunning on blu-ray. As I've said before, over-sharpening or other features that are supposed to "enhance" the picture can heavily exacerbate the graininess.

Hahaha well I've just put in place beyond the pines and it looks fantastic lol. Also the sound is better.
Before, all studio canal BDs had terrible grain on the studio canal titles at the start aand the majority of films were also grainy with bad sound but now this one is fine. So happy because I love this film and i had resorted to the DVD because it was better to watch and had no grain lol

 

[batmobilly666]

Well, I'm very glad that I could help you improve your Blu-Ray experience a bit.

 

[Punker76]

I'm watching it now and some of the day scenes are ok and I suppose at times clearer that the old Blu Ray but the majority of it really is a bad picture.
His suit looks like it's just tv static and the scene when he imagines the ants over him may as well been skipped over in this release. You can't see a thing.

The scene when he first meets Lee woo Jin in the honeycomb patterned room with his blonde assistant (54 mins) is horrendous. It's feels like a bootleg
View attachment 277023

View attachment 277024

Truly annoyed

ok, I know a couple of pages have gone by since your original post and a lot of technical advice has been given (some of which went over my head....) but so you don't feel like you're going mad.... I agree.
Those scenes you mentioned, especially the one at 6 and half minutes with the prison guard, looked far better on my original play.com steel.
But like you, my TV is due an upgrade soon

 

[spass]

I once tried to adjust the TV of my in-laws, just a little, because the colours nearly burned-out my retinas every time I looked at the screen. People's skin looked positively purple and grass had the colour of these neon pants you'd see on '90s ravers. They were a bit angry with me because I messed up their "beautiful" colours. Now I'm not allowed to pick up the remote anymore.

What a great paragraph this is!

 

[StifflersDad]

So to summarise
If you think Oldboy picture quality is subpar then
1. Your tv needs calibration
2. Your eyes need calibration
3. Your brain needs calibration
4. You need calibration as you are obviously not sophisticated enough to appreciate the director's vision
5 All of the above

 

[Flloydo]

ok, I know a couple of pages have gone by since your original post and a lot of technical advice has been given (some of which went over my head....) but so you don't feel like you're going mad.... I agree.
Those scenes you mentioned, especially the one at 6 and half minutes with the prison guard, looked far better on my original play.com steel.
But like you, my TV is due an upgrade soon

A lot of the more technical stuff does go over my head too and most of that did but luckily my tv has those settings listed in a simple way with noise reduction etc so after a small headache I got here.
The Pixar thing is cool though, and I managed to use what they recommend on my standard setting so I can watch the grainy films much better now but I still have my brighter option (dynamic) for the more colourful films and animations

After I tried some of my BDs I wasn't too happy with in terms of grain and PQ etc and they look much better now. Was only a small handful but it's cheered me up.

Yeah I serioulsy need an upgrade. Have done for a while

This newer versions does have some nicer and more vivid colours but I also tried the original BD after and I much prefer that one as a whole. Those scenes in question look normal on the original BD.

Shame that the director felt the grain was needed so heavily in certain scenes but like mentioned before what he used was pretty low budget to start with all them years ago.

 

[Punker76]

A lot of the more technical stuff does go over my head too and most of that did but luckily my tv has those settings listed in a simple way with noise reduction etc so after a small headache I got here.
The Pixar thing is cool though, and I managed to use what they recommend on my standard setting so I can watch the grainy films much better now but I still have my brighter option (dynamic) for the more colourful films and animations

After I tried some of my BDs I wasn't too happy with in terms of grain and PQ etc and they look much better now. Was only a small handful but it's cheered me up.

Yeah I serioulsy need an upgrade. Have done for a while

This newer versions does have some nicer and more vivid colours but I also tried the original BD after and I much prefer that one as a whole. Those scenes in question look normal on the original BD.

Shame that the director felt the grain was needed so heavily in certain scenes but like mentioned before what he used was pretty low budget to start with all them years ago.

That's a very reasoned reappraisal, cheers mate. Really refreshing to hear someone on a forum not go either 100mph or zero *thumbs up*
I hear the Panasonics are getting great reviews depended upon price range.

 

[Flloydo]

That's a very reasoned reappraisal, cheers mate. Really refreshing to hear someone on a forum not go either 100mph or zero *thumbs up*
I hear the Panasonics are getting great reviews depended upon price range.

Cheers, I try to be as honest as I can be

And a massive thanks to everyone who got involved.

I felt a little silly with what I had previously said after I recalibrated my tv but there still seems to be a large number who are not happy with the PQ anyway (including my self for the most of it)

But after going a little mad about it all last night I hope it has possibly helped others out and a small warning to what this version is like

Obviously this release has issues and people are still not happy whether it's the disc or the package. And I fall into both, although it's growing on me (I prefer the package though, love the small hit of metallic on slip A)

And the other discs seem to have some great content.
The rest is just not up to the standard we are used to with PA


Hope they pick that back up for sicario

 

[goufcustom]

For a low budget film filmed 13 years ago, on older equipment, I never expected it to look pristine. Personally I think it's the best quality version of the film I own, so I'm happy

no offense really but did you ever see Ben-Hur? i didn't expect Old Boy to have the same treatment but Ben-Hur was 57 years old and it looks pristine on blu-ray...something to think about...

 

[AlienKing]

So to summarise
If you think Oldboy picture quality is subpar then
1. Your tv needs calibration
2. Your eyes need calibration
3. Your brain needs calibration
4. You need calibration as you are obviously not sophisticated enough to appreciate the director's vision
5 All of the above

Only #3 is correct. Matter of fact, #3 is the answer for all questions/concerns in the world

 

[batmobilly666]

So to summarise
If you think Oldboy picture quality is subpar then
1. Your tv needs calibration
2. Your eyes need calibration
3. Your brain needs calibration
4. You need calibration as you are obviously not sophisticated enough to appreciate the director's vision
5 All of the above

You think you're just being sarcastic but this is also more or less correct.

Shame that the director felt the grain was needed so heavily in certain scenes but like mentioned before what he used was pretty low budget to start with all them years ago.

Grain is an integral part of the photographic process. There's always more/coarser grain in dark scenes because you need film stock that is more sensitive to light, otherwise you'd end up with a picture that is way too dark. More sensitive film comes with the downside of coarser grain but it's the only way to shoot scenes in relative darkness. So short of shooting everything in bright daylight, there wasn't really a choice for these scenes. [Clarification: you can also use very fast lenses to shoot in low light and produce less grainy results but these are very expensive and not exactly feasible for a low-budget production like Oldboy. They also have the side-effect of producing a very shallow depth of field, which isn't always desirable. An extreme example would be Barry Lyndon, where Kubrick used a modified still-photography lens with an insane aperture of 0.7 (made by Zeiss specifically for NASA for the purpose of capturing the far side of the moon) to shoot scenes lit exclusively by candles.]
This is also somewhat applicable to digital cameras, if you have less light you'll need to increase the sensitivy of the optical sensor, which will result in more noise. But technology is improving all the time, which is why modern-day films shot digitally have little to no visible grain/noise.

no offense really but did you ever see Ben-Hur? i didn't expect Old Boy to have the same treatment but Ben-Hur was 57 years old and it looks pristine on blu-ray...something to think about...
View attachment 277165

This is not surprising at all. Ben-Hur was shot on fine-grained 65mm film stock and was the most expensive movie production of its time. Oldboy was a low-budget film shot on 35mm. There's only so much you can do with the source material.

 

[Jocelin]

Anybody noticed that oldboy is not showing on the PA website anymore ?

 

[StifflersDad]

You think you're just being sarcastic but this is also more or less correct.


Grain is an integral part of the photographic process. There's always more/coarser grain in dark scenes because you need film stock that is more sensitive to light, otherwise you'd end up with a picture that is way too dark. More sensitive film comes with the downside of coarser grain but it's the only way to shoot scenes in relative darkness. So short of shooting everything in bright daylight, there wasn't really a choice for these scenes. [Clarification: you can also use very fast lenses to shoot in low light and produce less grainy results but these are very expensive and not exactly feasible for a low-budget production like Oldboy. They also have the side-effect of producing a very shallow depth of field, which isn't always desirable. An extreme example would be Barry Lyndon, where Kubrick used a modified still-photography lens with an insane aperture of 0.7 (made by Zeiss specifically for NASA for the purpose of capturing the far side of the moon) to shoot scenes lit exclusively by candles.]
This is also somewhat applicable to digital cameras, if you have less light you'll need to increase the sensitivy of the optical sensor, which will result in more noise. But technology is improving all the time, which is why modern-day films shot digitally have little to no visible grain/noise.


This is not surprising at all. Ben-Hur was shot on fine-grained 65mm film stock and was the most expensive movie production of its time. Oldboy was a low-budget film shot on 35mm. There's only so much you can do with the source material.

That's all very well but why make a big deal of the remastering process for Oldboy if the end result is no better than the original release

 

[Modulus]

no better than the original release

You see no difference?

 

[batmobilly666]

That's all very well but why make a big deal of the remastering process for Oldboy if the end result is no better than the original release

Define "better".

 

[DJHilalo]

Received my dual pack yesterday and I gotta say love them both, not sure what ppl are moaning about ... I'm on the hunt for 1/4 slip now

Now onto the next one Plain SICARIO!!

 

[severo]

Well thats very odd because like I mentioned the subs weren't turning on when I was playing that part but when the film started I was able to turn them on from the controller and not by going to the setup menu

Cheers because that is working now


Hah, he even mentions in the intro that it will be grainy in places and it was intended to do so whilst remastering

Lol!
I'm still a bit annoyed of how it looks though

i just started watching it (with my acer 1080p beamer projected on a white wall) for 30 minutes or so, and i have to say, the scene around the 6min. mark (prison scene after the opening titles) doesn't look like in your screenshots at all. it's a very grainy picture in that scene, but actually it's very fine moving grain what i can see, thanks to the 4k transfer i suppose. definitely much much better than the DNR mess the studiocanal transfer is. and like you already pointed out, the director mentions in the introduction that the film was partly shot on fast film stock, which makes the picture very grainy, but that it was fully intentional, and how happy he is with the new transfer.

now, from what i can see, he is right. apart from the sometimes crushed blacks, it looks marvellous.
if it doesn't look good on your tv, then i'm afraid to say something is wrong with it, seriously.