This licensed DVD release of THE GHOST HILL from Taiwan is among a series of Union Film releases that the distributor put out in 2008. It’s a less than ideal budget disc with poorly translated English subtitles and a weathered widescreen print wasted on a full screen (4:3) digital transfer but it’s better than nothing.
Like Hoker’s other Union Film releases, the cover features the film’s original painted film poster which looks vastly superior to the cheap cut and paste posters that other studios were putting out. Neither the description on the back of the cover nor the menu on the disc contains any English. Virtually everything is written in Chinese. The menu looks awful but there is nothing on the disc apart from the movie itself so you won’t be wasting much time on it.
The source print looks very good despite moderate white speckling, slight deterioration on the right side of the frame, and a default brightness level that is set too high. The print also does appear to be slightly cropped to a roughly 2.13:1 aspect ratio, down from the original 2.35:1. This means we’re likely missing a small portion of the frame on the sides.
The original Mandarin audio track is in mono and sounds decent.
There are optional Chinese and English subtitles. The English subs feature large, easy-to-read print set below the film frame. Unfortunately, they are poorly translated with frequent syntax errors, typos and some odd sentence structures and choice of words. Most of the dialogue can be followed despite these problems but this is definitely a throwback to the early 1990s when Hong Kong film imports all had those unintentionally humorous embedded English subs.
Format: Region 0 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Widescreen (2.13:1)
Audio: Mandarin 2.0
Subtitles: Chinese, English
Length: 91 minutes
Release Date: 2008.10.08
Related Topics:
DVD • Hoker Records • Polly Shang-kwan • The Ghost Hill (1971) • Wuxia
