[REL] Portrait in Prussian Blue / プルシアンブルーの肖像 (1986)

[citronleaf]

I often overlook VK and OK. This fact prompted me to check BlizzardKid (BK-- E9 is right, a lot of abbreviations).

I forgot to check blizzardkid! That is the only place I have seen Yandex downloads.

At least VK and OK are the actual site names (with .com and .ru added). They are abbreviations but the original full names are Russian and I do not remember them.

You finished the CINEMAGEDDON torrent much faster than I expected. Thank you for sharing it! That is a VHSrip, for real? It is the best one I have ever seen! I had noticed the image filtering in some scenes but had to slap my forehead after your Spoilered question about "Prussian blue". I don't know colors but of course!

Comparing the VHSrip DVDr ISO with the 1080p HDTVrip from VK, my vote is for:

The VHSrip!

The 1080p is bigger but clearly upscaled from the same VHS source. It is close in image quality but it did not improve the sharpness of the image any, and the colors in the VHS original seem stronger to me. If any quality expert wants to make their own upscale they should go to the original. They can make it bigger resolution easily enough on their own. The VHSrip can be played back in VLC cropped to 16:9 and Fullscreen so it is the same size. The audio has different codecs but sounds the same to my ears. My own preference is for an MKV but I can make that from the ISO in one minute using MakeMKV.

I made screenshots that are as close as I could match them. They alternate VHS first, 1080p upscale second.

Spoiler: [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image]

So, those who have downloaded both and compared them: Can you see a difference? Do you agree with me that the VHSrip looks better? I am satisfied with my own preference, but I can imagine there is room for disagreement.

[pillowbaker]

Why what the chipper and obliging fellow you are, citronleaf!

I was excited for E9's discovery of this film and its apparent obscurity, especially since there was a potential upgrade on CG. After your discovery, I wanted to get it shared quickly.

Indeed, for VHSrips, this one is pretty good. No strange tracking lines, pretty clean, but still a soft image. However, I cannot guarantee it is a VHS source. As for the origins of the file, the uploader on CG simply wrote, "Thanks to original uploader back in the ADC days." Referring to Asian DVD Club. (I happen to have an account there still - they share ONLY full disc DVDs and Blurays) A video from back in the days, yet it was posted to CG in December of 2023. Who knows.

Your 1080p discovery does have slightly louder audio, which sounds more clear to me, but that very well may be a preference on my side. I haven't looked into the audio quality data details. This is often enough reason for me to switch to a file with lower quality video, if the audio is more clear and loud.

Like you, I assumed that the 1080p was sourced from this very VHSrip, BUT that doesn't really explain the recent supposed broadcast date of the 16th of this month, unless this was the best source for that very broadcast. So when you pointed that out, I certainly doubted my assumption! It also wouldn't account for the different FPS, would it? Maybe Japanese TV broadcasting does it own thing.

In my initial comparisons between the two files, I noticed that the 1080p might have lost a little detail in the upscaling process (and maybe color corrected for the blue hue), but also has a brighter picture that illuminates the darker scenes a tad better (see your 3rd and 4th screenshot), but perhaps over-brightens other areas (see the 5th and 6th screens).

Even considering this, I still began watching a little of your 1080p discovery just because it was easier!


---------------

I made a little surprise for everyone. Here are the first 11 minutes of subtitles in English. That is, the first 11 minutes are corrected. The remaining whisper transcription follows after, but please ignore it for now. It pops in and out of coherency.

Portrait in Prussian Blue aka Purushian burû no shôzô (1986).1080p.JP.WebVK.en-11min.srt

[E9A7F3bD]

if the audio is more clear and loud.

I noticed that the movie audio track has a lot of background noise and should be able to get a cleaner sound with noise reduction.

[E9A7F3bD]

It is close in image quality but it did not improve the sharpness of the image any

Yes, it all looks like the same source, with similar quality.
Some subtle differences are only generated by the encoding process.

[citronleaf]

Thank you both for your insights! I had enough time to see & hear that I think your observations are correct. But busy day today so no time to respond in detail...

[pillowbaker]

No rush, citronleaf, take care of business.

Normally I wouldn't post something incomplete, but I wanted to display some progress on the subs. It is slow going, but overall, whisper does well with Japanese.

Here, I have done 19min 45sec into the film. Let me know how it looks. Synced to the 1080p release, due to slightly clearer audio. Will resync to the VHS-DVDr later.


[Image]

I love this scene. I can watch it over and over.

Portrait in Prussian Blue aka Purushian burû no shôzô (1986).1080p.JP.WebVK.auto-env2.srt

EDIT:
I am now a quarter of the way through editing the subs. They are coming along excellently. I am hoping this will be an enjoyable movie for everyone.

[ghost]

Great!

Thanks pillowbaker, for making subs for this movie!

This time I just have to sit back and wait until they're finished.

[E9A7F3bD]

Kaori Takahashi has a lot of good works, help find them:
viewtopic.php?t=16736

[ghost]

I grabbed the DVD and made an upscale to 720p (while we are waiting for the subtitles ).

[Image]

[Image]

Like this post to see ed2k links  [2.67 GiB]

[pillowbaker]

Righteous! Was not expecting this. So I give you a very excited thanks, Mr. ghost.

The subtitles are going well, I have much of the movie covered. I am about 40% of the way through with editing. I just haven't worked on them today or yesterday, but tomorrow, the work is on. So far, this movie has been fun, I like it.

I'll make sure there are subs synced for ghost's upscale along with the file citronleaf found-- it's been fun translating the subtitles for those commercials!