The Cup (Phörpa) (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	90:08 (Case: 93)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Khyentse Norbu
Studio Distributor	Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	Neten Chokling Orgyen Tobgyal
Case	Click
RPI	$29.95	Music	Douglas Mills

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Tibetan Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Numerous Coca Cola shots
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Cup revolves around a Buddhist monastery in India during the 1998 soccer World Cup and the desire of some young monks to watch the action.

    A group of young Tibetan monks with a passion for soccer wish to watch the action during the World Cup. Unfortunately, their love of this foreign game is not held or easily understood by the older monks in the monastery, and does not easily fit with the Buddhist teachings and the traditional religious practices in the monastery. The monks do not have a television in the monastery so the young boys sneak away each night to view the games in a nearby village. When the boys are caught returning one evening, they must find a way to watch the final match.

    This film is the feature length directorial debut for Buddhist filmmaker Khyentse Norbu. He was recognized as a re-incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo at an early age and is now considered one of today's most influential lamas. Khyentse was able to draw upon his experiences at various monasteries when developing this script and admits that a number of scenes from the film are drawn directly from actual events. To add to the level of authenticity, most of the actors in the film are real monks from the Peme Awam Choegar Gyurme Ling Monastery where the movie was filmed.

    This is a simple story but it is able to effectively show that we should not trust our pre-conceived ideas about specific groups, and that despite the differences in people's beliefs, there are still so many things we all have in common.

Video

    The non-16x9 enhanced transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with the image positioned slightly above centre to allow a set of burnt-in English subtitles to appear over the base of the image and in the lower black letterbox area. The resulting overall image takes approximately the same area as a 1.66:1 transfer does. As post production for this film was carried out in Australia, it is a little disappointing that an earlier generation of source material was not made available for the transfer.

    The transfer is acceptably sharp throughout but does appear slightly soft during a few scenes. During the large number of dark night scenes and poorly lit interior shots, excellent levels of shadow detail may be seen. No low level noise was seen during the transfer.

    The colour palette accurately displays the natural surroundings and highlights the vibrant yellows and reds seen in the monks' clothing.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected during the transfer.

    Two small instances of aliasing were seen during shots of a car grille at 10:45 and 17:14, but due to their short duration they were not distracting.

    A small number of film artefacts may be seen throughout the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 1:39, 4:03, 9:26 and 14:39. Each of these artefacts is quite minor and not distracting to the viewer.

    A set of non-removable yellow English subtitles are burnt into the image across the lower part of the picture and the black letterbox area.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times.

    No dropouts or problems with audio sync were detected during the transfer.

    The effective Tibetan score by Douglas Mills is used minimally throughout the feature and never draws attention to itself as it is usually mixed at a relatively low level.

    The surround and subwoofer channels were not utilized at all during this transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (1:39)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with burnt-in English subtitles and a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    This disc is not currently available in Region 1.

    The Cup is a simple story that is quite entertaining and should be enjoyed by nearly all viewers.

    The video transfer is adequate but it is a little disappointing that an earlier generation of source material was not used to provide a 16x9 transfer.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is suitable for this dialogue-driven film.

    The only extra is a theatrical trailer. This could have been greatly expanded upon by the inclusion of background information relating to the feature or some biographical information for the director.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall