Na Hong-Jin's "The Yellow Sea"
Fans of the 2008 Korean thriller The Chaser were eager to see what director Na Hong-jin would do for a follow-up. Their anticipation soon turned to disappointment, however, when it was announced that 20th Century Fox’s Region 1 release of The Yellow Sea would be DVD-only and cut for content by about three minutes. Fox even went so far as to ensure that the movie’s Korean Blu-ray release didn’t contain English subtitles, a rarity in this day and age.
Well, Asian film buffs are finally able to experience The Yellow Sea in all its uncut glory – with graphic violence intact – thanks to a new Chinese Blu-ray release. Trusted retailer DDDHouse is currently offering the All-Region Blu-ray disc for just $22.44. It comes with both Chinese and English subtitles, and we can vouch for the picture quality of this release.
If you’ve been holding off on watching Yellow Sea due to the number of edits and versions floating out there, now is the time to check out this grim and unrelenting thriller from one of South Korea’s most promising new filmmakers.
What kind of douchey release doesn’t have subs? Ugh.
Fox actually helped finance the movie, so apparently they prevented the Korean Blu-ray from having English subtitles so English-speakers would be forced to hold off for their Region 1 release. Then they burned everybody by doing DVD only and cutting the film for content.
There are some people who even speculate the film didn’t do good at the Korean box office in part because the 20th Century Fox logo showed up at the start. The movie was also 160 minutes in theaters, a full 20 minutes longer than the Blu-ray/DVD ‘director’s cut,’ and that version still hasn’t been released anywhere.
“There are some people who even speculate the film didn’t do good at the Korean box office in part because the 20th Century Fox logo showed up at the start.”
Why would they see that as a bad thing? Do koreans hate Fox?
Heh, I think they just didn’t like seeing a Korean film being co-financed by an American/Hollywood company.
But I’m not sure how much truth there is to that since Hollywood movies typically do well in Korea.