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DVD Title |
Parasite Eve |
International Title |
Parasite
Eve |
DVD Length |
Original Length |
120 Minutes |
119 Minutes |
Company |
Year of Manufacture |
ADV Films |
2001 |
Language |
Subtitles |
Japanese |
English |
Region |
Number of Discs |
1 |
1 |
Aspect Ratio |
Sound |
1.85:1 (Anamorphic) |
2.0 Stereo |
Extras |
. |
Menus (English) |
. |
Chapters (8) |
. |
Trailers: Parasite Eve (ADV Films),
The
Hypnotist (ADV Films) |
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|
Captures |
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Review |
ADV's "companion" DVD for their
release of Hypnosis
(1999), unfortunately, this disc is pretty sub
par, as it hosts pretty mediocre video and audio
presentations. As for the extras: bare bones,
as not even the film's original trailer is present.
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Video: |
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Pretty typical video presentation from ADV
here. As usual, the film's original aspect
ratio, in this case 1.85:1, is preserved.
However, the actual appearance of the video
leaves some to be desired. The colors, for
example, are far from vibrant, although the
reds, greens and blues are still distinct.
The slight yellow discoloring isn't helping
this aspect though. As for the brightness
level, it's fairly hard to gauge here. I would
say it's set too high, but most of the film
is so dark that this was likely done to compensate
for this and make the entire movie visible
through out.
Unfortunately, the disc's true fault is to be
found in the extreme levels of compression. The
entire movie shows signs of pixilation from artifacting,
but the real fallacy lays in the edge enhancement,
as the film looks very blurred, and lacks a sharp
definition to it. What makes the obvious compression
even more disheartening, though, is that the shape
of the print used for the transfer appears to
be good aside from some minor scratches. As for noise, the level of compression mostly masks film grain or other digital noise, which is probably more complaint than praise as generally a sharper image with grain is better than a soft image without.
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Audio: |
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The disc's strong point, although it still
hosts a great deal of room for improvement. The
audio track found on the disc is the original
2.0 stereo presentation of the film in Japanese.
The quality of the track is good, as it features
no pops or crackles, while the dialogue is all
audible. As for the speaker distinction, it's
acceptable, although there isn't a whole lot of
parts in the movie to really stress this aspect.
The audio track is accompanied by English subtitles,
which, unfortunately, have been burned onto the
video presentation and can't be removed. Furthermore,
because of the edge enhancement and artifacting
present on the video, they appear slightly blurred.
This isn't to say that they are hard to read,
but it does makes the experience less enjoyable.
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Extras: |
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ADV's at it again, with another slap dash
release that is severally lacking in the extra
department. However, after the company's Destroy
All Monsters DVD, I suppose one should
just be grateful that this disc comes with menus
and chapters. Anyway, the only supplemental content
to be found here are two of ADV's self made trailers
for Parasite Eve and their release of
The
Hypnotist. The Parasite Eve
trailer can be accessed from the menu, while the
The
Hypnotist can only be viewed when the
disc is first inserted into a player, and has
to be skipped, or watched, to get to the DVD's
main menu. As for what to expect from ADV's previews,
the Parasite Eve one has been pretty
poorly compressed with obvious signs of artifacting
and edge enhancement, while The
Hypnotist preview looks horrible as ADV
choose to alter a 1:85.1 print by stretching it
to a full screen ratio, making the entire trailer
look obnoxiously off as seen here.
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Overview: |
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Bottom line, it's an early effort from ADV
that's lacking in a number of areas, but it's
an adequate way to watch the film. Honestly, though,
ADV's VHS release is likely a better choice, as
it doesn't boast the obvious signs of compression
that this disc does. |
- Anthony Romero |
Buy
this DVD |
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