After releasing a remastered DVD in 2005, Mega Star put out a BD of Days Of Being Wild in 2008. Before this release, I only owned a German DVD of the movie by Alamode Film, which contained a nice transfer that still had its problems with too much dirt and debris. Additionally, as I only found out the other day, it was cut by 60 seconds. So I was looking forward to this release in HD. Let's take a look at it. First of all, it's a BD-25 and it's also region-free (despite the cover saying it's region-A-locked).
IMAGE (MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p) AND SOUND (DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1)
This is a nice transfer with lots of grain. Yes, grain has to be there in this film, as that is how it was shot. We also get the greenish tint that cinematographer gave the film. You can spot a few sparks and speckles here and there, but overall this transfer is a clean one. Sharpness is also fine, regarding the fact that this is an early 90s HK movie. This is the best the film has ever looked.
The 7.1 soundtrack is nicely seperated and surprisingly rich. You needn't expect topnotch sound quality of course, but it sounds fine most of the time. There is some damage though, crackles can be heard now and then and even more often in the last half hour. It didn't annoy me too much.
MegaStar provides optional English and Chinese subtitles (traditional and simplified) as well as some more Asian ones. The English translation of the dialogue is not too well ("Do you bring girls home oftenly?") and is possibly the greatest flaw of this disc. In the scene where Yuddy's stepmother finally tells him where to find his real mother, it's almost impossible to get what's going on. And there are many other instances where the translations don't make any sense. I was lucky I had seen the movie before, otherwise I wouldn't have understood it.
Some technical aspects:Size: 22.311.991.296 bytes
Length: 1:34:49
Total Bitrate: 31,37 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 25799 kbps / 1080p / 24 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Chinese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 7.1 / 48 kHz / 3034 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio: Chinese / Dolby Digital Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -4dB
Subtitle: English / 26,164 kbps
Subtitle: Chinese / 27,331 kbps
Subtitle: Chinese / 26,360 kbps
Subtitle: Indonesian / 28,728 kbps
Subtitle: Japanese / 16,224 kbps
Subtitle: Korean / 20,980 kbps
Subtitle: Malayalam / 28,728 kbps
Subtitle: Thai / 21,449 kbps
Subtitle: Vietnamese / 32,545 kbps
BONUS FEATURES
Well, there are only 4 trailers of MegaStar titles on this disc. Of course, one of them is for the main feature, but only in SD and the quality is crappy. Days Of Being Wild has never gotten more extra features on previous releases, still it would have been nice to watch an interview with WKW about his second movie for example.
CONCLUSION
Flawed subtitles and lack of bonus features. Still, this is the one to own, as image and sound are better than ever before. Even though the sound could probably be improved on following releases.
Other reviews of this disc:
www.bluray.com
www.dvdbeaver.com
www.dvdtimes.co.uk
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