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Region 4 Winners and Losers

Region 4 Winners and Losers

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Explanatory Notes
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Title Best
Hero (Ying Xiong)R4
    Region 4 appears to be the last region to receive a DVD release of this film. Our Region 4 release is identical to the Region 2 PAL disc by Buena Vista, even down to the menu graphics. The Region 1 disc by Miramax is very similar, but contains some additional features:
  • Mandarin DTS 5.1 soundtrack
  • French Dolby Digital 5.1 dubbed soundtrack
  • Yellow English subtitles
  • Spanish subtitles
  • Soundtrack spot

    Some reviews of the Region 1 Miramax release are not very positive, citing an overly brightened image that washes out the bold colouring in the film.

    The Japanese Region 2 release by Elite is comprised of two discs and contains an additional Japanese dubbed soundtrack. English subtitles are included and the transfer is very highly spoken of, with a constant MPEG bitrate of 8.5Mb/s. Unfortunately though, none of the additional featurettes on disc two are English subtitled.

    There are a number of Region 3 releases. EDKO Video have a two disc version (NTSC) with the following extras (no English subtitles):

  •  Mandarin DTS 5.1 soundtrack
  • Theatrical Trailers & TV Spots
  • Cast and Crew biographies, with interviews
  • Character biographies
  • Featurette- 'Heroes Behind Hero' Seminar
  • Conceptual artwork of costumes, weapons, sets and storyboards
  • Featurette- 'The Journey To Hero'
  • Featurette- Making Of
  • Outtakes
  • Photo gallery
  • Merchandise gallery

    Guang Dong Video have two releases in Region 3 (NTSC), both of which are coded for all regions and contain Mandarin DTS audio. The single disc edition only contains the Hero Defined featurette. The two disc version is apparently extended, and contains the following extras:

  • Extended version- additional ten minutes
  • Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack
  • Making Of Featurette (62:12)
  • Twenty page booklet

    The featurette and booklet are in Chinese with no English translation. Reviews of this transfer suggest that the image quality is bad, with poor detail and inconsistent colour rendering. The exact nature of the extensions to this cut are unclear - while there are some additional scenes there are also some excised portions of the film.

    It's difficult to recommend another region when most include extras without English subtitling. DTS audio would be nice, but at the expense of an inferior image? No thank you. Having not seen the Japanese transfer it's hard to say, but I'm content with the Region 4 disc for now.