Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Superbit) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Dolby Digital Trailer-City dts Trailer-Digital Experience
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	115:06
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:04)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Ang Lee
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Yun Fat Chow Michelle Yeoh Zi Yi Zhang Chen Chang Sihung Lung Pei Pei Cheng
Case	Slip Case
RPI	$49.95	Music	Tan Dun

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Mandarin dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a beautiful film. It seems slow-moving, but a lot happens; it is just gently paced. It's superbly shot — a masterpiece of cinematography. It is a truly worthy choice as a Superbit film.

    Superbit is an interesting idea. It appeared in Region 1 last year. The idea is to produce the best possible DVD of a movie by using as many bits as possible for the transfer. A Superbit disc has no extras, a static menu, only the original language soundtrack (but that soundtrack is provided in both Dolby Digital and dts), and any other languages are provided as subtitles. These restrictions mean that the bulk of the disc space can be used for video — the video bit rate can stay high, meaning less compression, and (one hopes) this results in the best possible picture. On this disc the bit rate hangs around the 7 to 8 megabit per second level, but it hits 10 megabit per second on some scene changes (nice to see my player can register 10 megabit per second).

    Superbit discs are intended for the enthusiast, the aficionado who wants the best picture, and has the equipment to display it. On a regular television you could be hard-pressed to see the difference, assuming the original disc was well-made. Of course, the results vary from disc to disc — you'll want to check with us to see what the situation is for each Superbit disc released.

    I won't tell you about the plot of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — if you haven't seen the movie, I recommend you read the review of the original Collector's Edition.

    Oh, a word on packaging: Columbia Tristar have chosen to package this disc in a shiny black Brackley case — it looks good, and is nice and strong. They've added an attractive heavy cardboard slip over the top that has a black background. The result looks and feels nice. The Region 1 slipcase is thin and flimsy, and silver — we won that one!

Video

    The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. That's the original aspect ratio and that's what you'd expect on a disc like this.

    The picture is superbly clear and beautifully sharp — it looks a little less sharp than you might expect, because there is minimal edge enhancement (although a tiny bit appears at 4:26). Film grain is no problem, even though some important action takes place at night. Shadow detail is excellent. There is no low-level noise.

    Colour is the one area where this transfer shines above all others (I wish I could give it 6 stars!). The colours are deep and rich, and awesomely detailed. The reds of the wedding procession have never looked so vivid. There's no over-saturation or colour bleed — it is more a case of the colours appearing more faithfully rendered than ever before.

    There are lots of small film artefacts (this is a disappointment with every transfer of this film I've seen, unfortunately — suggesting that the artefacts may be endemic to the original source). They are small, but frequent.

    There is frequent very minor aliasing, unfortunately, perhaps a consequence of the very sharp transfer. It didn't bother me, but your mileage may vary. There's no moire, no MPEG artefacts, and no shimmer.

    There is one set of subtitles, in English. They are well-timed and seem accurate (they translate the Mandarin, so I can't tell!) - they are clear and easy to read. They don't match the English dub, but that's to be expected, because they are a direct translation of the Mandarin, while the English is a dub that has been adjusted so that the language comes close to matching the mouth movements of the actors.

    The disc is single sided and dual layered, RSDL-formatted. I could not pick up the layer change by eye, which is a good sign. It's at 60:04, in a fade-to-black, and utterly invisible on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks, which is unexpected for a Superbit disc. The original Mandarin soundtrack is provided in both Dolby Digital and dts, as expected. As a bonus, there's also an English soundtrack, containing the English dubbed soundtrack — strictly speaking that's violating the Superbit rules, but I'm pleased to see it because this disc could afford the bits, and many of my friends would prefer to watch this film in English (and the English is a very good dub). I listened to the whole of the dts soundtrack (which is the default, by the way), and sampled both the other soundtracks extensively, including watching the first 20 minutes of the film in close succession.

    The dialogue is very clear, with no audio sync problems. I cannot comment on comprehension, because I don't understand Mandarin. The English dub is an impressive effort, well matched to the mouth movements, and yet conveying almost exactly the same ideas as the subtitles (often in different words).

    The score, from Tan Dun, is part of the charm of this film. Yo Yo Ma's cello is haunting. The dts soundtrack gives the best rendering of the music, but only by a small margin.

    The surrounds are not used for much in the way of directional sound, but they subtly reinforce and deepen the sound stage. The subwoofer is active for a great deal of the movie, providing lovely ominous support for the score, and emphasising the fight scenes (especially the fight scene between the two women at Shu Lien's headquarters); you have to listen carefully, because it never draws attention to itself (I really like that).

    The dts soundtrack is mastered at a slightly low level (perhaps 5 or 6 dB down), but it provides plenty of dynamic range. It is slightly more defined than either of the Dolby Digital tracks, but the differences are subtle (all three are excellent).

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras — that's part of the Superbit paradigm.

Menu

    The menu is static and silent. That's standard for Superbit titles.

    I have owned four versions of this disc now. I started with the Region 1 standard disc, which I gave away when the Region 1 Superbit arrived; that was a mistake, so I bought the Region 4 Collector's Edition (I wanted the extras, you see). Now I have the Region 4 Superbit, and, to put you out of your misery, it is the best of all.

    The Region 1 Superbit disc only has the Mandarin soundtrack in Dolby Digital and dts. It has several subtitle tracks: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai. The big problem with this disc is that it is far too dark (that was a major disappointment, believe me!). The picture is somewhat harsher, with less shadow detail, and colour is subtly off (the reds in the wedding procession seem just a little wrong).

    The Region 4 Collector's Edition has an excellent transfer (easily better than the Region 1 Superbit), but only Dolby Digital sound. It has the extras, which are well worth seeing.

    The Region 1 Superbit disc uses 7 257 946 112 bytes of space for a movie running 120:08 minutes. The Region 4 Superbit uses 6 965 458 944 bytes for a movie running 115:06. Ignoring overheads, that gives 8.06 megabits per second for the Region 1, and 8.07 megabits per second for the R4. That's not quite the possible 10 megabits per second, but bear in mind that the movie is 2.35:1, so there are black bands above and below the movie that need not be compressed, and there are some moments that compress well — all up, this is a high average bit rate, and one which is borne out by the bit meter while viewing. (For completeness, the R4 Collector's Edition runs to 7 042 660 352 bytes, but that includes all of the extras...)

    My recommendations run like this: if you don't have a copy of this movie, and you want the best possible quality (and you have the equipment to display it), and you don't care about extras, then this Region 4 Superbit disc is an excellent choice. If you want the extras, or you already have the Region 4 Collector's Edition, then the Collector's Edition is a good choice, and you won't see a huge improvement going to this disc. If you have the R1 Superbit version, then I strongly urge you to ditch it and get this one (assuming your system can display PAL) — this one is far superior.

    A superb movie, on the best Superbit DVD I've seen so far.

    The video quality is excellent, let down by minor aliasing and tiny film artefacts. I'm still giving it 5 stars because it is so much better than other transfers.

    The audio quality is excellent, and the inclusion of the English dub is a bonus.

    There are no extras on a Superbit disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall