Ok, time for another post..
@McPeter - Sorry, I don't have a facebook account and I'm not really in a hurry to get one. Hope you all can follow this thread instead. :)
It's been a bit quiet, mainly because of that pesky thing called 'real life'.. ;)
Anyway, the video will soon be locked, and what remains is fixing/syncing some of the audio and the subs. As mentioned before there will be a completely different translation other than the common fansub. It needs heavy editing though, as it's pretty bad in it's original form.
Also, I'm imposing a deadline on myself - I will release this just before Christmas at the latest.
This (Uproar In Heaven) will be the first in (hopefully) a series of releases called The Monkey King Fan Project, which will most likely be these:
Ginseng Fruit (1981) - Mandarin audio w/English subs, minor restoration/fixup
Monkey King conquers the Bone Demon (1985) (Alternate versions) - alternate versions of both the theatrical and episodic version w/fixed subs. Other language narrations exits for these but has not (yet) been found
There are three or four more cartoons, but they have only Mandarin audio and no subs of any kind. So for those to happen I would need the help of someone who could translate it..
...
The theatrical version... As said earlier, I was lucky enough to catch Uproar In Heaven on the big screen.
It was an English print (with the English narration) in very good condition. The colours were similar to what you may have seen on tv or vhs - heavy on the blue and red and lacking some yellow.
But there was so much detail, more than I've ever seen... Especially in the dark scenes you could see details not available on any transfer. I made me realize just how much the 40th edition is affected by crushed blacks - a LOT of detail is lost in the dark scenes. :(
For example, in the pills/elixir scene you could clearly make out all the details in the background, and in the furnace scene you could actually see everything that was going on.
But at least there are still prints in good condition around, this one at least, and most likely also some French ones. So it still possible that a better transfer can be made in the future..
The English narration was not very good to be frank. It skipped over a lot of the dialogue and finer points and most of the humour. To bad for all those in the audience who didn't know the story as well as me!
So, while I would like to include the English audio on my version, it's not a huge loss if it doesn't turn up.
The Danish and Swedish narrations are actually a lot better IMO... The Danish especially captures the humour well. The Swedish is a bit too 'childish' for my taste.
That's all for now!