August 19, 2004
gdface.com's ("Face") Self Identity Problem and How it Screws Up Wonderful Movies.
A whole lot of amazing things happened the other day: Most of them having to do with sharing a pint with the 'Shaun of the Dead' crowd and talking about bad jobs, Alien vs Predator and lame British Opera singers. On the smaller pond of "good things that happened that day" the biggest ripple went to receiving my Special Edition Import of "Hero". - The movie Mr. Weinstein doesn't want you to buy. Well, yet anyway.
I have since struggled to watch my special edition DVD and noticed that "Face" - a major - help me out Bubba - Distributor? in Asia have become Idiots of the Highest Order and have completely raped a wonderful movie experience. How did they do it you ask? Oh Simple. By Being Egotistical Pricks. You see, if the Chinese language can't roll off your tongue like supermodel drool, you're in for a sphincter tickle. Why? No reason. Because they can. I'm sure being total f**k-nuts has something to do with it as well.
You see, the MORONS at Face have decided that every 5 minutes (give or take a few seconds) of viewing the subtitles, "Face" with slap their brilliant Blue and Red Company Logo in the top corner -- And not just flash it there.. but hold it there for a full half minute. CLICK HERE FOR A LARGE SCREENSHOT OF IT. Folks, I'm not bloody kidding -- In the middle of the ****ING MOVIE!!!! Then, just as you've gotten back into the film and forgotten about the nasty little corporate intruder: "Bing!" there it is again!! -- Absolutley Un-[insert expletive]-ing-believable. Who on earth thought up this absolutely destructive and intrusive way of... what... advertising?.. I can't even call it advertising.. it's only making me HATE them.
This post serves two reasons.. 1) to make the average Non-Chinese speaking sucker and Hero fan aware of this and 2) Since I so obviously deserve punishment because I can't speak Chinese, I can't read their website either - so I had no way of contacting them and reaming them out personally.
For flashing logos on my screen while I'm trying to watch my well paid for DVD, I would certainly stand and admit that next time, I will go out of my WAY to find a bootleg of the movie. Screw you guys. May the flesh eating disease land on the tip of your penis.
Posted by John Campea at August 19, 2004 04:28 AM
Comments
Posted by: James Russell at August 19, 2004 04:35 AM
The Face edition is the only extended version currently out there ... it's got 10+ minutes of extra footage ...
Posted by: Bubba at August 19, 2004 05:14 AM
yes... theres been lots of discussion in the last couple of weeks in various forums about this edition and the GDFACE logo issue. the image is within the subtitles file : so the chinese arent bothered about putting off very few english speaking viewers : then again, why english subs if they dont think many people outside china will see it?!?! anyhow, apparently its an attempt to put off bootleggers of this extended edition - thing is, you can use any decent dvd authoring software to crack the image out and copy the dvd anyhow...
Posted by: logboy at August 19, 2004 06:54 AM
yes... theres been lots of discussion in the last couple of weeks in various forums about this edition and the GDFACE logo issue. the image is within the subtitles file : so the chinese arent bothered about putting off very few english speaking viewers : then again, why english subs if they dont think many people outside china will see it?!?! anyhow, apparently its an attempt to put off bootleggers of this extended edition - thing is, you can use any decent dvd authoring software to crack the image out and copy the dvd anyhow...
Posted by: logboy at August 19, 2004 06:55 AM
Last year, from Asian Cult Cinema, I got the CDVC or whatever the hell it's called. It's 2 discs, but without any menus, special features, scene selections or anything. It's just the movie. The sound is incredible, but it's like being forced to watch the film by gunpoint. So eventhough you get the FACE logo it could be worse.
Posted by: Eric Baby at August 19, 2004 10:31 AM
I couldn't believe my eyes either when i saw the face logo. luckily it was pretty well timed with action only sequences so I was able to turn off the subtitles so i didn't have to look at it and then turn it back on when the scene was over.
Posted by: Joel at August 19, 2004 04:58 PM
Back in the day when I was more than happy to buy VHS copies of pirated screeners, I found that many of them would try this same tactic. Some sort of bragging rights so you knew exactly which anonymous pirate it was who stole this movie for you.
Since then I have grown up, realized that the 4-6 month wait for my own copy was not that big of a deal to get a REAL version of the film without some floating "N" scrolling up and down the left hand side of the screen.
But for a proper and legal copy of this film (that you likely paid a good dollar for) to do this is just weak.
I would be as furious as you are. Go to chinatown, find yourself a translator and write them a lovely email with links to this forum, and the other message boards where people are complaining about it.
Posted by: Rodney at August 20, 2004 01:06 PM
my lil' brother rocks.
Posted by: big-sis at August 22, 2004 07:12 AM
The face logo is actually written into the subtiles. When the logo came up I turned the subtitles off and it went away. So I ripped the subtitles and edited it out then re-ncoded the movie. The copy I made plays without the logo but the subtitles are non removable.
Posted by: Dragonfist at August 23, 2004 08:20 PM
gdface contact email addresses can be found here http://www.gdface.com/newface.htm
http://www.gdface.com/fsls.htm
or if you're lazy here they are:
[email protected] or [email protected]
Posted by: Sarlac at December 14, 2004 06:20 PM
Get the Edko DVD release from Hong Kong. Nice 2 disc edition, but unfortunately I don't think all the extras are subtitled (haven't tried them all yet). But it has no corporate logo issues and is legitimate.