The first-ever region-free Blu-ray of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons has been released in Japan, but fans will likely be disappointed by what they see, according to one reviewer.
The Blu-ray was issued by IVC – an independent ‘art house’ label out of Japan. RKO Pictures’ rights in Japan were sold off long ago with Warner Home Video having no say in the matter and unable to prevent another company from releasing some titles overseas, according to blogger Nick Zegarac.
IVC has indicated that The Magnificent Ambersons is just the beginning of a series of RKO releases in Japan.
The recent release failed to impress Zegarac:
“The image is sharper, tighter and more heavily influenced by a prominent grain structure – as it should be – but it is also considerably, and I would argue, artificially lighter than necessary. There are NO true blacks, the inky shadows in Stanley Cortez’s cinematography reduced to a medium grade tonal gray. As such, fine details needlessly suffer; the contrast extremely weak and the entire image fairly bland and uninspiring. I think it prudent to point out that ‘in motion’ The Magnificent Ambersons reveals some rather obvious age-related damage that only a full-blown restoration would remedy – one IVC obviously cannot afford. It is also possible to slightly tweak these weak black levels by adjusting contrast and brightness on one’s home viewing monitor, although nothing you can do at home will recreate the true darkness of the image as originally intended… Yes, this is full 1080p and shows considerable ‘improvements’ over the Warner SD-DVD. Yes, it does look more film-based. But the results are hampered by the aforementioned misfires factored in. The biggest advantage to owning this IVC release is the audio; a new uncompressed PCM soundtrack greatly benefiting Bernard Herrmann’s underscore with dialogue sounding much more crisp and refined. As one might expect, there are NO extras to compliment this release.”
Amazon.co.jp has the Blu-ray priced at ¥3,752, roughly $33.58 U.S. dollars. It is also available as a box set with Citizen Kane.
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