Four Flies On Grey Velvet

[Nikos D Vassiliou]

Originally Posted by Marin_Spanic

CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA is due on German DVD in 2.35 (with English Audio).

Best DVD news of the year. There are many giallos, many giallos by Argento even, but there is only one CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA.

[Jack J]

Thanks Spanic, Spannick, whatever,
Is there a release date? Are you involved in this?


Jack

[Jack J]

Originally Posted by Nikos D Vassiliou

Best DVD news of the year. There are many giallos, many giallos by Argento even, but there is only one CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA.

Hmm, is that so (or are you being sarcastic?). Maybe I should just sit down and watch my new tape tonight!


Jack

[Marin_Spanic]

no Date for this one, yet. sorry. will no be as quick as WAR DOG

[paul h.]

Originally Posted by Paul A J Lewis

Presented by Yo La Tengo, no less. Sounds like a good night. I take it that you're going, Paul? If so, have a good evening!

It didn't work out. I'm bummed. So when's the dvd out?

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Allen Rydell

Just a few words in support of Michael, for my money one of the best, most perceptive judges of home video transfers on the net.

While I understand some readers' frustration with not seeing the problems that Michael does, they would do well to remember that, while they may not notice them now, it's likely they will down the line. Michael's not making these problems up.

As displays get bigger, and higher-than-DVD native resolution more common, anomalies like edge enhancement and the like - as Michael points out, avoidable problems - will become overwhelmingly apparent. If you plan on keeping your DVDs in play as HD content becomes available (and with some of these films, an HD release may not ever materialize), you don't want to give these practices a pass now.

I see what Michael does as a form of 'future-proofing' - sending out a message to companies that these sorts of production shortcuts are detrimental to the overall quality of a release, and consumers are noticing and expect more.

If calling attention causes a company like No Shame to alter their practices (and it seems it does - their domestic releases now approach the quality of their initial Italian issues), then I'm all for it.

What Jeffrey said. I really have nothing else to ad in my support of Michael and his excellent reviews. He's an example of how DVD reviews SHOULD be written when it comes to the technical aspects.

What people should be complaining about are reviewers who bitch about "grain" (i.e., about 95% of the other reviewers of DVDs out there). Grain is a part of film, and in a good film-to-DVD transfer, the grain should be preserved. What Michael points out are DIGITAL ARTIFACTS that are added intentionally by the DVD companies in order to make the movies look "cleaner" or "sharper" on certain displays, but those same "enhancements" fall apart when you view the DVD on a proper display. It's one thing to carefully clean up dirt and debris, but to filter out the grain (and as a by product, the actual picture detail as well) and then turn up the electronic, fake sharpness (AKA edge enhancement) to make the resultant soft, definition-lacking image look "crisp" is doing none of us any favors in the end, and Michael should be applauded for pointing this stuff out instead of falling back on the old "grain is apparent" stand-by that most use to judge image quality.

Vincent

[Nikos D Vassiliou]

Originally Posted by Jack J

Hmm, is that so (or are you being sarcastic?). Maybe I should just sit down and watch my new tape tonight!


Jack

I am being honest.

[Jack J]

Originally Posted by Nikos D Vassiliou

I am being honest.

I'm glad to hear that, my friend. You wouldn't believe how many people I've met thru the years, 'fans', who collected giallo flicks and other Italo genrefilms but who wouldn't watch anything else. Only stuff en italiano counts for them. Thru the years I've had a few think of me as off my rockets for 'wasting' time on something kung-fu'ish or Indonesian when I could have been re-watching SUSPIRA (which is a great film don't get me wrong) instead.


Jack

[Nikos D Vassiliou]

Originally Posted by Jack J

I'm glad to hear that, my friend. You wouldn't believe how many people I've met thru the years, 'fans', who collected giallo flicks and other Italo genrefilms but who wouldn't watch anything else. Only stuff en italiano counts for them. Thru the years I've had a few think of me as off my rockets for 'wasting' time on something kung-fu'ish or Indonesian when I could have been re-watching SUSPIRA (which is a great film don't get me wrong) instead.


Jack

No, I am mostly on the other side. I don't mind the odd giallo but I'll take the good Indonesian horror/actioners over them any day. Of course the garbage to treasure ratio is very high but that goes for all genres and all countries. If you like CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA I recoomend you the wonderful films of Pearl Ling like PHOENIX THE NINJA.

[Jack J]

Originally Posted by Nikos D Vassiliou

No, I am mostly on the other side. I don't mind the odd giallo but I'll take the good Indonesian horror/actioners over them any day. Of course the garbage to treasure ratio is very high but that goes for all genres and all countries. If you like CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA I recoomend you the wonderful films of Pearl Ling like PHOENIX THE NINJA.

Ahh, that's good to hear. Thanks for the tip. I just looked up PHOENIX THE NINJA and it turns out to be aka MIRACULOUS FLOWER which I've already got in my yet-to-watch pile!

I bought it because I'm a complete devotee of the amazing WOLF DEVIL WOMAN (out on HK VCD) and I became aware of the other one as the ATC book mentions it's part of that series (second sequel). Unfortunately my VCD of MIRACULOUS has no subs but, heck, it's not like that's ever held me from watching any of these films (repeated viewings of MAGIC OF SPELL comes to mind). I'm aware there's a dubbed US DVD out but I'll watch my VCD first.


Jack

[Richard W]

Yeah yeah yeah, but what about FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET ?

Who is releasing this DVD? and when ?

Did anyone see the theatrical screening of FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET linked above? tell us about it?

Well?

[Nikos D Vassiliou]

I also like WOLF DEVIL WOMAN.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Nikos D Vassiliou

I also like WOLF DEVIL WOMAN.

Yeah yeah yeah, but what about FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET ?

Who is releasing this DVD? and when ?

Did anyone see the theatrical screening of FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET linked above? tell us about it?

Well?

[Jack J]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Yeah yeah yeah, but what about FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET ?

Well?

Well, lemme tell ya what. Who cares about FOUR FLIES ON SHIT STAINED VELVET. It was a crappy movie on bootleg and it's gonna be a crappy movie on deluxe DVD. There. I said it. It's Argento's worst film from the 70s. Sorry, but it is.

- and yes, I'm gonna buy it anyway. But WOLF DEVIL WOMAN just blows it away a 100 times.


Jack

[andreas w]

I'd rather not see your opinions in this thread then, Jack - because I truly care about the film, and it being released on DVD.

I myself think that "Four flies on grey velvet" is one of Argento's 3 best movies. Not sure where among them. Mean comedy/ gialli mixture is the shit!

A lot more interesting than Argento's pretentious "easy on the eyes" movies, that the mainstream keep on praising..