Paprika

Features, Shorts, Live-Action and Direct-To-Video
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Post by Jeroen » August 19th, 2007, 3:38 pm

International release dates blow me away at times.
I bought the DVD a month ago.

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Post by Jeroen » August 20th, 2007, 1:56 am

Unfortunately all R2 gets is a commentary alongwith subtitles in 1000 languages
Yet again, odd. I'm in R2 as well and its a 2-disc edition here.

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Post by Jafar » August 20th, 2007, 9:45 am

Looks like UK is getting a barebone release then. Even Japanese R2 is loaded. Anyway....Do u feel someone burning with envy??

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Post by cmoon » August 25th, 2007, 4:21 pm

Just saw it at an art house theatre last week. Interesting and worth watching, yet somehow less than I thought it would be; something about the flow of the film made me think it would go somewhere else and go on a bit longer.

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Post by Ben » December 17th, 2007, 8:54 am

Droo and George!

Looking to pick this up on DVD, but what's the best option (disregarding Blu-Ray at this time)?

The US DVD looks fairly bare bones, the UK disc doesn't seem much better (and prone to 4% speedup), while I heard talk of a two-disc (Asian?) edition?

Does the BR fare any better...worth holding out until I go that route?


I'm finally quite getting into my Japanimation...the Four network here in the UK is running a ton of Ghibli films during the holidays, which my PVR is working overtime on!

THANKS! :)

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Post by Randall » December 17th, 2007, 8:36 pm

About time you developed an appreciation for Ghibli!! ;)

I thought the extras looked pretty good for Paprika. The BluRay offers only an additional little storyboard extra. Here's the Blu review:

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1133/paprika.html

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Post by Daniel » December 18th, 2007, 1:53 am

I'm not completely sure, but I heard the regular 2-disc french edition is better with the bonus features.

If not, my advise is to get the regular DVD.

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Post by Ben » December 18th, 2007, 9:15 am

Rand...have to say I wasn't blown away by My Neighbor Totoro yesterday. In a nutshell I found it rather drab and over-talky, but that might be because I easily tired of Dakota Fanning's over exuberance. Naturally, being a TV broadcast, I couldn't switch to the Japanese language, but that I haven't been "offended" by Mononoke, Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle dubs and actually quite enjoyed those films, I put it down that I probably wouldn't get <I>much</I> more out of it in its native tongue. They're showing more from the weekend...


Dan...I did a search for a French 2-disc but didn't come up with anything. On comparing the extras, I did find out that the US edition actually isn't bare bones and does include some features which looked to be about the same at the French disc. I'm going to order the US DVD after Christmas, when things are less likely to go missing or delayed in the post.


Rand...thanks for the BD review link, though at only 3 minutes on the storyboard extra I'm more interested in seeing the movie sooner rather than waiting for my BR player. Very interesting comments on the movie itself there, though. I am intrigued!

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Post by Whippet Angel » December 18th, 2007, 5:53 pm

Ben wrote:I put it down that I probably wouldn't get <I>much</I> more out of it in its native tongue.
Eh, you'd be surprised... :wink:

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Post by cmoon » December 18th, 2007, 9:51 pm

Personally I think watching Totoro subtitled helps tremendously since the girls talk only about a quarter as much. Totoro is certainly one of my favorite things from Ghibli (along with Mononoke), but if you are looking for more upbeat, why not Castle in the Sky or the somewhat more adult Porco Rosso. In fact, stepping away from Ghibli, Whisper of the Heart is really tremendous, while the Cat Returns is a stupidly fun romp that never pretends to be anything it isn't--just plain fun!

But yeah, I can't endorse the dubs at all. The one's for Spirited Away really detracted from the film IMO (a translation issue, not the voice acting), while I guess I'd say Mononoke and Moving Castle felt a little closer for some reason. Still--I'll never watch these movies dubbed if I can help it.

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Post by Randall » December 18th, 2007, 11:21 pm

Of the Ghiblis, my faves are Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Nausicaa. Whispers of the Heart is great, too, though some might find it chick flick-y. Grave of the Fireflies is great, but devastating (not a "feel good" film!).

I didn't care for Totoro as much, either, Ben.

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Post by Ben » December 19th, 2007, 7:33 am

The other films Four are running over the next week are: Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Nausicaa, and one other (might be Mononoke, can't remember).

I'll be sure to record them all and take a look. Looks like they will all be the Disney dubs, which even on not seeing the original Japanese versions will give me a chance to check them out.

Grave of the Fireflies I would love to see sometime, as its subject matter might be more appealing, ironically. I do get a bit "oh, here we go again" with all the crazy "monster/creature" imagery in Miyazaki's films and even in the few films I've seen can sense a lot of repetitiveness.

Funny, for all the talk on how amazing the Pixar guys all think he is, their films don't display any inspiration from Miyazaki/Ghibli's films, at least directly.

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Post by Ben » January 9th, 2008, 7:59 am

So I've been catching up on the Ghibli films C4 and Film4 screened over the holidays (as mentioned above)...

It's funny...I always marvel at the detail in the backgrounds but find there's usually one thing in these films that unbalances the rest of the film, be it a storyline that flips out half way through, bonkers monsters or just too way out there creatures, or being just too long and bogged down in ideas.

Of the ones I've seen in the past (and I'm sticking to Miyazaki here), I quite liked Spirited Away, Pom Poko (to a degree - the storyline almost outweighed the problems I had with it) and Howl's Moving Castle.

With 4's showings I have been able to catch a few more (in the English Disney dubs). As mentioned before, Totoro, while over talky, also went the bonkers creature route. I could take it in the others I've seen so far but this just didn't grab me this time around (though I'll be sure to try it in Japanese at some point, Whippet Angel).

A few nights ago I watched The Castle Of Cagliostro (aka Lupin III). It was a very enjoyable change from the usual (and would have been quite something in 1979) but I thought it suffered from a "hero" who was just very hard to warm to. Several things happened in the story for no apparent reason, and some of the set pieces, while unique especially for the time, didn't pay off as well as they might have.

BUT...if pigs could fly! I really enjoyed what I saw last night - Porco Rosso.

Though Michael Keaton came dangerously close to overwhelming the film, I gradually accepted and went with it. The animation, especially of the dog fights and airplanes, was first rate and there were some absolutely <I>gorgeous</I> backgrounds. The drawing had a maturity about it that really provided another level on top of an already unique story.

Love the score too - in places it didn't quite fit, but there were some very nice sequences when everything matched up. The rubber hose cartoon Porco catches in the movie theater was well rendered and knowing, but for the rest of the film I thought the "comics noir" look was just perfect, with nice shadows and highlights that gave things depth and moved away from the usual, slight "simple" Ghibli look. The frame rate also seemed to be higher, done on twos, at least, instead of the 4 or sometime 6 that they try to get away with but usually puts a barrier between me and getting engaged.

It was really funny in places too, in a lovely subtle way, and the actual quality of the dub seemed to be excellent. I'm very tempted, actually, to add the official release of this to my collection!

Still to come: Kiki, Nausicaa, and Mononoke, which I <I>think</I> I might have seen but didn't sit down to watch properly so I'll give it another chance. :)

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